Too funny. I guess if there's one thing that's pretty easy to do, it's getting triathletes to talk about their races! Please see below for the down and dirty recap. A couple things first though. Bill, when you say that we shouldn't be mentioned in the same post, it's me that doesn't deserve to be in the same post as you! Let's not forget that I'm still a pre-op guy. I can't fathom going through what you did and then getting back out on that race course for a full day of torture. We'll see who the poser is once I figure out my surgery schedule!! LLJ, I'm still traveling, so no pics yet.
OK, so the report. Penticton, BC is a beautiful area and we were fortunate to have pretty good weather. It was cool in the morning, which made for a nice swim start. The swim itself was a 1 loop triangle (~1 mile straight, turn right for .25 mile, then one more right turn for 1.15 miles back to the beach). This was what I was most worried about as I generally hate swimming and because I've had some weird heart things going on in recent training sessions (irregular beats, loss of breath, pounding beats, etc). Those training swims were what caused me to reach out to LLJ...she was huge in talking me off the ledge! Anyway, I felt great before the race. I was with 3 other buddies and we were all having fun standing around and pee'ing in our wetsuits (yes, we may be in our 30's, but we still act like we're 6). The swim went well...a little slow, but as long as I don't drown, I'm happy. There were over 2350 swimmers who went off with the cannon, so having a straight first mile was great in enabling everything to thin out a bit before we converged at the first turn. There are always some rough moments in the water with that many people, but this race was one of the tamest that I've done.
Anyway, after fighting off some leg cramps during the last 20 minutes of the swim (don't know why, but I always get those!), I came out of the water, kissed the ground, had two lovely ladies strip off my wetsuit, grabbed my transition bag, and ran into the tent full of naked men. As you might imagine, I threw on my biking gear and got out of there as quickly as possible! The bike course was a blast and a lot faster than I expected. The first 40 miles were very flat and fast, with the exception of one fairly steep hill that was about 1 kilometer long. Unfortunately, my heartrate monitor decided to stop working about 5 miles into the bike, which was tough since I race based solely on heartrate. I tried not to waste too much emotional energy getting upset and changed the raceplan to go based on perceived exertion. After the first 40 miles, there is a 6-7 mile climb that elevates a total of about 1200 feet. I love climbing, so this was just fun for me. As much as I love climbing, I love descending even more, so I was pretty happy about the 45-50mph descent after the climb! For those of you who don't know, a lot of us pee on ourselves repeatedly during these races. It's much easier to do on the downhills and this bike course was quite conducive to timely bladder release. I'm sure it's quite a sight to see a skinny dude in spandex screaming down a mountain at 50 miles an hour with a steady stream of urine flying of his leg (I hope I'm not being too vulgar in front of all you people I've never met!). Anyway, after the descent there's another 40 miles or so of rollers. I was still feeling great, so I kept hammering at a pretty good clip here. Next came one more bit of climbing...about 12 miles with 1100 feet of gain. This is the test to see if you went out too hard earlier in the bike. Fortunately, I was able to maintain a good spin up this last climb and then enjoyed the final 12 mile downhill back to the transition. I made use of this final descent to make sure I was properly fueled up before the run and that the bladder was empty (you didn't think this report would talk so much about that, huh??).
I had a pretty quick transition and felt great as I started the run. This is normally my strength and since I started the run 6:30 into the race, I was pretty confident that I would be able to break my ultimate goal of 10 hours (the first goal is always to finish, second goal is to PR, so this was my third goal). A couple miles into the run though, the heat of the day started catching up with me. It was about 93 degrees and my heart always tends to crank a bit in that type of heat. So, although I didn't have the heartrate monitor, I knew that what I was feeling wasn't a good thing and that I'd have to slow it down if I wanted to finish. I settled into a rhythm of running a mile and then briskly walking through each aid station while drinking a cup of gatorade and cup of water, stuffing sponges with cold water down my jersey, and dumping ice in my cap to keep my head cool. Every third mile, I would eat a Gu energy gel, some pretzels, and a salt tablet. I was definitely going slower than I wanted, but I felt like a was racing a smarter race. By mile 19, the day caught up with me a bit and I started feeling pretty dizzy. Coke to rescue! I drank a cup of coke at each of the next 5 miles and that left me feeling like a peach. So, in the end, I didn't break 10 hours, but I did PR and was overall pretty happy with my performance.
Unfortunately, I didn't quite qualify for the championships in Hawaii. I finished 14th in my age group and the last qualifier in my age group was 11th. It was pretty disappointing, but I'm trying not to dwell on it (that's tough when you're a competitve, anal-retentive, Type-A, obsessive-compulsive type like me). At my last cardiologist visit, I was told that this would probably be my last year of IM racing, so I was really hoping to go out with a bang. If there's any way to get back to this level post surgery, I will do my best to find it! You guys have all inspired the hell of out me and giving me a great gift in knowing that this surgery won't end my life as a triathlete!
With that, I'll end this short novel. Thanks again for your kind words and incredibly inspiring personal stories! I hope I that I'll be able to exhibit the same strength and character as you in the coming years!
Ciao,
d
