Phil Mills Lake Stevens 70.3 Race Report
Short Story
This was my first triathlon, not including the indoor race I did back in spring. While I have a lot I can improve on, I am quite happy with my results as I finished only 6:30 over my goal time. I finished my first marathon last October and my wife said that I looked worse for wear after finishing that race.
Swim – 36:35
T1 – 10:25
Bike – 3:29:26
T2 – 7:16
Run – 2:12:45
Finish – 6:36:30
RACE WEEK
The plan was to leave early Friday morning and arrive at the venue by 11:30 am with the goals of:
Eating a packed lunch at the venue
Swim the course
Take the kids to the hotel for naps
Pick up packet at the LSHS
Bike the technical portions of the bike course
Ride the run course.
Leave Saturday open to rest.
So much for well laid plans, as Thursday night an ingrown toenail decided to spice up the party.
By morning, I could barely walk on my left foot/big toe. Soaking helped, but I could tell that by Sunday I may have a bigger problem on my hands. I posted in the EN Medical Help Forum, and promptly received some options to consider. I tried cutting it out myself, but it was at the base of the nail and I wasn’t successful. Thankfully, I was able to get a 10:45 podiatrist appointment. That left me with an hour to pack the van for race weekend. I made it with 5 min to spare.
I kept my focus on what was important at the moment and that was to fix my foot. I didn’t matter when I arrive in Lake Stevens. I stayed within my “box” and didn’t let this stress me out. My only worry was that I wouldn’t leave with my toe in worse shape than when I arrived. Good news is that the doc cut it out and left me able to run. We were on the road at 12:30 pm. Traffic here we com.
We arrived to the HS at 4:00 pm for packet pick up, signed up the kiddos for the Ironkids run and bought a couple of shirts. No time for naps or to scout the course today.
SATURDAY
Both daughters (3 & 5) ran their whole course. They were excited, and surprised, to hear all of the cheering from people they didn’t know. They were both racing in pink tu-tu’s, so it was easy to cheer for them.
Onto the HS for the 11:00 am race briefing, then back to the hotel for lunch and naps, for the family. Then back to the course for bike drop off. I walked the swim exit to my bike a couple of times to ensure I didn’t have to think about much while exiting the water.
I had been devoting considerable brain space on working out all of the details for my family getting around on race day and how I would get to the HS in the morning. A taxi ride was back in my race morning plan. I was pretty stressed out at this point and it wasn’t even about the race. I decided to go swim for a stress break.
After a short swim, I drove the last 16 miles of the bike course. Damn there are a lot of hills on this course, and I’m not talking rollers here. By 5:15, I was back with the family for a teriyaki dinner with the family.
I checked and double checked and repacked my transition bags to ensure I wasn’t missing anything. Morning nutrition and breakfast were set out so that I wouldn’t wake everyone else up. I tried for an early bed time, however, the 3 yo didn’t get the message. I may have managed 5 hrs of sleep.
RACE DAY
Up at 3:20 am. I started eating immediately: 1.5 cups of applesauce, a powerbar, bottle of Perform, a banana and a bagel to go. My taxi ride arrived 5 min early, which I scheduled for 20 minutes earlier than I wanted to be at the HS. I grabbed a cup of coffee and rode off to the HS. I arrived at the HS and took the second shuttle of the morning over the venue. Nice and early.
First stop was body markings and then on to transition to set up my bike. I must have set up my area three different ways before deciding on a final option. I should have practiced this. As I was wrapping up, I heard my name called from behind. I was pleasantly surprised to meet fellow EN teammate Dave Pettigrew. He recognized me by the EN gear and taped up toe. We finished setup our transition areas and walked to the swim start in time to see the pros set off.
SWIM
Goal 38:00 - Actual 36:35
Looking at how far the buoys stretched out started causing me some anxiety. To get back into my “box,” I focused only on one buoy distance at a time and this brought my confidence back. By this time, it was time to line up in my wave. It was a water start that began at the end of a dock. After the previous wave went off, the next wave jumped into the water and had three minutes to “warm-up” or tread water. At 6:59 am my wave was off.
It took about 300 m to find my groove and what felt like a comfortable pace; 1:38/100 according to my watch. I was stayed off to the side as I wasn’t comfortable being swam into or over. I was sighting well for the first 500 m, until I decided to swim in closer to the buoys. It had thinned out and I wanted to sight off of the underwater line that the buoys were attached too. This worked for a while, until others had the same idea and it became congested again. So, I swam out wider – too wide in fact. This happened 2x out and 1x on the return. I estimate I over swam at least 200 yds. I actually enjoyed the swim could/should have pushed it a bit more.
T1
Goal 5:00 - Actual 10:28
It was 25 yd sprint, on asphalt, to reach my bike. I had the top of my wetsuit stripped before reaching my bike, but it took a while to get it over my ankles. I spent too much time thinking and should have worked from a checklist: toed socks, arm coolers, gloves, shoes, helmet and a bathroom stop.
