There’s something about your first race. Technically the Grand Columbian Half Iron two years ago wasn’t my first triathlon I had done a sprint a few weeks before but I don’t count that because it was a comedy of errors. So I’ve returned to the race every year since. The race is in the tiny community of Grand Coulee, Washington home to largest concrete dam in North America, 3rd largest producer of electricity in the world, and home to a bitchin’ weekly laser light show which is projected on the face of the dam. Other things about the area, there is no McDonalds or Starbucks, the roads are mostly chip seal (rough roads), it’s hot and it can be seriously windy.
The last couple of weeks have been higher volume with lots of high intensity and like the Hawaii 70.3 race there was no taper to this race. In fact just a couple days earlier I had run a 1:28 half marathon in training. My legs were feeling pretty cooked coming into this race, despite this I was very hopeful of a good performance here and was really hoping for a top 10 performance. Glancing through the race program at the list of names two below me Tom Evans, what the….!!!!!! Ok, what the heck is Tom racing here, give the little guy a chance (Tom won IMCDA earlier this year). There’s no pro division at this race and to add insult to injury Tom races in my age group. As it turns out there were a whole bunch of great athletes here I just didn’t recognize all of the names which I think is a reflection of the challenge of the race, it’s a great prep race for IM AZ, FL and Hawaii for NW athletes as it’s the last local half of the season.
The race start for the Half is later (9:30) which is great. You don’t have to get up in the middle of the night to start fueling and getting down to the race start. This will probably change next year as this was the last year for the Iron distance race. I got up managed and got about 600 calories in then I shuttled my car to the finish and rode my cross bike back up to my motel about 3 miles away it was a great little spin to warm the muscles. I got my race gear packed into my sling bag and hopped on my bike and rode over to the race start. I got my bike racked yep, right next to Tom’s bike and got body marked an dropped off my transition bags (two different transitions). I got into my wetsuit and got into the water for a little warm up.
The swim course is great it’s a counter clockwise triangle course. The race director has developed a reputation for making the swim course to long. This year he fixed that by adding a guide line for the entire course. So basically he has a rope that goes from buoy to buoy about 6 feet below the surface which marks the course to ensure the correct distance and to attach the sighting buoys to. This is awesome it’s like swimming in the pool just swim right along the rope and you’re on the right course. Swim race plan with my coach swim hard, I had actually taken this a step further, race the swim, this has been a foreign concept to me as mostly it’s just been about getting around the course with no concern for what others are doing. My swimming has been great lately and I have a whole new confidence in my swim ability and fitness after some great swim workouts of late so time to race.
I managed to find Tom Evans and positioned myself right behind Tom Evans, time to get off to a fast start. The gun fired and we were off, I took a quick look at about 20 yards and well staying on Tom’s feet probably only lasted 10 yards because he was already 15 yards ahead of me, oh well, one can dream (and swim more laps). I felt like I was only about in the first half of the field as we moved towards the first turn buoy and was swimming in a core group of about 8 swimmers. As we turned I locked onto some feet right in front of me and one guy just off to my right and kept my eyes on the guideline. I was really in a rhythm and felt like I was just gliding along effortlessly in the draft. Things continued after the second turn. My rhythm was great as I sighted the final buoy making the finish of the swim about 200 yards I picked up my stroke rate a notch and quickly pulled away from the two guys I had been swimming with. As I came out of the water I checked my watch. 27:30!!!! It makes me giddy just thinking about it. It’s amazing how fast you can run up a hill to transition after a good swim. Things were off to a great start and I was in 26th in the swim and had an quick uneventful transition to the bike.
Now this bike course is brutal aside from the rough roads there is an estimated 4600-5000 feet of ascending including the Almira grade which you hit at mile 1.5 and climbs 2.2 miles with 1200 feet of altitude gain (up to 23% grade in sections). This is followed by miles of seemingly endless rolling hills and finally a 10 miles climb (with a few short descents mixed into the climb. Finally you get a chance to fly back down to Grand Coulee and across the Grand Coulee Dam (only time anyone is allowed to cross the dam).
The game plan for the bike was to build as the bike went on. I’ll be straight up honest. The Almira grade is my worst nightmare and I’ve learned that the bike race doesn’t start until the top of the climb. A few riders passed me on the climb and I knew I’d likely be seeing them again on the backside of the ride. The grade actually went much better than ever before, I think last year I actually was happy to riding up at 4 mph at points, this year I don’t think I ever dropped below 8 mph. At the top I begun to kick it into gear and get my legs spinning. I was already on my hydration and nutrition. At just past 6 miles my contact lens rolled up into my eye. Oh man…it’s going to be a long day. I know from experience that the only thing I could do would be to have mirror to get it back correctly so I could see, so the rest of the race would be raced half blind.
I started catching some of the guys that passed me on the climb. By mile 20 I was starting to get into my rhythm. I flew through the town of Almira and started the long grinding climb. The wind was buffeting the riders on and off for miles on the climb but not like two years ago, I traded places with a few riders back and forth until the end of the climb. Finally I made my way back to Hwy 155 to start the screaming descent back to Grand Coulee. I love descending, I love to go fast. I was holding between 45-50 mph for the 8 mile descent trying to clear a path through the Olympic distance riders.
