After Ironman Whistler I did a lot of soul searching because I didn’t qualify for Kona. So for this year I shifted my mental focus on having the best race I can and not “caring” about a spot for Kona. Obviously, I still want to go, but qualifying for Kona is outside of my control and I shouldn’t measure my performance against that. So I didn’t check who else is racing in my age group or how many slots will be available in my age group since in the end that doesn’t affect my race.
The race strategy was slightly different for this Ironman. For once I had to focus on my power (220-225Watts) and not my heart race similar with the run which was mostly based on pace and perceived exertion.
I also tried a new pre-race dinner which was mentioned in training camp. Basically it is the race breakfast also for dinner, which meant I ate lots of apple sauce and banana in the last two meals before the race. (Note: it is quite a challenge to find apple sauce in Los Cabos). After a quick bus ride and setting up transition I was ready to race. I did a quick warm up swim to loosen up my shoulders and than lined up for the start. I was a little more aggressive and seeded myself in the front row to left of the field.
Swim:
I sprinted down to the water and entered the water as one of the first. Breathing to the left and right revealed that there was no one just right next to me. But a pack of faster swimmers was passing me to the right. I decided to stay out of that turmoil and swim my line to the first buoy which was about 400m away. Not before long I was part of that big mass of swimmers and the turn around the buoy was a little congested.
I didn’t feel I was swimming fast since many other swimmer seemed to be going the same speed. I kept focusing on good technique and pulling a lot of water.
About halfway through the swim I saw some goggle slowly sinking in the water, some poor guy must have lost his goggle in front of me. There is a reason why I wear my goggles under the swim cap for racing.
Swim straight into the sun
Initially, I had a hard time to find some feet to draft of, since most people were swimming the same speed and to my surprise many of these swimmers weren’t able to swim a straight line. After the turn around a faster guy overtook me and I decided to stick with him. Even though his line wasn’t perfect either I hung with him for most of the swim back.
When I came closer to the finish, I started to wonder how fast I swam since it felt like a long time. Once out of the water I looked at the clock and saw 1:02 which made me super excited (6min faster than last year in Los Cabos) and over a minuter faster than IM Whistler. I got out of the water in 23rd place in my age group. So I definitely improved my swimming.
Thanks to Teresa Nelson for all the 1:1 sessions!
T1:
While running to the bike I saw Amy and she was yelling at me: “Did you see your time!?” which made me smile. I had a reasonable quick transition, but ended up with Sand all over me and also in my bike shoes. I didn’t want to waste too much time and just kept going hoping that it wouldn’t bother me too much.
Bike:
Right away I felt pretty good on the bike and focus on fueling which will be crucial part for the hot day. It was already warm at 8am. 4-5 people in my age group overtook me right away, but I stuck to my plan. But even before the first loop was over I overtook 3 of them again and than another one before the bike was over. So at least one indication that the bike was improving. I remembered that it was a hilly course from last year, but I had forgotten that it really was a constant up and down with hardly any flat spots.
The first loop went buy rather quickly and the heat wasn’t bothering me too much yet. But I poured water over me on pretty much every aid station just to make sure that I stay cool. I have a specific fueling plan which I follow strictly, somehow in this race I didn’t do that good of a job. About 2h into the race I took a gel about 15min late and because of that I decided to skip the next gel knowing that I was ahead of the drinking schedule because of the hot weather. 
3h into the ride it was time for my 2nd powerbar which I only ate 3/4 of it. I got so sick of it and couldn’t bare to eat more. I had a slightly upset stomach and started drinking some water (including salt tablets) which helped to relax my stomach. I was now on the 3rd lap and was really ready to be done. This bike course is no joke especially with the mid day sun it gets really hot on all those climbs. Protocol calls for peeing at least twice on the bike, but I was over 3h into the race and didn’t even feel like peeing yet. I got a little worried that I might be too dehydrated. Not a good place to start a marathon. Not much I could do than just keep drinking. I followed the fueling plan more closely for the rest of the ride and finally around the 5h mark I had to pee. I was relieved since that meant I wasn’t too dehydrated. The ride took me longer than planned and I took another caffeinated gel on the bike, and therefore had the correct amount of gels. (I’m glad my coach makes me bring extra gels). To top it off, I peed one more time just before I the end of the bike ride which was somewhat reassuring.
During the ride I drank two bottles of Perform. 6 bottles of Gatorade endurance and two bottles of water. I also ate two Powerbar and 6 PowerGel. This all adds up to 2520 calories. Even though this is pretty much what my race plan calls for I had a hard time to digest all of the calories. (I see more heat acclimatization workouts in my near future…)
I got of the bike in 5h and 35min which was just 3min faster than the previous year. The advertisment for the race said that the course would be faster and easier with the new course. I call BS on that. After the bike I was now in 19th place.
