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| Photo Credit: Revolution 3 (© Larry Rosa Photography) |
First off, let's talk conditions.
I for one didn't think they were that bad...but this was my first 70.3, so I'm ignorant. The wind, yep it's windy on the coast, coach warned me about that. The water, so what we had to move to the other side of Cedar Point. The swim location change didn't bother me, rather I thought it was awesome to have had the opportunity to swim there...it's never been needed! Way cool! The rain, I secretly wanted rain on race day, I trained in it, I am comfortable in the rain and that gives me an edge. What I didn't want, and what I think everybody else wanted, was a bright sunny day. I wanted overcast skies, a bit of wind, and possibly a bit of rain! As far as conditions went, they were race day conditions and I can't control them, just go with them. That's what I did.
As mentioned we changed from swimming in Lake Erie to the marina on the other side. This was for safety reasons due to the riptide warning in the lake. Saturday, I had a great warm up swim with a pace that I was happy with and I was looking forward to repeating in the race.
Race morning came and I made the walk to swim start, no warm up because I got there a few minutes late and besides warming up and hour and a half prior to my swim was not going to help me. I did get my warm up run in, but skipped the warm up swim and I knew that would change the way I attacked the swim.
After a pre-race talk with our coach, team JustTri was ready to go. I had no other teammates in my age group, so I found a stranger to start the swim with.
I thought I knew the swim course, but in actuality the first right hand turn was a bit more of a turn than they let on. I was expecting g to go straight, not turn right. I went out too wide and had to cut back. Right as we turned right to go into the marina my goggles fogged. I found a nearby kayak, swam over top of somebody and stopped to clear my goggles. The guy in the next kayak asked if I was OK, I immediately told him that I was, and I started off swimming again.
At a point earlier than my kayak encounter, I wondered if was going to be able to do this. Some of that swim fear came back. I took control, breathed, realized I was pushing too hard, slowed my stroke, and thought about how many yards I've swam in Alum Creek...Heck Yes, I can do this. I relaxed and swam.
This was not the swim I visualized. I visualized a swim where I could see the rides, not boats. I was looking forward to seeing Windseeker, Wicked Twister, and Gatekeeper. I was pleasantly surprised, and somewhat put at ease by seeing some rides on the first orange buoy. I was able to see Millennium Force, my favorite. That was cool.
After the first turn, I was back on the inside lane where most others were way wide. I wondered if I was sighting wrong, but I could plainly see the next buoy. I passed swimmer after swimmer even passing some of the people swimming their second lap for the 140.6 race. I had some people faster than me pass me, and when that would happen I'd draft for a while, make sure I wasn't pushing too hard and keep up if I could. Generally I was passing, rather than being passed. I was feeling good about my swim. I lost track of my 5 min alarms on my watch, so I grabbed a peek at my watch after 20 minutes, and I figured I wasn’t going to get my 31 min swim time, but I’d be close to my 35 min swim goal.
We got to the last turn on the back side of the island, and that's where things looked like they might get pretty hairy with everyone coming close to my right as we rounded the buoy. It sure seemed a lot like my Giant Eagle Olympic distance where I met a wave of females on the first turn. That gave me confidence to just hold my line and my space.
If my swim fell apart it was from the channel between the two islands to the exit. My sighting was horrible and I went wide, corrected, then went wide again, then corrected, and I did this again until I finally got it right. I was frustrated at myself, for messing up and allowing a number of people to take the shorter line to the swim exit and finish before me.
Out of the water, I ran past the (wetsuit) strippers to my shoes. I dried off my feet a bit, rolled on my socks, and slammed my feet in my shoes. I grabbed my stuff and started the run back to the bike.
My Garmin has me swimming 2,362 yards at a 1:35/100y pace. This is 250 yards more than the 1.2 miles, which means that had I not gone wide on 2 to 3 different occasions, I could have definitely met my 35 min goal. My goal pace was 1:35/100y so, with that, I am very happy for my first 1.2 mile swim in a race.
Official Time: 36:26
Swim to Bike Transition
On the run back to the bike, I saw my family and my coach. I've never raced in the presence of my coach, so it was great to have her there. I ran the pathway back to the bike, slipped out of the running shoes, into the biking shoes, put on my helmet and headed to the mount line. With my glasses on my bike, I was heading out of the Cedar Point parking lot and I was honored to see coach's Mom on my left, then my family to my right cheering like mad! It's going to be a good day.
