McCallum 2012 IMAZ Race Report... not a 3hr14min PR!!!
My original goal when I signed up for IMAZ 2012 (IM #3) was to finish time in the 10:45 range. My last race prior to IMAZ was the Syracuse 70.3 on June 24th. I counted 21 weeks between races. 13 of those 21 weeks I was not able to run due to injury issues – ten weeks post-Syracuse, and about three weeks following tweaking my MCL in October. Swim and bike training were fine but my run training just flat out sucked. Base endurance was going to get me through the day but that wasn't going to allow for a very fast run. I had no idea what to expect on the run.
Woke up around 4:20 AM on race day. Had about 250 cals of applesauce, 200 cals of Poptart, 250 cals of oatmeal, 200 cals of Gatorade and 200 cals of Starbucks Doubleshot Energy.
Took a quick shower to loosen-up and slathered myself with Body Guide and Aquaphor. Got dressed, grabbed my stuff and headed out the hotel door. Arrived at the race site at 5:30, parked and headed to transition.
While pumping up my tires I noticed one of those thorny spur things sticking out of my rear tire. I pulled it out and it didn't seem like the tube was leaking air but I wasn't going to take that chance and swapped out the tube. Potential crisis averted!
SWIM
I waited until the last few minutes to get into the water because I don't like cold water and I knew the water was 63 degrees or so. I made sure to wear a neoprene cap and that made a world of difference. I ended up positioning myself right-center, maybe five rows from the front.
It was the usual mass start swim melee for the first few minutes and then things smoothed out a bit until about 1000m and then it got real crowded again. Not sure why but it was crowded until the buoy turn. I wasn't able to find a groove until the second half of the swim.
The swim exit was interesting. God bless volunteers but I had a tough day from a volunteer perspective and it started at the swim exit. Anyone who has done IMAZ knows getting out of the water is difficult with those ladders. A little help from the volunteers is much needed to pull oneself out of the water. As luck would have it my volunteer was a 5 foot tall woman who weighed about 100 pounds. She was no help at all and it took me probably 30-40 seconds to get up that ladder as my arms were a little tired from the hour plus swim.
Goal was 1:05-1:08. Actual swim time was 1:10. It was a real easy effort swim though and in the ballpark of where I wanted to finish so I'll take it.
T1
I was hoping for a T1 in the 6:00 range but I was a little discombobulated from the 1:10 swim in that cold water and I was operating in slow motion… at least my mind was. I chose not to go into the changing tent since I wasn’t changing and I wanted to get a good feel for the air temperature so that I could make an informed decision on whether or not to wear arm warmers and gloves. The air temp actually felt pretty good and probably higher than forecasted. I chose not to wear arm warmers and gloves and it was the right decision.
My T1 volunteer was also more of a hindrance than he was helpful. All I wanted out of my bag was my helmet, shoes, socks and sunglasses. Socks and shoes are the obvious things I needed to deal with first and my volunteer kept handing me everything else. I can’t hold things in my hands when I’m trying to put on shoes and socks so I kept setting the other items down on the chair next to me. He would then put them back in my bag and I would tell him I still needed the stuff. So he’d take it out and hand the items to me, I’d put them back on the chair since I’m still trying to put on socks and shoes, he’d put them back in the bag, I’d tell him I still needed that stuff… anyway you get the picture. After spending a couple of minutes playing grab-ass with him I told him to just hand me everything and I’d be all good. I jammed everything into my T1 bag and I noticed my neoprene cap was missing as well as the green swim cap. I found my volunteer and asked him what he did with my cap(s) and he said he threw them out. I informed him the black cap costs $30 and I’d really like that back since it’s not a throwaway cap like the green one.
7:32 and one lost neoprene cap later and I am finally on the bike.
BIKE
My goal wattage was in the 200-205 range. My plan was 190-195W to the Beeline turnaround and then I’d kick it up to 200-205. I rode most of the Beeline section of the course on the Friday before the race when there was pretty much no wind. It was absurdly fast without wind. First thing I noticed once I got to the Beeline on race day was the wind. Not a strong wind that was going to wreak havoc on the day or anything but I knew the course wasn’t going to be nearly as fast as it was on Friday.
The first half of the first loop was a little slow given some headwind and the “uphill” nature of that part of the course. The second half of the first loop was blisteringly fast.
The second loop saw the wind shift to more crosswind and less headwind/tailwind.
The third loop saw similar winds to the second loop but maybe a little more tailwind on the way out and headwind on the way back than loop two.
I’m not sure why but I had the hardest time pacing my watts. I’m normally a very steady cyclist but I was all over the place that day. I felt fine from a physical standpoint and wasn’t fatigued but I couldn’t keep the pace that I wanted. I ended up with a NP of 190 watts. Not sure if it was the long stretches of tailwind and/or downhill where I took the proverbial foot off the gas pedal. Hell, if I’m going 27 mph on 170 watts then why bother trying to ride 200 watts to go 28 mph. J
I also have issues with exercise induced asthma. I had felt fine leading up to the race but once I set foot in Arizona it started to flare up a little. I had a small asthma attack at about mile 80 of the bike. I stopped at an aid station for a couple of minutes to rest and get my breathing under control. I have never had that happen during a race and it was kind of scary.
