IM Canada Race Report

Let me first warn you, this is quite long. Hope you enjoy!! I will add photos later, just don't have any back from the digital cameras yet.

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First and foremost, I have to say thanks to everyone that has helped me along on this journey. Jeff and Erin have been a tremendous help with everything. Without them, I wouldn’t have even dreamt of doing it. They allowed me to stay at their place in Boulder for the summer and help me with anything that I need, triathlon or not. Next, my parents for making the trip to Penticton for our Ironman. Something that they have always done and probably will always do as long as they can make it. Their relentless support and unconditional love to always be there physically or mentally for us is priceless. And of course all my friends that have sent emails, texts, or phone calls this whole summer wishing me well on race day. A big thanks to you all, its awesome to hear from you and believe me, you were all a part of my day at some point. In addition to my old friends, all my new mates that I have met on this journey. I have learned a ton and can’t tell you enough how much I appreciate the part you have played. THANKS AGAIN!!

First, I want to say that even though the result of the day wasn’t what I wanted nor expected, I accomplished many of the goals that I had set out on race day, 6 of 7 to be exact. I have learned so much over the past 3 months here in BOCO. My race/training arsenal has gotten quite large, unfortunately I wasn’t able to use any of my big guns on race day. My day will come, I am convinced. I have a couple of thoughts why my run failed again, but first let me tell you about my day from start to finish. My goals were pretty basic, I will share those with you at the end as well.

Got up as usual at 12:30AM and drank 4 slim fast and a smoothie that had about 500 calories. I started doing this after my 2nd IM at Wisconsin. I had read in an article that we can go for about 4 hours without eating before we begin to use our glycogen stores for energy (my disclaimer, you can’t hold me to the information until I go and research it for certainty on the numbers), so I thought it would be a good idea to never go longer than that the entire day before the gun goes off without eating, including late into the night. I figure, if I can keep my glycogen stored topped off, it would be one of the small things to help me through the day. Got ready, reviewed my race goals, said a prayer that Greg had sent to me that his college football team used to say in college before games, looked at a quote that Denny had sent to Team Good Guys from General Patton, looked at an email that Gordo had sent us a little before race day that reminded us, #1 Give yourself every chance to succeed and #2 Let the other guys make the mistakes, an email that Kevin Purcell (KP) had sent me earlier this year when I wasn’t completely believing, and then headed out the door. It was imperative that I review this few things. They would keep me sane and if I felt any urge to deviate from my race plan, the would be countered by any of these messages. As you can see it was quite a stacked arsenal. I believed in all of them, so all I had to do is recite them in mind and the “fire would be put out.” So out the door I was, running a little later than normal, but got there with plenty of time to get my stuff done. Met up with Jeff and hit the water around 6:15AM.

The water was quite chilly at first, but after a minute or so, it came out to be perfect. Did a short swim out for about 15 minutes and then headed back to shore before the pro start at 6:45. The water was calm, so I expected a good swim. Caught back up with Jeff and we stood in the water not far from where the pros were starting and took in the moment. There were so many people along the beach yelling and Mike Reilly had the crowd going. This was my first IM start since starting PA school two years ago, so it was fun to be back out there. The pros went off and Jeff and I got situated where we were going to be. It was very comforting have my bro by my side. Just another form of support to keep my plan in tow and spend a little time with him, just him. I don’t remember speaking to him much, but there was plenty of communicating going, just not verbal. I kinda felt like it was just him and I out there, and not much anything else mattered. It is those moments in time that I won’t ever forget, not sure if too many other people get to have those opportunities with their siblings, I am glad that I am just one of the lucky ones. I wanted to be towards the outside of the buoy line to have a little more clear water. Wasn’t really in the mood to be hacked and slashed in the beginning of the swim. Once we were situated, we were looking at the massive crowd and believe it or not, we actually found my parents, Erin, and Kenzie, their daughter. They were waving a sign they had made us and we waved back. Then, with no warning, BOOOOOM, the cannon went off. I was like S&^%, I guess the race started. No time to get anxious now, we’re swimming.

