Race Report
Preface:
I had a lot of support from family and friends for this race. I know I couldn't have done it with out that, I really drew strength from that when things got difficult. Through my Ironmans I've also gotten wiser...I think. Things didn't always go well on race day, I had a plan, but was always aware of the times when a change was needed and I really attempted to nail these early before a little problem became a big problem. As I've said before Ironman never quite goes according to plan and you have to recognize this and sorta "go with the flow" think it through.
Prerace:
The day started at about 3:30, maybe even a bit before as I don't think I needed my alarm. Crazy early eh? Our B&B people that we were staying with were amazinggg, if you ever need a recommendation for a B&B in Penticton we got the place for you. I was a little worried I'd get fat in the days before the race we ate soo well. Anyways they got up with us and served us breakfast. There was one other couple in the house also doing the race. They were from Omaha Nebraska. I ate oatmeal, coffee, toast with peanut butter. I was still finishing up as the other guy left already. The lady at the house really liked us too, she sat with me as I finished up. I think she could see the fear in my eyes. lol she kept reasurring me that I would be ok and I will do great. It felt like I was going off to war. Would I be triumphant today? I've been preparing all year for this one day, a million things could go wrong. I can't think about them, I just have to go out and do my thing. One more long training day that's what I tried telling myself. I'll just do the best I can do.
Lisa got up as well with me, she'd drive me to the race and drop me off near the start. We got there maybe quarter to 5(the transition opens at 5am) and I walked to the start alone in the dark. Alone in my thoughts... I carried the special needs bags with me, my pump and a few odd things that I had forgotten to put into my transition bags or onto my bike from the day before. I got to main street and walked in, it's like a assembly line, first the race number markers. It was chilly probably 10 degrees if that so I had on a bunch of warmup clothes, had to strip it off for the volunteer to mark me up with 515, and also my age on the back of my leg. Then the boxes where my special needs bags would be place, these get shipped off to the 120km mark of the bike, and also to the turn around of the marathon(Okanagan falls). Then I walked on into transition where the bike racks were located. I dropped off my nutrition onto my bike, pumped up my tires, made a few other minor adjustments and moved onto the porta johns. Gotta get in line for that early as the lines get really long after awhile.
I had plenty of time, too much time. So I wondered around looking for friends, and more importantly just to keep moving. It was still dark and I looked out on the lake as they put out the bouys and I could tell the water was still calm.... phew. I went to the bathroom once more and then moved to the change tent. I had planned to meet Cam there. I found him in the usual spot(this is Ironman Canada #3 for me, #10 for him) and we put our wetsuits on, applied body glide, sunblock and zipped each other up. Then got all our shedded clothes into the warmup bag and dropped that off on our way to the corral. Each person has to walk over the timing mat before the swim, kind of a "checkin" even though the race hasn't started yet. Once onto the beach I lost contact with Cam, but that didn't matter. We'd already said our good byes, it's time to focus. I had told Cam my secret starting spot and later on I found out he took my advice and started on the far right side. Most people avoid it because of the large rocks on the bottom. Sure it's risky as you could cut your foot on them, but I'll take that risk and avoid getting beaten up so much. Plus on the inside you can always swim on the inside of the bouy line, lots of people don't know this either.
So I got some water in my suit, got used to it, dipped my head in the water and swam a few strokes. It helped to calm the nerves and slow down the breathing. Then just before the start I spit into my goggles and also christened my wetsuit for the first time and got ready. I tried to look around and make some final adjustments to my starting spot before the horn...
