Swim: 38:21 (PR)
Bike: 3:10:49 (PR)
Run: 2:10:25 (PW)
Overall: 6:08:15 (PR)
Before leaving work on Friday I joked with a coworker that my race strategy would be to drink the gatorade and dump the water on my head. Turned out that was pretty much it.
Had a great time in the days before the race. I left work at noon and booked it up to Penticton - had a good drive (except for getting a big ding in the windshield) and got there in good time.
I got to my sister's after the boys were in bed so we had a quiet evening catching up be
fore I retired to the "luxury guest suite." It was hot during the day but not at night and the tent trailer cooled down faster than the house so it was an ideal place to be sleeping.
My original Saturday plan was to meet up with club mates in the afternoon for a ride and run but when I got up I decided I wanted to work out before it got hot. My not-so-positive-thinking comment to my sister was, "I'll wait until tomorrow to get heatstroke."
I rode along East Side Road (part of the run and bike course for IMC) then came back home and had a nice easy run with my sister, which made me even happier I did my pre-race workouts in Penticton. I love the fact that we have something like that we can do together, she did her first official 10km this year and had a great race and I'm hoping to find a race we can run together. Or maybe an Olympic tri relay??
Had a fun morning and afternoon with the nephews, went to the park and played in the back yard and spent a lot of time not thinking about triathlon at all. The boys were great, they're so much fun to be around and to watch and they were so good while I was there.
The afternoon I headed to Oliver for bike check-in, package pick-up, pre-race meeting and to touch base with clubmates and friends. Had a nice easy swim in the lake, more of a get-to-know-you session than a workout. The pre-race meeting was long and hot and a bit late in the day and I was pretty pooped coming out of it .
Booked it back to Penticton for a stupidly large dinner, I made too much and felt guilty wasting Claire's food so I ate until I though I would burst. I think this might be my new pre-race fueling strategy!
(All photos below taken by Torbin, more are in
Joanne's photo album)
Race morning started well. I got out of bed when the second of my three alarms went off (clock, watch and cell phone - no I'm not paranoid!) and had a slow and easy breakfast. Went over my race list one more time then packed my gear and headed out earlier than planned.
There was an interesting start to the day, a good omen if you wish. Transition had pre-assigned spaces with ten bikes per rack, and things were pretty tight for everyone. Or almost everyone, for the four people at my rack life was great! It was nice to be able to spread out while getting myself organized.
This personal space theme carried over into the swim as I seemed unable to find anyone to draft off. I picked a starting spot that would have me on the outside of the turns (didn't enjoy the crush last year when I took the inside line) but was so wide I initially couldn't find any toes going the right speed to draft off then later couldn't stick with anyone as either they'd zig or I'd zag so I gave up trying and just swam.
It was a two loop course and we had to get out of the water and run around a marker on the beach before starting the second lap. I was apprehensive about this
as the only other time I'd done this I attempted a dolphin dive and discovered that belly flops can hurt even if you're wearing a wetsuit. No dolphin dive/belly flop this time, just a run around the marker and back into the water. The short run jacked up my heart rate and it took about 50m to get it back down but after that it was a great swim. Forgot to get a split.
Getting out of the water at 38:21 was pretty exciting as I was pretty sure it was a PR (turns out I beat my swim time from my other half iron AND last year's 2km swim race). One thing I was sure of was that wetsuit strippers are some of my favorite people.
Had a slowish transition but somehow managed not to put on enough sunscreen. For some reason I decided I should spray my shoulders but not my arms, back or legs. I have a seriously odd burn on my back now.
Made the long trek out of transition (see picture below)
The bike had two facets for me - the first was the East side that was hilly and had one decent climb with a fun descent and the second was the West side which was mostly flat but with a wicked head wind. I loved the hills - I'm a decent climber and passed lots of people and I've recently discovered the joy of flying downhill at speed so this was my kind of course. Headwinds, however, are not my thing, in as much as something that feels soul sapping, spirit crushing and completely demoralizing can be described as not one's thing. I'm thinking I need to work on both my physical and mental headwind strategy for IMC.
Other bike issues didn't help much. My tribar set up wasn't right and on the second loop my shoulders and upper back were killing me when I was in aero. I put the bars on myself so no one to blame but my. My knees also go quite sore - I think this is from the bike fit and the new cleat position. I was quite worried on the ride but now I think it was actually from muscles unused to the work rather than ligaments stressing out (I think that's better, could be wrong). Finally, my left foot is so used to the old cleat position that it refuses to adjust and my foot pushes hard against the side of the shoe. At the end of the ride it felt like the bones on the outside of my foot were about to break.
The heat started to kick in on my second loop. I took water from the aid station and dumped it on my head, as the water was actually cold, this felt fantastic. About 20 mintues later I finished off the water in the bottles on my frame and reached back for the bottle behind my seat. Turns out that the water bottle in the road I'd seen on the part of the course I'd already done twice (and laughed at) was mine. I was now stuck with no water and was ready to get worried. Luckily around the next corner was an aid station and I managed to juggle getting water (to dump on my head) and gatorade.
Teresa, who is usually the same speed as me passed at this point and disappeared into the headwind, which wasn't terribly uplifting. I was obviously in a bad place mentally if I couldn't be happy a friend was having a good race. What with the headwinds, pain and preceived slowness I finished the bike feeling pretty low. Wish I'd known at that point that I'd beaten my bike time from Victoria by 18 minutes.
