My 114 Degree Problem

The anticipation leading up to my Triathlon in Muncie, Indiana was incredible.  

I’d just spent the last 9 weeks reflecting on my first Half Ironman at White Lake and many of the memories weren’t pretty.  That day was a ridiculous mental and physical challenge that filled me with a range of emotions; I can’t imagine too many events in life that can create both a rewarding feeling and a feeling of emptiness at the same time. 

In a sense, White Lake was rewarding just to cross the finish line.  After all, I did it despite the distance being 5 times longer than any race I had ever done, despite it being 95 degrees, despite the extreme humidity, and despite severely cramping for the last several miles on the run. 

In another sense though, I felt empty…like I didn’t really accomplish anything at all.  It seems the feeling of missing my goal of finishing in less than 6 hours dwarfed the reward. 

This time around was going to be different.  After missing my goal at White Lake on May 5th, I got online and immediately registered for Half Ironman Muncie, Indiana on July 7^th.  I also immediately made a guarantee to myself and to all of you: 

I was going to finish this one in less than 6 hours.   

Nothing was going to stop me this time.  To say I was determined would be an understatement.  Not only is finishing a Half Ironman in less than 6 hours one of my Schmeis35for35 goals, but I felt like I had unfinished business racing a Triathlon at that distance. 

In preparation for Muncie, I was running, biking, and swimming harder than ever and even studying the course online to make sure I knew exactly what to expect.  Anything within my control that could possibly go wrong, I wasn’t going to let happen. 

As an example, I made a checklist at the end of June (~10 days before the race) of all the items I was bringing with me.  There was no real reason to gather stuff so early (especially considering I’ve been a huge procrastinator all my life), but I wasn’t leaving anything to chance.  I made the list, packed my stuff, then double, triple, and quadruple checked what I had packed.  I think the final count of how many times I checked my equipment was 12,937.  Here is a pic of all my stuff before loading it in the car:

Ok, so it may have been overkill to pack backup goggles and backup goggle straps to both pairs of goggles, but that should give you a sense of the planning I did for this event.  I’m sure there was at least a 1 in 749 billion chance that all those straps would break on race day so I needed to be ready.  I love a good contingency plan. 

With my bags packed, let’s pick up the action a few days before the race and take it from there…

The Road Trip

While I was very excited for the race, I wasn’t terribly excited about the drive to get there.  A 10 hour drive is never fun, but I was even more concerned for Sue.   Now 7 months pregnant, it wasn’t clear how she would hold up driving cross country.

Our plan was to leave our house in North Carolina after work on Tuesday, July 3^rd and stop at the half way point for the night before finishing the next morning.  It’s not a terrible drive…North Carolina, then Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana.  There’s also plenty to see along the way…beautiful mountains, rivers and lakes, and the occasional West Virginian who had his teeth.

Sue held up relatively well except needing to stop for the bathroom every 2 minutes.  She also had some strong feelings related to dinner.  While I was just looking for a Subway, Quiznos, McDonalds, or something that was very quick, Sue had a different plan. 

“I want Outback Steakhouse” she said. 

Talk about random.  Has anyone in their life ever had Outback Steakhouse on a road trip?  I chalked it up to month 7 of the pregnancy talking.

Anyway, I somehow became the first male to ever win an argument with a 7 month pregnant female as I convinced her that we may not be able to find an Outback that easily right off the interstate. 

I was also thinking we should just push straight through and try to get to Indiana that night.  It seemed pointless to pay for a hotel room for a few hours when it really wasn’t that far of a drive.  Plus, I knew she could sleep easily in the car anyway and I could just drive the rest of the way.

My plan was rock solid except I got pulled over in Ohio for speeding at 2:00am.  Long story but let’s just say I didn’t agree with the officer on anything she said.  Remarkably, I mostly kept my mouth shut (not exactly one of my strengths) but she still hit me with a ticket. 

Well done on the plan, Schmeis.  Instead of paying $100 for a hotel, I saved that money and paid $253 for a speeding ticket.  My MBA from Harvard Business School taught me that the ROI on my decision to drive a few extra few hours wasn’t good.  Thank you, HBS.

Finally, at about 4:00am, we were within a few miles of my brother’s house in Carmel where we were staying.  There was basically nobody on the road but I happened to drive through an area where the speed limit was reduced to 30.  I saw a car coming the other direction towards me and I was probably going 43 or 44 at the time (which seemed ridiculously slow when you’ve been on interstates for 10 hours).  Sure enough, it was another cop and he flipped on his lights/sirens as I drove by.  Awesome…twice in 2 hours.  That hotel room a few hundred miles back was looking better and better.

Unbelievably though, he turned on his lights, slammed on his brakes to turn around, and then NEVER came to get me.  I don’t know if he was just warning me with the lights, if he got a call about some crime being committed exactly at that time, or what.  Just in case though, I’d like to give a shout out to whomever called 911 at that moment…I love you.

