PRERACE: Breakfast was an energy bar, water, coffee, and baked potato. My normal routine is coffee -->wait-->BM, but this is not so easy when you ate all low fiber foods the day before. This caused a little bit of stress for me, I don't "go" so well in a porta-potty when I know other people are waiting. I need 'quiet time'. Did that mean I was empty or there was more for later? Couldn't tell at the time, but I was OK. Good to know for the right?
The TA's opened at 5am, and we arrived shortly thereafter. Luckily we obtained a parking pass for the campgrounds, sharply reducing the amount of walking needed. With the TA's not closing until 6:30, this gave me plenty of time to over think things. First off was T2. All T2 needed was run gear: shoes, socks, 2 gels, sunscreen, and a hat. Transition is usually an organized pile of gear under the bike, so having a bike rack with just those few items kept me staring at the pile. Just didn't look right, but it looked no different than anyone else's.
Off to T1, a long walk downhill to the water. Once down there, the plan was to stay there and not come back up. So I had to have everything right this one time. Double check again, and take off. Wouldn't you know, half way down the hill I get to wondering if my socks were at T2. I forgot socks at Racine last year and it made for a painful run. Surely my socks were there. But it was only 5:30, plenty of time still to check. Surely my socks were there, right? I checked them, right? Nagging doubt now would only be amplified later on the bike. I didn't want to spend the bike ride wondering if my socks were sitting there. So back up the hill against the flow of athletes heading down. Yup, there's my socks! Lost 10 minutes to that! While in T2, I decided to use the facilities before heading back down to T1.
Once to T1, the usual pre-race chaos and jitters kicked in. That is where the crowd had accumulated, so all the noise and gear got me into race mode. Once again, transition looked odd with only half the gear: bike, helmet, Garmin, sunglasses, towel. The bike was carrying the aero bottle with Cytomax, one bottle of plain water, 3 gels, powerbar chews, and gum. I put the Sidi's on the bike with rubber bands after having determined that there was enough flat road out of T1 to slip on the shoes before hitting the hill. With such a simple set up, I was left with extra time. I continued eating a Powerbar, sipped water, and pulled on the wetsuit halfway. And waited a bit more. I walked the route from water to bike to be sure I could find it after the swim, triple checked the bike, and waited.
T1 was supposed to close between 6:15 and 6:30am, and right about that time a minor disaster struck the bike rack behind me--the racks collapsed! Bikes fell like dominoes, knocking each other down as the wheels hit the ground with gear rolling everywhere. Athletes and volunteers rushed in to grab the racks and bikes and there we stood before the race, holding together what we could of 50-75 some odd bikes, including BN's. Full disaster was averted by a quick response from the volunteers, and I was glad I wasn't one of the guys whose bike fell over. Transitions are carefully set up so that all gear is in a planned position on the bike--to come out of the swim and find everything changed would be a wrench in the gears.
More waiting, and during this time I decided I needed to use the facilities again. I thought I had time, so I kept walking around, meeting up with friends, and looking for a bathroom. Long lines at one, so keep looking. I walked the long length of T1 through the waiting crowd of athletes to find short lines but on the other side of the TA fence. Nuts. Walk all the way back, slowly weaving through the crowd. By now I was out of time, only 10 minutes to my wave start. I figured I could pee in the water, yuck, but a time saver.
The minutes before my wave start flew by. We entered the water and immediately swam out to the start buoys for a treading start. The water was a perfectly comfortable temperature so no cold-adapting to do. I thought for sure I'd be able to pee while treading, but it just didn't happen. This was starting to bother me a bit, as I realized that peeing while swimming would be even harder. I picked a position to the back and outside of my wave to avoid the frenzy, and before we knew it the gun sounded! IMKS was underway.
And I had to pee.
The SWIM: 1.2 miles, treading wave start, long counterclockwise rectangle.
