Last summer Xiao Wang started a One Shot At Kona thread in our forum and as some may have predicted, he was mocked and encouraged. A couple weeks back at the Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas he used that single bullet and grabbed that golden ticket to the Ironman World Championships in Kona.
Slowtwitch: Thanks for your time Xiao.
Xiao Wang: Thank you for the honor! Always happy to chat with a community that has helped me so much.
ST: Not that you did not hear it the other day, but You Are An Ironman.
Xiao: Whoo! This is actually meaningful - I was so caught up in the moment of finishing that I completely missed Mike saying that.
ST: And on top of that you qualified for Kona.
Xiao: I still find myself randomly beaming during the day, much to the confusion of random strangers.
ST: I believe 2011 was the year when you first discovered triathlon.
Xiao: It was. I was working for Providence Equity at the time and felt like it was an obligation to at least give triathlons a shot. Did three races - two sprints and a 70.3 - and promptly put my bike and goggles away for the next two years.
ST: Was it just a bucket lost item checked off and done?
Xiao: I actually felt really inspired to work harder after Timberman, but sadly real life got in the way. I was applying to school, traveling, and then moving – and so was only able to fit in running for a while, but there was always the itch to come back to triathlons one day.
ST: What actually made you decide to go at it again in 2013?
Xiao: There was this nagging feeling that something wasn’t complete. It’s really completely unfair to people who focus only on shorter distance races, but there is an aspirational mystique around the Ironman distance. In fact, triathlon translated into Chinese is literally Ironman three events. Ever since watching the Sian Welch/Wendy Ingraham video and Universal Sports’ annual Kona coverage (I’m a huge sports video dork), I’ve always dreamed of what it would be to compete in Hawaii. There are very few opportunities where amateurs are on the same field at the same time as the best in the world, and this might be the premier one.
ST: Last summer you posted about your One Shot Kona goal in the forum, and as many regulars could have told you prior, you got a lot of feedback. Did you think at one point to just walk away from the thread?
Xiao: Ha. I did walk away from the thread! But every few months someone would write back in to ask for an update on progress, which was remarkably touching and motivating. I’ve also received PMs and emails from others who have or are thinking of attempting the same thing - apparently this is a pretty common ambition - which kept me engaged.
ST: Did you learn anything from the thread?
Xiao: That apparently I need to rethink my philosophy around relationships. On the training front there are so many accomplished and experienced athletes and coaches on ST that you can learn an incredible amount if you’re open-minded and patient – everything around how to plan a training program, when to schedule races, how to improve fitness in each discipline, and how to plan race day. I hope the amount of advice in the thread can be used by others training for their first IM as well.
ST: Comments in the forum thread made you switch your qualification race from Los Cabos to Texas. Was it simply a question of timing?
Xiao: I am on the smaller side of long-course triathletes so thought my best chance was on a hillier course. But then given what everyone was saying about my goals being too ambitious, I felt that giving myself 45 days (or essentially 15%) more time to train would make the most sense, and I strongly believe that extra build cycle paid off.
ST: On paper you had a 4:39 at Timberman 70.3 plus a very fine 2:41:59 marathon to show. But that did not guarantee you success at Texas.
Xiao: After doing my first ironman, I now realize very little can guarantee you success at this distance. You can train, prepare, and train some more, but the day is really, really long and anything could happen. I knew given my fitness levels that I was in the running for a decent performance, but putting it all together is not easy.
ST: What was the hardest part?
Xiao: My legs really hurt, but the hardest part was staying mentally focused. There was a giant checklist in my mind of what I should be doing during the swim, at the gun, first turnaround buoy, canal turn, T1, bike, first 10 miles, middle section, chipseal hell section, uphills, downhills, final 30 miles, and run, each lap, each aid station, including effort, nutrition, and tactics that get pretty exhausting over nine hours. This is something that will probably get easier over time, but it can be so easy to forget something or let yourself get carried away in the moment that will torpedo your race later on.
ST: As we forum members know, you are a newly married guy and you finished your MBA at Harvard and juggled a few jobs along the way. But how did you fit in the training over the last 9 months?
Xiao: Through an amazingly supportive wife. Seriously, dating/marrying someone training for an Ironman is inherently challenging, and she was awesome. On the training front, it became a constant focus on time management. Running to and from work, swimming during lunch breaks, doing 95% of bike workouts on a trainer. 15 hours of training could be anywhere from 18-25 of real hours depending on travel, setup, shower, lay like a puddle on the couch time. The key was to get that as close to 18 as possible through better planning.
ST: Are you in general good with planning?
Xiao: I would like to say that I’m kind of like a work desk. Everyone’s desk is cluttered to the same degree – the larger ones just have more papers on top. If I plan my day very tightly, I can fit in a ton and get everything done. If I have more free time, it tends to disappear quickly with little additional accomplishment. In some odd way, the more deadlines the better my planning skills become.