I was checking my watch but didn’t think I was having a particularly good ride but as I hit the end of the dam and had about a mile to go to transition I checked and was going to finish near 2:40 which is a pretty solid effort on this course. I finished up the ride in 2:41:06 (20.9 mph average) with the 23rd fastest bike split and 13 minutes faster than my split two years ago (when I had the 20th fastest bike split, a testament to this race drawing much faster racers).
Off the bike I didn’t know how the run would go. I felt pretty good but it was hot and my legs were cooked from the last few weeks of training. The run is down below the dam in the canyon and is run on a gravel road/trail and it’s stifling hot and the aid stations are not frequent every 1.5 to 2 miles apart. The game plan with my coach was to pin the run. Go hard. I quickly got into my shoes and out on the run and pulled the pin and was off. We were mixed in with the Olympic distance athletes so it was difficult to tell where you were overall. The first mile went by in 6:35 but I could tell I didn’t have much umph left in my legs so I just made sure I kept my arm cadence high and turnover high. Mile two went buy in 7:10. I kept a mid 7 minute mile pace through 8 miles and then the grenade which had pulled the pin on exploded , now my legs were long gone by that point so I would have made it home averaging around 7:30/mile but the intestinal cramps would bring me to a dead stop and I did my best to walk them out but usually within a minute of running again they would return. This was the first time I’m had gotten cramps and I’ll have to figure out what may have caused them but I guess if you race enough eventually it’ll happen. The heat was stifling almost suffocating. I managed to jog up the hill to the finish and came across the line in 4:56:55 in 22nd place overall and 3rd in my age group (40-44 as they were using USAT rules so I was aged up due to my birthday happening this calendar year). I was actually 5th but was awarded 3rd only because 2 of the top 3 were awarded overall place finishing places.
Overall I was pretty happy with the race despite the poor run (1:44:42). A few more weeks of training till Kona and I’m hoping I have a much better run experience in the lava fields or it’s going to be a long day on the run. I saw Tom after the race and chatted for a moment and asked him why he was racing at this little race and his response, “It’s a great race, tough but great”. I asked if he was racing Kona and said “nope I need a break from Kona, I’m racing Florida”. I wished him all the best. By the way he finished 2nd at this race behind a fellow Penticton triathlete. All in all, a good tough, honest day.
Bringing home the hardware.....well totem.
Now I don't have much belief in my sprint abilities, lets be honest I'm a go long type of guy so I wasn't exepcting much at today's 2008 Escape From The Rock sprint triathlon (Mercer Island, WA). Really I just wanted to start to get me in a racing frame of mind heading into Kona in 5 weeks (gulp....5 weeks).
The day was supposed to be sunny with temps in the mid to upper 70's, perfect conditions. Morning broke cool, cloudy and breezy. The transitions and starting waves are pretty casual affairs. Get there and find yourself a spot on any rack you choose. I was awake early so I just headed over to the race site and get set up and found myself on the first rack by the T1 bike exit.
Due to the schedule I didn't do any pre-swim as they were doing athlete instructions and wanted everyone out of the water 15 minutes before the start and I didn't want to get chilled and lets face it 10 minutes of swimming wasn't going to really get me warmed up. The start is a self seed in waves and I went off in the first wave not that I'm the fastest swimmer (although I think I was actually pretty fast) I didn't want to be spending the day negotiating my way around slower riders.
So with the deep water start for the 1/2 mile swim heading directly into the wind and chop it was a bumpy start. I quickly tried to find my rhythm and found some feet to follow unfortunately they weren't the straightest of swimmers so I was a few yards wide at the first turn (triangle course). After the first turn I settled in my rhythm and was swimming with a group of about 5 or 6. The second turn was perfect I swam right under the buoy around the anchor line, I sighted the beach and kicked it in pulling away from my small group. Out of the water there was a long 300 yard run to the transition and I picked off a few more in the transition run.
My transition was perfect. Off with the suit, number belt on, glasses on, helmet on and off for a 100 yard run to the bike mount line. I had a great running mount to the bike and even managed to slide one foot right into my shoe.
The bike course immediately climbed and had several sharp technical turns as we exited the park and residental area and headed for the I-90 express lanes (yes we had them all to ourselves). I hit the on-ramp and hit the gas trying to get my bike up to speed as quickly as possible. Looked down and saw 32 mph, mission accomplished. Now I tend to be a guy who needs a little warm-up time. In an IM that might be 45 minutes to an hour, no such luck here it was hammer the entire way. There are several tunnels on the ride and I have to say everyone in front of me knew I was coming with the big thumping coming from my disc wheel echoing in the tunnels. I started to make up ground pretty quickly and was about 3 minutes back of the leader at the first turn and I estimate I was sitting in about 20th place at the start of the bike. As we came across the floating bridge I could see a small group of 6 ahead of me on the western highrise (part of the bridge that connects the floating part with land) and I powered up the highrise at 22 mph and into another tunnel. I could now see the leaders they were holding their lead but just as hit the second turnaround I had moved into 6th place. Back through the tunnel and onto the bridge deck this time into the gusting wind. The disc was getting blown around and couldn't wait to get off the bridge. About mid span I moved into 4th. I finished off the ride with a perfect running dismount.