It was about this time that I realized that I did absolutely no warm up this morning and very little stretching. So my warm-up was in the water. Thankfully this worked for me, it's not like I take off sprinting in the water anyway. My outside and back position kept me out of the worst of the fighting in the start and I stayed calm. Until my goggles were knocked loose. And I was kicked in the ribs. I lost a few moments emptying the goggles and getting my breath back. Usually this would cause a mild panic for me and my HR would shoot up. Instead, I just calmly got back into rhythm. Just keep going, good form, strong arms. Someone grabs at my feet, just keep going. I swim into someone, just keep going. This is a huge improvement over last year's swimming and just knowing I could brush it off also had a calming effect.
Sighting was tough on this course, the buoys were big but green. Green? On a backdrop of blue sky and green trees! A few were red, but even those were hard to see. So I ended up lifting my head to sight more than I wanted to. About 15 minutes in, the first wave of men started to pass me. This was my biggest fear going into the race--getting run over by the guys on the swim. My positioning in the swim was chosen to avoid this, but there was no way to completely stay out of the way. Most were swimming twice as fast if not more than I was, so while they came and went quickly they also buzzed over me with little regard to my head and body. I was bumped, rolled, and grabbed for what seemed a long time. Thankfully no panic over this, but it was eating up energy and time.
All this time, I was still dealing with the fact that I had to pee. Turns out it takes a lot of focus for me to pee while swimming. Isn't there a flight or fight response that includes peeing? This just never kicked in for me, instead the use of my core muscles for swimming kept me from relaxing enough. That and there was so much going on that peeing wasn't my first priority. I decided that if I couldn't pee in the water, I would use a porta-a-potty before the bike. With that decision made, I forgot about this problem and turned to others.
My trouble sighting the buoys became a problem when I realized that I slightly overshot the first turn. Not by much, but these seconds added up. I hit the second and final turn at 24 minutes. I began to think that my 40 minute goal could be a reality.
Time in a triathlon, however, is easily distorted. The swim back to the beach was even harder to sight with the glare of the sun and a dark blue finish arch. I couldn't see the beach so I followed the crowd. At least I tried to, I kept getting turned rightwards off the course! I usually swim to the left when tired, so why was I swimming to the right?! Double check form, aim for a buoy, and try again. Still turning right! Was there a wave or current pushing me? Whatever it was, I ended up far enough off course at one point for a canoe volunteer to redirect me! Now a very mild worry started to set in. Although I wasn't getting jostled by other swimmers, I was losing energy to sighting and trying to get back on course. I wasn't terribly off course, but enough that I was wasting time. Just keep going.
At last the finish line appeared, as well as the crowd of swimmers. Once again I was pushed, pulled, and rocked around by my fellow athletes as we narrowed our course into the finish chute. More time, more energy, sensing a theme? When I finally stood up at the beach I checked my time. 45 minutes?!? Huge downer, what a disappointment! But if there's one thing I've learned in triathlon, it's that you have to let a segment go once it's done and focus on the next. Next for me was peeing. Quick stop, then dash off to the bike. I was unfocused at this point, a little dizzy from the swim. I heard DH call my name, and that was all it took for my focus to zero back in on the race. T1 was on a parking lot of asphalt with small rocks. Ouch-ouch-ouch! When the pros ran across earlier they made it look easy. Other than that, T1 was smooth and fast.
Swim Summary:
Good: calm demeanor, good form, ankle stayed in place with tape, no cramps.
Bad: worried about other swimmers, swam off course, dizzy after standing up
The BIKE: 56 miles: one loop with out-n-back spurs. Oh, and some hills.
The bike started off good, I pulled my feet into my shoes quickly (even though I haven't practiced this since last year) and I took off up the first hill. What a way to warm up! My HR and stress was high earlin in the ride! This is sort of a self-feeding problem. The HR goes up, you feel it, worry about it, stress about it, then your stress response drives the HR up more. It results in a hard-breathing, panicky feeling. After the disappointing swim, I actually had thoughts of "I can't do this!", "I can't do the bike like this!", "I'm going to wear out, I can't calm down!". Time to rein in the mental fiasco building up. Breath in, breath out, repeat.
