Long Race Report

Hey all,

I had an awesome race in Stony this weekend. The night before and the morning were a little nerve wracking. Lisa will tell you I was quite worried about the weather. When I was packing for the race I managed to forget any type of cold weather racing clothing. We had scattered showers, and the tv told me that we'd get more of it the morning of the event. Which is basically how it played out, I woke up after a rough night of sleep to the sound of rain on the hotel parking lot. Grrrrrrrrrrreat, I even comtemplated going to get my bike from transition and just leaving. With no bento box(forgotten at home with the warm clothing) there was no way of toting the spare tube, c02,adapter. Sooooo I had one more thing to worry about. I put one of each in my helmet, to put in my singlet after the swim. If I use more then one, well I'd be done early I guess... Another small issue I had was that I had no way of bringing nutrition along, just one cage with the cervelos that have the wheel cut out. It's not a big deal in training as I wear a jersey with pockets and make pit stops when I need infinit. Today however, I'll have to use what's on the course.

Swim;

It was nice meeting some fellow athletes of Greg's, Cam and other friends. It helps to take the edge off. Kelsey said I looked way to calm to be racing, if only she knew the butterflies in my stomach. I joke around to cover it up, or maybe she was being sarcastic and it was showing. /shrug Jenna, Kelly, and I hung out and started in the same place. We joked around some more not really paying attention to where we were. Suddenly we notice we're right at the front and the gun goes off before we can make the adjustment. The actual start wasn't too bad, I was expecting worst cause the start area was kinda narrow for 600+. So we started out and I kicked up the Susi gerbil type thing in my head. STAY CALM, Breathe in breathe out, relax, easyyyyyyyyyyyy pace. I kept repeating that all to myself, reminding myself of how arbour lake went and the horrible time I had at the end of the swim. Well that really seemed to help, plus the pulling up of the wetsuit(I pull it up higher now so I think it's helping my shoulders) and probably the warmer water. It was toasty warm, perfect actually cause I didn't over heat either. No major contact till the first bouy, WOW that was nearly as bad as Ironman, it was head up, push fight, bump(thankfully none of the talisman training pool grinding till later). Although from reading Jenna's report already I doubt I got it as bad as her. I'm pretty good at defending my space. The worst ones are the ones that zig zag. Cause they're swimming the same speed as you in reality, you can see them in the water going back and forth like they're carving down a ski hill and swimming so much more distance. And just like on a ski hill you have to time it right to make the pass, if you don't you start to move ahead, he notices he needs to go more to the left and BAM swims right into your side. I also noticed I can kick to the side too if I need to. One person kept bumping(or humping I'm not sure which) into the side of me, I don't know where they were going cause I was swimming straight as an arrow. so I swam at the bouy and I kept feeling bump... bump.... bump. WTF?!?! so I started kicking more to that side(no major injury intent or anything just lettin em know it's MY space, kinda like MY PRECIOUS!!!). Eventually when I got the knees into the kick the bumping stopped. Lap one down with out too much problems, bit of sighting problems coming in, so I'd pause a bit at times to sight then continue to swim. Lap2 was much the same, except for less people which was nice, I was able to relax more although caught myself pushing the pace a bit on the back side. So coming out of the water I was really pumped, I didn't fall apart and I had a good feeling about the swim time. :)

T1;

It was slow since I had to take a bit of time to wipe the sand off my feet, the transition was really crowded too. I had a bit of a scare too, when I got to transition my heart leapt into my throat and I couldn't breathe. MY ASTHMA!! no inhaler(I hardly use em and they don't help me much) so I stood there for a few seconds(in transition terms a second = eternity) and got my breath back quite quickly. I'm surprised cause the first thought that popped into my head was oh no my race is done.

Bike;

My mount was terrible, slick roads, people all around, sharp uphill, etc, but who cares I got 90k to correct it. Time to make up some time!!! There's a sharp climb out of transition, then out onto the main highway then a long down hill. It was really nice sailing down that, time to get the legs going. I didn't pass too many at the start, but grandually my legs started to get warmed up and I started to feel good. Just after Stony(the actual town area) the rain poured down over us. I was riding along nicely but was sure that if that kept up I would freeze. The rain was short though and gradually went down to a drizzle and eventually stopped. Phew and the course has very few turns so as long as I'm careful and don't hit the shoulder I'm good. So coming up to the first aid station I noticed that they only had small bottles of gateraide and water with no tops on. Perfect for a aero drink up front, bad for anyone using bottle cages. Oh well the ride was going well my legs were feeling strong, I wasn't going to let it bother me. As soon as the Infinit was gone I grabbed the first bottle and replaced it. the aid stations were placed every 10k, who woulda thought I'd actually need fluid that often, ha ha. Yep I had to replace the bottle almost every station. Oh I didn't drink all of it, some splashed onto my bike, some onto the road or into my shoes. The course is really fast and there wasn't too much wind, only a little in various places on the way back. Also the second half of the out section had new pavement on it, very smoothhhhh and fast. :) By 45k my gluts started acting up, they were both hurting a lot. I'm not sure why that happened, I've never had any glut problems on training rides. Go figure I've also never ridden a hard 90k like that. So I had to back off the pace a bit. The valley wasn't too bad, I enjoyed the break to sit up and look around enjoy the country scenery. I passed one girl on the hill and she noticeably wasn't enjoying the climb. Mean while I'm thinkin to myself, "Girl this isn't even a hill, I haven't even shifted to the granny gear on the front" At that point I kinda had to remind myself that I was still in a race, keep pushing, YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO ENJOY THIS THAT MUCH!! On the way back I saw them loading up some poor guy, it wasn't a corner or anything, I suspect he lost concentration, or reaching for a bottle and hit the shoulder. :( I don't like seeing that, I felt bad for him ending his day like that. 20-10k I had fun with a fellow rider, he'd pass me on the flats, then we'd hit a hill and I'd try to drop him on the climb. I joked to him that there weren't enough hills. ha ha yeah right like Stony has any hills worth mentioning. Oh well it helped pass the time, I can't remember what happened I think eventually he dropped off before the last corner. I passed a few more riders, then came the 5 k marker and back into town for T2. I remember thinking wow, that ride was short! I wanna keep going, the last half IM that I did I blew up big time and ended up crawling in from the bike.