T2 was good as well racked the bike, off with the helmet, slipped the shoes on and I was off and running. Almost immediately I was passed by another athlete who had been right behind me coming off the bike. The run immediately climbed uphill for the first 1/4 mile and I tried to find my "fast" running legs. Here's the thing again I do Ironman races not sprints so my "fast" legs are all relative. Despite this I was moving along pretty good opening the first mile with a 6:10. I passed one other runner who was actually part of a relay team so I was still holding 4th place overall. I started to loosen up at about 1.5 miles and then really strided out to the finish but held my position of 4th overall finishing in 58:21. Not sure what my splits were but it doesn't really matter.
Overall I was really happy with the 4th place finish and 2nd in my Age Group especially given that there were close to 700 in the race. Interestingly the top 4 guys were all between 39 - 43 years old a little strange given the number of younger athletes in the race I would have expected some young fast guns but the old guys prevailed. The body feels good after the race and I'm looking forward to racing longer next weekend at the Grand Columbian Half Iron.
My coach though it would be a good idea to get in a short race and open things up a bit and see what the old engine has got. Really....a 10K....I haven't run one of those in years. I agreed and signed up for this "flat and fast" 10K.
Now I was thinking like 38:00 minutes would be a good target but no....coach prescribed 36:30....really....mid 5:50 pace we'll see.
As I rolled into the car this morning to drive up to Snoqualmie it was cool and cloudy....wow...perfect weather. As I headed east up into the foothills the rain started falling on the windshield. As I arrived at the race site the rain was steady and the temps were in the mid 50's.
Normal routine stretching, and 20 minutes of running and on with the race number and glasses and to the start line.
This is a small local race but there were some seriously fast dudes at the start line. a half dozen of the fastest Club NW guys, a handful of Team Oregon XO speedsters and Uli Steidl (Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier). The 5K/10K races started together so it was tough to know who was running which race.
I started out fairly comfortably. Moment of truth, mile 1 split 5:53. OK coach...I'm off at your race pace, that was the highlight of the race. Things started to slow from there...mile 2 was a 6:00. At roughly 2.5 miles the 5K and 10K splits and the 10K guys hung a left. OK the reality things weren't so bad as everyone running near me hung a right, the bad news was I was in no mans land. I was at the front...well off the front of the second group in the 10K but the lead group was, well..., way ahead.
At 3.5 miles I saw the lead group coming back from the out and back section and they were moving. By my count I was in 10th place.
As I made the turn onto the final straight, I started to feel warmed up, unfortuantely I was warmed up for a marathon not a 10K. As we headed down to the finish a couple of "young" road racers who had been bird dogging me sprinted past. I hit the line in 38:20 by my watch... sweet... right near my target time...sorry coach. I think I finished 12th or so.
I miss the days of being able to cruise through a 10K in 31 minutes and I'm not sure I'll every get back to those days but look forward to getting back my speed in the years to come. As next year will be only a single Ironman year and I'm hoping to focus on shorter races and run cross country in the fall I hope that I can find my speedy race legs again (at the age of 40 no less).
Next up Escape from the Gorge Olympic Tri in early September between now and then lots of Kona training.
I didn’t sleep much on Saturday night, if at all. The rain was falling and the fan was rattling in my room but it was the only thing that would keep my sinus from acting up. I got up just before the alarm at 3:45 am. Turned on the coffee pot and took a hot shower. I listened to the whirr of the blender in the next room. I managed to choke down a little food and two cups of coffee before doing a final check of all of my gear bags. My brother and I arrived at the race site just about 5am and it was already getting crowded with people prepping their bikes and getting body marked.
Just after the start of the Professionals at 6:25 I suited up and headed over to the beach. Lots of people were pre-swimming. I opted not to as the water was only 59 degrees and I’d be standing on the beach for at least 10 minutes before the cannon. There were lots of folks shaking from getting cold after their pre-swim. Finally as the last pro came around the buoy at the end of their first lap the cannon sounded and we were off.
I had positioned myself on the outside after frankly getting pummeled last year trying to swim right up the buoy line and it was a beautiful thing. I swam all the way to the first turn buoy approximately 850 meters out in the lake in nearly clean water (meaning I wasn’t bumping, hitting or getting hit by others). After the first turn things got a little rough as there was some congestion and we were looking directly into the sun which made spotting the 2nd turn buoy difficult. The water was a little rougher during the second lap and if felt like I was breathing gas fumes. There were so many boats and jet skis around because they were worried about the cold water they didn’t think that all of that stuff goes directly into the water. The rest of the swim was uneventful and I just focused on keeping good form, body rotation and keeping my weak kick in cadence with my stroke and spotting the next buoy. I was very pleased when I saw 1:05 on the clock as I exited the water. 10 minutes faster than last year things were off to a good start.
I was quick but deliberate through transition and took a few more minutes to get my arm warmers on and have sunscreen applied. I ran to my bike carrying my shoes grabbed my bike and was off to the bike mount area where I slipped my shoes on and then headed out onto the course.
