After a grueling Ironman, Sean McGill had one more event to complete
By Bill Pennington
After swimming for more than an hour, biking for nearly six, and running for five, Sean McGill crossed his first Ironman finish line on Nov. 4 and fell to one knee. But, not for the reason you would imagine.
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| Ironman Sean McGill and his fiance, Tifini Bair. They're both members of our club, Amelia Island Runners. |
“I had done some sprint triathlons, and some other longer triathlons, but after I finished the Half Ironman, I knew I could do a full one,” Sean said. “I also thought I might be crazy, because I knew the commitment to attempt one of these.”
For those of you not familiar with an Ironman, let’s put it this way: A marathon’s Philippides; an Ironman is Hercules. A marathon is the Golden Gate Bridge; an Ironman is Mount Everest. A marathon is Batman; an Ironman is Superman.
The full Ironman begins with a 2.4-mile swim – and we’re not talking laps in a placid pool here. Once you survive an hour or more in the Gulf currents with 2,000 others kicking and jockeying for position, then it’s off to a bike ride.
No ringing bells or baseball cards flapping in the spokes – this is serious biking. When you hop aboard, it’s for 112 miles. That takes most of the competitors five to seven hours.
You finish the biking and bring your stiff body – which has been moving at race pace for about eight hours -- to another starting line. The good news is, the Ironman is two-thirds over. The bad news is, the swimming and biking were only a warm-up for the marathon portion of the journey – only 26.2 miles of running to go.
Yeah. Only.
Heck, if Greek marathon hero Philippides had this precursor, he probably would have said “forget it” and died long before running back to Athens.
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| Ironman competitors begin their day with a Gulf swim at Panama City Beach. |
“I trained hard for the thing,” Sean said. “During my heaviest training, I was working 17 hours per week – swimming and running on some days, biking on others, and doing a long run on other days. You build up, and then you get to the point where you feel it’s doable.”
On some days, Sean’s long bike ride was six hours. His runs were 16-18 miles. Swimming is his strength, and he trained with hour-long ocean swims as well as many mornings in the Atlantic Recreation Center pool.
He’s been no stranger to commitment. He runs, swims and bikes year-round. He has completed two marathons in slightly over four hours each. He also has a special supporter during his training in girlfriend Tifini Bair, a personal trainer who has completed many half-marathons and is training for a full marathon. Tifini actually helped get Sean into serious running a few years ago.
For Panama City Beach, Tifini took it upon herself to show her moral support.
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| Tifini and Alison in their Team McGill shirts. |
“I know how hard he had trained. I was so emotional on race day,” Tifini said. “When the race started and they said ‘Go’ I just started crying. I was so proud of him. To see him with the other 2,000 people running out to the water was just so emotional.”
They weren’t the last tears that Tifini would shed for her 34-year-old mate this day.
Transition bag
Competitors in an Ironman are not allowed to bring anything other than themselves and the clothes on their back to the event on race day. They must leave their “transition bags,” containing the necessities to move from swimming to biking to running, at the site the night before. Sean put all the usual items in his bag:
* Long-sleeve T-shirt – check
* Extra pair of socks – check
* Gu power gel – check
* Sunscreen -- check
* Tylenol – check
* Diamond ring – check
Yes, Sean had tucked a diamond ring among his socks, crammed into the toe of his running shoes. Completing the Ironman was not the only life-altering event Sean had planned for this day.
In November 2005, after his successful Half-Ironman, he had decided that the Panama City Beach race would be not only his first Ironman, but also his last day as an unattached man.
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| Tifini, Alison and Sean's mom, Jackie, cheer their Ironman. |
Tifini had no idea what her boyfriend had in mind. Sean, who operates McGill Aviation at the Fernandina Beach Airport with his father, had kept the secret from everyone.
“I kept everyone who is close to us in the dark. I didn’t tell anyone except for Tif’s sister. I didn’t want (Tifini) to hear about it – it was my secret, and my surprise,” he said.
The supporters had only one focus – helping Sean survive the Ironman.
“We had talked about marriage and stuff,” Tifini said, “but I had no idea what he had in mind. The only thing I was thinking about was supporting him and hoping he did well in the race.”
It was a great day for Sean. He was 191st after the 2.4-mile swim. The bike was into a stiff wind, but our Amelia Island Runner held firm and made the 112 miles in 5:42:09. He was on target for his goal of a sub-12-hour finishing time.
The bike portion had its challenges, and not necessarily from the course. “The biking was tough because we kept riding by Waffle Houses, McDonalds and places like that. It made me get the biggest urge for a Big Mac. I couldn’t get a Big Mac out of my mind, and all I had was Gu,” he said.
After two events, McGill was at 6 hours, 45 minutes. He needed a 5:15 in the marathon to make his stated goal. “When I got off the bike, I felt like I could do a sub-five-hour marathon. I had done two marathons in just over four hours, and I felt as if I could finish under five,” Sean said.
The focus was on 12 hours, and Sean was feeling all right as he began the final trek.
Initially, Tifini feared he wasn‘t on target as she stood at the half-marathon mark waiting to cheer him on. He never arrived.
“I was scared that he had slowed way down and was not going to make it,” she said. Instead, Sean had already passed the marathon’s halfway point ahead of his projected time.
“I was really hurting at about mile 9, but around mile 17 I got an extra burst and felt great. I wish I knew what my time was from about mile 17 to around mile 25. At mile 21 I knew I was going to beat 12 hours. I needed only to average 13-minute miles the rest of the way,” he said.
Sean crossed the line at 11:53:45.
Take a knee
The race volunteers grabbed him to make certain he was okay, and Sean walked with his helpers to his waiting Team McGill.
“He started telling us a story about a lady who used to run with a pocket of pebbles,” Tifini said. “We weren’t sure what he was taking about. We thought he was just rambling, but he kept going (with the story). He said this lady would start her runs with a pocket of pebbles and throw one to the ground after every mile thinking it would make her load lighter.”
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| After the Ironman, Sean proposes to Tifini. Pictured in the background are Sean's parents, John and Jackie. |
He said he had one pebble left and wanted to give it to his love, Tifini.
With Jackie and John McGill standing there along with Alison and Tifini, an exhausted Sean went to one knee (“well, sort of,” said Tifini, “he was a little wobbly”) and presented her with his last pebble, a diamond engagement ring.
Yeah, the ring that had survived the night in his transition bag, and a marathon in the pocket of his running shorts along with Gu packets.
No cold feet here.
“I was hugging him so much I almost knocked him over,” Tifini said. “He put me on Cloud Nine and I’m still on Cloud Nine.”
The answer was “Yes.”
Both the engagement and the Ironman were a start, but not a finish. Sean has already signed up for two Ironman competitions in 2007.
“You know you do something like this and you are pleased, but then you start thinking about doing better,” he said.
A winning attitude in an Ironman – as it is in a marriage.