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First off, let me tell you that I have three boys, ages 5, 3 and 2.   I work full time as an Art Director. My wife is going back to school full time for her teaching credentials and is on the HOA board in our community. She also does freelance interior design and IS A MOM. Add in 15-23 hours a week of Ironman training and you have one crazy busy family!!! I don't know how we did it. Also, I only missed two workouts the entire 10 months of my training. I am looking back now and am dumbfounded on how it all came together. I have to give props to my AWESOME wife for realizing this crazy dream I had of finishing an Ironman.

Anyway, on to the race report.

I live in Gilbert, AZ, so travel was not an issue. I have trained and raced on the IMAZ course many, many times over the last ten months. I am comfortable with the heat and the low humidity. The wind, I don't like so much.

THURSDAY 4/12

Since I work as the art director for the College Times newspaper, I was invited to race in the Ford Ironman Arizona Mayor's Charity Challenge. There was a group of 11 or so of us that raced Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman for a chance to win $1000.00. It was at 6:30 in the morning and all the media and cameras were there to capture the mayhem. Mayor Hallman's secret weapons were none other than 8-time Hawaii Ironman world champion Pauly Newby-Frasier and Pro triathlete Heather Gollnick (She would later win IMAZ in the women's race!). We started with an in the water start in Tempe Town Lake and then swam 24 yards to the exit stairs. I was out of the water first. I slipped on my shoes and was off. I never saw anybody again. The bike was only 1.12 miles and I did that in a bit over 2 minutes. My speedometer said I was traveling around 32 MPH! I racked my bike and jogged .26.2 miles to the Ironman finishers chute. I won!!! I can now truthfully say that I beat Paula Newby-Frasier and Heather Gollnick in a triathlon. Too cool!

I got $1000.00 to donate to the Tempe Community Action Agency, which dos an awesome job. That was way cool, and it was in the paper and on the TV news. Great PR for my company, the charity and for the Ironman.

SUNDAY 4/15

The morning of the race was uneventful. I got about 7 hours of sleep, woke up around 3am, ate a bagel w/ peanut butter and an egg and then preceded to gather my stuff for the race.I checked outside to see if it is windy because if there is any breeze at my house, that means there would be a bad wind on the Beeline. There was a strong breeze. I knew from that moment that the bike would be challenging.

I went to the race, dropped off my bags and then went to check my bike. When I got there, my front rim was gone. I thought what the heck was going on??? I went to the Landis bike tent to check if someone there had it - and they did. Apparently, my tube popped and someone reported it (THANK YOU, MYSTERY HERO!). They changed it and I was good to go. I checked all my stuff. Then I checked it again. Went to the restroom. Then checked my stuff again. I decided that I was ready to go and went to put my wetsuit on and relax before the start. All was well.

SWIM

Since I have been a competitive swimmer all my life, the swim doesn't bother me. I started on the front line and had a perfect swim from the cannon blast - until I got to the turnaround buoy. For some dumb reason I decided to see if my heart rate monitor was working. It was. My heart rate was 169. That is right at my threshold and I panicked, not thinking that I have been training at the pace I was now swimming for the last 8 months. I dropped my pace significantly, which led to me swimming a 1:02. I should have been around 55-57 minutes. Oh well, I made a mental note for next time.

TRANSITION 1

Fast for me - 5:58

BIKE

Nothing to report here. Great until the last lap. The wind on that last lap sucked. I didn't want to make the turnaround on that last loop but once I did, I just dealt with it. I was glad to be off the bike. - 6:30 (45 minutes slower than I hoped for.)

TRANSITION 2

RUN

Felt good to be off the bike. The first loop was great (1:33) until I got to the turnaround for the second loop. For some reason, around mile 9, I started to feel bad. I'm not sure why because I nailed my nutrition on the bike and was drinking perfect. That dropped my pace significantly which led to an abysmal 1:49 loop. But, the last loop was awesome. I felt great and was ready to finish. I knew I was close to getting a daylight finish, but because of my second loop problems it wasn't meant to be. I ran the last loop in 1:36. About 4 miles from the finish, I hooked up with two runners who had an awesome pace going and they brought me in, even though they had another loop to go. Everyone was walking at that point and it felt great to be running by so many people. I ran FAST over the Mill avenue bridge, took the finishers route, picked up my wife and oldest boy at the corral, and took the right down the finishers chute. That is as glorious an experience as everyone says it is. I heard Mike Reilly say the words I have longed to hear, "Eri Jelinek, you are an Ironman." Hooray.

4:59 marathon (again, about 45-50 minutes slower that I hoped for.)

12:41:31 for my first Ironman. I was hoping for an 11 hour finish, but considering the wind factor and the fact that this was my first ultra, I am very happy with that time. Can't wait for the next one. When that will be, though, is a mystery.

FYI - My wife had TEAM JELINEK shirts printed and I had about 50 family, friends and co-workers wearing them at the race, and every time I passed by them I had this HUGE cheering squad. It was awesome and helped keep my spirits up. People you know cheering for you makes a huge difference in your race, in my opinion.

After the race I felt great and I was ready to eat real food and bask in the glory of the accomplishment of finishing an Ironman with a smile and having had a great time doing it.

Thanks for reading.

Eric

FINISHER'S VIDEO:

Watch me Finish >>

ASI PHOTOS:

http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=13991&BIB=582&S=230&PWD =

OFFICIAL RESULTS: