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2009 Ironman Canada

Oh Canada! I’m not sure what I was thinking but I figured our neighbor to the north would be a little more forgiving than it was on race day. Though I survived, and by all reasonable standards had a really good day, I’ll admit up front that I was hoping for a faster, more comfortable race. I know that it’s hard to be disappointed by a sub-11 hour Ironman, but… well… I am. A little.

If you’ve read my race reports before, you know what you’re getting into by starting this. In other words, I hope you read fast or have a little time on your hands. But I have broken it up with some great photos (courtesy of Aaron and Mike’s uncle Tim).

Early morning:

Saturday night I got into bed around 9:30 and read until 10. I struggled a little to fall asleep, but once I did, I slept like a rock. I did have one Ironman-anxiety dream – in the dream I passed out at some point late in the race and when I came to no one would tell me if I finished or how I did or what happened.

My alarm went off at 3:30am. That’s been my Ironman routine – up at 3:30, eat a big breakfast and then get back in bed for 45 minutes or so before leaving for transition. I like eating that early because it gives me a better chance to digest. And more time to try to get that all important pre-race poop out of the way. After my oatmeal, protein powder and fruit, I got back into bed and closed my eyes, but didn’t really sleep. Out of bed again 4:45, got Aaron up, got my stuff together and Aaron, Mike and I drove down to transition.

Pre-race:

Parking was easy and we dropped off our special needs bags and got body-marked pretty quickly. Somewhere around here Mike and I got split up. I went to my bike where I did a final check, loaded my bottle of InfiniT on the bike, filled up my Aerodrink and pumped up my tires. My final stop was to go check on my T1 and T2 bags to make sure everything was still there and well organized. At that point, it was probably 5:45 and I was essentially done. The porta-potty lines were crazy long, so I called up Drew, whose hotel room was right next door, and went up to hang out with him for a few minutes and use his bathroom. Best idea of the morning. First, there was no line to use his bathroom, which was huge. But at least as important, it was relaxing up there. We watched a little sports highlights and chatted about the race. At 6:20 I headed back down to try to find Aaron, get into my wetsuit and get ready for the start.

I got back down to transition and ran into Mike as I was dropping off my dry clothes bag. By this time the sun was fully up and it was already a little warm. Cooler temps would been more comforting because warmth at 6:30am didn’t bode well for the temperature later in the day. I tried to find Aaron down by the swim start, but there were just too many people. Mike and I watched the pros start at 6:45 and then got into the water for a little warm-up swim. The water felt great – the announcer said it was 69 degrees, but it was warmer than that (near the shore at least). I still figured it would be fine, even in the full wetsuit. The music was blaring. Everyone was wading in the lake finding the “right” place to start. There was a nice mixture of nervous energy, excitement, friendliness and adrenaline in the air.

A singer sang “Oh Canada” and I got a little shiver as the moment really hit me. This was it. Here we go, again! Mike was belting it out next to me and despite the fact that I cannot sing, I really wished I knew the words and could have joined in. I started thinking back on all the training and all the support and looking around at the crowds and thinking how proud everyone on the beach was of everyone in the water and thinking about family and friends at home following along on-line. It was a sense of accomplishment before I’d even started the race. A great way to start the morning.

Then, the countdown began and we were off.

Swim:

I started the swim really, really easy because I was a little worried about pacing. Placid is two rectangular loops – when you get halfway across the top of the rectangle, you’re 1/4 of the way done. I could check my watch at that point and evaluate pretty early whether I needed to slow down, pick it up or maintain my pace. The swim at Ironman Canada is one loop. And it’s a parallelogram (good word!) where the way out is shorter than the way back and the part in the middle is really short. I knew the approximate distances of each leg, but it wasn’t easy math to figure out on the fly. So… I took it easy for what I’d guess was 600-800 meters. I was swimming in a fair amount of traffic anyway. But I wasn’t getting knocked around too much. There was definitely some contact and people were swimming across my legs and I had to swim through some tight groups of people, but nothing too dangerous or violent. In three tries, I’ve never had a bad experience at an Ironman swim, in fact I think some wave starts have been rougher. Maybe I’ve just been fortunate about where I started?

As it turned out, I found the swim at Canada to be easy – as far as 2.4 mile open water swims go, that is. I thought that it would be harder than Placid because Lake Okanagan doesn’t have that bright yellow cable along the course like Mirror Lake, but the water was clear and calm and it’s a big advantage to only have to make two turns in the entire swim. This summer I’ve gotten used to the ocean swimming where often you can’t barely see the buoys until you’re just about on top of them, but in a calm lake, the buoys really stand out, so even though there wasn’t an underwater cable to follow, sighting was a breeze.