The night prior, I re-read some of The Perfect Distance to get some mental cues for the race. One of them was a way to gauge the bike: you should feel like you could turn a harder gear, but you don't. And that is how I rode the course: slightly slow, holding back, and taking it easy. Another reminder was that the measure of a good bike included the run: a fast bike ride is a bad bike ride if you wear yourself out for the run. So I set up a goal of riding for the run--save the legs, save the energy, and ride conservatively.
The plan was to eat something around 20 mins, but as detailed above I wasn't ready to eat by that time. In fact, I didn't eat for 47 mins in! I started to get The Stupids and finally remembered to eat. I had been picking on the PB gel blocks, but at 30 calories each I wasn't getting anywhere. Besides, you can't eat those things. Practiced or not, I ended up spitting chunks of half-chewed blocks, same as I did for the Illini race 2 years ago. First gel at 50 mins with water. Sipped Cytomax every few minutes. Second gel at 1:45, third at 2:30. Not enough!! I need to eat MORE on the bike! Hydration was OK, but calories are LOW. I had purchased cashews to munch but didn't get them to the bike before the race. No let's be honest here, I had them at the bike but didn't have a container to put them in so I passed on them. At the third aid station I needed water and more gels. I successfully grabbed a water bottle and dumped it into the now-empty aero bottle. The gels I saved for later.
The hills were not so bad. Only once did I stand up for a climb and that was for a pass. For a majority of the ride I was surrounded by other cyclists, I did my best to avoid drafting and blocking. This helped and hurt during the race--it keeps your mind occupied but forces some braking and sprinting to avoid problems. Most other riders were polite and conscientious, making for a fun ride. We don't talk much in triathlons so only a few times did I converse with others. Once when we had to dismount to walk around an oil slick on the road ("So is BP our new sponsor?") and once more when a woman at mile 35 commented that was I killing the bike course. (A sign that maybe I should slow down!).
The bike ended well, I was shooting for a sub-3 and would have made it except the last mile on the bike was a no-passing area. The road was shared with the run course. Not that the course marshals made it a no-passing zone, more like athletes in front of me rode down the middle and blocked me. It was a good opportunity to calm down and rest. A 3:03 is still a 3hr ride.
T2 went smooth. I ran with the bike across the grass, racked it, and changed gear. I sat down to put on shoes to avoid a dizzy spell from bending over, and gave up a minute to reapply sunscreen. Grab the gels and go!
Bike Summary:
Good: no mashing, good hydration, comfy fit on bike.
Bad: low calories (600 in 3hrs might be OK for 70.3 but low for 140.6), need practice on eating and drinking while riding.
The Run: 13.1 miles. Two loops partially in campground, one hill done twice.
The run started off with one scare. The day before I slipped on a pair of retired running shoes barefooted to walk my bike to T1. In doing so, I took some skin off the back of my heal. When I retaped my ankle, I took care to add a bandage and cover the area knowing the potential for problems during the race. Before I even left T2, I felt the raw sting of exposed skin. Nuts! I stopped to check, but couldn't see the problem. Keep going, more pain. What the hell!? Stop to check again, still can't see a problem or a fix. Forget it, I'll bleed if I have to like I did in Racine. But to be hurting 0.05 miles in...
The first mile was an out-n-back along the bike course. I was feeling particularly good and took off a bit fast. The first mile flew by and by the time I was a mile 2 I realized I was going too hard. A gut pain appeared, I couldn't tell if it was diaphragm or GI, but a sharp pain under the ribs. Heading down the hill towards mile 3, it became a problem. Now that I have my HR data downloaded, I can see what happened. My HR shot up to the 180's at 8 mins into the run and stayed there until 28 mins before dropping into the high 150's. I'm going to guess in retrospect that it was a diaphragm cramp. Not my first one, so I knew that if I slowed down it would fade, and it did. What's funny about this is that the cramp hit going down the hill, and not on the return climb. Apparently, like the swim-bike transition, I needed a few minutes on the bike-run to settle in. Things were going good once I'd calmed down. The nutrition plan was a gel at miles 3 and 9, water or Gatorade when I could. Otherwise I planned to walk aid stations if I wanted to but keep running everywhere else. My heel pain was gone by now and replaced by toe pain in the metatarsals.