Almost immediately I had to start with my bike mantra, “easy the first lap”. At about 1.5 miles I reached back for my water bottle which contained my main bike nutrition for the day (Carbo Pro 1200) and it wasn’t there. It had somehow gotten ejected from the bottle cage between the start and this point of the ride. Now I had to stay calm and assess. The body needs fuel and that was most of it until mile 63 and bike special needs where I had my back-up bottle. I had 4 GU Roctane’s in my gel flask for back-up but that wasn’t going to be enough. My coach had reinforced the day before that shit will happen and just don’t panic, assess the situation and move on, because the only thing you can control is you.
I kept to my manta, continued to keep things in control, hydrated and managed my fuel intake as best I could. The bike course is a beast especially once you get out to Hayden Lake as I dropped along the lake I could feel the wind pushing me around with the disc wheel. The wind was whipping whitecaps up on the lake and howling through the trees. It was going to be a long day in the wind on the north part of the course. I stayed in control on the climbs working the low gears and trying to keep my cadence high and then pushing over the top of the climbs and quickly into the bigger gears to get the bike up to speed for the flats and descents. I was making up serious ground and gobbling up other riders. Just like that it seemed and I was back in Coeur d’Alene and headed along the lake again. I was really glad to hit special needs and I grabbed my bottle and made sure it was firmly planted in my bottle cage and then downed my Red Bull (not so good as a warm drink). Coming back through town I was starting to push and had the bike rolling at nearly 30 mph and the crowds were in a frenzy. I never saw The Cowbells (that’s my family and friends who came out to root me on) while I was on the bike, I was just too focused. As I came to Hayden I found myself rather alone no one ahead of me and really no one behind me which is very surreal in a race like this with so many competitors, it’s also a very spectator free part of the course so you really have to dig to keep pushing. I rounded a bend in the road at 25 mph and there was a deer crossing sign, all of the sudden a big white tail deer springs across the road right in front of the sign I thought that was pretty funny, like does the deer know how to read and know that’s where it’s supposed to cross the road…..hold on you’re racing get your head in the game.
I had closed to within about 50 yards of two other riders but then couldn’t close the gap in the hills so I was stuck there for about 8 miles until we turned back at Old Orchard Road then I passed them and we traded leads back and forth for a few miles until we hit Rimrock road where I hit the gas knowing there was a false uphill that you can fly over and within two minutes I was free of those riders. The wind was really hard in the second lap coming back down Government Way towards the lake and T2 and I was catching many riders who were still on their first lap and some of the pro women and even one of the pro men. Into the T2 transition and a beautiful running dismount, check the watch holy cow….6:30 I was still had plenty of time to dip under 10 hours if I could run 3:30 and I if I’m on I think I can run 3:15…this can’t go any better.
Now I had tried to pee when I was on the bike and damn I had to go but my body just wouldn’t do it so once again I had to hit the porta-potty just like last year I was about a minute faster this year. All right 10 minutes faster in the swim, 10 minutes faster on the bike (5:17 with a 21.2 mph average) and 1 minute faster in the T2 pee.
I was quickly into my run gear, out of the tent and out on the course. I was not loose but I knew enough to just keep on moving at about a mile into the run my thigh cramped and I was on the ground trying to stretch it out. This has happened before so I know just don’t panic it’ll loosen up and you’ll get back into your stride, after a minute or so I was running again. I missed the first mile marker so at mile 2 I checked my split 14:55. Right on 3:15 marathon pace, even with the stop to deal with the cramp. The next few miles I was feeling good just continuing to focus on my form, nutrition and hydration. 7:01, 7:06, 7:10, 7:01…..this was going great but it was surprisingly humid and I didn’t know how the lack of nutrition early on the bike was going to play into the mix in the latter miles of the marathon.
At just before 8 miles I was headed back to town and Michael Lovato (on his second lap) was coming towards me and about 10 yards behind him was Victor Z. Michael glanced back and then his shoulders just dropped and he went from running to walking in one step. His wife Amanda was on her bike near him yelling for him to keep running. I felt so bad for him, I knew that feeling. His body was fighting him and Victor (finished 2nd) had caught him. I wondered if he’d keep going, he did, he gutted it out and finished 3rd overall, I was very happy for him and it makes you realize just because someone is a “pro” an Ironman race can be a great equalizer. This is part of why Ironman races are so special, it’s pushing your body way beyond their limits and hoping that everything holds together physically and mentally.
I felt pretty good coming back to town and was still on pace for around a 3:10 marathon through 12 miles. At mile 13 I had to slow through the aid station to get some cola as I couldn’t stomach my gels anymore. I knew I was in for a battle the rest of the way. I had slowed to around 7:15-7:30 mile pace which was still great but not so great when you’re walking for a minute each mile through the aid stations. In the end I would be the right decisions if I hadn’t I would have been walking even more (this was my goal this year, if I had to walk, walk less than last year).
At mile 19 I was starting to do the math, I can still go 9:55, at mile 20 I can still go 9:57 at mile 21 I can still go sub 10 hours. At mile 22 I’m either going to be 9:59 or 10:01. At mile 23….it was just let’s get this thing done, you’re almost home. I was just past mile 25 and was running as fast as my body would allow I was on the verge of complete cramping in my quads and calves. Another runner went by me, NO….another 39 year old it’s going to be so close to qualifying I’ve got to go with him, I tried with every fiber in my body to go faster but there was just a little response but things could be worse I passed a few others who probably felt like they were going in reverse.
