So, as the title suggests, a lot has happened since the last time I wrote! I wrote all of this about our wedding, our honeymoon, and the race while on a plane back from Sydney a little over a week ago......read on if you'd like! It is a bit long....but like I said a lot has happened.....many more pictures will follow in the next few days..Us at our great barrier reef island resort:
View of the opera house from our hotel room, last night of honeymoon:
The sea plane we took over the great barrier reef, and to an uninhabited island beach: 
Right after the Ironman....very happy it is done and that I'm back in Dasia's arms:
Heart Reef, view from our sea plane:
Right when we got to the reception:
Dasia and I are currently flying back to Massachusetts, coming home from our honeymoon. Even though it is 5 a.m. Massachusetts time, I am wide awake, still on a Sydney schedule, so here I sit typing away. Dasia seems to be much more back on track sleep-wise, as she is sound asleep! We were married on March 29, and could not be happier. It was truly an amazing night, and we both felt extremely lucky to have such great family and friends there supporting us during our big event. We really had a blast that evening, and as everyone there made it so special. We only hope that everyone who attended had as great of a time as we did! A huge thanks again for everyone who was able to make the big trip out to our wedding....we really can't express how much we appreciated it.
The Honeymoon Report..
And since our wedding, Dasia and I have spent the last 3 weeks revisiting Australia for our honeymoon. It was such an incredible journey to go back there, we really couldn’t have asked for a better trip. From racing the ironman (which I’ve posted a full race report on below later in this blog… to sea kayaking, to taking a sea plane over the great barrier reef to land on deserted island beaches, to staying at a swanky island resort for 5 days, we had a great and very relaxing time. We also spent some time in Sydney visiting our old friends and classmates, and also went to the metropolis of Melbourne for two nights in the Southeast of Australia. I think the total for the trip, off of the top of my head is 11 plane flights, several boat rides, kayaking, 9 different places that we stayed at, 2 zoos visited, and many, many hours spent relaxing with our feet up pool or ocean side just enjoying our life as newlyweds to the fullest.
And since our wedding, Dasia and I have spent the last 3 weeks revisiting Australia for our honeymoon. It was such an incredible journey to go back there, we really couldn’t have asked for a better trip. From racing the ironman (which I’ve posted a full race report on below later in this blog… to sea kayaking, to taking a sea plane over the great barrier reef to land on deserted island beaches, to staying at a swanky island resort for 5 days, we had a great and very relaxing time. We also spent some time in Sydney visiting our old friends and classmates, and also went to the metropolis of Melbourne for two nights in the Southeast of Australia. I think the total for the trip, off of the top of my head is 11 plane flights, several boat rides, kayaking, 9 different places that we stayed at, 2 zoos visited, and many, many hours spent relaxing with our feet up pool or ocean side just enjoying our life as newlyweds to the fullest.
I actually arrived into Sydney on the Tuesday after our wedding to try and get used to the time zone before the race the following Sunday, and Dasia didn’t arrive until Friday morning. So, in the meantime, I met up with an old buddy of mine, Greg, from school, who was gracious enough to let me sleep on his couch for 3 nights. We actually had a great time catching up and it was good to see him again. Then, once Dasia was in town, we headed up to Port Macquarie which is about a 5 hour drive North of Sydney to go to the race. I attended the pre race meetings, got all my gear ready, swam the course, and then just tried to rest and not be nervous. The race itself is described in the race report below, but post race I’ve never felt worse in my life. The next morning after the race we went and had a massive breakfast down by the sea, and things started getting better from there.
Afterwards, we drove to our friends Scott and Biarta’s house, who live in an amazing place right by Copacabana Beach, North of Sydney. It was the perfect spot to relax for a bit and catch up with old friends.
After two days of relaxing at Copacabana, we flew up to Hamilton Island, part of the Whitsundays group of Islands in Queensland, Australia. If you ever come to Australia, I can’t recommend the place enough. We stayed at an awesome resort and they gave us an upgrade to a massive suite with complimentary champagne because it was our honeymoon. We were on the 17th floor literally right over the beach and ocean. Breakfast each morning on the balcony there was amazing. While there we took a sea plane out over the Great Barrier Reef which was breathtaking. The views were stunning, and then we landed on the waters of an uninhabited island with a 3 mile long stretch of perfectly white silicone sand beach where we had a picnic for a couple hours before flying back to Hamilton Island. We also did a 3 hour sea kayak trip, which was very fun, and very tiring! The first week after the race just walking I would get out of breath, so paddling along was tiring but well worth it. One of our favorite parts about the island was that it had almost no cars on it, we just had a rented golf cart for four days that we drove everywhere.