T2;

A little bit confusing, the part where I fail at was I couldn't remember my damn'd number. They ask it of you as you run in so they can direct you to your transition bag that they have so neatly placed under the racks. There are two dif. transitions so at the start of the race you put your T2 stuff in a bag and onto a truck so they can set up your transition for you in another location(t2, make sense???) Takes a bit more time, ripping the bag open, taking your shoes, socks, etc. out and putting it on. I also still had some sand on my wet feet so I tryed to wipe that off and prayed that as I put my socks on that it wouldn't be too bad in the shoes. :P As I was running out I threw away my spare tube and c02. If anyone found them please return them back to me. j/k

Run;

I had no idea what my splits were, I like racing on perceived effort. The temp was good, but there was soo much humidity. Not sure if anyone felt it, but when we ran through the heavily tree'd area it felt like the air was soo heavy. Then the sun did come out for a bit and it was hot. Here's where I had a problem. I had to take a piss really really badly. Do I stop, loose time and the running partners that were helping push the pace(we had a pretty good thing happening), or keep going and hope that it goes away? The only thing is if I keep going, I can't be taking in too much more liquid, but I still need to hydrate right? All I'd had till that point was gateraide and one bottle of infinit after the swim so I knew I needed somthing. Oh well I pondered this and ran, I'd take a water or gateraide and take sips then dump the rest on myself or the course. I even thought about pissing myself while running. I know this sounds gross but I had a really good pace and running stride for stride with this guy, if I loose him I'm DONE! So we kept going while I was thinking about this, eventually I forgot about it at times. hmmm is it going away? What happens here, does your body obsorb it?? Does it think to itself, "you know, we're not getting enough liquid/electrolytes here do you suppose we could sift through that stuff again?" Oh well as that feeling went away I took more fluid in, I also felt stronger as I took my first sip of coke and dropped buddy I had been running with. It was soo much fun seeing people and catching them. I reverted to Susi's Mantra system, thinking I AM A RUNNER, THIS IS MY ELEMENT, THIS IS WHAT YOU DO BEST, PUSH PUSH PUSH. This is what I kept thinking, then on the long return I got to look for friends in the race. I use this to motivate me, I don't think I said much to each one of them, but I tryed to. At times it was a mumble, or forgetting their name, or they'd say mine and I'd just turn and kinda raise my hand. It still helped immensely and I really do hope I helped motivate them. It's kinda selfish but for me cheering others on somhow motivates/insipires me to keep going. I'm sure you know what I mean. So onward to the finish 7k to go, 6k to go, 5k to go, check the watch, hmmmm did we start on time? I got some 30-40 minutes to run 5k(to go under 5 hours), I can do that in my sleep!!! hmmm did we start on time? oh I thought that already, do yourself a favor, don't think, there's a runner, catch him!! 4k, oh damn I'm gonna make it under 5 hours!! Calm down you're not done yet, you're starting to hyperventilate. Good job, don't EFF this up, you nearly started puking. We don't want that. 3k, caught a runner, ohhh he passed me back, he didn't like that. On the next little up hill I pass him back, he waits longer and passes me and picks it up. 2k to go. I pass a spectator, he yells "Put your head down and you can go under 4:45!!" I'm like WHAT?? He's gotta be on crack, there's no way we're comin in that fast. Fans are somtimes way off with their course measurements, timings, etc. Oh well with 2k to go I'm thinkin I can do this, buddy was up the road and was putting time into me. I didn't care too much about that, I just didn't want to crack. Then we get back into town and I see the 1k marker. Can this really be happening?? I felt strong the whole run, am I still a runner?? Then down the last street to what I thought must be the last corner. I was hoping please be the finish, please be the finish, did I mention my legs were hurting? and lots!!! I still couldn't hear Steve King till I rounded the corner and then I saw it, the finish, the fans, Lisa, the clock said 4:4somthing.

Results;

55 32/142 M3039 595 Darryl Penner Calgary AB 134 36:00 1:48 48 83 2:34:44 34.9 34 1:33:16 4:26 4:43:59

http://www.resultscanada.com/results2008/2008_Great_White_North_Triathlon/2008_Great_White_North_Triathlon_Overall.txt

Reflection;

I was really worried about the weather, but that turned out really good. We had one down pour and wet roads for a bunch of it, but I didn't mind. The cloud cover for the run made the soaked bike ride bearable. I also worried about the swim, my goal was just to feel good the whole time, get my confidence back. I did that. I was hoping to break 5 hours and have a chance at a Personal best, but taking 12 minutes off my time!!! I'm speachless, it was unbelievable. I've heard some race reports already and I hope to hear some more and maybe some pics? Some people finished their first half, others smashed prs, and still others had a good solid training day. Which ever it is, I'm proud of you all. Cheers,

Darryl