After getting clear of the initial bumping and grinding, things spread out a fair amount. I was able to get some good drafts (as the poor woman whose feet I was riding and regularly touching for a while can definitely attest!) and was moving along at what felt like a good clip, without too much effort. As you can tell from the diagram, during the swim you keep all buoys on your right, but, like I did at Placid both years, I swam on the inside of the buoys almost the entire time. I had to go outside to make the first turn (there was a houseboat anchored there so you couldn’t miss the turn) and then at the very end, I moved back to the outside for the last few buoys. I checked my watch a few times during the swim and tried to figure out where I was on the course. I knew at about the houseboat that I was on pace to finish somewhere between 1:00 and 1:05, which was great.

For the entire third leg of the swim, you just point towards two new tall condo buildings and swim straight ahead. During the way back, it almost felt like there was a current pulling me home. I approached the beach and waited until my fingers were digging up the sand, at which point I stood up, high stepped it to shore, ran through the crowds, across the timing mat and straight to a group of three wetsuit strippers.

Swim time: 1:03:39
Average heart rate: 127 (that’s 11 heart beats/min. less than last year! interesting…)
Pace: 1:41/100 meters
Overall place: 345/2,595
Age group place: 68/359

T1:
With my wetsuit in hand, I grabbed by Swim-to-Bike transition bag and ran into the changing tent. I dumped out my bag – helmet, shoes, socks, arm coolers, baggie of gels and baggie of extra InfiniT. I got dressed quickly and was on my way. It may be a long race, but there’s no reason to waste any time in transition. The only decision I really had to make was whether or not to wear socks. My tri shoes are great without socks and I’ve done long rides without socks no problem. But I also knew that I’d need socks for the run anyway and decided that I’d spend the few seconds in T1 instead of T2, when I’d be a lot more tired. Before the race, I’d also debated whether to put the arm coolers in my bike transition bag or the run bag. I chose the bike, figuring that it could get hot out there on the bike and it couldn’t hurt to have them on for the whole race. (Someone posted a comment the other day asking about the arm coolers. They’re made by De Soto – here’s a link, but you can get them at a bunch of places online or at tri shops. I bought them before Badwater and wore them pretty much the entire 29 hours. They keep the sun off your arms, and by keeping them wet or stuffing ice inside them, you can keep cool.)

Time: 3:31
Average heart rate: 146

Bike:
I grabbed my bike from the rack (unlike Placid, there weren’t volunteers running bikes out for racers) and hustled out of the transition area. As I was about to get on my bike, this woman came streaming out not looking where she was going and nearly cut me off. I say “nearly” because I sidestepped her, but she tripped over herself and almost hit the ground. I hope she was OK, she should have been paying attention and didn’t worry about her too much. I also smacked my right shin into my pedal, which stung for a few seconds, but was forgotten pretty soon after I hit the road.

(nice position, right? looks like a dorsal fin. very aero!)

The bike course starts off going south on Main Street through Penticton. There were a lot of spectators on the roads cheering us on. Main Street was closed to traffic and there weren’t that many bikes around me, so I was able to tuck into aero and get moving. I spent the first 20 minutes of the ride getting my heart rate back down and sipping water. I felt good and was really cruising. The first about 42 miles (up to the start of the climb to Richter Pass) of the bike course are by far the fastest part of the course. There’s one short, but steep, hill pretty early, but other than that it was either flat or slightly downhill and on Sunday in this section we had the wind at our backs. For big chunks of this first part of the ride, I was cruising in the mid-20’s mph and keeping my heart rate and perceived effort pretty low. I rode by some guys from Bike Barn and screamed out to my “buddy” Ian. I passed the first (and only) bike checkpoint at 42.5 miles and knew my family and friends were finally getting an update. I was psyched for them to see my time so far. I was off to a great start.

At Osoyoos, the course makes a turn and you start the climb up to the top of Richter Pass. The climb is really four climbs with little plateaus in between. I had had to pee since about the end of the swim and I couldn’t do it while riding, so at the first aid station on the climb, I jumped off the bike to pee. It probably cost me 90 seconds. Unlike Placid where I stopped to pee three or four times on the bike, this time, this was my only stop on the bike. The total climb is about 10K and it felt like each climb was about the same length. For each climb I put the bike into the small chainring and spun up the hill. I was generally with the same group for most of the climb. Even after I stopped to pee, I caught back up with them. I started feeling the heat a little on these climbs. I was dumping water down my back and keeping my arm warmers nice and wet.

After about the first few minutes on the bike, I didn’t think about the broken derailleur hanger at all. The weld held up just great. My shifting was smooth and easy. When I remembered, I tried to shift slowly from the small chainring to the big one, but it was working great. The drama from Thursday and Friday was pretty much completely out of my mind.