Swim:
Annnnnnnnnnd we're off, 3000 people, about 1000 first timers. I walked a few steps over the rocks and then decided to start swimming. Even though it was only thigh deep water I swam while others walked/jogged around me and eventually I said good bye to the lake bottom as we hit deep water. Oh please oh please let me have clear water. And for some reason I did!! Then all of a sudden I see it almost in slow motion, I watch under water as someone bends their knee, no not just flutter kick but a full on boot to the face. WAMMM, I hardly felt it though, other than the shock, he caught me square in the goggles so the suction around my eyes took all of the force and I guess displaces it?? Anyways that's about the worst I got, which is rare. I bumped into people a little at times, but no swimming on top, no punches. I got a few slaps on top of the head, but I expected much worse. At times I got clear water and even looked around me for feet to follow(draft)
The course at Ironman Canada is kinda rectangularish and we swam out on the left side(clockwise) my line was just on the inside of the bouy line, they put bouys maybe every 200m or so. We passed one after another, sometimes I swam on someone's feet, other times on my own. Occasionally someone would tickle my feet, or swim into my side, but only brieftly. I heard later that the other guy from our B&B had a much worse swim. Funny how dif. peoples experiences can be so different in the same race. Eventually I spied the white colored bouy, ahhh that must be the first corner at about 1600 meters? I looked around, didn't look too crowded. Evenyone tends to move in on the corners and they can be super congested. I swam, doggy paddled, and kicked around the corner. I know from experience it's too risky to put your face in the water here. We're all shoulder to shoulder think rugby scrum!
So I made it, turned the corner. The guy in front of me had the wrong angle at first. He/she corrected himself though and we continued on, there must have been about 2-3 bouys across the short side and even swam beside a house boat. This kinda confused me and a few others as in years past houseboats have acted as the turn bouys themselves. So a kayak sat there and waved people on, we had to keep swimming "don't turn here!!" But then up ahead I could see another corner bouy and I prepared myself for that. Again this wasn't too bad, turned the corner and headed home. Got a kick(pardon the pun) out of someone's comment, he says, "comon people swim". I answer with, "They can't, does he seriously think people have stopped on the corner for no reason??? It's a bottle neck, they will swim when they can, coolit!!
On towards home!! The far side that we'd just finished angled further away so this side was the longest maybe 1700 - 1800m to go home, but at least there were no more corners and all I had to do was swim back towards shore. Now I started to use the hotels to judge distance. And it's a nice relief when you can hear the announcers voice(Steve King) again. Once again I could see the bottom and a few weeds. All my swim anxiety was gone!! It was time to prepare mentally for the bike. There were some rocks coming in and once again it was congested with people, but I didn't care at that point. I swam untill the rocks disappeared and there was sand again, then I stood, unzipped my wetsuit and walked/ran over the timing mat. At some point I saw the clock 1:06 hmmm not too bad, about what I'd hoped to swim.
Transition:
I aimed at a couple wet suit strippers and let them "try" to strip me. The one guy had no clue what he was doing and they had trouble. They're supposed to grab the arms and legs and pull from there, he tried to peel it off me, idiot!! lol oh well finally they got it off and I ran into the change tent. I saw two friends Greg and Mark. Wait, did I forget something??? My transition bag, I'm the idiot now doh!! So I ran back out but Greg saved my butt, he had seen that I didn't pick up my bag so he found it for me and ran after me, thank you!! Greg!! So I got that, put on my cycling shoes, helmet, sunglasses, garmin and ran out towards my bike. I turned my garmin on as I ran to my bike(it's a really big transition) but it had trouble picking up the sattelites so I turned it off and on again. Grabbed my bike and continued on to the mount line just outside of T1.
Bike:
I felt pretty good heading out, I sat up and spun mostly. The stomach is usually a bit upset first thing so I had to calm that down. I think this was the first time I'd been able to see hr right after the swim, it really surprised me how high it was. So I made sure to get that down first before I started really riding. I took a sip of my nutrition after maybe 5km just heading out of Penticton and kept an eye on my wattage just as I had planned.