The course is a triangular shape out and back course. We went 1612m out, 450m across, and then 1800m back in. At the two turns, there were boathouses. My plan was to take the first leg out bi-lateral breathing, switch over to breathing twice on the right to every breath on the left across the short back side, and then go to breathing every stroke at some point on the 3rd leg back. Staring out wide, I had all the clean water I wanted. I stayed smooth and easy and veered my way into the line of buoys and caught the feet of a woman who seemed to swimming pretty hard. Well it seemed as much as she had a huge kick, so it made it easy to stay on her feet. Swam on her feet for about 10 minutes or so. I was swimming very comfortable and it was exactly the feet I was looking for at the moment. It was just her and I about 7-10 meters from pack/buoys. After about 10 minutes, I really wanted to get a little closer to the buoys where the bigger pack was, so I gambled and left her feet and started cutting in. Once in the group, I started moving effortlessly pass quite a bit of people. Made my right hand turn for the short 2nd leg and realized the pack was thinning or I was moving up. I was feeling quite peppy by this point. Rounded the 2nd right hand turn at the boat and realized that I was up in the front of a pretty large pack. There was a girl not far up the way in the water and she had been there for quite a while and I decided that I should bridge up to her since we were obviously swimming at the same speed, so I did. We swam the rest of the way in changing leads at the front. I wasn’t for sure exactly where I was in the field, but I was at the front of some big pack and there wasn’t anyone in front of us that I could see for at least two buoys or about 200 meters. This of course energized me to stay on pace and knew I was going to have a great swim. Swam as far as I could until my hand hit the sand, stood up, peeled the top of my wetsuit down, and headed straight for the wet-suit strippers (One of my most favorite parts of the day. Whoever came up with that idea should get a Nobel). On a side note, as I was heading out of the water, I looked down and my heart rate strap was not on my chest. I guess it had fallen off when I was peeling my top down. For a split moment, I began to think I was “hosed,” but remembered an email that Justin had sent a couple of days before the race, and for some reason a three word phrase stuck out in my mind, “trust your instincts,” that is all I could remember from that email. His words of wisdom were meant to be I figured. So that is what I had to do for the rest of day. It would be a true test of what I learned in BOCO. So I thought “No Worries,” got my bag on the way to the change tent and proceeded to make a full change. I didn’t wear my white uni in the water for fear of it turning another color. T1 was a little longer b/c of the full change, but it was also meant to serve as a “relaxer” of which it did. Got my bike and headed out for the ride.

The bike is a one loop course with 2 significant climbs, Richter Pass and Yellow Lake, respectively. Going through the town was awesome, but difficult. With all the people lining the street and yelling, it was totally hype. I will say, I had probably 15 people pass me in the first 4 miles, a difficult thing for me to do. But the race plan was to let that happen. Gordo and Marilyn had warned me that this would happen, but said that I would be seeing those people after the turn around right before Yellow Lake. So relaxed riding I did. Between the relaxed T1 and taking it easy, I began taking nutrition on the bike after about 5 minutes. About 15 minutes into the bike, I started getting a side stitch. I figured it wasn’t much and continued on. Then of course, I began to think about that stupid HR strap that I didn’t have and my zones that I was supposed to be in. What was I going to do now!?!?!?! But I quickly extinguished my negative thoughts and remembered back to the last month or so. I had been training with no HR monitor anyways because mine had broke and I sent it back to Polar, so I knew I could do it. Besides, Justin’s email said,”trust your instincts.” The side stitch continued for the next hour and half. At one point right before we started the Richter climb, I was trying to think of reason that I had this nagging stitch and thought my one piece was pulling funny on my side or something. So I unzipped my top and pulled it down to my waist. I rode like this for about 5 minutes until I rode by the penalty tent and got yelled at by one of the officials. I was so irritated b/c my side hurt so bad, I think I yelled something back, but figured I better go ahead and get my top back up since unfortunately it didn’t relieve the stitch anyways and the last thing I needed was to be thrown in the next penalty box. That would have been a kicker!! The stitch had not slowed my pace down, it just assured me that I wasn’t going to do anything stupid, it definitely was a perfect governor, just an annoying one. At this point, I had taken a full bottle of my nutrition and half of my 2nd one. The plan was to have the 2nd bottle done by the bottom of Richter, but with my nutrition issues, I didn’t. So I tossed the bottle and began my climb. After about 20 minutes of taking no nutrition at all, my stitch started to go away. As I began to climb, things began to pro-cess (that is pro-cess pronounced like PRO athletes, eh) if you know what I mean. Continued to keep things easy up Richter and continued to have people pass me, but again, I remembered to just smile and stay relaxed, there was so much more time in the day. At this point, I decided that my stitch was coming from my nutrition, so I abandoned my bike nutrition for the rest of day and stuck to what they had on the course; Gatorade, power gels, and water.