T2:
I learned from last year that the ground in T2 was way to hot to run barefoot and I opted to run in my bike shoes through transition. They yelled my number and a helper tried to get my bag, but I knew exactly where it was and in the end she was just in my way. But it was nice of them to try to help. The changing tent was mostly empty and a guy was offering sunscreen which I gladly accepted. I told him to put it on think of which he replied that he will make me look like a snowman. After only 95 seconds I was on the road moving again.
Run:
Since I often start the run too fast my coach instructed me to make sure to start no faster than 7:15min/mile which I did (~7:30min/mile). As always I ate a banana at the start of the marathon, but I had the hardest time to eat it this time and just ate it with really small bites. (took me about 2 miles to eat it).
Because of that I completely forgot about the block shots which I was supposed to take every 2 miles. Not that I was in the mood to eat them anyway. I forced myself to drink Gatorade and some water ad every aid station. The first few miles where a little slow, but than I started to move faster (~7:20min/mile) I felt okay and even the HR was just between top Z1 and middle Z2 which seemed okay. I finished the first loop in about 66min which was on route for a 3h18min Marathon. I was fine with that pace and thought to myself that I should keep patient it is still a long way to go. As planned I took a gel but my stomach was already a little iffy. I felt to urge to pee, but didn’t want to stop, so I just kept going. There is a hill at mile 13 and I planed to walk that hill and relieve myself there. It now sounds silly, but I didn’t want to have wet socks/shoes for another 16 miles so this was another motivation to wait. I felt like burping all the time but I couldn’t. It was a weird pressure and I thought it was partially because I had to pee. Apparently I had to pee badly and managed to pee at mile 12 while running. The first time ever that I managed to pee while running in full motion without stopping or walking. I’m proud of that fact! I’m less proud of the fact that this was right in front of a photographer who was taking race pictures.
I assumed my stomach would feel better once I peed but it didn’t. The pressure was still there and it was getting worse. At mile 13 I walked up the hill. I guess I had my mind set on it already. On top of the hill I started running again, but I had the hardest time to keep motivating myself and overcomming the stomach pain. I decided to start drinking coke while walking the next aid stations. I drank two full cups of coke in the next mile and at mile 15 I took a salt tablet just to make sure I had enough sodium since I figured coke wouldn’t have that much salt. I kept walk/running which went okay but the limiting factor was definitely my stomach not the muscles. Everytime I had a little rest (walking) I was able to run sub 8min/mile and my hear rate would easly go up to top of z1 which is a good sign, but the stomach pain would just steadly increase while running. The run bits got shorter and shorter. I decided to force myself to run longer, trying to ignore the stomach. I ran much longer than previous stretches, but than I had to stop since my stomach was cramping. I was standing still (zero forward progress) for a few seconds. At that point, I had use a lot of will power to just keep walking. That curb looked so tempting to sit down.
I expected people from my age group to run past me left and right but to my surprise that didn’t happen. In fact most other people on the course were either walking or running slower than I was moving with my run/walk mix.
Shortly into loop 3 I noticed that there is no point and I would just bring it home and not focus too much on the time. Amy and Dave were frantically cheering me on (as every time I ran past them, Thanks guys!) and I felt somewhat bad/disappointing that I couldn’t deliver my expected performance. My goal was still to finish sub 11h and have a sub 4h marathon. Initially, I though I could finish in 3:40 this quickly became 3:45 and than 3:50. There was really not much I could do. It was really pathetic, I couldn’t even run the last mile and had to walk 200yards before the finish line.
I finished the Marathon in 3h 52min with an overall time of 10:36:36. I am glad that I finished even though it was a struggle. The overall time was better than I thought it would be, but both it was both the worst Marathon and Ironman time so far. (both 17min slower than the 2nd slowest time)
My performance was good enough for the 16th place. Last Kona slot went to place #4 who had a time of 9h 31min. Which I think wasn’t in my cards even on a perfect day. Note: my best placement during the run before I fell apart was 15th. So there was only one guy who overtook.
After match:
Sunburn on my wrist which wasn't covered by my sleeves and I apparently didn't apply sunscren.
Even after the finish I didn’t feel better. I had a hard time drinking and eating things which lasted for another day. Normally, I can’t wait to stuff my face with Pizza and all other kinds of fast food. Not this time. Even after two days, my stomach was still not the same.
I think because of my upset stomach I didn’t take enough fluid and calories in the later parts of the run which in turn also hurt the muscles. I ended up with surprisingly sore quads after the race.
Swim file (not that silly me forgot the change the settings from the Duathlon to triathlon so my first split is recorded as a run):
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