It was one year ago today that I finished my very first 70.3 – Rocketman Florida. Since I never wrote a race report, yet I still remember the race as if it was yesterday, today seems like a good time to give my thoughts of the race. Many of the links will take you to pictures or videos of the areas.
Bike Check-in and Body Marking-
Brooke and I left on Friday, May 3, spent the night about half-way to Titusville, and made the rest of the trip on Saturday. Once we arrived at Space View Park there was quite the line waiting to check-in. The volunteers were quite efficient, and I was soon paying my one day membership to USAT, having my race number written on with a Sharpie, and putting my bike in a prime spot (1st bike on my rack) in transition.
Pre-race-
The morning came quick enough, with very little sleep, but nervous excitement for the day ahead. I took a quick shower to wake up, ate a quick bite, had a sip of Dr. Pepper, and started hydrating for the day ahead. Brooke and I made our way to Space View Park and I quickly put the finishing touches on my transition area and then began the wait for the start. Rain was threatening, but stayed away. As Brooke and I were waiting I struck up a conversation with a guy who happened to be a coach for Team in Training. He’ll never know how much he put me at ease that morning. Soon enough it was time for me to head to my start wave, so I kissed Brooke and she wished me luck and was off.
Swim- 51:45
The swim was great! I was in the 1st wave of swimmers, with approximately 25 other people in my wave. The water was just cool enough to be wetsuit legal, but to be honest I’m not sure that it made that much of a difference for me. There were several ladders off of the dock for us to enter the water, and plenty of large buoys marking the swim course. After a short time treading water the horn sounded and we were off. Since this was my first open water swim of this distance I took my time and made sure to relax in the water. Even with a relatively slow cadence and breathing on every stroke I was to the first turn buoy in no time. Turn left, and head toward the Max Brewer Bridge – an ever present reminder of the MASSIVE hill to start the bike course. I actually passed a couple of swimmers just past the buoy and settled into a comfortable rhythm. Just as I was really getting into it, I got kicked in the face – hard! I looked up, saw the guy who was facing me, adjusted my goggles and started swimming again. Not two strokes later he kicks me again. Now I’m mad. I raise back up, ask him what gives, and he says, “I’m exhausted and have to do the back stroke. Since I can’t see where I’m going I’m using you to direct myself.” I quickly responded, “better find a new plan,” and sprinted past him. I made it to the next turn buoy without incident and saw the swim exit as a tiny dot ahead of me. It was somewhere in this last third of the swim that I got WAY off course to the inside and had to redirect myself. It seemed like a current was pushing me to the left, but I eventually got to the exit. The exit was the only hiccup of the swim, with only two ladders to get out of the water. By the time I arrived there was a line waiting to exit which included some of the Olympic distance athletes as well. After a short wait I was helped up the ladder by a volunteer and on my way into T1.
T1- 6:35
Walking to T1 I was unzipping my wetsuit, getting a drink of fresh water (the river was brackish water – it was beyond gross), and mentally preparing for the bike ride to come. My wetsuit came off with relative ease, I applied sunscreen, and started to put my socks on. While I was putting my socks on came the realization that it had rained in transition while I was swimming. My socks weren't soaked, but they weren't dry. Have you ever tried to put on wet socks? Yeah, not the easiest. Sunglasses on, helmet strap snapped, and out of transition. For my first major transition, I’m happy.
Bike- 3:48:08
The bike was the part that I was most looking forward to – getting to ride by the Mate-Demate Device, Shuttle Landing Facility, Vehicle Assembly Building, and Launch Complex 39 (Where the missions to the moon launched from, as well as every Space Shuttle mission). However, there was about 7 miles between transition and the entrance to the Kennedy Space Center. Shortly after mounting the bike the Max Brewer Bridge was the first challenge of the bike. This bridge is MASSIVE. Basically just put it in a low gear and try to keep enough speed to not tip over. The joy of that challenge was coming down on the other side, which saw my fastest speed of the day, and a nice tailwind on the way to the KSC entrance. Another 6 or so miles and I was making the right turn into KSC where the first water stop was. I had only drank about ¼ of my first bottle, so I skipped this station.
Riding down Kennedy Pkwy the VAB kept growing and growing. I was afforded the chance to swing by the Mate-Demate Device and the Shuttle landing Facility before passing the VAB. The 70.3 course took us past the VAB and onto NASA Pkwy, also known as The NASA Causeway. A quick turn-around, and I was on my way back to the VAB. Turning right onto the Saturn Causeway I passed the mammoth VAB and the iconic countdown clock, then found myself riding next to the gravel Crawlerway that leads to launch pads 39-A and 39-B. By now the temperature was starting to rise, and the wind was really picking up. Adrenaline carried me down the Saturn Causeway as I saw the pad getting closer. We made a right turn to begin the path around the pad and there was a photographer to snap our picture with LC 39-A in the background.