After Richter, there’s a fast – and very welcome – 5 mile descent, and then there’s a long stretch of rollers that was mentally the hardest part of the bike leg for me. This isn’t a particular interesting part of the course and I started getting bored. To make things more fun, we were getting hit with a headwind. The rollers are positioned so that it is (or was, with the wind) hard to maintain momentum from one descent to the following climb. So, it would be a nice descent and then a slow down and then I’d hit the next climb. The course goes like this until you get to an out-an-back section at about mile 62 (I think). From our drive of the course, I expected to hate the out-and-back. It takes you directly in the opposite direction you were riding so I thought that psychologically it would feel like back-tracking. Instead, I liked this part. The two-way traffic was interesting and I got to see who was ahead of me.

One mistake I made on the bike was with nutrition. At Placid, special needs is at pretty much the half-way point. This works perfect for me because I put about 3 hours worth of InfiniT calories into one bottle. That concentration works well for me and one bottle should carry me beyond 56 miles. I knew that special needs at Canada was at around 76 miles, but I still used the same concentration. So I ran out. I had a gel on the bike and “ate” that, but there was still a 30-or-so minute stretch where I didn’t get enough calories and felt a little hungry. Bike special needs finally came at the turn-around. I rode by, grabbed my bag out of the hand of the volunteer, swapped bottles and tossed the bag, all without getting off the bike. I was able to make up for the lost calories pretty quickly, but I wonder if it did affect me later?

The other thing I learned is that I don’t really love my aero helmet – especially not for a ride this long. I have the LAS Chrono. It’s a good helmet and fits my position well – the long tail rides right on my bike when I’m tucked in. BUT, it’s 450 grams, which is about 200 grams heavier than my Rudy Project road helmet. Also, the length of the tail on it picks up the wind. Using the Chrono for the Bonelli Olympic was great, but it got heavy about 75 or 80 miles into the Ironman and my neck ached. Live and learn, and there might be a new aero helmet in my future!

After the turn-around comes Yellow Lake. During our drive, the Yellow Lake climb didn’t seem all that significant. On Sunday, though, 80+ miles into the course and with a pretty strong headwind, Yellow Lake was a challenge. It’s a series of climbs and finishes with the steepest climb of the course. Thankfully it’s a short one and there are tons of spectators crowding the road, but it was tough. After that climb, supposedly you’re good as done – a fast descent into town and then Main Street right back to transition. On Sunday the headwind attacked on that descent. While pedaling down a hill I should have been flying down tucked in without moving my feet, all I could think about was how much fun it would be to descend without the wind.

The last part of the bike is a couple mile stretch on Main Street. The strong wind was there too. I so wanted was to get off the bike and I could see the end, but that wind was making the seconds tick by much more slowly and I think I was probably putting out a little too much effort here in order to get off the bike. One highlight was that Aaron was standing on this stretch of the road, maybe a half mile from transition. He shouted to me and it was so nice to see him there.

Bike time: 5:29:32
Pace: 20.4 mph
Average heart rate: 128
Overall bike place: 278/2,595
Age group bike place: 63/359
Overall race place: 266 (passed 79 people!)

My 5:29 was 20 minutes faster than at Placid last year. The Canada course is faster than Placid I think. But not a whole lot and the wind was tough. I am super psyched with that time.

T2:

I’m really proud of my 2:17 T2. There was absolutely no f-ing around.

Time: 2:17
Average heart rate: 117

Run:

The run started off pretty great. I was feeling good. So excited to be off the damn bike and to have that helmet off my head, but also feeling like I was going to have a good run. I’d run a ton this year and, while I don’t think I’m as fast as I was in, say 2006, I’d been having good runs and good brick workouts. I was 6:40 into the race and figured that even a 4:00 marathon would get me in the door with a nice PR. And, honestly, I thought that breaking 4:00 would be a breeze. Could I do 3:50? 3:45? I saw Drew on my way out and he warned me what I already knew, it was hot out and I needed to take it really easy right from the start.

After passing by Mike’s family right outside of transition and then Aaron a couple of miles later (the run course does a zig-zag on Lakeshore for a mile or two before heading back out on Main) and then Mike coming in off his bike a few minutes after that, I was still feeling great. I had started at what I felt was a conservative pace. The first five miles were all at about 8:00/mile. But, then, right outside of town, the wheels came off. My miles started creeping into the high-8’s and low-9’s. After a few more miles, I had to start walking aid stations and hills. My legs felt like sacks of bricks, my quads wouldn’t respond to my desire to make them move and I couldn’t help but slow down. And I slowed down a ton. When I was running, I was running at a nice pace and my stride felt good. But the key was that I couldn’t keep running for very long at a time. I watched the time slip by and 3:45 or 3:50 slipped out of reach. I passed the half marathon in just under two hours and knew that I was looking at the “wrong” side of four hours.

