IMCDA Race Report
Pre race: Nothing special, woke up at 2:15 & ate my jar of applesauce & a naked fruit smoothie then back to bed until the 4:30 wake up call. Body marking, special needs bag, check. Pumped up the bike tires, jumped into my wetsuit & headed to the beach for a good swim warm up.
Swim: 1:29:xx
I was expecting to finish in about 1:15 so I lined up at the back of the 60 minute group. The start went well with minimal contact, nothing out of the ordinary. When I got to the first turn I noticed that I was breathing quite heavy & my heart was racing. I had started way too fast. Needing to get my breathing under control I found a kayak to hang onto for few minutes & refocus. I was expecting the need for damage control on this hot day but not in the first 15 minutes of the swim. The remainder of the swim went quite well, I focused on good form & swam at an easy pace.
T1: 10:42
Coming out of the water I didn't have much energy so I just walked into the change tent, sat down & got ready for the bike. 
Bike: 6:25:xx
My modified heat plan for the bike was to ride at my "bucket of chicken" pace for the first short out & back (15ish miles) plus an additional 15 miles too the turn around on the longer out/back section. After that I would allow myself to open things up and ride at race pace.
Well, my stomach wasn't feeling good coming out of T1 & I didn't feel much like eating anything. In the back of my mind I was happy that I had planned to use a "custom" drink mix & not that crappy tasting Gatoraid. The plan was to drink 24oz. of Scratch drink mix every 36 minutes + eat a quarter of a honey stinger waffle every 15 minutes. I had practiced this with good success in my race rehearsals. As part of this feeding plan I would need to get plain water at the aid stations & mix on the fly.
The drinking part started well but, my stomach couldn't handle the Honey stinger
. No problem, I would just wait until I felt better to eat.
OK, 36 minutes went by & I refilled my Speedfil with my second bottle of Scratch. Good enough. Next aid station I'll grab a water for the next refill.
I grabbed a water at the aid station but, when I tried to put it into the water bottle cage it fell out, Dang it. I had to stop and pick up the bottle. As it turned out the shape of the bottle was such that is wouldn't fit properly in the cage. So, I shoved the bottle in my pocket & moved on. Over the next 36 minutes I had to make a decision. Continue on with the plain water in my pocket or use Gatoraid. I knew that the standard Gatoraid bottle would fit in the cage. I decided on the Gatoraid but now I needed to recalculate my calorie intake & deal with the taste issue. Did I mention that my stomach still wasn't feeling good.
Yep, boiling hot Gatoraid is even less appealing than cold Gatoraid.
Aside from the water issues I really wasn't feeling good. When the time came to pick up my power It just didn't happen. I basically rode along at an easy pace all day. My power numbers on the bigger hills didn't even reach the level that I was planning on riding the flats with. I was still executing the EN way, slow up hill & fast down, just not as fast as I had planned. I have not looked at my VI numbers yet but, I'm guessing its not too bad.
Seeing all of the people sitting on the side of the rode toward the end of the bike makes me think that my decision to not push the power up was a good one.
T2: 7:12 Grateful to be off the highway & still moving forward.
Run: 6:01:xx
On any other day a six hour marathon would be ridiculously slow. Combine the fact that I'm not fast (VDot of 41) with heat pacing for 100 degrees & my running pace for this day was to be 13:40'ish minute miles. My plan for the marathon was run/jog a half mile then walk for one minute all day long. I did stick to the plan for the most part with the exception some longer walking sessions throughout the middle miles. I finished the day by "running" the last five miles & must have passed a hundred or more people.
Finish time: 14:14:xx a new PR for a 100 degree Ironman.
Post race:
No pizza for this guy. I went directly to the Med. tent for some fluids & "cool" air.
Takeaways from this race:
1) Long coarse races supposed to be are hard. That's why we do them.
2) Don't follow your plan into a brick wall. Fix it & move on.
3) I don't like hot races. Note to self: Don't sign up for IM Florida or Texas.
Next up for me: IM Wisconsin (hoping for 50 deg, & rain)
Comments
Very nice job! I like the way you were able to alter your plan especially on such a hot day.
Congratulations!
I'll see you in Wisconsin! I don't want 50 and raining, but pretty much anything will beat IM Surface of the Sun!
An observation. It seems most peeps I know who bring their own personal fluid for the bike struggle in one way or another. The two guys I did this race with had no less than 50 little dime baggies of salt and potassium tabs taped all over their bikes - one states "I cannot tolerate the food coloring in the gatorade". (oddly, he could tolerate 5 almond joys). Envision: brazenly dressed drug mules. Unfortunately, their pills melted/disintegrated. Lots of walking ensued. I saw many spills/dropped bottles/etc, and super awkward exchanges, I assume part of the dance of trying to bartend their plan?
I'm no expert, and I do not love gatorade or gel by any means, but it seems like we should embrace the stuff due to its availability.
Anyway, great job out there. Hoping IMWI is better.
DS
Mark - whatever else comes at you this year, it will be much easier for your having done this one.