IMFL 2012 RR- DNS averted and pseudo PR
The Sunday the week before race day-
Day 1 of a viral chest cold I pretty much get annually that lasts on average 10 days. Some years find me in bad shape, other years find me just annoyed at the phlegm and congested. Either way, I knew my race 6 days out would more than likely be compromised and I was extremely frustrated. The good news was that this gave me adequate time to get out of denial, somewhat get over being pissed about it, and more importantly, think about what I was going to do about it on race day.
Friday -
2:30AM: woke up in a complete drenching sweat despite no covers- fever. Awoke entire condo with my coughing and clearing my chest. Changed and either fretted or dreamt about fretting about the race until 9:00.
No fever. Chest congested. Skipped Four Keys talk to rest a bit (but I already attended the webinar). Made way to swim start for “practice”. Met up with some Chicago EN peeps and others. First swim in the ocean ever. Wavy and salty. Wet suit still works, goggles do too, and I float- Cool. Doing a hard 25 yards or so made my lungs hurt, but it was important (IMO) just to see where they were at, as I had basically been resting them for a week.
Race morning-
2:00 AM: ~1 Naked Smoothie. Was supposed to take in more but I was a bit nauseas. Back to bed. Drank rest of smoothie at 4:00 AM wake up. I was not worried about topping off my kcal too much as I had plenty of well timed pasta (in belly by 5:00PM) for dinner the day before. But given I was going liquid only, I had to give the smoothie thing a whirl. Nursed a 16 oz Gatorade en route and up to race start. Took one gel at 1 hour before the start gun.
Met Chicago EN peeps and others up by the boardwalk. It was great to see all of us there after so many workouts…crazy early Thursday long runs, long rides in the middle of nowhere, rides in the middle of Shoemaker’s garage on trainers, etc.
A few folks who knew where I was health-wise asked how I was, and I generally let out a “fine” and smile that probably indicated otherwise. It was time to start fooling myself at this point. Tom Randich asked me “Ever swim in the ocean before?” To which I replied, “Oh Yeah- Yesterday.” J
Honestly, I was more worried about my lung capacity and how it would react as opposed to anything else (elbows, jellies, surf, sharks). My focus had changed from a race finish time target to managing my day. Head in box. First things first, swim a ~1.2 mile loop and assess.
Swim-
I started somewhat towards the front and right; it worked well. Lots of contact- but I just kept telling myself to be “cool”, be comfortable, and not get into the red from a respiration rate stand-point. Came out of lap one at ~35min. Turned the corner for lap two and…Holy S****, those breakers are taller. No going over them, only through the center of them.
Just before the swim, Brian Comiskey quoted to me the line from Fast Times at Ridgemont High when the surfer character Spikoli, after being asked how he deals with rough surf, responded “Well I just look at that wave and say ‘Hey Bud Let’s Party’”. It made me laugh when BC said it at the time, and faced with the task at hand on lap 2, I found myself laughing at it again and saying the line out loud in my raspy voice, which made me laugh even harder…getting me some looks from others…which made me laugh harder, and hurt. Okay, jackass- back in the box you go- Do another 40 min swim.
Current and swells seemed more profound on lap two. By the time I was at the first red buoy, I was uncomfortable. Lungs hurt a bit and I was nauseas. Good news though, I was practically in the home stretch. Upon standing up getting out, I was really worried of how the nausea would subside or not. It did quite well. Upon hearing stories of others who raced this day, I was beyond fortunate in this regard. Time: 1:17
Bike-
My initial goal average power was ~180-185W. But this week, I told myself that if I made it to the bike, I would trim it down to 170-175W. I averaged a consistent 174. Even in doing so, my lungs really felt awkward the last 40 miles or so. Getting out of aero helped this out a bit. But I found myself out of aero too much and into sections with headwind. I slowly came to the conclusion that I was possibly the slowest person running a rear disc wheel and an aero helmet. However, I was very happy in terms of nutrition execution. Two bottles Infinit with 720kcal each (3 hour bottles) plus some back-up gels on my top tube worked fine. I used one gel at the start and 2 more on the course. H20 via aerobottle and aid stations. Time: 5:37:11
Run-
Saw my family; got my traditional IM run start kiss from my wife and I was off. Lungs felt “better”. Good to get out of the bike position. I kept cadence swift but easy. GPS on run watch never came around…which would have been nice because I was going WAY TOO FAST. I legitimately tried to slow down after noting initial mile splits but still averaged 9:00min/mi after 4 miles. Sigh, jackass, this will present later.
Good news- no GI cramping (this has been a challenge off the bike in previous races). My liquid only kcal strategy on the bike was working! Salt tabs, rescue Gatorade from my Fuel belt, and aid station provisions- mostly H20 and Coke worked well. Big picture, rest of run was “fine”, but I slowly felt the effects of fighting my chest congestion all day, the phlegm production became more pronounced and it really started to hurt. I really, really did not want to start walking (outside of the aid stations), but doing so helped take a lot of pressure off my chest. Sigh. And so the walk-run began; I would pick a time interval or a spot in the road to hit to either start or stop walking. I was getting passed by what seemed like thousands of people- it was getting dark and I was getting pissed.
Shortly after having this thought, I knew how much of clown I was being. Snap out of it! This is awesome- you are doing an Ironman! Smile. Your family is here; they are stoked. Smile. Your peeps are all out here suffering too. Smile, dumbass, but for the love of god, find a way and fight to get under 12 hours. Run: 4:46
Total Time: 11:59:12.
I was extremely blessed race week. My family and loved ones who came to the race had a great time in PCB. I was sick, but I could always have been sicker. I could have been torpedoed by nausea from the swim- but wasn’t. All my SW Chicago peeps finished. My race nutrition worked well. I finished upright, safe, and smiling. Technically an IM PR, but my others were on materially different courses/conditions (IMLOU 2010; 12:23; IMWI 2011: 12:24).
Comments
Great mental (and physical) work.
You betcha that's a PR, and under 12 hours to boot! I remain quite proud of my 10:55 in Arizona, even though my closest on another course is 11:29 in Coeur d'Alene. Those numbers matter, and they are ALL hard to do. And the bright side? You have an excuse to do another one with a clear chest and see what you can REALLY do
You did a great job at pulling all this together on race day. Way to get it done...