IM Wisconsin Race Report
Friday, September 28, 2007 at 9:58PM Here is the race report in its entirety as written to Coach Mike Ricci immediately after the race. This is how an Ironman really goes down.
"Finally got a minute to write this down! (race files are uploaded)
Had a terrible night's sleep two nights before the race. This really worried me, but ended up being ok. Went to bed at 3 pm the day before the race.
Woke up at 3 am and ate 600 calories and started getting ready.
Swim was ok. I guess I'm always surprised by how competitive the big races are. I'm used to coming out of the water without being bumped around much. I was knocked around a ton during this swim, but just stuck with it. I do not like having a full sleeved suit. It made my delts very tired. I estimated a 1:05 and nailed it on the head.
Took your advice and walked up the helix. Well, my PE was so low, I ran about half of it. T1 was a cake walk. It is amazing how much clearer your mind is during a race when your heart isn't in your throat. I was the lone racer to get a doofus bike handler. I had to go unrack my own bike because this guy was clueless. No worries, though. It's a long race.
The Powertap didn't work at all during the first half hour or so. I thought I was going to have to race without it. It picked up nothing (except speed) or unfathomably low wattage for an eternity. I just let it keep trying and finally it jumped up from 0 to 6 watts to around 180. That kind of scared me a bit. Had on a Suunto HR monitor just in case.
I went at the higher end of the prescribed wattage for most of the first loop. The flatter parts were exactly like the hills around my house and the hilly parts were exactly like the hills I trained on at the Farm in East Texas. I remember hearing several people lamenting that the hills were big or tough or even "scary". This actually cracked me up. Who cares about how bad the hills are? Wattage meters are the great equalizer. You do what you do and you get what you get. Stay within your wattage so you can run. I also went out on the bike course and checked out the surface before the race. I didn't care about the hills so much as knowing how dangerous the hard turns are and I felt the surface every so often with my bare feet to get an idea of how high to run my PSI. The answer: very high. This course was mostly smoooooooooth.
So I'm bombing down the first big hill in the mid 40's when my contact pops out of my left eye. I am very poor sighted (-3.75) and I instantly lost all depth perception. Lose the other one and my race is over. I scaled back the effort level just a fraction on the descents for safety's sake after that. I kept chugging up the hills at around 220 to 250 watts (threshold is 270) and coasting most of the downhills. I smiled to myself as I saw other racers screaming up the hills and blowing themselves up. I kept catching them later on the flats as their tongues were hanging out and I looked like I'd just hopped on the bike for a ride to the grocery store.
On the second lap, I popped a vivarin to help me breathe on the hills and that's also when I went into "cruising mode". I felt great, but had been definitely running at the top end of my abilities. I concluded that I could just switch gears and roll along and have fun, saving myself for whenever Jetpack caught up with me. I knew that if he ever caught me, he would have been going harder and I would be going easier, and I could just save myself for the run. I was also able to crack 250 watts on any climb at any time and ride the flats at 180 all the way till the end of the bike, so I knew I had what it took to keep up with my competition if necessary. This was in contrast to my power fading at the end of the longer training rides. I had this bike race by the nuts and I knew it. Pulled over twice to pee.
Started out running fine. Having only one eye wasn't anywhere near as dangerous on the run as it was on the bike. After an hour or so, my stomach started to bother me. Then the HR started dropping and I knew that was a bad sign. I went for straight water for a while and also noticed that I hadn't peed in a while either. Reports started coming in that I had thirty minutes to an hour on Jetpack, so I just kept rolling and tried to keep taking in water so that I wasn't dehydrated anymore. I started run walking 4:1 ratio right from the beginning and loved it. When I felt bad, I did about a 3.5:1.5 ratio and also walked the steeper hills. I kept telling myself that there are many highs and many lows in an IM, and this was just a low and it will go away if I take care of my nutrition. I began to feel better and was back on the 4:1 and running the hills for the last hour or so of the race. I got word that Jetpack was half an hour back with only 6 miles to go.
