Ironman - Race report

My ironman weekend began with a 5 hour drive to get to check-in on Friday afternoon.  The process was smooth.  I had forgotten that they do a weigh-in.  (This is so the medics can pull you off the course if you are too dehydrated or over-hydrated.)  I got my race materials and chuckled at the relatively small swag-content.  There was not the usual pile of samples of this and that.  Just some ads, the bag to carry it in, the race number stuff, and the drop-off bags.  I had planned to drive the bike course on Friday, but it was too late.  I saw some friends from the TRI-racers, but got separated, so I went to the banquet myself and sat through the prerace meeting.  I learned more from just talking to people at the table than from the race directors, but that was ok.

On Saturday morning, I went out and checked out the swim venue, bringing my wetsuit and a backpack.  It made the whole idea of the swim easier to realize that it was really just 4 sets of an 800 followed by a 200 because of the rectangular course shape.  That's longer than I normally swim without stopping, but it made the whole thing a lot easier to swallow than just being told to swim 2.4 miles.  Afterwards, I did a little bit of easy biking, then had my last big meal - a nice burrito, easy on the veggies and beans.  In the early afternoon, I took care of a few last minute issues on the bike (numbers, etc), packed my transition bags, and brought them to check in.  I found a grocery store to get some supplies.  Finally, I had time to go out on the course by car.

I had ridden the course a couple of months ago, but it was refreshing to see it again.  It consists of a ~15 mile "stick" out to a ~41 mile "loop", and you do the loop twice before coming back home on the stick again.  In retrospect, the driving was more informative of the tight turns going downhill than it was for the uphill sections, but I am still very glad I did it.

By this time, Cynthia had arrived, having ridden up with Ingrid Guttin.  We met, and I had a light dinner consisting mostly of soba noodles in the early evening.  We met up with TRI-racers again and agreed to all meet in the morning to leave for the race at 5:00.

I got up at 2:00 a.m. to have "breakfast" consisting of 4 small containers of Ensure.  Vile stuff.  However, it was 1000 calories that was all liquid and reasonably balanced.  I went back to sleep for 90 min or so, and we got up about 4:00.

I put on my lube and race gear, and Cynthia got some real breakfast at the hotel, which had specially gotten the breakfast out at 4:00 for the race.  We met our TRI-racer friends and went out to deposit our special needs bags (stuff you can pick up halfway through the bike and/or run) and got to the site.

I had been nursing a low grade viral sore throat (etc) bug for at least half a week, but I felt pretty good.  You don't get to put the race off for a week, so you just go with the hand you've got.  After inflating my tires, I headed down to the swim start and dropped off my glasses at the special table for me and my fellow blind racers.

I chose to go out into the deep water for the start instead of hanging out at the beach.  The beach was very rocky, and I was more concerned about possibly hurting my foot than spending the tiny amount of energy required to tread water wearing the wetsuit.  In the last few minutes before the start, all the people around me were assuring one another how nice they were and that they had no intention of smashing each other in the head once the gun went off.

So much for intentions.

Actually, the swim didn't bother me much.  I felt very comfortable and in control, but it was pretty darn rough pretty much the whole way.  My final swim time was just barely faster than the 50th percentile (1:18), but I was passing a LOT of people who mis-seeded themselves.  I had decided I didn't want to be That Guy who was too close to the front, but I clearly went too far with it.  After one lap, I took a quick glance at my watch and was pleased to be on track.  As I got to the last leg, I knew I'd be ok and I was ready to get on the bike.

After getting out of the water, I got my wetsuit taken off by the strippers and grabbed my glasses.  Like everyone else, I "ran" up the helix, got my T1 bag and got ready to ride.

I had a very specific bike plan.  I have a power meter on my bike, and I knew how many watts I planned to put out on the flats (of which there are not too many), and my cap for going uphill.  I am not yet a super-strong biker, so those numbers were only 170-180 and 250.  My goal was to keep it to 200 W on modest false-flats (e.g., 1-2% grade).  My rolling hill tactics were to downshift to a low gear early, let people gap me going up, but be able to accelerate in the top part of the hill (when many people flag) and over the crest, so that I could put some watts into the top of the descent and then catch up and/or pass people while not doing any work.  This seemed to work beautifully.  I saw myself progressing through the field as the rolling hills wore on.  Toward the end of the loop, there is a sequence of three hills that are not rolling so much like this.  Just up, pause, up, pause, up.  Those, I just gutted out in low gear to keep the watts in line.  I lost some ground to my contemporaries on the first lap, but gained a bit on the second.