Side note about my nutrition. I had changed to Infinit about 3 weeks before the race. I have used Carbo-Pro mixed with powdered Gatorade for the previous 5 IM’s and I never had problems, but it didn’t really have a good balance of electrolytes. I was a little worried that it might get a little hot in Penticton. So after speaking to Jeff about it, I decided I would give Infinit a go. It never really gave me problems in training, it just wasn’t very palatable. But I figured, if it had what I needed, I should just deal with it. Lesson learned, if you can’t drink it all or it is giving you GI issues, it doesn’t matter what’s in it, electrolytes or not, you better off sticking to good ole faithful.

Got to the out and back portion and rode pretty steady for the first time of the day. Got to the special needs bag at the end of the out and back and just kept rolling through. I saw my brother on the way back out, he wasn’t too far back. At this point, I was getting ready for what I had been waiting for all day. Were the folks that I saw blowing by me in the beginning going to re-appear? Once heading through the rollers to Yellow Lake, I began to raise my effort from what I had been doing all day. I actually rode this portion completely by myself, there really was no one around me. Things were feeling great and I was excited and in good spirits at this point. As I began to near the bottom of Yellow Lake, I could see a stream of people up the way. I thought, “Yes, perfect, the plan has worked!” I hit the bottom of the climb with all the people lining the road. They were fantastic!!! I started passing people. I can’t explain what happened at Yellow Lake, but it seemed everything that I was conserving all day as I had been told to do was all coming out at that moment. I knew in the back of my mind that I wanted to ride this portion. I knew as soon as I go to the top, I would have about 20-25K’s of descending, so definitely plenty of time to rest and fuel up. As I was rolling on, my cadence kept getting higher and higher, my legs kept feeling better and better, and I kept passing more and more people. At some point, I hit the steepest point of Yellow Lake and there were people lined on both sides of the street. It was Tour de France style. The fans had created a little pathway for the riders to ride up. They were yelling, cheering, playing loud music, banging on things, you name it. It was awesome!!!! At this point, I was so focused on keeping whatever I had going that I don’t remember much. I think for about 20 minutes, I repeated, “Relaxed and Smooth” to my cadence. I was in a rhythm.

Once I crested the major portion of climbing at Yellow Lake, emotion overcame me. I have never really had anything like this before, but I almost started to cry. I was elated!!! race execution is something that I have not done very well in Ironman. Part of this is lack of patience and lack of believing in the plan, but I was determined, I was here to execute, not do what I have done at every other IM I have done, BLOW UP. For the first time, I had gotten to a point later in the race and realized that I had so far done exactly what I had set out to do; paced appropriately. It was truly and big accomplishment for me. Not much happened the last bit home. Descended and made it back to the town where all the people were. Saw my family and gave them a smile and a wave and got ready for T2.

Coming in on the bike, all I could think about was not screwing up what I had done so far. The plan for the run was to run the first 3 miles around 9:00/mile pace and then steadily drop the pace down until I got into the 8:20’s range where I would hopefully keep that pace for the rest of the day. I knew it would be difficult, but was up for it. The most difficult portion was going to be the last 10K. (You hear that the race really begins with 10K to go on the run and that’s where you really want to run) I knew for me, I wasn’t going to be able to raise my effort that far out from the end, but I was gunning for the last 3 miles to give it all I had.

Out on the run, as each discipline has started that day, I had so many people passing me. It seemed even harder this time b/c there were so many people lining the streets and who wants to be the slowest dude in relative terms out there running with all these people passing you. But again, I knew, it wasn’t these 3 miles that were important, it was the last 3 miles that were important. I convinced myself it was a trade off, “You pass me now, and I’ll pass you back the last 3.” Fair enough right?

The first 2 miles were a little faster than I should have run, even then I thought I was really running slow.
1 - 8:38
2 - 8:19
I felt really good at the point of the race. Jeff passed me a little before 3.5 miles. From there, I just kept it steady and tried to keep a close eye on my pace since I didn’t have an HR strap on. Here are the rest the of my splits.
3 - 9:08
4 - 8:34
5 - 8:35
6 - 8:34
7 - 9:54
8 - 8:23
9 - 8:31
10 - 8:24
11 - 9:33
12 - 8:25
13 - 8:34
14 - 8:45
15 - 9:59
16 - 8:59
17 - 9:20
18 - 10:10
19 - 10:36
20 - 10:25
21 - 13:03
22 - 12:41
23 - 13:11
24 - 14:20
25 - 9:07
26.2 - 10:09

Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see where it all went to pieces. It came over me so quickly, as I felt very solid through 16 miles. It was like I had just walked off a cliff. All of the sudden I just hit the wall and as you can see, I struggled and eventually was humbled to a walking pace by mile 24. At that point, I rallied everything I had and just shut my mind off and decided that I was going to run in the last 2 miles as hard as I could. I was able to return close to my pace and finish strong.