Half marathon time: 1:59:37
Pace: 9:07/mile

The run course is a lot hillier than I expected. And it was hot out there. There wasn’t any shade. The air was smoky from some nearby brush or forest fires. And the headwind on the bike probably made me work harder than I planned. I’ve spent a lot of the last few days thinking about what happened on the run. And I still don’t have a good explanation. Other than that short period on the bike, I think I nailed the nutrition. I didn’t have any stomach issues, took in a good amount of calories, the InfiniT has plenty of electrolytes and salt and I drank a ton of water. Maybe it was the fact that I haven’t done any strength training in months and my legs aren’t as “strong” as they need to be? I didn’t feel too hot and did my best to keep cool with water and ice, but maybe the heat was getting to me more than I thought? I feel like I tapered well and rested my legs enough in the days before the race. Whatever it was, I couldn’t keep running.

And that’s pretty much the story of the run. Even though there were a ton of people out there run-walking and suffering like I was, I felt like I was getting passed a lot. And I couldn’t really do anything about it. I never once doubted I would finish and I tried hard not to kick myself too hard, but it was tough.

On the final few miles back into town, I ran past the family whose house we rented. Their youngest daughter and two of her friends surprised me with great signs and some of the loudest screaming of the day.

They ran with me for a hundred feet screaming and shouting the whole time. A guy running next to me laughed and complemented me on my cheering section! For a lot of the second half of the race, I talked with some fellow sufferers. We’d spend a minute together and then one would go ahead or fall back. But with a mile or two to go, I started running with Steve. Although I kept running ahead to try to make it in under my 10:52:47 from 2008, I continually had to stop to walk and Steve’s consistent run caught up to me every time. It was great to have company for the end of the race. (That’s him below just off my left shoulder.) I ran by Mike’s family and Tim got some more good pictures.

I managed to do something of a slow “sprint” to the finish. But that’s not difficult to do when there’s nothing I wanted more than to be done. I knew I’d miss the PR, but sub-11:00 would be just fine!

Second half marathon: 2:15:31
Pace: 10:20

Total run time: 4:15:08
Pace: 9:45/mile
Average heart rate: low/mid-140’s for first half, 130’s for second half
Overall run place: 444/2,595
Age group run place: 68/359
Overall race place: 290 (passed by 24 people – it felt like a lot more)

Official time: 10:54:05
Official place: 290
Age group place: 65

Post-race:

I crossed the finish line and was grabbed by two volunteers and Drew. Aaron was just on the other side of the fence. I felt good – a little wobbly sure, but all that walking had saved me some post-race pain. I got a ton of food – the cookies and watermelon tasted like heaven – and found a nice patch of grass to lay down and talk with Aaron, Steve, his wife Laura and their friend Monica.

After a bit of that, Aaron and I went back to the house and showered. Mike and his family came back a little later and we had some pizza with them. Then at around 11, Mike, Aaron and I went back down to the finish line to watch the final finishers. What a party that was.

Hundreds of spectators and finishers cheering and screaming and dancing and banging on stands, the announcers shouting people across the finish and the men’s and women’s winners, Jordan Rapp and Tereza Macel, down there leading the cheers. So much fun! I have some videos of the late finishes that I’ll post separately soon.

Once again, thank you all for your support, love and friendship while I keep doing these races. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: I COULD NOT POSSIBLY DO THIS WITHOUT YOU! I know that the training and travel and racing and diet and social-life restrictions that I impose on myself affect all of you. And you put up with me and are still willing to keep reading these novellas I call “race reports”. You all rock!

(If you can’t tell, I’m buttering you up so that you continue to support me when I announce that I’m trying this stupid thing again…)

Marathon splits (for any real masochist out there):
1: 7:58
2/3: 15:26
4: 8:13
5: 7:55
6: 8:42
7: 8:57
8: 9:04
9: 9:52 (stopped to pee, and this is where the walk-run really started)
10: 9:25
11: 12:35 (no idea what happened here – hopefully a hill?)
12: 8:40
13: 9:11 (downhill right before the turn-around and special needs)
14: 10:08
15: 11:15
16: 10:22
17: 9:10 (wish I could have kept this up)
18: 9:54 (or even this!)
19: 10:36
20: 11:37 (no idea what happened here)
21: 10:07
22: 9:48
23: 10:19
24: 11:11
25: 10:58
26.2: 13:35

Swim – September 2
Distance: 1,640 yards (1,500 meters)
Time: 30 minutes