Popsicleman Licks IMFL - Paul's race report
Last fall, my youngest son asked me to do Ironman Florida
with him as his first full distance triathlon.
So a year later, there I was, well trained for the swim and bike, but
with no substantial run training in the month of October due to injuries I
sustained during and right after Powerman Zofingen. I had a stress fracture in my left foot, a
stress fracture in my left tibia, had torn the popliteus muscle behind the
left knee, and strained my left hamstring for good measure.
After a month off from running I started back and got up to a slow 7
miles the week before Ironman Florida.
That was my run base, but I was prepared to give it my best shot and
chalk up my 8th IM finish.
The race day weather predictions grew increasingly dire as
the weekend approached. It was going to
be very cold and extremely windy. The
night before, the weather channel was telling us there would be gale force
winds on the water, and I had already seen from the balcony of my 20th
floor room that the wind was pushing the water hard at an angle towards the
shore. But come race morning, there was
no mention about the swim as we prepared our bikes. At 6:30 I headed out to the beach for the
7:00am start. Even in the wetsuit, and with
a jacket over it, we were freezing. The
breakers were about 3-5 feet but some folks were already warming up in the
water when they announced the swim cancellation at 6:45 due to the currents. With 1192 registered first timers in the
race, it was probably the right call.
But due to my run injury, I had substantially more swim training than I
typically do, and any advantage I would have had in the water was gone.
We went and picked up our T1 bags to change and get ready
for the now 8:00am duathlon start…for the pro’s. It took almost 2 hours to get all the age
groupers going. Something about being
really cold made this a much different experience than any other IM I’ve
done. I had to pee all day and just
seemingly couldn’t stop. From the time
the swim was cancelled to taking a stand by my bike I peed 3 times. I had to go again as the conga line was
heading to the start but wasn’t sure I had enough time given the long wait for
the few porta potties in transition.
Fortunately, I got started at 8:50am…frozen…no warm-up…and straight into
the icy blast. I was miserably cold and
had to pee badly. In 7 prior IM’s I’ve
never peed during the race and here I was looking for the first porta potty as
soon as I was on the bike. When I got to
the first aid station, I peed so long I was able to eat a powerbar while
standing there. Man that felt
good! If I ever could have peed on
myself that would have been the day, but then you would have turned your leg
into a frozen pisscicle.
Bike- 5:44 including 4 stops to pee. I’m sure that included at least 10 minutes in
the loo. I just wasn’t sweating in the
cold. The cold weather and the wind made
for a miserable ride. The only highlight of
my bike leg came early on as I was heading north just 10 miles or so into the
ride. I was all focused on my power,
listening to the wind howl, and embracing the suck when I heard some voices and
a motorcycle right behind me. I didn’t
know it, but I had apparently picked up a wheel sucker and he just got
red-carded. Oh sweet Jesus that was SOOOO
satisfying!
T2 – 5 mins and about half of that was in the porta potty
losing more water. This wasn't ironman, it was bladderfest!
Run – 6:02 and no, I did not overcook the bike. I started jogging and crossed my fingers
hoping I could get further than the 7 miles I did a week earlier. And right on cue, as we hit the turn on the
first loop in St Andrews park, my legs were asking me if we were there
yet. At that point, I started walking
and jogging on about a 1-3 ratio and my speed dropped from a little over 10 min
miles to about 12-13 min miles. I picked
up a long sleeve shirt and gloves at special needs (half way) and headed out
for the 2nd loop. Just a
couple of miles later my legs gave me warning signs that if I jogged any more I
would be rewarded with further injury.
My goal for this race was only to finish and do no damage so that’s
where I started walking.
The sun was setting, the temperature was dropping and I was
so cold … and yes, I had to stop at the porta-potties another 4 times. At this point, I had lots to think
about. A hot shower sounded so good and I was now
walking about 17 min miles. Quitting
crossed my mind a few times, but my one thing for this race was Timothy Jenks
(TJ). I thought about how incredibly
fortunate I was to be in the same race with my own son (who crushed me), and
how fleeting my suffering would be in retrospect. My feet hurt, my left quad hurt, my butt
hurt, and my pelvis hurt from lack of run resiliency. And I
was freezing. And it was nothing, just
nothing, compared to William Jenk’s loss.
So, William, I owe this finish to
the memory of your son.
11:52 after the start, this one was in the books. My 24 year old son, who swam about 2000 yards
a week and biked about 70 miles a week, and only managed hit or miss run
training ended up 6th in his age with an 8:58 including a 3:20
run. It’s great to be young. The only thing I beat him at was T2, and only
because he took the time to change into a run singlet and run shorts…old
school. I’m very proud of him, but I
will never forget how TJ got me through the miserable race conditions that IMFL
threw at us this year.
Comments
great job at getting it done and putting things into perspective towards the end of your day.
Paul - racing for those who no longer can. It's a bittersweet experience, but very rewarding in the end. I hope you gave your son a big hug.
Paul, What a difficult day for IM racing, Congratulations! I'm happy you were able to race with your son. As for the bathroom breaks, you were not alone. The volunteers said there was an unusual amount of riders stopping this year. When ridding in the cold Michigan weather if we do not take in enough liquid and salt that is the result. I suspect most riders are not accustom to cold riding and didn't feel like drinking.
Rest and recover, you deserve it!
It's been a great year!