Official Time: 7:46
The Bike
My bike went nearly exactly has planned. I went out strong with a bit of wind to my back, but mostly a cross wind. My heart rate was high at the outset, and it was high for a bit as I tried to use the wind to get my speed that I needed to make my goal. But the speed wasn’t everything, I was feeling it…the pace I was going felt much lower than the HR monitor told me.
My goals going into the bike portion were to ride an average of 20mph, keep a high cadence (as close to 90 as possible), finish in 2:48, and finish with the feeling that I could have gone just a little harder. I wanted to ensure I could run the run I wanted to run.
I accomplished a number of my goals. I finished in 2:55 with an average speed of 19.2mph, and a cadence of 87. However, I held onto my goals so tight on the bike, that I might have messed up the run. Let’s go back to right before the swim. The ONLY problem I had with the optional swim location is the lack of a close bathroom. I really had to pee before the swim start. I didn’t think too much of it, as I figured I’d just use the lake as I swam. Peeing and swimming is harder than I thought. Actually once I started swimming, I forgot I had to pee. I’m not even sure I even really tried to pee. That urge to pee stayed with me onto the bike and wasn’t a nagging urge for the first 25 miles, but on the back half of the ride…I found myself looking for a spot to pee. Wondering if I was allowed, by the rules, to get off the bike and use a tree. Wondering where I could pee and not be seen by my fellow competitors. Well I finally peed after getting back to transition and finding a porta-pottie. Had I let go of my goals for a couple of minutes, I might have had the ability to absorb more water, and not had as many issues on the run.
The ride was awesome, boring at times, and I got really tired of getting passed by 50 year olds. In fact, I remember telling one of them that I wish I was as strong as they were when I am 50. There were 3-4 really memorable moments on the bike. First one was seeing my family around mile 16 or so on the bike. They were waiting there at Hoover Road and Mason Road. That energized me a bit, and kept me going. Then there was Milan! I wasn’t ready for the hill in Milan, but there was a guy behind me that started humming the climber song from the Price Is Right. Funny as heck and that took the sting out of that short but steep hill. Cresting the hill, I found my coach and my teammates. WOW! That felt great. I had not seen anybody from JustTri since I left the mount line, so it was great seeing my teammates.
We ran into some rain out of Milan as we headed East, and I embraced the rain and just kept pedaling. Heading north (Andress Rd) there was a guy on the left side of the road in a dark gray football uniform with full pads and a helmet. At first I thought he was charging racers, but he was out practicing in the rain. Freaky is the only word to describe it. I got back on Mason Rd, and knew that I was going to see my family again, another memorable moment, then headed back up toward the park. There was a few times where the down hills got me some speed, and I can always enjoy riding downhill at 37mph, pushing harder to go faster!
All-in-all the bike went well; accept I’d like a do-over. After thinking about what I’ll describe on the run, my problem started on the bike. The day wasn’t hot, but I had a nutrition plan and I knew I needed to get all my calories in; however, what I wasn’t paying attention to was the water intake. The plan was every 5 min…water and fuel. That’s what I did. However, the water bottle I started with wasn’t a favorite because I was going to toss it. It put out more water per drink then I am used to. Then we went through all the aid stations and I got a new sport top bottle every time. Now, 1 water bottle to start with, and 4 aid stations means I had 5 different water bottles on that bike. I poured some on me, but I’m going to guess that about the equivalent to 3.5-4 bottles made it into my body.
Official Time: 2:54:52
Bike to Run Transition
I had a purposeful transition, the purpose was to get on the run so I could go pee! I had a close bike rack location, and I got the bike racked…had to move my wetsuit as a competitor had move it to where my wheel needed to go. I quickly got my helmet off and grabbed my stuff for the run. I forgot to remove my HR monitor, but I did that later and put it in my water bottle. After the exit of the transition areas I found the first place to pee!
Official time: 2:08
The Run
In summary, I’m disappointed overall with my run. It was NOTHING like I had planned or hoped. However, I made the best of it and relied on teammates a lot. The first mile, I tried to run, but couldn’t. I felt like I used to feel when I went to a buffet and overate, bloated and disgusting. There was a 41 year old male that was having calf cramping problems and I thought we were going to trade places with each other as we both stopped to address our own needs. I tried to puke, but just couldn’t do it. There were times I thought I was going to, but not enough came up. In the first mile I wished so much that I could have puked.
Around mile 2-3, I was looking for my family; I tried to put on a good show for the kids. However, Tricia told me afterward that based on my average 10 min mile runs at home, she knew something wasn’t right. I was slow! However, when she saw me, I was running and the afore mentioned 41 year old was running with me and loved hearing the kids cheer as we passed!