The final 400 yards down Sherman Avenue to the finish chute is a mix of pure agony and extreme jubilation. Agony as my body was on fumes and I had to run, walk or crawl another 400 yards, jubilation because I had done it I had finished and finished strong. As I crossed the line I looked up 10:06:05…..wow 39 minutes faster than last year. I was so glad to be done.
I still didn’t know if I had qualified, of course my mom asked where we were going to be staying in Kona…..huh…I don’t even know if I’m going. Then someone got the report that I was 51st overall and 10th in my age group. It was going to be so close to good enough to qualify. I wanted to stay at the finish but just needed to spend some time with my support crew and then I didn’t have the energy to head back to downtown after going to the hotel.
The next morning I hobbled to the Kona registration (with the biggest coffee I could find), found the list and the line was drawn under 11th place in my age group…..I had done it I had gone fast enough to qualify for Kona.
Last year was about experiencing an Ironman, this year about racing an Ironman. Kona…..I haven’t decided what that will be about but I imagine I’ll be fired up to race to the edge of what my body will allow on that day.
There are way too many people to individually thank for their support and good vibes and thoughts on race day but here are a few.
Mom, Marsh, and Geoff – For all of your support and understanding this year and for coming out to the race and ringing those cowbells.
Larry, Robin, Nancy, and Jim – For ringing those cowbells on race day having all of you watching me on the course really made a difference.
Shawn Skene - For all those prescribed laps in the pool, long bike rides in the rain and cold, hard negative split runs and your experienced counsel.
Peter Reid and Sam McGlone – For being so open and willing to answer my questions about your experiences in this sport, little tricks, and tips on training and racing. Yes, I was listening…..I used all of it this year in training and in the race.
Julie Johnson – For keeping my body in one piece (well as best we could).
Aidan and Charley – To help me keep things in perspective and know that there are more important things in life, and motivate me to keep training.
Everyone who donated to Charley’s Fund – Because of you there will be a cure for DMD.
To all my friends and family – For your outpouring of support, good vibes and congratulations.
Zoot Sports and GU – For the great race clothes and sustained energy for the long haul.
Anyone want to go to Kona in October? I’ll bring the cowbells!!!!
I'll be posting a detailed race report in the next few days but just a quick update. It was a pretty good day yesterday in Coeur d'Alene.
I finished in 10:06:05 which was good enough for 51st overall and 10th in my age group. The second placing was good enough for a trip to Kona in October as there were 11 slots in my age group.
Thanks for all the good vibes, thoughts and congratulations.
I've posted some pics from yesterday here.
It's Saturday night and I'm getting my race clothes laid out and making sure I have all of my final little things for tomorrow morning (uuummm....like my wetsuit and googles) and getting centered for the race tomorrow. Good tunes for tomorrow included "Out of My Hands" by Dave Matthews since there will be a lot I can't control tomorrow so I can only control me. The other that hit me tonight was "Right Now" by Van Halen because it"s TIME, because the work has been done and there are no tomorrows this year.
My race plan is laid out, my on-site cheering section is here the group I like to call "The Cowbells". I'm not sure how they'll harmonize but I know when I pass them if I need a lift I only need to shout "more cowbells".
Here are a few pictures from the last few days here in CdA. I'll be posting my race report and pictures hopefully early next week. Until then thanks to everyone for their support and good vibes on race day.
The sign says it all. The sign says it all we're finally here at the big dance.
The March of the Penguins. Each morning a continual parade of athletes make their way from the bag check down the beach to the start buoys where they stand and try to "will" the water to be warmer.
Looks soo close yet so far. That red buoy is the far turn buoy that athletes must turn around before heading back to shore. You see one large orange buoy in the picture, there are actaully 6 of these marking the way back to the beach.
The Coach. Yep I finally met my coach after working with him for 8 months. Shawn is in town to do the race day web coverage for Ironman.com.
The Pro Women. Heather Wuertle, Desiree Ficker, Heather Gollnick at the Pro Athlete press conference. Heather is a first year pro and doing really well (and she's really tall). Desiree is a really fast runner, she just ran at the US Olympic Marathon trials and was runner up in Kona in 2006. Heather has 5 Ironman race wins to her credit and is the mother 3 very energetic kids who will happily show their pride and tell you who their mom is.
Hot, humid and crazy windy. That pretty much summed up the Ironman 70.3 Hawaii. I've been on island for a week getting some good hard training in so this race was a continued extension of the training. Coaches instructions swim hard and bike harder then cruise the run as close to 1:40 as possible.
Race morning started at 3:45 a.m. with the alarm. Forced down some food about 600 calories and got ready dressed for the day. Went to grab the shuttle bus to the start at Hapuna Beach Park and palms were being whipped around by the gusty winds.
Got to Hapuna about 5:30 a.m. and started doing final prep of my bike. Helped a few others who were fretting a bit about tire pressure, whether to attach their shoes to their pedals or should they put all of their stuff in a bag or leave it on their bike. Then headed down to get body marked. This race is pretty unique the bike racks are the ones they use in Kona so you just sit your rear tire in the rack and the body markings are big stamp numbers.
