Diving in the Keys

Diving in the Keys

Monday, May 9, 2011

Phelps Race Report - Ironman St George

I will be posting two different blogs. This one is the race report and the next one will be a recap of the past year. I feel that I can do the race report but the summary blog will probably take two days to process all of the emotions.

I will start by saying that I received great advice prior to the race from several people that had the same theme - "stay in the moment" and look up and enjoy the scenery. Don't think about the entire race because it will overwhelm you.

Stats: High temp was 95 degrees with basically no humidity and 25 mph winds. Thank you Lord for letting me be born and raised in the Central San Joaquin valley where I had 18 years of heat training!

2000 signed up for the race, 1650 decided to start the race and just over 1300 finished. I believe that there were about 300 men in my age group and 141 finished the race. I burned about 12,000 calories during race day.

Swim - 1hr 3 min - Water temp 58 degrees:
This was very enjoyable. I got in the front row of the mass start and everyone there just wanted a smooth start with clear water in front of us. My blood sugar was 117 at the start and 137 at the finish one hour later. I felt very strong in the swim and was surprised by my time because I expected it to be under 1 hr but I was still pleased. The front row of swimmers were all very experienced and about the same speed. This was great except that we were all aiming straight for the first turnaround buoy 1000 yds away which created a very crowded pinch point. I did have people trying to draft on me (which is legal). That was fine until they started to mess with my feet. I then would kick very hard as a warning and then kick straight back if they were still messing with my kick. I only connected one time. We lost one teammate from the swim who missed the cutoff by 1 min. That wasn't really fair because he was in a crowd that was still standing on land when the cannon went off.

Transition 1 - 12min:

Bike - 7hrs 29min - 6972 total elevation gain:
I enjoyed the bike but was waiting for my teammate, Daniel, to pass me since he is such a strong rider. I never saw any teammate and that had me concerned. The bike ended up causing problems for 4 teammates with one crash/concussion, two heat exhaustions and one trip to the ER with very high blood sugar level from dehydration. He started to blackout and he knew a DKA (very dangerous) was coming. My heart rate stayed good between 129 and 140 (with one spike to 150). My blood sugar started at 143 and edged up to 158 before dropping into a range of 80 - 140 for the remaining 7 hrs. My maximum speed was 51 mph. I was very conscious of the heat and drank like a madman consuming 180 ozs of liquid and never had to pee. Overall, I enjoyed the ride and felt good although it did numb up a fairly large area that stayed numb until Sunday morning. There were a lot of ambulances on the bike route. I know that at least three were crashes but I believe most was from the heat. I did have to walk a bit twice on the second loop. I would have normally pushed through but I knew that I had a long day in front of me on the run. I hit with insulin 4 times with 2 units of Novalog each time. I took in about 1400 calories on the ride including two Snickers bars. I took in pure carbs at first and started the electrolytes about 3 hrs in. I also used Perpetuem throughout the ride. I took my first Advil at 1 hr into the ride and continued taking one every two hrs until I reached the max of 800 mg and kept that level through the run. I knew that could damage my kidneys but I had to avoid the inflammation in my feet for the run.


Transition 2 - 17 minutes:

Run - 7hrs 49 min - 2495 ft total elevation gain:
When I finished the bike, I knew that I had just less than 8 hrs to finish the race and kept very close tabs on the time. I was on a fine line between going fast enough to finish but not too fast get into trouble. My heart rate stayed ranged from 97 to 131 bpm. My blood sugar at the start was 97 but started to rise immediately as I started to run. I knew that it was probably dehydration so I drank as much as I could at each aid station. I hit insulin 3 times within the first 15 miles (4 units, 4 units and 2 units) because I was trying to fuel heavy. At mile 7 or so my right foot was really hurting and I knew that would happen so I had acquired Xylocaine prior to arriving in Utah and I had to inject that into the ball of my foot at the pain point in a porta-potty twice. Again, I know that this was risky but this was going to stop me if I couldn't solve it. The pavement was also so hot that I had to look for the lightest colored pavement to run on because the heat was coming right through my shoes. I swapped for full syringes when I got to the run special needs bag at about mile 12. This is where I made a BIG mistake by forgetting one step. I forgot to test with the meter in the bag to calibrate my Dexcom. Running is very hard on me and my Dexcom can get confused by the way my body reacts. Anyway, the CGM was floating in the low to mid 200's which ended up being an error that would have been corrected with a meter calibration (which I did do out of the water and off the bike - both were dead on with the Dexcom). It was now dark and I start to head up Red Hills Parkway. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't hold a straight line and why I felt like I was going to pass out. That was when an angel named John Moore found me and asked if I was okay. I said "yes" and he got within 6 inches of my face and asked me about my blood sugar level. I told him and he flat out said that it was wrong and that I was low and needed to eat like a madman at the next aid station. The Triabetes tent was at a location that I saw them 8 times which was amazing and Triabetes made a huge impact on all the athletes and the Ironman staff. My triabuddy, Zyler, and our son, Michael, tried to stay with me as much as possible. Michael was my unofficial coach and I think that he felt personally responsible to get me to the finish line. I frightened my peeps by pushing the limits of becoming an Ironman but I did it with about 10 minutes to spare. I thought that I finished with my arms raised powerfully with my needle and CGM in my hands but I looked more like a zombie in Night of the Living Dead. There were points in the race that everyone that passed me put their hand on my back and asked if I was okay and if I needed help. I had already stated that I was going to finish or die trying. Apparently I looked like I was going to die instead of finishing at certain points during the run course. My blood sugar (tested) at the end was 107.

Thanks and I am so glad that this is done ;-> Now its off to fishing next week


YouTube Link to the Video of My Finish at Ironman St George

Me with my wife after the finish
Our family, Michael (son 23), Michelle (daughter 18), Me, Pam, Melissa (daughter 20), Megan (daughter almost 15)

Very Blessed to have a huge crowd of friends and family that came to St George to share this moment with me

Brian Phelps


3 comments:

jpnairn said...

Way to go, stud!
I actually haven't read it yet, but I'm looking forward to learning all the details tomorrow.
Very glad to have been there.

Anonymous said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!! I told Leah and she confirmed that you would finish... We prayed that you would stop if you were over the top, but I also know you too well. It was more like... "Lord, trip him if you need to!" The emotions were pretty crazy here too as I could hardly see the stinking live feed as I heard the guy call you out... "you are annnn IRONMAN!!"

victriabetes said...

Well done Brian