Gerry's Beach2Battleship 140.6 Race Report
B2B 140.6 Race Report (Sat., Oct. 25, 2014)
B2B brings to an end my first year with EN. I started with last November’s outseason, raced IM 70.3 Syracuse in late June, a local Olympic in August and then B2B – my first 140.6. I had some minor injuries (more aches and pains) that were dealt with along the way and the usual work and family vacation interruptions to the season plan but all in all was well prepared for the race
Pre-Race: From travel through the night before the race, things couldn’t have gone better. Packing transition and special needs bags, which seemed like they were going to be an administrative challenge, was made easy by using packing lists. The weekend’s activities were kept in check through my race plan.
A special shout out to the EN crew in Wilmington race weekend, especially Ralph Moore (who organized the team dinner Thursday night) and Mariah Bridges (who opened her steps-from-the-swim-start beach house race morning to the EN faithful).
Race Day:
Woke up, ate and made my way to the race HQ for the shuttle to T1. Took the time on the ride to run through my race plan (from getting off the shuttle, to crossing the finish line) in my head, took stock of what it took to get to that point and mentally thanked those that made it happen (#1: my wife and family – you all know the sacrifices and extra responsibilities that they take on, so enough said; actual thanking happened both before the weekend and after) and by the time I arrived at T1, I was ready to go.
T1: Set up my bike with fluids (brought my 1st two bottles of HEED with me; would live off the course for the rest), gels, saltcaps and Clif bar (planned to fully rely on my own supply in case of issues at aid stations).
Swim Start: Took the next shuttle from T1 out to the swim start. The B2B swim starts at the end of a southerly-running peninsula. Its then a northbound swim up the inter-coastal waterway to the swim exit.
Swim: In my EN tri top and trusted tri shorts, and armed with my sleeveless wetsuit, goggles and cap, it was soon time to head to the beach. As promised, the tide was coming in. I could feel it in my warm-up and knew it would make for a fast swim. Wind and chop were low to non-existent. The morning air was brisk but warm for a New Englander this time of year. Water temperature was reported to be in high 60s/low 70s.
Mass start on the beach about 6 feet from water’s edge. As expected, the real fish were toeing the line while the rest seemed to be more tentative and hung back. I positioned myself at the front of the tentative pack and to the left side so I could make a bee-line to the first buoy and hopefully get on the feet of some of the slower fish. I found the water crowded at first and traded blows with those around me, but it soon thinned out enough to get into a rhythm. The tide helped move things along but soon it felt like just another swim. I was on and off the feet of others for what was probably the first 1.5 miles. It then really thinned out and there really wasn’t anyone to drag off of.
The first 2 miles are straight up the inter-coastal. The first couple of buoys were easy to spot, but then they seemed to spread out making for harder sighting. Also, because the swim was straight up the channel, there really weren’t any great tall landmarks up ahead to use. I have no Garmin data from the swim to see how straight, or not, I swam as I must have caught an arm to the off button during the start. I could tell I lost some time due to indecisive sighting. I found it easiest to sight off the swimmers ahead which worked well until I found myself splitting two packs -- one off to the left the other to the right -- that seemed to be on different headings. I picked the pack on the side closer to the first turn to use for sighting and swam on.
I still can’t tell if we were meant to stay to one side of the buoys or the other or whether they were just general markers of direction and it didn’t matter where in the channel we swam. This wasn’t a big deal in the main channel, but at about 2 miles in, we made our first turn into a series of lesser channels that would lead to the exit. Here I found it very hard to spot a buoy and since I wasn’t even sure the buoys were to be followed (making for a series of actual left or right turns) I did what it seemed like those around me were doing and tried to make as straight a line toward the exit as possible. I also found the exit point -- a pool-style exit with ladders onto marina-based docks -- hard to locate at first. The exist marker was one of those tall wavy balloons. To me it seemed to be a very thin and a dull color that didn’t really mark the exit spot well. Very hard to see in a boat-packed marina after a 2.4 mile swim.
I definitely lost some time due to the sighting issues. On the up-side, I wasn’t gasping for breath either due to the helpful tide and time it took me to make clear sightings. I figured this was a good trade off with 138.2 miles to go. Most of the chatter on the 300 yard run from swim exit to T1 was about how it didn’t feel like 2.4 at all. I planned on a 55 minute swim, but even with the run before I hit the first set of timing mats, I clocked in at 44 minutes. Faster than my wildest dreams, but not really a true reflection of swim reality due to the smoking fast incoming tide. Of course, I’ll take it and not qualify the results to those that aren’t in the know, but I would never be able to come close to this in any other situation.
Into T1: Wetsuit strippers did their job, quickly hosed the salt water off my head and face, it was an easy jog into T1 proper. Took my T1 bag into the changing tent to don my arm warmers. Opted to leave gloves, helmet liner and socks in the bag. It was cool for the first hour, but there was no wind to speak of and so it didn’t ever get cold to the point where I regretted my choice. Around that first hour point, the sun came fully up, any shade there was disappeared and it was clear that cold wasn’t going to be a problem. Arm warmers came off for good at BSN about at about the halfway point. Spent about 7.5 minutes in T1. I wasn’t as smooth as I could have been which I chalk up to dealing with the arm warmers and a changing tent (a first for me). I also wasn’t really cruising through as this was my first 140.6 and I didn’t want to do anything that wouldn’t set me up well for the rest of the race. Also spent some time fiddling with my Garmin after discovering the multisport timer got messed up on the swim that I had to straighten out for the bike. I could probably find 2-3 minutes savings in the future.