Once I started feeling a bit better, I would go a swim out from the beach by our hotel around the back of this little 50 meter wide island about 150 meters off shore. About 10 feet underneath me was always lots of very colorful and interesting looking tropical fish. With my severe fish allergy, that was about as close as I ever wanted to get to them, but it was a rush either way.
On our last day in Queensland, we returned to the mainland and had some time to kill so we drove out into the wilderness a bit. We visited some great water falls, and managed to see a huge amount of wildlife. We had a dingo walk right up to about 10 feet away from our car, had a 3 foot long lizard walk right past us, saw a hawk swoop out of the sky and pick up a snake that was about 3-4 feet long, and found a stretch of road where literally about 40 grey kangaroo hopped slowly in the sunset right passed our parked car. All of this made us completely sure that Australia was the perfect place for our honeymoon.
After all this time sipping cold drinks pool side and relaxing in the wilder parts of Australia, we had a complete change of pace and flew to Melbourne, a very large city that Dasia and I had both been to, but never spent a lot of time in. We stayed a a great old historic old hotel for two nights, visited lots of touristy type spots, an art museum, the zoo, and ate at some astounding restaurants.
After flying back to Sydney, we met up with our great friends from school Noel, Doug, and Karen, and had a great night out in Sydney with them. For our last night in Sydney, we stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel right in the Sydney Harbor, with a great view from the 27th floor of the legendary Sydney Opera House. It was a very fitting way to bring our time in Australia to a close.
We had a pretty uneventful flight back stateside from Sydney to San Francisco, where we had a 12 hour layover. With such a big amount of time to play with, we rented a car and went to the San Francisco Zoo, drove over the Golden Gate Bridge, visited the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory in Fisherman’s Wharf, and had a nice dinner with a great view of Alcatrez. From there it was a red eye flight back to home..
The New Job:
In addition to the wedding and honeymoon, the week before my wedding I found out that I got my first choice for a job. I will be working at Tufts University Emergency Medicine program, at Baystate Hospital in Springfield, Massachusetts, the same place that Dasia is! I’m starting to do all the paperwork that is associated with this now, and my first official days of work are towards the end of June. It is time to start studying again after several months away from the books. I’m definitely feeling the pressure of not wanting to make any major mistakes once I start work, so back to the books it is! I’m actually looking forward to it, as getting this job has made me excited about medicine again, especially after not thinking about it much since graduating…..
The Race Report……
I was pretty nervous about my first Ironman, and it turns out with good reason. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, by far. I finished in a total time of 11hours, 21 minutes, which was way off of what I had hoped for, but there was nothing I could do about it. It was a very, very hard day. It all started to go downhill about 2 hours in when I started getting sick. From that point on I wasn’t able to keep hardly any calories or fluids in me, which is not an ideal situation for an Ironman. I was sick about 15 times over the course of the day. Not fun. It switched from race mode to survival mode pretty quick unfortunately. I was actually scared that I was going to end up in the medical tent as I wasn't keeping nearly enough fluids or calories in me. Having Dasia there was the main thing that kept me going for sure. She was awesome support, and has invested so much in me over the last 4 months getting ready for this that I had to keep going.
It was pretty cool to come down the finish straight and have the announcer (who is an American) say "Matt Murray, a fellow American, just got married a week ago and is now an Ironman!" That, combined with seeing Dasia at the finish, was by far the best part of the day.
My swim was pretty slow, but for the first lap of 3 on the bike I actually rode pretty well. I was on track for one of the top 25 or so bike splits in the race (out of 1500 racers,) and was going pretty easily…..but then I started getting sick. The course was actually very hilly, which I found to be quite surprising. Most of it had amazing views of the ocean, however, which always makes the time go by a bit better. Once out on the run, my legs actually felt fine, which I guess is encouraging for if I do another Ironman and don’t get sick-things might go pretty well! One of the oddest sensations of the race was that we started at 6:30 a.m., when the sun was just rising, and I finished as the sun was starting to set. You know you’ve been racing for much to long when that happens!
I could barely move the day after the race….and wasn’t even able to sleep the night after as I was in so much pain all over. I've never hurt like that before in my life. I was walking like an 80 year old, partially because during the swim, which was really rough with people bashing each other around, a guy grabbed my leg and pushed it into a rusty big chain that was anchoring one of the swim bouys (which mark the course in the water,) so now I have a bunch of gashes on the side of my foot and ankle. It didn't really affect my race, it just hurt a lot and I lost a lot of blood. Also, one guy ripped my wetsuit zipper cord open, and my wetsuit became a big water filled drag suit for most of the swim as I wasn't able to fix it. Oh well, such is racing!