Climbing the hill (same hill first climbed in the bike) was tiring but I recovered quickly and rounded the corner into the campground. The DH was there at the turn, I love seeing familiar faces on the course and hearing my name called. It's such a wonderful feeling and a great way to get refocused. I wasn't familiar with the course of weaving turns and loops through campsite roads. I had no idea of what loop or turn I was in at most times and there was no good way to know when the next aid station or turnaround was coming up. I was feeling strong, but knew I was getting overheated and dehydrated. In a previous race, this situation came up and I over drank to the point of a sloshing stomach. This time I sipped water conservatively, but no amount of ice water can slack the dry mouth feeling I had. It was here I remembered the long ride from a few weeks ago and a similar feeling that was solved by eating ice. At each aid station I grabbed some water (drank some, splashed the rest on me) and a cup of ice. Wonderful!! I crunched ice cubes as the miles passed and dumped some down my shirt--also wonderful! I had no idea a cup of ice would last for so long in a sports bra!
The first 6.22 miles (as per Garmin) were finished in 55 minutes. This put me over halfway done on the run, and within a PR 13.1 time! This was a boost to keep pushing. At mile 9, I realized that if I could cover the next 3 miles in 30 minutes, I'd finish under 5:45!! (ignore my bad math for now). What another big boost to keep pushing! If I finished under that time, I think I'd qualify for Halfmax! How awesome would that be?! Onward and upward, literally as I climbed the big hill for the 2nd time, determined not to walk on it. Now I was watching the time and mileage, mentally adding up the time vs miles to my goal time. Sadly it wasn't until after mile 10 that I realized my bad math. In order to qualify, I'd really have to pick up the pace, and my pace was already high. The mental machinations kicked in: Qualify! No, Wisconsin! Slow down and keep a steady effort! But I could qualify! Let it go! We didn't come here to qualify!
I was passing lots of runners reduced to a walk or slow jog. I realized as I went by that I'm usually one of those people--I would go out to hard on the bike and blow up by mile 10 on the run. Not today, this time I set up just right and had the needed energy after the long bike. What an awesome feeling, so even as my 5:45 slipped away just 0.5 miles from the finish I was still riding high and even picking up steam as the line got closer. I passed Rich one last time and pushed for the line. What a great feeling to finish so strong, to still have a kick, and to not be sick once I got there.
Run Summary:
Good: found a way to keep body cool, good hydration and nutrition.
Bad: toe bones still hurt, would speed up and raise HR too high then have to slow.
The Finish Line! I learned after I was medaled that CW was giving out medals! I wasn't paying much attention after crossing the line, but I don't think it was her that medaled me. Hopefully it wasn't, what an opportunity missed! I felt spent but good at the line, kept walking and unsuccessfully drank a bottle of water handed to me by a volunteer. I couldn't swallow yet, so it just dribbled off my lips.
Recovery was walking, eating, and drinking. I didn't stretch or anything, I think I should though. My stomach was taking solid foods like bananas (as solid as they are!) and grapes in about 45 minutes, and real food just hours later. Sometimes I end a race with bad stomach cramps, I used to think it was race stress but now I think it was all the grains I was eating in granola bars, bread, and other grained-foods.
Overall, a successful race! Finishing top 3rd-ish in my first IM 70.3 is great (and unexpected!). As for IMWI, I have a few things to work on but lots of time to do it. Question now is whether or not I need another long race to continue preparing. Muncie?
By the Numbers:
Swim: 45:38
T1: 4:25
Bike: 3:03:09 18.35 mph, ave HR 134 (perfect!) , max HR 160.
T2: 2:17
Run: 1:53:05 8:38min/mile ave HR 165 (high!), max 199 right at beginning.
Overall: 5:48:34 35th/110 in the W35-40 age group.
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