The first bit here is along skaha lake and I still had to relax and let all the crazies go. There's lots of people who will go out wayy too hard at the start of the bike and it's hard not to get swept up in the excitement. You literally have to tell yourself to keep off the gas. I had watts and heart rate so that kept me in check. Just before the turn off of skaha lake I was drinking and my hand slipped and I dropped my nutrition bottle. I never bothered to go back for it, and in fact it surprised me how little it bothered me. This is exactly what I'm talking about "changing your game plan" I now had wayyy too little calories on my bike and would have to use more of the race's powerbar perform. Oh well I picked up a bottle at the next aid station and started drinking that. I had one more bottle of my own nutrition but that was really saturated and I had only planned on having that later in the race near Richter Pass. So I started sipping on that as well, making sure to sip and mix it with water/perform that I got from aid stations. Problem solved
We got over Macclean creek road, up the climb, I took it as easy as I could and kept riding on to Oliver. The wind was def. tail wind here. I averaged 38 kmph all the way to Osoyoos. There were some packs forming, I tried to avoid them, but at times you still get some draft benefit no matter how much you try not to. Drafting is illegal in Ironman races and you can get penalized for it, although I only saw one person in a sin bin. Once up to osoyoos we made the turn just after the Husky and headed up Richter pass. Ohhhh here comes some head wind(it's over a 90 degree turn). Now we're going to pay for that nice average speed. My avg wattage was a little low too so I knew this would go up now. Overall I didn't really need my wattage for pacing, just starting the climbs to make sure I don't overcook the start.
Richter pass is just over 10km long with breaks though, and it's not too steep. In my first two races here I passed loads of people here, but today I didn't. I know now that I overdid it then. So I stayed patient, if I have extra energy later I'll use it then. Still only 70km into the race, not even half. Once at the top I went back down on the aerobars and cruised down the other side. The wind played around with me using the 88mm front wheel, I stayed down, but it def tossed me back and forth. I'm quite confident with my riding skills so I stayed relaxed for the most part. It's when you tighten up your grip that you would start to speed wobble. Even so I don't think my max speed was very fast. Both pass downhills had a head wind so that slowed us quite a bit. Now looking back my max speed was 72.7kmph not sure where that was, def would go faster with a tail wind on some of those descents.
There are about 7 rollers after Richter and I took them also pretty easy, the tough part comes after the 90km point, somewhere between 90 and 120km I started to feel crappy. It's just after the halfway point, you've been riding awhile, warming up, although it wasn't really hot and still got a long ways to go. I was eating gels about one per hour, kinda supplimenting my calorie in take. At times I didn't feel like eating any more but I forced them down. After the rollers and a long flat section we got to the out and back. you do a right 90 degree turn, ride maybe a km then another right so you're essentually heading back the way you came. It sucks cause this section of road is really rough. There are huge cracks and since your neck is already sore from having ridden 3+ hours the jolt fromt these cracks really hurt. I had the kms on my Powertap so I counted them down, I knew the special needs was at 120km. There is a out and back and timing matt where they get your splits. One volunteer will see the numbers coming and shout them out so that all the volunteers can find your special needs bag and have it ready for you when you make the 180 degree turn and head back there. Here I got two more bottles of my infinit nutrition and now I can once again head back the "right" direction.
For awhile I kinda tacked onto this girl that was riding near me(legally). We kept leap frogging each other, first she'd be strong and ride past me. I'd let her get the proper distance between, ride for a bit then I'd go by her. I think she finally gapped me for good once we hit yellow lake, she was climbing a bit faster than I. yellow lake was hard, especially the last pitch as it was also into a bit of a head wind. I had eaten 6 gels so far on the ride and finally had to pick one up from the course as I was all out. I was also starting to get real bad hot spots on my feet and at times I had trouble pushing down on the pedals coming down yellow lake. Yellow lake is a good 30-35km mostly downhill into Penticton. It's fun to do when you're feeling good, today I was hurting already and just looking forward to being done with the bike. I checked my avg speed and I did manage to get that up a couple ticks before we hit main street where we got more head wind.
Transition:
I got out of my shoes as I rolled in swung my foot over so they were both on one pedal as I glided in. The volunteer took my bike(they rack them for you) and I ran through and grabbed my T2 bag and into the change tent again(remembered the bag this time yayy). It was warm out, but not too warm. I changed pretty quickly, also remembered to reset my garmin(didn't have time to change it to run though so that sucked for having no avg pace). I ran past the sun block applicators and got one of them to run with me and just dab some on each shoulder. That way I could run and rub it all around on my shoulders.