I don't know if it was because my longest workout was only 5 hours, as I had a hard time going longer than that in a Massachusetts winter, but I was totally spent after 5 hours of racing, even though I was sticking to the heart rate zones my coach wanted me to. Being sick probably didn't help either. It is pretty demoralizing to feel that way when you have 6 hours to go! I just started breaking the race down into small little 2 kilometer goals to make it easier, mentally, to get through. I guess it worked as I got to the finish!
Overall, it was pretty disappointing to finish in such a slow time, WAY off of what I had hoped for, but I'm very glad I didn't give up and got through it. At least now I can say I've done one! It really was an amazing experience to be out there that long with so many amazing people and athletes. It was a very humbling experience, and one I'm grateful I was able to do. A huge thanks to Dasia, both of our families, and all of our friends as well for all of your unwavering support while I go and do things like this!
To conclude (for now....)
The Race Report……
I was pretty nervous about my first Ironman, and it turns out with good reason. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, by far. I finished in a total time of 11hours, 21 minutes, which was way off of what I had hoped for, but there was nothing I could do about it. It was a very, very hard day. It all started to go downhill about 2 hours in when I started getting sick. From that point on I wasn’t able to keep hardly any calories or fluids in me, which is not an ideal situation for an Ironman. I was sick about 15 times over the course of the day. Not fun. It switched from race mode to survival mode pretty quick unfortunately. I was actually scared that I was going to end up in the medical tent as I wasn't keeping nearly enough fluids or calories in me. Having Dasia there was the main thing that kept me going for sure. She was awesome support, and has invested so much in me over the last 4 months getting ready for this that I had to keep going.
It was pretty cool to come down the finish straight and have the announcer (who is an American) say "Matt Murray, a fellow American, just got married a week ago and is now an Ironman!" That, combined with seeing Dasia at the finish, was by far the best part of the day.
My swim was pretty slow, but for the first lap of 3 on the bike I actually rode pretty well. I was on track for one of the top 25 or so bike splits in the race (out of 1500 racers,) and was going pretty easily…..but then I started getting sick. The course was actually very hilly, which I found to be quite surprising. Most of it had amazing views of the ocean, however, which always makes the time go by a bit better. Once out on the run, my legs actually felt fine, which I guess is encouraging for if I do another Ironman and don’t get sick-things might go pretty well! One of the oddest sensations of the race was that we started at 6:30 a.m., when the sun was just rising, and I finished as the sun was starting to set. You know you’ve been racing for much to long when that happens!
I could barely move the day after the race….and wasn’t even able to sleep the night after as I was in so much pain all over. I've never hurt like that before in my life. I was walking like an 80 year old, partially because during the swim, which was really rough with people bashing each other around, a guy grabbed my leg and pushed it into a rusty big chain that was anchoring one of the swim bouys (which mark the course in the water,) so now I have a bunch of gashes on the side of my foot and ankle. It didn't really affect my race, it just hurt a lot and I lost a lot of blood. Also, one guy ripped my wetsuit zipper cord open, and my wetsuit became a big water filled drag suit for most of the swim as I wasn't able to fix it. Oh well, such is racing!
I don't know if it was because my longest workout was only 5 hours, as I had a hard time going longer than that in a Massachusetts winter, but I was totally spent after 5 hours of racing, even though I was sticking to the heart rate zones my coach wanted me to. Being sick probably didn't help either. It is pretty demoralizing to feel that way when you have 6 hours to go! I just started breaking the race down into small little 2 kilometer goals to make it easier, mentally, to get through. I guess it worked as I got to the finish!
Overall, it was pretty disappointing to finish in such a slow time, WAY off of what I had hoped for, but I'm very glad I didn't give up and got through it. At least now I can say I've done one! It really was an amazing experience to be out there that long with so many amazing people and athletes. It was a very humbling experience, and one I'm grateful I was able to do. A huge thanks to Dasia, both of our families, and all of our friends as well for all of your unwavering support while I go and do things like this!
To conclude (for now....)
By the end of the honeymoon, both Dasia and I were really looking forward to getting home and starting our life as a married couple……We also both really missed our little dog Bronte!!! Dasia is now back at work, while I am finally going to be both starting studying very hard again, and will also be starting training for the races that I have planned for the summer. It should be fun!!! Thanks again to everyone for all the love, support, kindness, laughs, and fun you’ve provided for us during this amazing part of our lives.