ST: Did you bring friends and family along to Texas, or is that something you saved for Hawaii?
Xiao: First of all, I would like to thank my parents and my wife. My parents had just moved from China and never seen me race before, which made the event truly awesome. My wife didn’t really have a choice to not be there but was a stunning sight throughout the day and managed everyone the whole weekend to make my life as easy as possible. There is also a group of friends from NYC who have cheered me on through a multitude of events over the years, even though I'm pretty sure they believe there's something mentally wrong with me. For Texas, they gamely flew in from San Francisco, Boston, and New York to stand outside for 10 hours and run spreadsheets figuring out my chances. Yes they are nerdy. Yes they are just so awesomely awesome.
ST: Talk about your race day.
Xiao: My whole mantra for the day was get out of the water without torpedoing my race, get off the bike with some legs left, and see what happens on the run. I have never been in a mass start race before and don’t particularly wish that experience upon anyone who isn’t a complete fish. I managed to stumble out around 1:11, which was pretty on-target. Unfortunately, my mind, having been kicked in the head repeatedly the past hour, couldn’t count well and I ended up grabbing the wrong transition bag, which meant an extra-long T1.
Once I stopped cursing myself, the ride was really pleasant until the chip-seal, headwind, rolling hills portion. I had purchased a power meter late last year and now strongly believe it is one of the best tools a lot of money can buy. I held myself back on the uphills and pushed on the downs, which resulted in a pretty even overall ride. From reading advice from everyone on the forums, it seems like mile 80-finish is where you can make up a lot of time and so I just kept telling myself to wait until that moment. I wasn’t able pick it up much at that point, but even holding steady helped me gain some ground. I finished in 5:01 around 180 watts so was very satisfied.
Finally the run. I’m pretty sure people do triathlons to never enjoy running. Your legs are stiff, your stomach is really confused, it’s in the middle of the hot day, seriously, why would you do this to yourself? That said, the spectators and aid stations were awesome and really helped push me through every time I cramped to a standstill. I have been battling different leg cramping issues in every race and hope to figure it out one day. So the run became a mix of me running at 6:30-7:00 pace and walking when my legs decided they didn’t want to move anymore. I came in at 3:16 for the marathon, for a total time of 9:37, good for 4th in my AG.
ST: When did you realize you had the spot?
Xiao: Preliminarily after the most emotional post-race minute I have ever been through. I had sprinted hoping to catch 3rd place in my age group, but came up just short at the end. Across the finish line, my whole body started cramping and I just felt so selfishly drained and demoralized - I didn’t care at all about my accomplishment in finishing, I was just angry about those 10 seconds. A minute later, Aaron, the 3rd place finisher, bless his heart, turned around from the finish line photographer and told me he was passing on his slot as he already qualified at IMAZ. I immediately threw my arms up and yelled at my support crew, we're going to Hawaii!
Later on, it wasn't confirmed until Sylvan from Sportstats posted in the thread that evening that my age group would get 3 slots. The two of them saved me from an extremely anxious night and following day. That said, getting the leigh put around your neck is a beautiful, beautiful feeling. Why they make you walk down stairs afterwards, though, I will never understand.
ST: You'll be moving soon to Seattle to work for Amazon, and the local guys there will be happy to hear that you are not another single guy throwing off the dating imbalance there, but will that new job allow you to get ready for Kona?
Xiao: Honestly, Kona is going to be a celebration lap. My two goals are to finish and not embarrass myself. My wife’s never been to Hawaii and so we’re going to enjoy everything the island has to offer. We are also going to drive across the country for 3-4 weeks this summer so my training isn’t going to start back up until mid-July.
ST: Will you do any other races?
Xiao: The next two races are for my wife. We'll be running Grandma's marathon in Duluth, MN in June to qualify for Boston next year and we'll be doing the Goofy challenge at Walt Disney World marathon in January for joy and pictures with Disney characters.
As for long-course triathlons, I meant it when I posted around the unsustainability of training for Ironmans in my life. Doing Olympics are inherently frustrating due to my inability to swim fast. So that leaves 70.3s, which are doable, and potentially longer if I can figure out a way to slowly improve while only training 10-14 hours per week. We’re both going to try and join a tri club in Seattle so we’ll see where that leads us!
ST: You were born in China. When did you move to the USA?
Xiao: I moved to the US when I was 3, when my parents finished grad school. After moving around a bit, I spent most of my childhood years outside the Seattle area.
ST: Is there anything else we should know?
Xiao: Of course, I need to thank all of your Slowtwitchers for making this journey so memorable. You took someone who had so little idea of what he was doing and turned him into someone who knows just a little bit more, about both triathlons and love. I'd like to thank Wheaties for sponsoring me with a year's worth of Wheaties. Seriously, I have never looked forward to breakfast so much. Finally, I recently became a certified personal trainer and am working on an online platform to help others reach their goals. Stay tuned!