Bike: Spent the first 20’ in low to mid z2. I was aiming for high z1 to low z2, but I just could not manage to go slow or easy enough to get my HR down to that point. I think it may have been because this part of the ride was pancake flat and I train on rollers and hills and without the hills, going easy was easy. In any event, my HR was coming down and my perceived effort was that I was going stupid easy so I just held things where they were for these 20’.
At the 20’ point, I started my nutrition plan. Fluids, saltcaps and gels went down like clockwork and without issue. I kept to the higher end of my recommended fluid intake at first. Even though it was cool, I knew it would warm up to the low to mid 70s by the mid to later part of the bike and into the run. I’ve had dehydration issues in the past so I wanted to drink more than to bonk due to coming up short on fluids. I think I felt the need to pee about 1.5 hours in, but without any significant hills (I decided that I would pee on the bike), the timing never seemed right. At about 2 hours in, hills or not, it was time. And after that, I seemed to be on a half hour schedule. That was a lot, but it also meant I wasn’t getting dehydrated.
The aid stations turned out to be fine for exchanging bottles. However, gels and bars seemed to be an issue. Not sure if it was due to lack of staffing the aid stations or inexperienced volunteers, but there seemed to be few gels or bars at the ready. As I was worried about being able to get what I needed to due crowds, I brought my own so getting the nutrition I needed didn’t turn out to be a problem. I started out of T1 with the gels and bars I would need up to BSN and then stopped at BSN for a resupply. Saltcaps for the full ride were loaded in a hip pocket. The 3-4 minutes I spent resupplying at BSN had the added bonus of allowing for a quick stretch.
My ride was around the 3 hour mark at this point. With a goal time of 6.5 to 7 hours, I knew I was (way) ahead on estimated time. I don’t think I was over-exerting myself. The course was flat, it wasn’t too hot, everything felt good and my HR was in the range (mid to high z2) I wanted it to be in. I was drinking, eating and taking saltcaps as planned and didn’t have any gut issues. I chalked it up to lack of experience in estimating time in a race of this nature and not to committing fatal execution errors and mounted for the second half of the ride.
However, I hit my first snags after BSN. My fourth hour was an exercise in focus. My mind started to wander and I started to worry about the run. I chalk that up to just being at the point in a ride where this happens to me. Recognizing this, I fought back into my box, thought of my training efforts and got back to work. Dark place explored and not wanting to stay there I got out as best I could.
Next though came the one thing I hadn’t had to deal with through my training – sour stomach. At about 4-4.5 hours in, I started to feel bloated and stomach crampy. I tried to trouble shoot by cutting back on fluids and gels while keeping up the saltcaps for a short period. Some relief but couldn’t fully shake it. I reduced fluids but only to what I thought was the bare minimum to try to get my stomach back under control. Since I kept peeing (on a more reasonable basis), I didn’t think dehydration was going to be an issue. During this time, my average HR came down a bit as I slowed down hoping this and the adjustment to what I was taking in would resolve any issues. This seemed to be a reasonable sacrifice under the conditions presented and knowing I had the run to come.
I came into T2 at 6:03 and change. Notwithstanding the lack of cooperation from my stomach, a fantastic result. Other than the worry about my stomach, my mind was clear, legs felt good, HR was under control and I was not dreading the run. In my mind, I executed well notwithstanding the gut issues.
After the race, my training buddy (who also raced) and I worked over what might have happened. What I think is the most likely cause was the HEED mixes being handed out. Unlike factory-bottled Perform, each aid station mixed their own HEED bottles. One thing I noticed from the 1st bottle exchange was that each bottle tasted different and most were stronger than I was used to. At home, I mixed uniform bottles. On race day, this was not the case. Most tasted to be of a heavier mix than I was used to. I chalk it up to lack of experience, but I didn’t adjust to this and should have. When refilling my aero bottle, I should have diluted the HEED mxi with water to better approximate what I was used to. I didn’t. The result, we think, is that I got a heavier dose of HEED that my stomach wasn’t used to. Then this heavier dose didn’t get processed as well and my stomach was left to deal with the extra. Cue stomach distress, which seemed to just spring out of nowhere. Its possible that watering down the mix on the fly would have prevented this. Its also possible that switching to water for a short time would have helped me flush me out and defused the situation. Either way, I didn’t think of this and was just trying to troubleshoot by taking in less. That is just a guess, but in all honesty, I think that is what happened b/c on all other fronts (HR, perceived effort, no hills, not terribly warm), I was equal to, if not ahead of the game. I wasn’t disrespecting the game, just executing my plan that I had honed over the course of the season. In any event, I had a stomachache that seemed to be there to stay.