We got to my brother’s house around 4:30am and went straight to bed.  After a good night’s sleep, the next few days were spent stretching, hydrating, playing with my nephews, and waiting for the race to start. 

By Friday, I was so ready for Saturday morning.  Every time I checked the weather though, it seemed the forecast was calling for hotter and hotter temperatures on race day.  Accuweather was forecasting an all-time record in Muncie with a heat index of 114.  114?  Is that even possible?  That makes the 95 degree heat at White Lake seem rather chilly.  I was a bit nervous given my cramping from last time, but I was still confident in what I had to do.

Later that day and just 15 hours before the race was to begin, an announcement was made from Ironman Race Officials:

IRONMAN 70.3 Muncie Athletes,

Due to an Excessive Heat Warning issued by The National Weather Service, tomorrow’s IRONMAN 70.3Muncie has been shortened for safety reasons. The forecast calls for “record breaking high temperatures” with potential heat index readings between 107 and 114 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest temperatures the event has seen in its more than 30-year history. 

 This pretty much crushed me.  I needed to get this 6 hour monkey off my back and now I wouldn’t even get the chance. 

In a previous post of mine on luck vs. skill, many of you commented on the very common definition of success…when preparation meets opportunity.  Well, I was prepared.  I had done my part but now the opportunity was gone.  Not a good feeling.

After a few minutes of thinking about it, my mindset quickly changed.  I was obviously disappointed, but I still had a race to do.  The event was still going to be a 1 mile swim, 30 mile bike ride, and 6.2 mile run in 114 degree heat.  It was still the 2^nd longest race I had ever done. It was still going to be a huge challenge to complete another of my 35 goals of averaging more than 20 mph on the bike for 15 straight miles.

Obviously, none of this was going to be easy.  Even still, I adjusted my biking goal in my mind and decided I was going to try to do the entire 30 mile bike portion of the race in over 20 mph.

Race Day

My brother, Sue, and I arrived at the event site by 4:45am.  It was nearly 80 degrees and humid and it wasn’t even 5 in the morning.  I was beginning to think it wasn’t a terrible idea that they shortened this thing. 

After parking, setting up my transition area, etc., I headed down to the reservoir for a quick warm-up swim. 

As I got out, I got a huge boost of adrenaline and motivation from 2 unexpected sources.  I saw my high school basketball coach and a former teammate standing by the starting line.  It was absolutely awesome.  I stopped to chat with them and found out my coach turns 50 next year so he was checking out the race for one of his goals in 2013…very cool.  Triathlons are really catching on everywhere. 

Here is a pic of my coach (white shirt) and me apparently saying something very funny to my former high school teammate, Josh Whitman (black shirt). 

If you’re thinking that he is a large man, you’d be correct.  He went on to play football at Illinois after high school and even played in the NFL for a bit…it’s no Schmeis35for35 but not bad!

Anyway, a few minutes later, my age group was about to start the swim so I put my game face on.

Instead of describing the race in painful detail this time around, I’m going to share video that my brother took of me throughout the race.  I think you’ll really like the video as it gives you a good sense for all the different portions of the race and it also allows me to be lazy and not write as much.  Check it out:

As I mention about 10 times in the video, I lost my watch on the swim as another racer got his hand caught in my band when he was making a stroke and ripped it off.  Somewhere at the bottom of the reservoir there is a very nice Garmin 310XT Triathlon watch.  That sucked.

On the bike though, I was very pleased and the run was pretty uneventful.  It was difficult and I cramped a bit at the end, but I kept pretending my high school coach was yelling at me to run harder so that did the trick.  Thanks Coach V

So there you have it!  I finished the 1 mile swim, 30 mile bike, and 6.2 mile run in 3 hours and 2 minutes.  Here are the results that you can find at www.ironmanmuncie.com  Click on the photo below to enlarge it.

The crazy thing looking at these results is just how good some of the people are.  I thought I did pretty well but only finished 702^nd out of about 1600.  


Even on the bike, I was very pumped to make my goal of averaging over 20 mph (I averaged 21.74 mph) but I still was only 698^th fastest for that portion of the race. 

Because this was an Ironman branded race, it attracts talent from all over the world.  In fact, even the chick who won the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in 2010 was in the race…Mirinda Carfrae.  You don’t get Ironman World Champions in local events in North Carolina.  She edged me out by the slimmest of margins…45 minutes!  


One of the coolest things about these high profile races is you can see exactly how you stack up against the best in the world on the same course, same weather, etc.  Here is a picture of Mirinda finishing the run.

Sorry, I had to throw a pic of a World Champion on my blog.  It definitely makes me feel much more legit.

So where do I go from here?  Well, after getting an opportunity taken from me this time around, I’m giving it another go at finishing in less than 6 hours at a Half Ironman in North Carolina on September 23.  I’ve also got the ultimate challenge on October 20th when I’m registered for the main event…all 2.4 miles of the swim, 112 miles on the bike, and 26.2 miles on the run…the full Ironman.

I don’t want any of this to be easy, but I do want the opportunity.

Schmeis