Had a couple final gels, water and applied sunscreen and slipped into my swim skin. Off to the beach to get a little warm-up swim in. The water was frothing from the offshore gusting wind but the water is amazingly clear as the bay is a sand bottom ranging between 10 and 30 feet deep.
I positioned myself near the outside buoy for the start away from the masses. Then without warning the cannon echoed across the bay and we were off in a churning mass of humanity. I was glad to be positioned where I was as it wasn't as rough as some previous races and I quickly honed in on the first buoy to make a right turn (about .3 miles). Things were pretty managable on the outside of the turn. The next turn was about 200 meters ahead and then another right turn. This is where things got interesting as I was on the outside of the masses I (along with others) were pushed further by the current and offshore wind but I managed to keep a pretty good tracking of the next turn about 1/2 mile ahead. I had felt pretty good the whole way keeping a good stroke cadence and swimming with a group from the first buoy. The water was so clear it was great you could actually see others swimming around you, turtles and fish. There was a report of a huge manta ray but I didn't see it. I exited the water and checked my watch and I was just over 34 minutes. Not quite what I was hoping but given the conditions I was pretty happy. Later I'd find out that I was 188th out of the water which is a huge improvement over my previous swims.
The transition from swim to bike is tough across the beach and then about 300 yards up a steep hill to the bikes. Off with my swim skin, helmet and glasses on and I'm heading out of transition. as I'm heading out a volunteer is yelling at me "where is your chip?", I look down and it's not there, time to panic. He grabs a chip records my race number and swipes the chip over the chip mat and puts the chip strap on my ankle. Big Mahalo to that man. As it turns out in my rush to get out of my swim skin I had grabbed the chip strap and stipped it right off as well.
Off on the bike I go, into my shoes attached to my pedals with no problem and up the hill to the Queen K Highway. Immediately I knew the wind would be a factor today and running deep dish wheels would make it that much more challenging. I knew in the first few miles that I had no cycling power today. My legs were just like dead weights. To add insult to injury my rear deraileur was not shifting so any serious pressure in the lower gears and it wouldn't hold gearing (gonna be a problem on the climb to Hawi).
Despite this I started chewing up the riders ahead of me. Through the turn onto Highway 270 up to Hawi. This is where the gearing and heavy legs were really a problem I couldn't get the big chain ring and right cassette gearing to really keep moving and in the small chain ring I could only find a really low gear that would hold so it was a slow slog up to Hawi to the turnaround. At the turn I locked into the big ring and high gear and flew back down from Hawi I was holding near 40 mph just trying to keep the bike from being blown off the road by the gusting cross winds. Finally back onto the Queen K and back to the Mauna Lani Resort. Ended up averaging 21.21 mph, finishing up the bike leg in 2:38:26. Not the bike split I was looking for but considering I had put in 230 miles on the bike this week while on island and the poor gearing I guess I shouldn't complain. I had ridden basically the 56 mile route earlier in the week as part of a longer ride and had ridden at 21.7 mph average not really riding that hard so I know I can fly on this course if rested. I had moved up to 104th place overall.
I had a good transition taking my time to get ready to run and off I went. I was pretty worried about how I'd hold up on the run in the heat and humidity. My coach had asked me to cruise the run and not expend too much trying to run as close to 1:40 in the half marathon as possible. My legs felt a little heavy out the gate and I missed the first mile marker so at mile 2 I got an idea of how fast I was running, 14 minutes I was cruising along at 7:00 minutes a mile and starting to really get comfortable. I decided to just go with it given my poor bike ride. As I went past a checkpoint at about 2.5 miles a number checker announced that the guy in front of me was in 110th place. I thought maybe I can work my way up to 80th place overall by the end. As the miles clipped away I was holding between 6:55 and 7:10 per mile on the rolling up and down course which snaked through the roads through the lava, the fairways and beach within the Mauna Lani Resort. At mile 5 I started catching the runners ahead of me in bunches. Some were really slowing and some had been reduced to a walk already. I just kept a smile on my face, focused on good form and kept on churning. I slowed a little between mile 9 and 11 but then picked up the pace again once I knew the end was near.
As I came to the finish since I was alone between other finishers the annoucer announced my name and then asked "How'd your day go today, Michael" over the loud speaker and I raised my arms in the air and gave the thumbs up as I came to the finish line. I ended up finishing the run in 1:34:04 with a 7:10 per mile pace. A little faster than my coach had prescribed but I think he'll forgive me for this sin.
Overall I moved all the way up to 60th place overall and 15th in the very tough 35-39 age group finishing in 4:53:08 a new PR by about 5 minutes. Not quite what I was hoping for but a good solid effort given the tough conditions and mechanical challenges with the bike.
After the race myself and some others I'd met while on the island went to the awards banquet which was a lavish spread with lots of food, beer and of course stories good and bad from the day. I was suprised that I had actually earned a qualifying spot for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships to be held in Clearwater, Florida in November but declined the spot.
Now for a few more days of training here in Kona before heading back to Seattle for my final hard week of training before starting my taper to Ironman Coeur d'Alene in just 3 weeks. I'm feeling good and looking forward to a great day and race.