The wind on the back side of the pads was horrendous. I’m guessing sustained winds of 20mph, but honestly I don’t know. My legs were burning, and I ate a couple of my Clif Shot Bloks, and realized that would be the last of those I ate for a while because I just ran out of water. 10 miles from the next aid station. With no shade. And heavy winds. I enjoyed heading around pad B, imagining the crawler-transporters that have made that journey many times, seeing the now defunct mobile-launcher platform that was used for the Aries 1-X test, and several more pieces of hardware before turning back onto Kennedy Pkwy.
Here is where I was at my lowest. The exciting scenery was behind me, the wind was in my face, the sun was beating down, I had no water, and was dreading going back over the hill on the Max Brewer bridge. A lady on a mountain bike passed me (it helped knowing that she was in the sprint distance). I was mentally cussing the race organizers for having only two water stops (one at mile 7, another at mile 49), even though I knew there had been some trouble getting authorization to put one on the space center.
I finally made it to the aid station and rejoiced as an awesome volunteer poured a Dasani water into my bone dry bottle. I knew I was behind on water and calories, but by now my stomach had decided that liquid was all it was going to take. I tried to eat a shot block, but it just didn’t happen. I figured my best bet at this point was to just drink as much Gatorade on the run course as possible and hope for the best.
Before I could get to the run I had to face the Max Brewer Bridge once more. It completely sucked this time. About ¾ of the way up I decided to walk, lest I lose all forward momentum and fall over. The walk of shame ended quickly enough, and I was back in the saddle for the downhill ride where I took my feet out of my shoes and prepared for T2. Space View Park only looked sweeter on launch day. I dismounted with no trouble, and entered transition.
T2-3:51
I walked to my spot and racked my bike, put on my running shoes, took one last drink from my water bottle, and went to spray on more sunscreen only to find that my bottle wouldn't spray. Great – guess I’ll have a not-so-gentle reminder of my race for the next week or so. Oh well, no time to cry over non-working sunscreen. To the run I go.
Run (i.e. walk)-3:33:01
I saw Brooke as I was leaving transition and asked her what time it was (I didn’t wear a watch, so I was clueless). Her response was, “you have plenty of time, you’re doing great.” I knew I was doing OK, but I knew because of my troubles on the bike that the run was going to be tough, so I wanted to know how long I had before the race cut-off – I planned on using every minute of it. It turns out that I had about 3:45 to finish.
The run was a 2 loop course through Titusville with very little shade. I was doing OK for the first 3 miles, but soon felt myself starting to come apart. I started counting the light poles figuring I could run four then walk one. It wasn’t long before it was run 3 and walk 2. That got me to the turn-around at mile 6.5. Eventually I found myself running 1 light pole and walking 4. Then I started telling myself, “run when you can, walk when you need to, and for the love of all that is good, don’t collapse.” By mile 9 I was having trouble drinking anything with calories. Gatorade tasted sour. I asked a police officer what time it was, and he said 2:45. With only about 2 miles to go at that point I knew I would finish.
Those were a couple of the hardest miles I have ever walked, though I did find myself catching another athlete and eventually passing him with just yards to go. I told him that I had never finished a race walking and that I didn't plan on doing that here – let’s run to the finish together. He declined, but told me to go ahead. So I did.
Total – 8:23:19
Post Race-
I heard the announcer say, “Jerry Shands, from Deatsville, Alabama, you are a Rocketman!” A volunteer placed the medal around my neck, and Brooke was there to greet me. Just finishing the race put new energy into my otherwise tired body. I paused for just a couple of minutes to gather my thoughts and congratulate the guy who I passed just before the finish. We then went to transition and gathered my bike and other belongings and went back to the car where I turned on my phone and had a plethora of congratulatory text messages. I called my family and let them know I survived, and we made a stop at CVS Pharmacy for some chocolate milk. This was my first time having chocolate milk for a recovery drink, and I’m sold on it. I was able to tour the Kennedy Space Center the next day, and SeaWorld the day after that with my worst pain coming from the horrid sunburn I earned.
Will I do a half-iron distance again? Absolutely! Even with the struggles this race solidified the fact that I enjoy endurance racing. Will I do Rocketman again? Probably not. They aren’t offering a half-iron distance in 2014, and that is a really long distance to travel for a sprint or international distance race. Am I glad I did it? YES! I was able to race on some amazingly historic grounds that will most likely be a limited time race due to SpaceX signing a contract for use of Launch Complex 39.
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