Run:
I had a bottle of highly concentrated infinit and I carried it with me, took a gel and cruised onto a really quick(too fast) 7:03 first mile. Yikes!! cool it Darryl, my heart rate was still low, but I knew I wouldn't be able to keep that up so I slowed it down some. So the next miles stayed at 7:15ish and stuck there till I was out of town and along skaha lake. Here I got the priveledge of passing two of my idols Lisa Bentley, and Lori Bowden, but I only recognized Lisa. They are both now retired and were doing a relay with Graham Fraser(CEO of Ironman Canada). These two have probably won 20-25 Ironmans in their racing carreers and Lori a 2x world champ. Not every day you get to pass two athletes like that!!
I tossed my concentrated mix at about 15km, didn't think I needed it yet and I knew I had another waiting for me at the special needs. I made it through the hills by OK falls. Got to the special needs and downed a bunch of red bull I had waiting for me. I was really starting to get tired and just did not feel like carrying that other bottle. Plus I had already started drinking Pepsi at about mile 12 and the thought of that strong salty mix with pepsi?? That would just not work with my stomach, so I chose pepsi. So that's what I went on for the remainder of the race. Oh I forgot to mention the balls of my feet were killing me for the run. It happens from hot spots on the ride but usually it goes away on the run. not today, and even now two days later they throb. No blisters just throbbing. So after a short stop at special needs for red bull and choosing not to take the bottle I ran on.
This part is tough, it's after 21km and up hill, short flat part, then another hill and it got really steep. I shortened my stride, my stomach was also bothering me too. I think it was from taking two cups of pepsi at some aid stations. But I needed it!! lol So that's the way it went for the next 10km, balls of my feet, stomach, and of course fatigue. I got out of the OK falls hills and back onto the flats along the lake. But here we had a nice head wind, it felt nice an cool, but it also made it more difficult running. Then about 32km in I had to walk for the first time. Just brieftly at a aid station to drink and I met Cam here too. Didn't even see him till he came across the road. He offered all the encouragement, I just couldn't get any words out. lol I think I just grabbed one of his hands. Ok 10k to go, I got some calf cramps but they went away after I slowed my pace. I just knew I wouldn't make it unless I slowed some more. So when it got really tough I would just slow down some more, well I did walk aid stations from here on in. I also walked one hill close to town. I walked a couple extra unplanned times, but only a few steps. I think my pace was over 8 min miles at this point. But I knew I had time in the bank I just had to keep shuffling between aid stations. In the last 2 miles my calfs were both cramping and even my groin. Just 2 miles to go and I can stop!! I tried telling myself. I did manage to look at the watch/time and I told myself I would have a good time and my first sub 3:30 if I just kept jogging. That's all it was at this point, just a jog. There was a long stretch in town where it was a false flat up hill and I focussed on the top, told myself that I could walk there if I could just make it. Lots of self talk here, just to keep moving!! I saw Lisa and Mark at the corner as you get to the lake, but we have to turn away from the finish!! There's a mile out and back that you gotta do first. I got passed by one or two here, I think it was the only time I got passed on the run. I saw one had the same age grp as me, but I just had nothing to respond.
I came across in 10:06, 14 minute PB and a big PB on the run and a pretty good marathon time of 3:26 so I was really happy about that. I'm overall a little disapointed in my bike. I need to ride faster if I want to go to Kona, if I even do another WTC race. For the time being though I will enjoy this one. I've improved in each Ironman I've done 5/5 PBs and am super close to going sub 10 and with some luck maybe I could even do Hawaii some year.
I was in pretty rough shape finishing, after about 5 minutes of standing with my head on my arm draped over a baracade I got really sick and started throwing up. They took me to the med tent and I sat there while 3 people watched me. I tried to drink and eventually puked some more. I felt like death, it took me nearly an hour before they let me go and I could think about walking to the car. I left my bike there for the time being(picked it up later) and Lisa walked me to the car. I couldn't eat properly till later and even that evening I still had trouble eating a proper meal. Cheers,
DP
PS: Here is the strava/garmin data
http://app.strava.com/rides/19865148
http://app.strava.com/runs/19865142
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