The way the splits were laid out on the bike course, they didn't show that my first half was somewhat faster than my second.  I could feel some fatigue in the last quarter of the bike, but that seemed pretty reasonable.  I was choosing to coast at somewhat lower speeds than I did on the first lap, but I still seemed to be generally progressing through the crowd and I wasn't concerned.

My nutrition on the bike consisted of an 1100 calorie bottle of Perpetuem for the first half, and another one at special needs, plus a couple of cut up Clif bars in my little bento bag for variety.  I think I have learned that I need to go a little light on the nutrition compared to some people, so this was to have both margin (in case of some disaster) and variety (Drinking mocha-flavored pancake batter for 6 hours is dull...)  I picked up water at the aid stations and poured it into my aerodrink each time.  The volunteers were very skilled at hand-offs, which was fantastic.

I saw Cynthia and other people cheering for the TRI-racers along the route.  We have a great club. I'd wager that we were in the top 10 clubs for the number of jerseys out on the field.

As I finished the bike in under 6 hours and still feeling very good (relatively speaking), I was optimistic I was going to have a very good day.  I had some fatigue, but it seemed quite manageable  The only problems I had on the bike were a nerve in my foot that occasionally makes it feel like it's on fire on long rides, but always goes away within a few minutes of getting off the bike (even when that means running), and the usual discomfort a long ride can put between the legs.  But that, too, also goes away when you stop riding.

T2 seemed uneventful.  After the fact, I realized that I had forgotten to take the bike shorts off that I was wearing over my running tights, but this was not that big a deal.

I went out on the run feeling very strong.  I took out what seemed like a very moderate pace, knowing that no one can really "run" a strong marathon after that without the luxury of full time training.

Unfortunately, within 10-15 minutes, I had major problems.  My heart rate was sky high, relative to how fast I was going.  My usual lactate threshold for running is ~168.  My max HR is near 185.  It was getting pretty hot, and I suddenly felt quite uncomfortable and my HR was 175, even going this very modest pace.  I wasn't thirsty.  I was still sweating.  My stomach was ok.  So it wasn't dehydration or some other GI issue.  I realized that I was overheating though.  I believed that I had lost control of my core temperature.

At this point, I had to make a decision, because I wasn't more than a couple miles into the run, if that.  I could try to keep up this pace and just see what happened, or I could try to get the HR under control.  I feared that if I took the first choice that I would shortly end up in a very long death-march, but I also realized it was potentially faster than my more conservative option if that didn't happen.

I made what I hope was the wiser choice and started to walk to let the HR come down to my target (near 155).    After what seemed like forever, it eventually came down, but it rose again very rapidly once I started running again.  This happened for a few cycles.  I hated to do it, but I got to the point where I would walk up hills and through aid stations (drinking COLD things).  The idea of this was killing me, but I didn't know what else to do.  After several cycles, I looked down at my watch again, and my HR was LOWER than my target (without me expecting that from how I felt).  So I started to run again.  Now I couldn't get my heart rate back UP, but I felt just as bad at the lower peak HR as before.

So there I was.  I resolved just to continue on and do the best I could under this walk-run routine.  I saw Cynthia about half-way through and told her I was going to do my best to keep it under 13 hours, because I didn't know how much more my condition would deteriorate.

For the good news then... although of course I tired, things did not get worse.  My management strategy, while difficult, let me traverse the first ~22 miles at about the same pace overall.  Of course, the splits don't show when I sped up and slowed down, because they are in several mile chunks.  With about 5-6 miles left, I started to feel, if anything, better.  Maybe this was psychological; maybe it was the temperature coming down; maybe it was my body getting control of itself again.  I was able to "run" every step from mile 23 on.  Finally, I finished, at 12:06:48.

As a precaution, I stopped at the medical tent because of the HR issue.  They weighed me, and I was only down ~4% of body weight, so that was really ok.  They watched me and my HR for a while, and let me go.

I had hoped to finish under 12 hours.  I will admit to some disappointment that I didn't.  But I also have no regrets.  I swam as I planned, finishing as I expected - between 1:15 and 1:20.  My nutrition on the bike and run both seemed fine.  I had no GI issues (other than needing cooling!).  I only had to stop once to pee the whole time.  I still feel like I nailed the bike to the best of my particular current skill set, at least according to my plan.  Perhaps, knowing I was slightly ill, I should have adjusted my power targets.  Not doing that is something I have to live with, but I'm ok with that.  I'll never know what would have happened if I had just carried on jogging the marathon without walking, but I don't think it would have been good.  My choices were rational, and I worked hard to carry them out.  Friends and Cynthia supported me and encouraged me and I worked hard in return for their cheers.  I did my best on the day.  I am an Ironman.