Bike time was 5:16.
My plan was to drink 7 or 8 bottles of Perform (no water) plus a Poptart halfway through. I ended up only drinking 6 bottles of Perform, two bottles of water plus the Poptart. That was about 240 cals/hour. Lower than I wanted from a calorie perspective but I just didn’t want to drink anymore Perform. I didn’t feel nauseous or anything and I normally don’t mind the taste. I just didn’t feel like drinking anymore of it.
T2
Handed my bike off and headed to T2 in no rush. Got my bag and got "lucky" with another volunteer that was more of a hindrance than helpful. I changed tops in T2 as I had worn an Under Armour shirt that had short sleeves up to that point to avoid getting sunburned on my shoulders and upper arms during the bike. I swapped that for my EN jersey. Taking off a tight fitting shirt and putting on another shirt while sweaty is more time consuming but it’s better than having a sunburn.
I took a couple of puffs from an inhaler in my T2 bag and applied a bunch of Body Glide to my feet, put on my socks, shoes and hat. I also had a little Ziploc bag containing Salt Sticks, Chapstick, and little tubes of sunscreen and Aquaphor. My volunteer, of course, removed said items from the baggie thus negating the grab it and go reason for using the baggie. He puts everything back in but in my haste I forget to grab the baggie before heading out to the run. T2 time was 4:58.
RUN
About ½ mile into the run I reached for my baggie to grab the Chapstick and realized I didn’t have the baggie. Uh-oh!!! This meant possible electrolyte deficiency, sunburn, chaffing of my nether regions and chapped lips. J
I was also having trouble taking deep breaths because the asthma issue made me cough whenever I took a deep breath. Short breaths also meant I’d spend a bunch of the run burping and hiccupping. Yeah!!! I took a couple of puffs from the inhaler every hour or so to mitigate the asthma issues.
It was a fair bit warmer than forecasted. Forecast called for mid-70’s and partly sunny skies. It got into the low-80’s and I don’t remember a cloud in the sky. Certainly not IMTX or IMLou run weather but it was far from ideal run conditions.
The Chapstick thing was no big deal. I figured I would find some sunscreen at an aid station (I did at the first or second aid station) and I hoped I would stumble across some Vaseline at some point. My biggest concern was the salt pills. I guess Plan B would be to continue drinking Perform at the aid stations until such time that the chicken broth made an appearance. The thought of drinking more Perform was not ideal but I didn’t have much choice. Gotta do what I gotta do. The chicken broth finally made an appearance on the second half of the run. I also got some Vaseline about halfway through.
Nutrition and everything went pretty well on the run. My stomach felt a little uneasy for a stretch in the middle of the run so I held off on the calories for a bit. That made me feel a little bonky and dizzy after awhile so I took in a Gu Roctane and all was good.
I figured I’d run 10:00 miles until I couldn’t. A far cry from my original goal of a sub-4:00 marathon but I had no idea what was going to happen on the run. I ran the 10:00/mile pace for the first third of the run and then a 10:30/mile pace the middle third and an 11:00/pace the final third. Overall run time was 4:41 at a 10:44/mile pace.
Overall race time was 11:20. Still a 17 minute PR and I’ll take it considering the injuries, the crap run training and the asthma attack.
Saw a bunch of EN folks on the run, including Rich and his pup. Hung out in the finish area with Rich and a few other EN guys while I chilled out and drank a bunch of chocolate milk and ate French fries.
One of my FBI-Houston co-workers was at IMAZ doing her first IM so I found a couple of her friends and I watched her finish. I then went back to my hotel room and ate an entire pizza and had some beers!
The next day I picked up my son and wife from the airport and we spent a couple of days at the Grand Canyon and then four days in Las Vegas for the Thanksgiving weekend.
I’m almost done with my two week post-IM rest/recovery period and then I’m going to run and run only for the next two months. Time to finally work on my weakness and put in the miles necessary to become a better runner.
Comments
Remember where I work and what I do for a living. I will have you shot on sight or sent to Gitmo for some waterboarding.
Nicely done Bob! Super race, and great job staying calm adapting to adversity. 17min PR with asthma attack, 'helpful' volunteers, and run injuries, is damn impressive. It was great to finally meet you, I hope we get to race together again. Hope you guys has a nice trip to the GC and LV!
I hope to see you again. I would do IMAZ again in a heartbeat. It was a good race and the logistics worked out real well. I'm doing IMTX and IMFL next year and then I'm thinking about doing the two Canadian IM races in 2014.
Flagstaff was a nice little city. Looks like a neat place to live. I had no idea that Flagstaff sat at about 7500 ft. elevation and looked like a Pacific Northwest forest town.
Slight correction -- my NP for the race was actually 193 watts, so slightly better than what I thought. 190 was my AP.
Going over my training logs and I ran 192 miles in the 18 weeks leading up to IMAZ. That's about 10.5 miles/week. It was about 160 miles that last 12 weeks. I knew my running miles were way down but I didn't realize how bad it actually was. I guess that 4:41 marathon was not bad all things considered.
Nice work. will be good to be racing with you again in texas.