Myself and James from Michigan I met and have been hanging out with while here this week. James finished two places ahead of me in our age group beating me by 1:56. He's an animal on the bike with 10th fastest bike split overall in the race. We're heading out for our recovery ride the day after the race.
As we're closing in my first tri of the season and my "A" race in the next 6 weeks I felt like I needed a little something to do a little mindset training. I'm not sure if my coach was too excited about it but he put on the brave face and said go for it.
I wasn't exactly racing on fresh legs having done a solid 85 mile ride the day before and a couple of bigger volume and intensity weeks prior.
The plan was pretty simple don't kill myself, keep my eye on the prize (IMCDA) and run negative splits. Pretty simple guidelines.
The Kirkland Half Marathon is a fairly hilly endeavor. The first few miles are a mix of flat and short (400 meter max) steep hills. The course then flattens out for a couple miles before a gradual climb for a couple miles then two miles of descent (fairly steep) before flattening out for a few miles then a mix of uphill and downhills before finally flattening out for the final mile.
The morning of the race it was in the mid 40's, overcast and breezy. I did my normal pre-race warmup of 20 minutes of jogging, active stretching and a few build-ups to get warmed up and headed to the start line. It was pretty funny they had pacing groups so up by the start line there where just a handful of runners and none of the normal jockeying for position everyone had plenty of room. Then the air horn and we were off.
I headed out at a what felt like a very conservative pace as I passed the first mile marker and checked my watch I pretty much freaked.... 5:39 was the split with a hill. Either I'm in much better shape than I thought or it could be a long day. When I hit the second mile marker I realized that the first mile marker was short of the mile as I had gone through 2 miles in 13:16 so I was just under 6:40 average mile pace.
I continued to comfortably reel off conservative mile splits; 6:48, 6:44, 6:38, 6:42 through six miles in just over 40 minutes. As I passed the halfway point I started to pick-up the pace. Through the first half I was in no mans land there were three small groups well up the road ahead of me and then a couple of singles within about 200 yards ahead. The next runners where a couple hundred yards behind me. Just before halfway I started to close on the next runner who had been holding about 50 meters in front of me and as we hit a slight incline in the road I cruised by him and within a minute I couldn't hear his foot strikes behind me any longer.
The next few miles I focused on staying relaxed as there was a long downhill section and I didn't want to push and blow out the quads (plus I'm not that fast a downhill runner). Funny enough I had been closing on the next couple runners ahead of me and continuing to distance myself from the guy I had passed just before halfway but after the downhill section the runners in front of me had put back on the distance I had closed the guy behind me had gained on me. I was glad to be on the flats.
I continued to focus on my form, eyes up the road, good knee lift, keeping the body upright and keeping my arms and shoulders relaxed. This translated into a good pace with 6:30, 6:20 and then we hit the hills again. These suckers are cruel steep but I was happy to be holding sub 6:40's. I had finally closed to within 50 meters of the next runner ahead of me with just over a mile to go I really focused on catching him. With just about a half mile to go I passed another runner who had been caught and then quickly passed the guy I had been chasing, passing him with about 600 meters to go and he picked up the chase. He passed me back just about 100 meters from the finish and I let him go. I finished up with a sub 6:00 minute mile to finish in 1:25:27.
I finished in 10th place overall and 2nd in my age group. Not a bad effort for running on tired legs and keeping to my coaches instructions.
I survived the Grand Columbian Half Ironman on Saturday.
I arrived at Grand Coulee mid-day on Friday and quickly noticed the smell of smoke from the nearby forest fire. I went for a quick dip in the lake before heading off to drive the bike course. As I drove the second half of the course it felt like I was heading directly into the fire with the dark grey sky and horizon.
As it turned out given the proximity of the fire to the Grand Coulee Dam and prevailing winds the race director make the decision to change the course of both the bike and the run. So instead of finishing the bike by the dam and running on the jeep trail below the dam along the river, T2 was changed back to Banks Lake where T1 was and the run was an out and back on Highway 155. My initial thoughts were great the bike will be easier as we don't have that long 10 mile climb, unfortunately I hadn't really thought much about the run (but it was much more difficult with several hills).
Now I was making the race time decision on whether or not I'd complete due to my strained calf. I decided on Friday night that it felt good enough to at least start the race.
I awoke about 6am (9:30 am start time) and choked down some food and got ready to go. I got the start just before the full Ironman distance competitors started and prepped my bike and then headed down along the lake to watch the swimmers head along the shore. It was pretty surreal as the smoke had drifted back over Banks Lake and the sun was heavily filtered by the smoke.
The start was a deep water start with the men starting 5 minutes before the women. I swam in my sleeveless suit and the water felt great. I had promised myself to go out harder than normal to try and better position myself in the pack. I pretty much did what I had planned and things worked out well as I finished the swim in 34:30 in 66th place which was 2 minutes faster than last year. My swim time was probably also aided (probably more so than my swim speed) by the fact that I pretty much swam a straight line the whole way around the course which made me feel good about my swim.
Transition from the swim to the bike was uneventful and I completed the transition quickly. Now this is a tough bike course. The first tough part comes just about 2 miles or so into the ride where you hit Almira Grade. This is a roughly 2.2 mile climb with approximately a 1000 foot elevation gain. For me this is a grind....grind...grind and the real bike leg starts when I get to the top. I was passed by about 10 riders up the grade all flyweight bike riders.
