Big milestone reached this week, and along with it a big reality check. Though I didn't even really come close to my optimistic time goal, I did complete goal #1 which was to finish. I also had a great weekend and learned a ton.
Day before:
Arrived at the lake nice and early on Friday around 1pm. Most of the prime camping spots were already taken - I guess some people make a whole week of this event! Luckily, Amy hooked us up with a family (Steve, Belinda, and they're daughter Madison) who had rented an RV and come early to get one of those prime spots.
Took it pretty easy on Friday. Went down and picked up my packet. Had a nice ~25 min bike ride and ~10 min run, just to warm up my legs a bit and make sure everything looked good on the bike. Hung out and relaxed at the campsite...got race numbers set up, race day bag ready, race wheels on. Steve and Belinda made an amazing dinner and invited us to join them. Thought positive thoughts and felt pretty good overall. Still had a terrible time sleeping, which seems to be the norm for me before a big event. No matter how much I try and calm myself, I can't stop my subconscious brain from worrying away.
Race morning:
Up at 5:30 to have breakfast plenty early. Oatmeal with almond butter, honey, and a banana. Coffee for the first time in a week was amazing (I had been going without for a week in the hopes that it would enhance the effect the caffeine would have on my performance). Hung out at the campsite chatting with the group for a while, never felt rushed. Still feeling confident about the day. Tires pumped, race bag checked again. Can't find my Clif shots, but I figured it wasn't a big deal, I'd find some other source of caffeine on the course. Plenty of time to get ready, use the restroom, etc., and by the time we headed down to the start there was about 30 mins till my start time.
Get there, rack my bike, start getting everything ready. Wait...something is missing. Timing chip! I frantically search my bag twice more , and have a minor panic attack when I can't find it. Consider going back up to camp to get it, but realize that I wouldn't have enough time to make it back down (by this point it's 15 mins till my start, they're just now sending off the first wave). Oh well. I try and calm myself down as I put my wetsuit on...it's not a big deal, it's not like I'm there to win anything. I made one last minute decision; I decided to wear my wetsuit booties (which I've never worn) as my feet tend to be cold and the transition area is pretty big and can be painful on the feet! I take a little bit of gatorade and water, and make my way to the ramp.
The Swim:
I arrive at the start at just the right moment. The group in front of us had just started, and my wave had just started out into the water to try and get acclimated. I jumped in and got wet. Water felt pretty nice. Then I realized that I hadn't really studied the swim course. I had to double check which way we were supposed to turn after the first buoy. And off we went!
My overall strategy had been to just go easy on the swim, and expect a slow time. I've probably mentioned before that I am shockingly under-trained for the swim. I've skipped so many swim workouts, and been pretty shameless about it. I've used just about any excuse in the book to avoid swimming - I don't want to get up that early, it's too cold out (even for an indoor pool apparently), I hate my pool, etc. I don't really have any good excuse. I just need to go swim more.
So I took it easy as planned (thinking back, I think I was going too easy). Tried to practice my spotting, which I still did poorly. I had clear lenses without a wide field of vision (goggle recommendations anyone?), and that in addition to the early morning glare made spotting very difficult. I think I did better than I've done in the past, but I definitely need more practice. Anyway, I was able to get into a good rhythm a few times, but it would get interrupted when I would spot and realize I had to adjust. Also, I don't know if it just happened on its own or caused by another swimmer, but one of my booties came halfway off, which probably contributed to some drag. And lastly, even though I had not been kicking too much at all, I ended up getting leg cramps during the second half...no idea where that came from. After that, I did almost no kicking. All in all, I had expected a slow 45 mins, but I ended with a dismal ~53 mins or so. No excuses, time to work on swimming.
The Bike
It's a little hard on the ego when you get into T1 to find that almost all of the bikes in your row are gone, but there are some advantages as well. First, there's no T1 traffic! I didn't have to push my way past anyone to get to my bike, so I got in and out pretty quick. Second (and more important), I have a lot of carrots in front of me to catch. As a result, I went a it harder than I should have for the first 10 miles or so on the bike. There are some short, steep-ish hills in the beginning before leaving the park, and most people are spinning up them, but I was attacking. It feels so good to fly by other rides at a 5+ mph difference. Right away my confidence is back up. I also made sure not to burn any matches; I backed off whenever I saw my HR getting close to my threshold.
Eventually I settled into my low tempo zone, which I think was right for this distance. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out to be the calm day that was forecast the day before. There were major head winds through the turn at mile 19, and the head/cross winds continued through most of the ride (at least until the hills started). I stayed tucked in the TT extentions for longer than I had expected to, but I did feel pretty comfortable in that position, and I continued passing riders throughout the entire ride. During Nasty Grade, I still felt good but started thinking about the run ahead and pulled it back a little bit. This is when I would have taken my first shot of caffeine, had I remembered to bring it.
Speaking of nutrition, I executed my plan well and it worked perfectly well. 800 cals of EFS gel in a water bottle, spread throughout the ride. Ended up taking an additional water bottle at a feed zone, and took about half a bottle of gatorade at another (it was a bit warmer than expected). Stomach felt great throughout (and I really love the taste of the vanilla EFS gel).
Came into T2 after a 2:57 bike. Slower than expected, but I think I can attribute that to the wind, and I will consider it a very successful ride.
The Run:
T2 was pretty quick, but run started off pretty slowly as expected. I'm feeling OK, but not great. Really wishing I had my Clif shots. Took a pee break after about a mile. Next, it was time to face my second weakness: hill running. I've done almost no hill training, so I knew this was going to be tough. I was being passed here and there, but I think I tried to get into a pace that I thought was manageable. I took it really easy on the run descents, because I wasn't sure how my knees would hold up and wanted to play it safe. Walked up the really steep sections of hill, and took very short walk breaks at the aid stations as I took mostly water.
The nutrition fell apart on the run. I started to get desperate for caffeine so I took a PowerGel at one of the aid stations...YUCK! I spat it out. After that, my stomach didn't want anything. I took some of my EFS gel, but not much. I did take plenty of water, and some gatorade as needed. I will need to practice eating more during long runs.
At mile 8 there was aid station with coke, and I was very excited. This was not an official aid station item (maybe Team in Training?). I told the hand-off person that she was my favorite person in the world right now. At that part of the race, coke is magical. I immediately felt great and picked up the pace for a bit. I kept hoping that there would be another one, but it wasn't to be.
Mile 11 is the turnaround point where you have to climb a mile-long hill than you just descended. I was pretty cranky at this point, wondering how it's possible for anyone to actually finish an Ironman. The fact that I was still passing other that were also fading still gave me hope, though. The aid station volunteers and spectators definitely helped at this point too. I shuffled up to the final peak and took it easy down Lynch hill to the finish.
I don't know what my run time was, but I'm guessing it was somewhere around 2:10...which is a little better than a 10 min pace. I think I would have fared much better without the hills. Every time the trail flattened out, I got into a really good rhythm and my pace would go up. Unfortunately those flat portions were few and far between. Gonna have to work in a few hill runs into my training!
Overall (unofficially), I finished at 6:09:56, which would have put me in I think 72 of 172 in my AG. Solid middle of the pack.
Aftermath:
Sunburned and a bit sore, and feel like I'm just barely on the edge of not getting sick. Other than that, I am feeling great! Amy is going to develop a Vineman plan of attack for me, and I am very much looking forward to getting back to work! Let's do this!
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