All in all, it wasn’t what I would have expected, especially seeing 12-14 minute miles. I thought at worse I would see maybe an 11 if I blew, but not a 14:20. As I have reflected on what could have been the reason, I have come up with a couple of things. But first, I would like to say that what I did this summer I feel was appropriate. I wouldn’t have changed anything I had done, it taught me what I think will be what I need to do for run training for the next IM. So hear are my “theories.”

#1 – One thing that I realized during the melt down retrospectively was my inability to mentally fight through the “wall.” As I have thought about my running over the last 5-6 years, I must say that I haven’t done a ton of long run training outside of my IM schedules. I hadn’t visited “The Wall” too many times. I thought about Jeff’s running history and he has logged a few ultra marathons, did some adventure racing for a short period of time that required long runs with backpacks on and generally has had very consistent running. This leads me to believe that I might have poor mental tolerance of dealing with run pain, something I think that comes with doing those long runs and learning how to fight through that mentally. Supporting my thoughts that there is a mental toughness component was the fact that I was able to lift my pace for the last 2 miles. It took quite a bit of personal mental build up, General Patton’s poem, and the crowd on Main St to lift my pace of which I did. Something that will be addressed in “Project 26.2.”

#2 – One thing I would like to try is do some run training that extends my longer runs to 26 miles. I think everyone is individual when it comes to this. I think there are those who can get by with running 21-22 miles for their long runs and it is enough for them to run a marathon. On the other end of the spectrum, there are those runners who need to actually run the distance that they plan on running b/c they can’t assume 26.2 mile fitness from a 21 mile run. I suspect that I am on the latter end of the spectrum. For me, I think I need to run 26-30 mile runs for my legs to adapt. Over the summer, I think the longest run I did in one session was about 19-20 miles. If I look back at my splits and see where things started to detonate, it was around mile 17 and I completely lost it at mile 20. I will say, this is completely my theory, I will have to talk it over with the “wizards” and see if they agree. This could be a change in my program next time around.

All in all, I didn’t have the exact day that I wanted, but I am not un-happy about it neither. I learned a ton this summer and without these this race experience, I wouldn’t be able to make the appropriate training changes for me. That is what this is all about, finding out what works for you. Here are my splits for the day:

Swim - 57:43T1 - 3:45Bike - 5:24:51T2 - 2:40Run - 4:14:28Total: 10:43:25

So as I said in the previous blog that I would post my race goals, well here they are.

IM Canada Race Goals
August 26th, 2007

1. Finish
2. 10:45 or less
3. Smile every time I see my parents and have fun
4. Swim under :58
5. Stay relaxed on the bike
6. Ride under 5:30
7. Run 3:45

I was able to complete 6 out of 7 of my race goals, not too shabby.

I will also share the prayer that my buddy gave me and the quote that ultimately got me running again at mile 25 that Denny shared with TGG’s. I don’t thing either one of them would mind sharing.

The Prayer
In the eyes of God, we are the greatest. We put forth God's faith, in every moment of play. If we lose, we shall not greave, and if we win, we've done a good deed. Win or lose, all our praises go to God, for allowing us, o take part in this race.
Amen

The Quote
“Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell The mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired morning, noon and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. When you were younger the mind Could make you dance all night, and the body was never tired…You’ve always got to make the mind take over and keep Going.”
- George S. Patton, Us Army General and 1912 Olympian

Not exactly sure what my race plans are for the rest of the year. I decided that I would make no race plans until next year, but that doesn’t mean that I may not race, just nothing set in stone. In the mean time, gotta get back to the real world. Jeff, my Dad, and I are making our way back across the country in the Yukon and in the meantime I am currently applying for jobs. Not for sure where I will end up, I am always open to new opportunities. Until then, recovering for the next month and then getting the engine started up again.

1 IM wiser,
J