Even though St. Croix was a hard/hot race I recovered quickly and only 2 weeks later I felt physically and mentally ready to tackle the next race. Race strategy for this race was to be aggressive but aerobic on the Swim, Push 215 Watts on the bike (keep HR in check) and than start the Marathon with a 7:20min/mile. As a change to previous races, I did swim/bike/run the day before the race. Normally that is a complete off day, but my coach thought it would be beneficial for an aerobic athlete like me. The weather conditions weren’t as hot as previous years and the water was even cold enough to be wetsuit legal which it never has been before.
Swim:
2500 athletes in the water
I made sure to get to transition early and line up for the swim start so that I had a couple minutes to warm up in the water. I lined up in the front row of the swim next to a few other people who were planning on swimming around 1h. We couldn’t hear the announcements on how much longer we have until the start. I heard someone say 10 seconds and than the gun went off. The guy next to me took off and I jump on his feet. The first 50 meters I was drafting off him and we were swimming in the clear, but I could see masses of people to the left and right off me. Soon enough I was in the middle of it with lots of body contact. To top it off, aside from all the human body contact a duck flew into my head trying to get out of the mess. I guess that means good luck. With all the body contact I couldn’t swim a clean stroke which was annoying and also made me uncomfortable. A few hundred meters into the swim the field started to spread out and I was able to swim more normally. There was still the occasional body contact but not too bad. At this point I noticed how hot I was, at least the water at the turn around felt a little colder and felt refreshing in the face.
On the way back I tried to stay clear of other people and focus on a clean and strong stroke. I started passing people one by one. Until some guy ran into me from the side. Note: at this time there was a enough space to swim clear. The same guy than bumped into me again swam over me and a little later swam into me from the other side. At that point I had enough, I’m not necessarily proud of what I did but I grabbed his shoulder and pulled myself over him out of the way. Once I passed him I was swimming clear again. I was getting closer to the channel which meant there was only 1 kilometer left to T1. The channel started wide but got smaller and smaller which obviously led to some more body contact but mostly harmless just swimming close next to each other.
Swimming in the channel, I’m the guy just taking a big breath
Swimming in channel was fun, I was looking for Amy and Co. and eventually saw them thanks to an almost life size poster of me. I waved mid stroke and they must have noticed me too. They were walking next to me, while I was swimming the last bit to transition.
I didn’t see a race clock at the end and didn’t know how fast I was. Someone in changing tent said something about 64min so I figured that was my time which was a little slower than expected.
As it turns out I swam 1:02:51 which is surprising that I was swimming with so many other people. While I got faster over the last few years, everybody else must have gotten faster too. I finished the swim in 30th in my age group and 197 overall.
T1:
Transition was fast and uneventful. This time I remembered to put on the sleeves.
Bike:
Beginning of the ride while chewing on a power bar 🙂
I started pushing 215 watts right out of the gate as planned even though my heart rate was a little high. It took almost 15min for it to come down. My TFL was a little tight initially but eventually loosened up. A few people overtook me in the early miles, but I was also passing many people. I was making good progress at the beginning and biked the first 20 miles in just over 50mis. I got excited because that meant I potentially would be biking around 5h (30min less in the saddle than normally). But it seemed that the first part of the bike is all slightly downhill so I was worried that a lot of it is going to be uphill going back. I was riding alone for big parts of the ride and the few people around me which I saw were all riding nice (legal distance, no drafting). I was excited about that till mile 40 or so where a pack of 6-8 people overtook me all sucking each others wheels. Once again I wished I saw a referee to make a call on this blatant drafting. But there was nothing I could do about it. I didn’t see a referee for another 30miles.
Managing the heat by pouring ice cold water over my body
Some of the street in the middle section were a little rough. After a big bump I noticed that my storage box (behind the saddle) must have popped open. I tried to close it while riding but wasn’t able to. I stopped to close it and noticed that the disc wheel valve adapter was missing. This meant if I would have a flat back tire the race would pretty much be over. Again nothing I could do about this.
I constantly checked times for each 10miles I rode to estimate how much longer it would take me. About halfway into the bike it looked like I would finish around 5:20 if I would continue at that pace. This wasn’t as exciting anymore as finishing close to 5h. I also started to feel my quads which were getting tired. This combined with a head wind and the rough roads we turned onto was a little mental challenge to keep pushing. To top it off the sticker which covers the disc hole came loose and made a noise every time it went past the breaks. This noise would be my companion for the next 40 miles. While the resistance was probably negligible the constant noise was somewhat annoying. One guy overtook me and I decided to follow him (legally). He seemed to go just slightly slower than what my plan called for but it was nice to have someone setting the pace. Obviously, this also meant I had to be more careful not to enter his drafting zone but it was a nice difference to riding alone for big parts of the ride. The more miles I ticked off and the more caffeinated gel I consumed the better I started to feel. I ended up following that guy till mile 80 where I decided to focus on pushing the 215 Watts again. I had decided that I wanted to finish this bike strong and not just hang in there as so often. To my surprise I felt good and was making great progress. I ended up passing many people who overtook me initially right at the start. I even overtook a couple people who were passing me in the drafting pack and were now riding alone.
This is after 100 miles of biking. I obviously was still happy at that point.