BIKE
Goal Actual
3:30:00 3:29:26
NP 175 172
IF .79 .78
IV 1.10 1.12
My plan was to ride the first 30 minutes at .75/166 w then .78/175 w with a 195 w ceiling on the hills. There would be a lot of spinning up the hills and pushing to maintain watts going down them. I followed my plan, of not pushing watts on the hills, except where I just had to exceed it to get over them. I was surprised at how few people just coasted down the hills. I hit a top speed of 45 mph, and that was with me hitting the breaks, as I wasn’t comfortable passing the coasters at that speed.
Then there was the “hill.” It was a 13% grade for over a mile. There was a solid single file line, double in some place, of racers pushing their bikes up the hill. Damned if I was going to get off and push. So, I just spun away at 5 mph. I was thinking of how glad I was that I switched to an 11-28 cassette for this race. I lost track of how many 9-10% grade hills there were on this course. Published course elevation gain 2,159, my recorded elevation gain 3,392.
I briefly met fellow ENers Tom Box and Paul Hough as they passed on by.
The bulk of the course was shaded and rather cool. The sun did come out for the last 6 miles though. I stopped to pee 2x and I felt that I was staying up on my hydration; 2 bottles of water and 3.5 of Perform. I was actually 2 bottles short, which would then show itself on the run. Nutrition was spot on: 3.5 bottles Perform, 3 power bars with a salt tablet every hour.
T2
Goal 4:00 - Actual 7:16
Slow again here, but it didn’t feel like it. I spent too much time thinking and putting on sunblock. Changed shoes, race belt on, power bar in top, pee stop on way out.
RUN
Goal 2:00:00 - Actual 2:12:46
My plan was to run an 8:45 for miles 1-3, 8:15 for miles 4-10 and best speed to finish. I would also walk each aid station. I would adjust for heat if necessary. The temp was to be around 77 at run time, but was actually closer to 82 with no wind on the back loop.
I started off the run with half a power bar left from the bike and
I had a side cramp for the first three miles and though it was from drinking too much off of the bike, so I took it easy at the aid stations, taking only Perform. By mile three the pain had stopped, but I realized that was pretty dehydrated, as I should have peed by now, but could not. I immediately upped my fluids to 4 oz of Perform and 8 oz of ice water at each aid station. My pace had now slowed to 10:00/mile.
Coming back onto Main Street I saw my family stopped for hugs and a picture. My wife told me how proud of me she was and to not worry about my time, just don’t hurt anything. That gave me quite a boost. The crowd that followed was also so encouraging. What I didn’t know, was that the first of two hills was just around the corner.
I made it up both hills without slowing. I continued to take in fluids and took a cup of ice with me from one station. It gave me something of a distraction while running the hills. At least there was a bit of a breeze as I ran along the lake.
On the second loop, I found a suffer buddy and talked with him for mile or so. He took a break at mile 8 while I kept on going. At 9.5 miles I saw my family again. My girls were holding up signs that they had made since I had last been by. I hit the line at mile 10, which is also the start of the two big hills. I took one of three unscheduled walk breaks and then picked it up again. My legs, knees and back were hurting, but I pushed through that and maintained the best pace I could. Mile 11 was the slowest pace at 11:00/mile.
At mile 12, I dug in deep and pushed to run in the last mile. I managed to complete that last mile at an 8:08 pace, which felt great. I followed my nutrition plan without any issue. Total calories from Perform, Power bar, Shot Bloks and 1/3 of a banana: 625. I tried Red Bull at mile 11 and it was horrible.
Goal Time 6:30:00
Actual finish time 6:36:30
I was originally disappointed with my time, as the clock read 7:06. After backing out the 30 minutes for the pro start, I was elated to get so close to my goal time. Time for cookies, pizza and water. It took an hour to meet up with my family and then eat some more pizza.
Lessons Learned
I can easily save 20-30 minutes by:
Practice rehearsing my transitions. I did not spend any time here and it showed.
Sight more frequently.
Practice swimming around others and drafting.
Get set up to pee on the bike: tri shoes and no socks.
Follow the hydration plan and pee often.
Carry a flask for fluids between aid stations.
Comments
Congrats again. That is one tough course.
Tom - I will definetly be working on my transitions. Pam sounds like a good place to start on getting the wetsuit off. I may have to trim the legs a bit. Per my hydration tests, I should be at two bottles an hour on a cool day in my garage. I skipped two bottles in my first race rehersal and was a bit slower on my run pace, but not as slow as in this race. I peed twice on the swim, so I over hydrated that morning. My bladder kept feeling like I had to pee, but no go. Worst case is that I should have been able to maintain a 9:30 pace.
Things to work on. Good seeing you both out there.