Took off on the run feeling pretty cranky. Torbin was cheering me on (and apparently taking photos) as I exited transition and I can't remember what I said but it was angry and I might need to apologize.
Before I get into the run, let me stop and say that the community support for this race and the volunteers (both in terms of sheer numbers and enthusiasm) were astounding. This was evident prior to the run but was really hammered home in those 21.1 km.
After leaving transition I took a right turn, hit the first aid station and was mobbed by elementary school kids yelling "Water!" "Gatorade!" "Gel!" each desparately trying to get me to take the item from them. It reminded me of friends' stories about backpacking in 3rd world countries and being mobbed by local kids begging for money or trying to sell stuff. It was a nutty scene and difficult to get through the sea of kids (especially as I didn't take anything from them) but it was impossible not to smile.
The run turned out to be either on asphalt or dry, dusty trails and there was very little shade. There was a whole lot of up at the begining and apparently some downhill bits that I only noticed on the way back as I ascended them. I started the run at about 11:30 and the heat of the day had set in, even worse the asphalt had heated up so it was reflecting up at us as well as coming from above.
The organizers set up sprinklers at the aid stations, brought in ice and sponges but still the majority of the people on the run looked like they were struggling. A number of locals living along the course came out with their sprinklers and spent at least two hours watering the runners (they were there the whole time I was running). These people seemed to be enjoying it, probably having several hundred athletes tell you how fantastic you are is good for the ego, but they must have been suffereing standing out in the sun for that long.
The aid station routine was: get ice (if they had it) and stuff it in my hat and sports bra, dump water on my head or go under a hose, and drink gatorade. At this point all I wanted was water, the thought of sugar turned my stomach, but I figured I needed the sugar and the electrolites and forced down the gatorade. A gel or two probably would have been a good idea but I didn't want to risk GI distress.
After I finished the first loop I had a bit of a mental tailspin. I walked the aid station then didn't want to run again. I really wanted to quit. At this point I checked my watch for the first time on the run and realized that if I did the second loop in an hour I'd have a PR. Wow this is a mental sport - that realization kicked me into gear, got my feet moving and my spirits in a happy place.
I haven't done the math yet but as I was at 5:03 cumulative time at the halfway mark and my overall time was 6:08 and my run time was 2:10 I think I either had an even split or possibly a negative split. I'll play with the numbers when my brain feels less fried!
One of the upsides of the run course was that all the out and backs meant I got to see pretty much everyone from the club out on the run. I didn't see Joanne, which I regretted at the time and even more so now that I know she set a half marathon PR on the run. I would have liked to have been witness to that! Almost everytime I passed some words of encouragement would be exchanged and I'd get a little mental boost.
Several times I passed Brian, who had been suffering from naggin injuries all season and was walking. I tried to say positive things each time I saw him, hoping I wasn't being annoying. On the second loop I passed Teresa, who'd passed me on the bike. There was no thrill in catching her, however, as she was walking and clearly having a tough day. I tried to chat with her and cheer her up but told me to go on. Shortly after that I passed Chung, who is usually a fierce competitor and should have been at least forty minutes ahead of me. I asked if he was okay and he indicated yes so I told him to drink and get ice at the next aid station. I saw Nicola from my masters swim who was having a rough day and told her to drink gatorade and get gels from the aid station (she thanked my profusely for this later as she'd forgotten she had gels on her). This was becoming a theme, over the last few km it seemed like almost everyone was in bad shape, it was pretty shocking and a bit wierd to be keeping my form and feeling reasonably strong amidst all that. I was constantly passing people and tried to say something positive to everyone I could.
I saw my sister near the finish, told her I was going straight to the lake when I was done (hopefully I also said something else nice, like "Thanks for being here.") and kept going. She told me it had taken her ten minutes to walk to where were from the start, which was awesome information and exactly what I needed, so much better than "You're almost there!. " She also said she'd seen Joanne and she'd had a great finish, which made me really happy. Claire's excitement at seeing me was fantastic, it's really special to have someone on course cheering specifically for you.
I finished in 6:08:15, beating my previous half iron by over 4 minutes. A very cool accomplishment on a very hot day! I didn't take any time to savour the victory however, I grabbed my medal and waded into the lake. That felt almost as good as the PR!
Sadly the heat knocked the stuffing out of a fair number of people. A couple club mates had to hit the med tent and the rest of us hit the lake or found a cool place to hide, so we didn't have a large cheering section near the finish. We did, however, have our club mates' boyfriends, husbands, co-mortgagees, etc. plus coach Andrew and Jessica cheering us on so that was awesome.
For me it was a great day and an excellent learning experience for IMC.
Geeky Stuff:NutritionI already mentioned my pre-race gorge. I really think this helped as I didn't eat a lot during the race. I had about 3/4 of two Cliff Bars, one gel and two and a half bottles of gatorade on the bike.
On the run I had Gatorade at every aid station and tried cola once but nothing else. The cola was fizzy so not the best thing for me, although it helped me realize why some many runners were belching.
I also spent the two days prior drinking lots of Gatorade to top up the electrolytes in my system.
The above really doesn't sound to me like it was enough but I had a good race so something worked. One thing to keep in mind for IMC was that in the heat I really didn't want anything sweet, I'll try pretzels and other foods at the Peach and the training camp and see how they work out. Also, having two flavours of Cliff Bar on hand was great as I could switch up.