As I got closer to the finish line, I walked parts of my walks backwards so I could keep my eye out for Jetpack on the horizon. I did this a bunch in training to loosen up the legs and it really is nice during an IM race. The sun was setting and I couldn't believe that I was finishing so near daylight! I turned the final corner and saw that the clock read 12:59:00. I casually walked along the crowds and found Emily and Kai, picked up Kai, and strolled across the finish line with a sub 13 hour finish. I still had plenty of go juice in the tank if I needed to really race at the finish, and that was the plan.
My goals were as follows:
#1. Don't injure myself by going too hard. I have to start a new job and a neck brace doesn't make a good impression.
#2. Beat Jetpack.
#3. Finish sub-15 and feeling good.
#4. Just finish.
When I look at those goals, I see a formula take shape:
#1. Nutrition can win this for me. Jetpack and I trained exactly the same and he's never done one of these before. Go slow and steady and have plenty in the tank at the end in case I need it. Make sure I drink enough so that I have to pee on occasion.
#2. Cut corners to save time whenever possible. I skipped both special needs because I had everything I needed on me. Skipped digging my glasses out of my swim to bike run bag (in a totally different room by now) because I figured I run just as bad with one eye as I do with both.
#3. If I lose to Jetpack, make the race ENJOYABLE so that I finish with a smile, regardless of my time. Injuries are hard to sense during the heat of the moment and I was really looking forward to doing an IM run as a run/walk. That REALLY takes the edge off and changes the whole race from a death march to a fun event.
So, I beat Jetpack by 9 minutes. Turns out I had him on the bike and he could never catch up. He was running faster than me and we could have had quite a finish if I'd slowed down for special needs or a flat. Who knows how much faster I could have gone, but I'm glad I didn't have to find out. I definitely think I could have dropped another fifteen minutes to half hour if my GI tract didn't get funky on me. Perfect races are rare and I'll take this one any day. The best feeling was turning that corner and seeing 12:59:00. A sub-13 IM is a grand reward after doing a 17 and 15. CindyJo said she was banking on me beating Jetpack because I had done two IMs before and knew exactly what I was getting into. She couldn't have been more right. I knew when to hold back, when to go hard, what poor nutrition feels like, how to tell if I'm dehydrated, what low HR means, when to play it safe, what corners I could cut to shave time, and on and on. What I'm glad I didn't know is that I'd have to beat somebody who could do a 13:08 IM. If I had known that and not known my own time, I would have been scared poopless. Jetpack killed it on the run and had me in his sights. Yikes!
I've still got a slight strain in my left foot and my right knee hurt for a couple of days. Otherwise, I'm not too bad off. I am so happy to have all the hard training over so that I can spend time with my family! I am not planning on RACING another IM for at least a year, but I might stick with my yearly self-supported IM for fun next Fall. For sure, I learned so much from you about how to train, I feel like a walking encyclopedia. It's changed how I workout forever. It was a year ago that I was so badly injured that I thought there was no way I could even race at all this year. Quite bazaar that IM training is perfectly low impact enough to actually recover from some injuries, not just avoid them. I still have to do a podcast all about the race and I will be talking about this year's training for an eternity.
Two tips that Coach Adam told me that worked great:
1. I am a fast twitch sprinter. I need to treat the entire race like I am "commuting to the Wisconsin 10k." I burn too hot and too fast to make it any other way. I did that and it worked wonders. He told me that if I really wanted to smoke Jetpack, get him to race me in a 100 meter swim, 1 mile climb up a 12 percent grade riding big geared fixies, then sprint a 1 mile run. IM MOO is the opposite kind of race, Jetpack is a slow-twitcher, and I'm screwed unless I restrain myself big time.
2. Pretend like I am pulling ropes while running on the hills or difficult sections. This really cleaned up my form and pulled me through the low point on my run. Wow!
Gotta keep packing for Santa Fe! More later!"