Once passed the kids, I couldn’t hold it anymore and stopped to try to puke. I thought I had it, but there was no relief in sight. Just when I thought I was on my own, a teammate came up to me and encouraged me and that gave me the will, the drive, the push to keep going. Margo has no idea how much I needed her at that time. I explained to her what was going on, and we kept going together. I stayed with her for until at least mile 4, and even most of that mile. We saw coach at mile 4.5 or so, and the bull horn never relented. We passed her, and yet she was still “encouraging” us. The guys behind us called her a drill sergeant, but I appreciated he driving us to push harder. However, I was pushing as hard as my body would let me.
I had carried my own nutrition with me on the run. However, I got tired of carrying it so I squirted some of it out early in the run knowing that I wasn’t going to use all of it. When I did try to drink it, I just made the bloated feeling worse. I tried to eat a pretzel on the run, to see if I could soak up some of that water and get it through my system….UGH! The pretzel never got swallowed. Talk about dry and disgusting. It was hard to chew, hard to swallow, and it ended up on the ground.
By mile 6.5 I was looking forward to bring half way done, and then I hear coach “encouraging” me again. She told me it was OK to hurt, that’s how we earn our titles. Those words meant a lot to me and would come in handy later. By mile 7, I was done with my nutrition, and I opened the top and dumped it. Had I not been carrying a decent bottle and my HR strap, it would have gone to the trash.
On all the out and backs, I used Margo as a target. She was suffering herself with some asthma. I would run faster to catch her, and then by the time I would get close to her, she started running again. We did this several times. I needed her; I was hoping she needed me. We finally met up again once, but I think I dropped back yet again. Mile 9 came and I was so happy to be heading back to the park soon.
Then on the way to the park I saw some more teammates, met some pretty cool athletes and was started to feel less bloated, but by this time I still didn’t feel like I had the energy to run. At mile 8.5, I stopped, picked up a penny and though about Mason. Mason would have picked up that penny. I told myself that I was going to run the rest of the way from that point….but I didn’t have the strength to do that. I’m sure this was all mental, not physical. I’ve never been in this place before…so defeated, but so driven to keep going.
I wanted one victory, one small victory. As we ran back down 1st Street I think is when I took my first drink of coke, with some water. I felt better, but I knew that I had to keep doing this every mile now. We turned onto the causeway, and I wanted to run up that hill. By this time another teammate was with me, and I tried to keep up with her, but just fell behind again. However, I wasn’t going to let this hill win. In May, the hill won at CapCity…not today. I ran up the hill; however, when I got to the top, I walked the downhill and it hurt. I then looked at the guy next to me, struggling as well…and said…let’s run to the aid station. We did, I got some more coke and water, and we were off running again. I wish I could say that I ran the rest of the way through the park, but I know I walked a bit…I wanted to run, then pushed myself to run. I wanted to see that finishing chute and call it a day.
As I made the left turn toward the finish area, I could see teammates, strangers and hear the cheers. I was looking for my kids, running, and looking and I couldn’t find them. I remember teammates telling me to turn right and that I was almost done. I wanted to stop, I wanted to finish with my kids, but I couldn’t find them…then out of nowhere, there were three kids with JustTri shirts on running with me.
I felt a great sense of relief. I tossed my bottle to my wife, and I ran down the chute with my kids. Nothing hurt, nothing bothered me, I was fresh I was ready, and I nearly cried at the opportunity to finish with my kids! It was a completely different feeling than that of the rest of the run. This might have been my first true “Runner’s High” that I have ever felt.
My run wasn’t the greatest, but I persevered through it and finished it and with finishing my run, I completed my first half-iron distance race in 6:12:16. Above my goal time, but it’s in the books!
Official Run Time: 2:31:04
Summary Thoughts
I’m a nitpicky kind of guy, I like my numbers, I like judging my performance against myself and even my peers. I know that is not what all people do, but that’s what I do. However, on this day, I finished another goal. I earned a title, and I learned a lot about the process. I learned so much that I can use next time. I finished what earlier in the week turned out to be not just race, but another training race on the path of the ironman journey.
Training for this day started on 12/3/2012. 10 months later, it was a reality. I see it as an awesome accomplishment. I constantly think back to different parts of the day and wonder what I could have done better, but mostly I enjoy all the thoughts of the day. I think of the actual race, the 3 different disciplines, the teammates racing, the teammates spectating, the coach, and my family being there. It was an epic day!
My lingering thought is I have a good 20-30 minutes that I can cut off the next one!