The last part of the ride was lonely, sometimes for a long way ahead I couldn’t see anybody and I wondered if I was still on the right street until I saw the next sign. My stomach was a little “burpe”, but I was able to stick to the new fueling plan. I didn’t have to pee yet, although I had some slight pressure in the bladder. So I probably was just a little dehydrated. At the 100 mile mark I checked my watch and saw that I was going to finish sub 5:15. Once I got closer to the finish and actually saw it was more like a 5:10 time which was super exciting. This fast bike time also meant that I didn’t consume the last caffeinated gel and planned to consume it a little earlier on the run.
I finished the bike in 5:10:43 which is more than 15min faster than my previous best bike split. Obviously it was also a faster bike course. Looking at the ranking I didn’t move a single place forward in my AG (but 62 place OA where I was in 135th)
T2:
I heard from last time that people got blisters because of the hot surface they had to run on. So I decided to run through transition with my bike shoes on. Since it was a long run and some of it on the concrete, I had to be careful not to fall over. But all in all I had a quick transition. Some volunteer slabbed sunscreen on my back and off I went.
Run:
ON the first lap there aren’t many people on the course yet.
I was trying to start easy and just ran my pace but I quickly noticed that I was running a sub 7min without thinking. So I started to slow down. I ran past Tim (QT2 coach) which told me to “ease into it” which I really tried but I ended up running the first mile a little quick. During the first mile I was eating a banana as every start of an Ironman Marathon, but this time I struggled with eating the banana. Especially since it was a huge banana. After about 2/3 I decided to throw it away. My stomach was a little on edge, but not doing too bad. At mile 2 I decided to pee since they had port a potty’s.
I didn’t want to run 26miles with wet shoes and opted to sacrifice the time. In the end this cost me 60 seconds. I was back on track with running and felt pretty good. Some of the Pros were running past me and to my surprise I wasn’t running all that much slower. Focused on get sports drink down but my stomach wasn’t too happy. I poured water over me and used ice as much as possible to stay cool. With that I started to feel better and as discuses with my coach I just went with it. (but keeping heart rate in check). So I ended up running close to a 7:15min/mile for a few miles. I did the first loop around the lake and came back to transition area on the other side of the channel. My fan crew had positioned there to cheer me on! Thanks Guys!
My awesome cheering squad. With the big posters they made for me. You guys rock!!!
I didn’t look at the run course too closely and had to learn that the the out and back along the channel is much farther than I expected. At around mile 8 someone was playing a Trance song which reminded me of TomorrowWorld last year and I was close to tears of joy. I know this sounds crazy, especially since I normally don’t feel emotionally “unstable” till the very late miles of the Marathon. So that was kinda weird it certainly showed that I was more tired than usually at this part of the race. Finally I reached the sign which directed us to the 2nd/3rd loop and later to the finish. Two more loops. The next mile was by far the busiest spectator wise. There were so many people standing along the channel and cheering us on. I again passed my fan club which had switched to the other side of the channel.
I started to have a low moment. I was just not feeling it anymore. I realized that it had been over an hour and considering the skipped gel on the bike I was way behind with taking caffeinated gels. I partially didn’t take it because of my stomach but than also just forgot. I decided to walk the next aid station and drink a coke as well to get back on track. I also put ice everywhere. A few miles later I started to come around and ticking off sub 8min miles again. I wasn’t feeling great, but I was managing the situation. My stomach started sloshing from all the drinking. So I took a salt tablet, which seemed to help the stomach. I ran past the 13 mile sign which meant I had another 13 to go.
After that my memories got blurry for the rest of the race. I remember taking coke at pretty much every aid station and using water to cool myself down. I remember that it got mentally harder and harder to stay motivated. The next time I saw my fan crew I wasn’t doing that well anymore. My stomach was upset and my legs were screaming. I just tried to hold on. I wasn’t in a happy place and all I wanted to do was finish that race, I didn’t care about my time anymore. I just wanted it to be over! Last lap I was hurting. Normally in a race I remember where I walked the first time or when the turning point was. Not this time. I know that I consumed two more gels and two more salt tablets to keep everything in check. The distance I ran between my walks became shorter and shorter. Lots of people would pass me when I walk, but when I ran I would overtake them again. The next time I saw Amy I walked to her and gave her a Kiss. She screamed at me to GO and so off I went. (Tough Love)
Finish pictures for once from the other side
I had mentally checked out. I remember checking watch at 22 at with a time of 9h18 and thinking If I run 4 miles in a less than a 10min/mile I will still get a new PR. It took me almost another mile to start to move faster. For the last two miles I got my act together and started pushing harder. And finally the last mile I ran again in an 8min/mile. Finishing the Marathon in 3:33:42. With a new PR of 9:53:17. I overtook 16 people in my age group and moved into 14th place. (99th place OA)
Interestingly, even when I started walking no one in my age group did overtake me. It seems everybody else either was ahead of me or had slowed down too.
After match:
I wasn’t happy with my race. Mainly because I mentally checked out. I just felt like an Ironman is too long to stay motivated and I also questioned why I keep doing them.
By now I feel somewhat better about it. But I still have mixed emotions. I had a good swim and a great bike. But the ran could have been 10min faster if I would have stayed ON. Not that it would have mattered that much since the last Kona slot in my age group went with 9h23min. So I would have needed to be 30min faster.
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