Once I got to the top I started to get into my rhythm over the next few miles of gentle rollers. Now on the original course there is an out and back before heading to a few more rollers then a nice descent into the town of Almira. With the course change we continued on the out and back road to what I will now affectionately refer to as the "uphill" rollers.
This is pretty much about 10 miles of stair step climbing which I think was harder than the long sustained climb on the original course.
Finally we hit a short downhill where we descended to Hwy 2. This is really where I started to feel good on the bike as I was finally in my element. This section along the hwy flat and smooth and I was flying along at near 30 miles an hour average picking off lots of riders ahead of me in a hurry.
At the end of hwy 2 we turned onto hwy 155 which takes you back along Banks Lake to Grand Coulee. Right about here my computer stopped working so I had no clue how fast I was going or what my cadence was. I think I eased up on the intensity. About 5 miles into this section another rider came up from behind and low and behold it was the lead woman. I took up the challenge and we traded places back and forth all the way back to T2 picking off about 6 more riders. I ended up finishing the ride (57 miles) in 2:47:02 with a 20.5 mph average in with the 26th fastest bike split.
T2 was uneventful and I headed out onto the run course. I was feeling good except for my calf which was now very painful with each stride. As a result I was compensating for the pain and about mile 2 my quad started to cramp from the change in stride to the point I was brought to the ground. At this point I was pretty much thinking my day was over. I spent a few minutes massaging the quad to stop the cramp and spasm and began running again. I kept rolling along and the cramp hit again around mile 4 so I was forced to stop and work out the cramp before continuing on. I kept moving but was frustrated as I felt great except for the pain in my calf which was significantly hampering my stride. As I headed back into Grand Coulee I knew I was going to make it and started to catch a few other runners in my age group and I pushed past them to the finish. I ended up finishing the run in 1:42:00 with the 27th fastest run split on the day which was both a positive and a disappointment. Positive as it was by far my fastest run leg in a half ironman which means I'm starting to get the nutrition and hydration figured out. It was a disappointment as I felt so great, that if I hadn't been bothered by the calf I felt I could have probably run 1:30 or so which would have probably put me under 5 hours overall.
In the end I finished up the race in 5:08:18. I was 26th overall and 7th in my age group. Overall I was very pleased given the very tough course and my sore calf. In comparison that time would have placed me 16th in this race last year which I think is a testament to increasing popularity of this race and the fact that it's attracting some really good athletes from around the country and other countries. Despite being a small race it had competitors from many states and Canada.
I did the Troika 1/2 Ironman this weekend in Spokane, Washington. This was my first time at this race and first race since IMCDA and I haven’t done much training since the IM so I didn’t have particularly high expectations for this race.
The swim is in Medical Lake a few miles west of Spokane. The water was warm in the low 70’s and clean and the air temp was in the low 60’s at the start. I’ve apparently got one speed in the water no matter how far I’m swimming so it was a typical swim for me and I was done in 36:03 in 77th place.
I was pretty disappointed by what I would consider to be a significant amount of course cutting on the swim. At the far turn buoy there was an aerator machine which was inside the turn buoy by about 15-20 yards. As I went around the buoy I looked right and there was a train of people going around the aerator machine instead of the big orange buoy. With this being a modified triangle course we’re talking a 1-2 minute advantage. Pretty disappointing that there was no boat or referee in the area. In the end it probably didn't sigificantly impact my time or overall place in the race.
It took me about 5 miles to get into my rhythm on the bike which is normal but then I started picking people off at a pretty good rate. There are some nice long flat sections in the first half of the race with some very gentle rolling hills which you can power up and over. In the second half of the race there are a few small steeper hills (not my strength), then some short descents before back to some rolling terrain as you come into downtown Spokane.
I've been training and racing with a strained quad for several months and it hadn’t gotten any better or worse with racing and physical therapy but it finally gave at about mile 45 so the last 10 miles or so were not what I was hoping for as I wasn't able to generate any power from the quad and really slowed down. I finished the bike in 2:31:23 with a 22.2 mph average and had moved up to 26th place.
I took my sweet time in transition to the run as I was trying to decide if I could run with the quad or not. I decided to give it a shot and just take it easy. I headed out at a very easy pace and just kept rolling through the run. The temperature really jumped up a bit in the second half of the run for me into the mid 80’s but with no wind it felt warmer (however it could have been much hotter). I gave up one place on the run in the last mile but ran pretty much consistent splits the whole way to finish the run in 1:47:17 which is very pedestrian ½ marathon for me. I don’t think I did any more serious damage to my quad on the run which probably would have been the result had I pushed it.
I finished in 27th place overall in 4:57:56 which was only disappointing because had I been up to my normal self on the run I should have been 15-20 minutes faster but you take what the day gives you.
I've got to figure out if I'm going to be able to complete in the Grand Columbian in mid September or not given my leg but I'm planning on it.
On the Ironman front I'm probably going to do Ironman Coeur d'Alene again next summer via the Charity Fund spot as Canada isn't a possibility, Lake Placid is totally sold out, Wisconsin is too close to Hawaii to allow for adequate recovery and Arizona is too early in the season. More to come as I get signed up.
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