The course itself seemed simple enough and, if not for the distance, I didn’t think it was overly challenging. I am not a great technical rider and there was not much technical riding to speak of. Course maps do a nice job of showing the series of long stretches without turns that basically made up the course. While it could have been easy to slip into doing the wrong thing for a long time without anything to wake you up to make corrections before it was too late, the lack of things to think about allowed me to think about doing the right thing and avoid the wrong. The most technical areas were the short stretch out of T1 and the beach area which was a series of twisty short roads with a couple of tight turns, few speed bumps to slow down for and a grated drawbridge (slight incline; surface was a grate slippery with the morning dew – I fish tailed across!) and a similar grated drawbridge (best move of the day was my dismount to walk across the grated bridge as I was not confident that I would cross unscathed if I started to fish tail again; lost about 30-60 seconds but didn’t crash or flat) leading to a downhill section with a series of turns into the T2 dismount area. There were two railroad crossings on the way out and again on the way back. The rest of the course was made up of well-maintained (e.g., not many pot holes or road surface issues) local commercial roadway, slightly larger county/state highway, one section on an interstate and one on more local back roads. There were large sections of bumpy road though, I think from the waves that develop from a lot of auto traffic over a warm surface. This didn’t make for dangers like potholes but was just sort of annoying when trying to get in and stay in a comfortable position. The most serious hills were the on/off ramps and bridges crossed (both out and back) that took us over the Cape Fear River. The course was well marked and volunteer-manned and on the larger roads cyclists had a full lane to work with so no one was relegated to the shoulder or close to it to avoid traffic or blocking penalties. While I saw more motorcycle course marshals than at my Ironman-branded event earlier in the summer, there was a lot of blatant drafting. That isn’t my scene so I stayed away and played by the rules. With all the highway travel, the course was not very scenic. Overall, it was a pretty flat course, but not “pancake flat” as the race people bragged. There were some definite inclines of good distance and while the declines may have been there, there was nothing significant or steep, except for some of the highway off ramps and off the bridges. This course made it easy to get dialed in and stay dialed in. The B2B website has very good maps of the swim, bike and run courses.
T2: Spent about 7 minutes in T2. From the dismount line, the bike gets walked into the Wilmington Convention Center and handed off to be racked. You then move around the perimeter of a large convention hall to pick up T2 bag. I lost some time to walking this instead of getting my bike shoes off and slow jogging it. But again, my stomach was bugging me and I was still uncertain about how my legs would handle the run, so I just took it easy. There were separate changing areas and indoor bathrooms. There was a bit of a bottleneck here and if I had skipped the changing area and indoor plumbing, I could have saved a few minutes, but other than that, nothing to really note here. The day had warmed up so other than a hat, my tri kit was the right gear to have on.
Run: The marathon is a double out and back common to most races of this distance. The first loop was a bit longer to accommodate for a finish line that is about half a mile from starting point of the run. The out part of the first loop starts out of the convention center in downtown Wilmington and winds along the wooden riverwalk before taking a turn through a short cobblestoned section of downtown to a turn (steep but short uphill on the way out) to a residential area that then gives way to a slightly commercial area (downhill before a turn to a steep but short uphill on the way out). This made up about 3 miles of the course. This then gave way to the “park” section of the course. Residential but around and through a park for about 4-4.5 miles before the turnaround. Its mostly flat with a few uphill/downhill sections. Nothing noticeably steep through here. I found the park section mind-numbingly boring as the downtown crowds thinned out. Judging distance was also deceptive as the park twisted around a lake. The miles were marked well though. I found the aid stations along the run course to be very good in both staffing and in fluid/nutrition offerings – a triathlete’s buffet of HEED, water, coke, ice, chicken broth, gels, gummy chews, Clif bars, bananas, oranges, bagels and pretzels. Truly an amazing array. Many porta-potties as well.
I set out on the run at my z1+30” pace. While my legs and HR were game for this pace, after three miles it was clear that my stomach was not. I resolved that another 30” was fine, then another 30 until I settled in at 1 to 2 minutes slower than goal. Also, instead of walking 30 steps at each aid station, I extended the walks to in to and out of each. I reconciled to this very quickly as this is what the day was giving me. I ran the whole marathon with a cranky stomach. Pushing to my pre-race goal wasn’t going to happen. I didn’t want to walk for extended periods of time, so I adjusted my plan and carried that out. It wasn’t pleasant all the time, but it wasn’t unbearable and I was not going to let my training self down through self-pity or refusing to be flexible. I knew going in that the marathon was the wild card. I hadn’t run any marathon in 7 years and certainly not after a swim and 112 mile bike, so I really didn’t know what to expect. I was hoping for better, but that wasn’t in the cards. Was hoping for a best-case run of 4 hours, was expecting it to be closer to 4.5, but was more than happy with a 4:55.
Overall result, 11:57:37. Forget being happy to finish after enduring close to 6 hours of stomach cramps, I was ecstatic to have finished my first 140.6 distance race. I felt I stuck to my plan as best able and executed well, adjusted to adversity on the fly and reacted well to when I found myself in a dark place. That being said, I have a lot of information to process, more to learn and some very good lessons to carry into this coming OS and as I move toward IM Lake Placid in July 2015.