For the uninitiated, here's some background. In tri lingo, Long Course is a Half Ironman distance triathlon with 1.2 mi swim, 56 miles cycling, and 13.1 miles running. This was my second HIM, first being Wildflower 2012. Going into this race, my goal was to do better than last year and finish in under 6 hours.
Splits:
Swim: 32:15
T1: 5:30
Bike: 03:20:xx
T2: 5:04
Run: 01:56:40
Final time: 05:59:51
It was an incredibly hot day at WF with temperatures going 90+ degrees on the bike and reportedly touching 98 degrees on the run. Think of it as a justification for my not-so-great, yet satisfactory performance. Here's how it went down -
We setup camp the previous evening which was a challenge with my daughter tagging along. I had the pasta dinner after packet pickup followed by a PB&J sandwich. I was also sipping on water and Perform every now and then. I went to bed at 10:30 PM, woke up at 3 AM to go to the restroom and couldn't go back to sleep after. I was half awake when the alarm went off at 5:45 AM. For pre-race breakfast, I had a banana, half a CLIF bar and sipped on Perform. Headed down to the transition area at 7:15 AM. I ran into Snickers, Kyle M and Kyle B in the transition.
At 8:10 AM, I had a Gel and 2 salt tabs, took my swim gear and walked up to the restrooms near the expo where there was no line. After the last visit to the port-a-potty I put on the wetsuit and headed to the swim start. I dumped my disposable socks and jumped in for warmup. Water temp was a warm 68+ deg. The Edge 500 was under the swim cap on the back of my head facing down.
Swim: 32:15
I started at the front right of the wave like always. After sprinting along the dock for 50 meters or so, I fell into a steady stroke. I could find a pair of feet to follow every once in a while but was swimming mostly by myself. Overall the swim was uneventful followed by the long walk up the boat ramp into T1.
T1: 5:30
My T1 was much slower than I'd have liked it to be, but I wanted to make sure I had everything especially on a hot and long day ahead. I had put the salt tabs in the bike shoes so I wouldn't forget them. 2 CLIF bars + 2 GU gels in the Bento box and 1 GU gel, and salt tabs in the left pocket of the TF tri top. Both bottles in the bike were filled with IM Perform. I took off the wetsuit after getting to my spot, reset the Edge 500 and mounted it on the bike. Helmet, shoes, sunglasses on, click-clack through the transition area and off on the bike.
Bike: 03:20:xx
This was the WORST portion of my race and unfortunately happens to be the longest. After mile 10 itself I had some discomfort in the upper right quad. It was extremely annoying and was taking the fun out of biking. I was hitting all the same spots on the course at exactly the same time as last year. It basically meant that I was not going to end up faster than last year on the bike. I was looking at ~3:20 which would give me ~2 hours for the run in order to make my goal of breaking 6. I consumed a TON of water and Gatorade on the bike. Seems like I can stomach Gatorade just fine. I consumed a total of 2 bottles of IM Perform + 4 bottles of Gatorade + 2 bottles of water + 3 GU gels + 2 CLIF bars + 4 salt tabs. The weirdest thing was happening on the bike - my right upper quad pain seemed to be directly proportional to bladder fullness. Every time after peeing, the pain would subside. I peed 4 times during the bike leg - 2 times on the bike, like a true TriForcer, and 2 times at the side of the road. Other than the upper quad pain, I was feeling pretty good.
T2: 5:04
In hindsight, I think doing faster transitions could have helped at the end of the race. More about that in a bit. I felt like I was in slo-mo in T2. Took my own sweet time to put on TriSlide, fresh socks and shoes. Popped a salt tab, washed down with water and and off on the run.
Run: 1:56:40
I started the run by walking up the stairs out of T2. I decided to ditch the Edge 500 and go with the 405 on the run, which I would regret later. My race clock was showing 04:04:xx, which meant that I had barely 2 hours to break the 6 hours goal time. Given the high temperature and the brutal run course, I started doubting if I'd be able to make it. I walked up most of the hills, flew on the down hills trying to carry over the momentum on the next hill as much as possible. I was averaging 9 min/mi with this run/walk strategy. I was popping a salt tab every 45 mins and felt I could use more, but I was using salt tabs for the first time ever, so didn't want to overdo it and get messed up. At mile 5, I reached into my left pocket to get another salt tab an to my horror found that I had dropped them. My mind flashed back to the gel I had removed from my pocket at the previous aid station, and how I might have dropped the tabs there. I cursed a thousand times, and for a split second even considered going back to recover the salt tabs. The next mile or so went trying to convince myself that it was just a placebo anyways. Not only was I now racing the clock, but also fatigue. I was praying that my legs would hold up at least till the last downhill mile. Walk-douse-gel-drink became a routine at each aid station. I was barely recovering through the salt tabs trauma, when the next malfunction happened - my Garmin 405 died. It just went blank. If a machine couldn't handle the heat, how can I, I thought.
I was still feeling OK through miles 7 and 8. I got some encouraging comments from the spectators, like "Good stride", "Keep up that form", which was a good mental boost. I didn't "fly" down the pit during mile 9, but I think I held a nice pace. I could see everyone on the other side walking up the pit. After the turn around at the bottom, I was feeling OK, but not great. There was no way I could "race" the last 5K. Luckily I had a regular wrist watch that was tracking the race time. I had 20 minutes to run my last 5K in order to break 6 hours. I walked/jogged up the pit. I could feel some tightness build up in my right hamstring, so I eased it off a bit in order to avoid cramping it. At ~mile 11 my left quad, right hamstring and right calf, were all taking turns seizing up on me. With ~2 miles to go, I decided to employ the last resort. I call it hyper-oxygenation and I have used it successfully several times before. Basically I breathe extremely fast at ~140 breaths/min. In my experience it makes the cramps go away, but it only works for a couple of miles, which is why it's the last resort. I was at the top of Lynch hill with 6.5 minutes to spare. I flipped the switch, turned on hyper-oxygenation and went for it. My quads were THROBBING and crying out to stop the torture. Just a few more minutes, I begged them to stay with me, pumping more O2. 3 mins left and I could see the last left turn of the Lynch hill. Beyond that turn, I could already see the finish, the ice pack on the head, and my wife and daughter. With 2 mins to spare I was making that last turn. I could now see the crowd at the finish. At 1 min, the down hill was over and I was sprinting down the last flat patch into the finish chute. At least I felt like I was sprinting, but my pace was probably a pathetic 7:30 min/mi or something. I entered the last stretch with 30 seconds to spare. At this point I was cramping left and right. 20 seconds left, and I fast forwarded the last 30 meters or so and foresaw that I made it, and I did, with 9 seconds to spare.
That race with the clock and pushing my body to it's limit gave me the immense sense of accomplishment after this race. The fact that I beat the clock by 9 seconds by overcoming all odds, made me a bit emotional first time ever after a race.
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THINGS TO DO or DO DIFFERENTLY:
- Bike a LOT more. I think my bike training fell short.
- Use a fuel belt instead of stuffing salt tabs in a shallow pocket.
- Be less lazy in transitions
- Train more in heat
My next big race is the Full Vineman Iron distance tri (2.4 miles swim, 112 miles bike, 26.2 miles run) when I am surely gonna get my ass kicked!
