Erik Schlanger's IM Boulder Race Report
The Before:
This is my first IM. The only goal I advertised was to finish. Inwardly I had a goal of getting through the run without having to just walk it out… I finished! Unfortunately, I ended up walking all but the first 7 miles of the marathon. More on that later…I want to make sure I thank all the great EN folks I met in Boulder, all of their support on race day and before was wonderful! It’s been a great ride to my first IM finish!
Morning:
I woke up as planned and ate the planned breakfast. My wife and I headed to the high school and dropped off my SN bags… All very uneventful!
Swim:
I had been thinking it would be a wetsuit swim and had myself mentally prepared for that. After finding out on the way to the shuttle that it was wetsuit optional I had a lot of debate with myself on wearing it or not. I typically am cold natured and did want to be cold on the swim. Ultimately I decided not to wear it. This was the right decision; it felt right in the water. The only issue was that I decided a bit late and was slow getting in to the starting chute. All of the non wetsuit folks were lined up with the wetsuit folks after that. I had to fight my way through the wetsuit folks to get lined up where I wanted to be, with the 1:20 – 1:30 group. (I can’t remember exactly what the group was labeled). After being late getting in the chute I didn’t have time to get my goggles on in a relaxed fashion and set properly before the start… Swim started and I got moving. I felt like there was a lot of contact for a long while. I didn’t really get in to great groove for a long time. I often have this issue in race swims. There was a lot of contact! Eventually I found a bit of a groove but not really my normal groove. My breathing pattern was irregular compared to what I normally do. I tried to work my way to the outside of the pack and swim there to stay out of the scrum, it worked except that I didn’t swim very straight and would end up back in the scrum. Lesson learned: I need to practice more in open water and practice sighting. I also had issues with my goggles staying put, never had this issue before. I don’t usually swim with a cap, maybe I need to do that more to get my goggles figured out better with the swim cap. My time was 1:28, In practice I was usually 1:23-1:24. Not too bad to me….
T1:
T1 was a mad house of people! There were people sitting outside the entrance to the change tent but volunteers said there were seats inside. So in I went. That was a mistake, it was crowded and dark. In hindsight I should have just stayed outside. I put on my tri-top and some more body glide. The tri-top was tuff to get on while all wet! No surprise but still a pain. Maybe next time I will swim in it. My T1 was 15:45. Not exactly short but I wasn’t really trying to rush either. I told myself beforehand I wasn’t looking at my overall time so much as each part, so I didn’t really try to rush through transition.
Bike:
Well I started the bike and kept my power low for the first 1.5hrs as planned. I spent the first 30mins to an hour catching up on my hydration from the swim. I had at least 2 bottles of GEF before the first aid station. I picked up one bottle of GEF at each aid station. (Except for the last 1 or 2, more on that later.) I also consumed my salt pills according to plan. I noticed at some points I had a bit of a sore throat on the bike. Not a big deal. Overall I think I did a reasonable job of maintaining my watts until the end. I had been trying to bounce my heart rate against my watts during the bike but my HR dropped out not far in to the bike, I was never able to get it back the rest of the day. No big deal. I also consumed about 5-6 Power bars over the course of the bike.
I had trouble at the end of the bike, I would say the last 45-mins to an hour I wanted off the bike more than anything else. I think this contributed to my problems overall. Towards the end of the bike in hindsight I did a poor job of hydrating! I don’t know why I didn’t recognize it better at the time. I skipped bringing on GEF the last aid station or two. I think this was a big problem for me later in the day. I need to look back at my splits and compare this to the location of the aid stations and see if I did my 2 bottles per hour as planned. Next time I need to find a better way to make sure I’m consuming my GEF as planned. In practice with my normal speed I was able to use this to check my consumption. (In practice I was about 1 bottle per 5 miles, 15-20mins) My speed was more varied on race day so I couldn’t use that as a measure as well. I have a 10min timer set on my watch but I need to make sure I consume my expected amount over the course of a half hour. More practice and paying attention are needed. Not rocket science, just need to execute! Time: 7:04, I am happy with this.
T2:
My T2 was very slow at 24mins. I must have taken a nap I forgot about. J I took my time and got things changed, I was happy to be off the bike! I know it was hot on the track because I have never seen Body Glide be melted the way it was when I took it out of my bag! Anyway, other than being very slow it was uneventful.
Run:
I felt good at the beginning of the run, at least as good as I could feel considering I just biked 112 miles. The first 6 miles or so went according to plan, I was at my Z1 plus 30sec, plus. I allowed myself to run at what was a comfortable pace even though after the first few miles it was slower than Z1 plus 30sec. I walked the aid stations as planned and had GEF at each one. After 30mins I had a gel as planned. OK, first lesson I learned here. No reason to carry my hydration belt! I should have listed to Mark C on this one. Walking the aid stations I had plenty of time to drink GEF and it would have been fine. I will also consider using the on course gels so I don’t have to carry mine… During the first 6 miles I had a bit of indigestion, but nothing too bad except that it got worse.
Ok, so after the first 7 miles the wheels came off!! My indigestion got unbearable and was worse while running! I dry heaved several times, it was not fun. The indigestion was even up in to my chest. I stopped eating and drinking because I thought it would make me feel worse. In hindsight this was a big mistake! I think my indigestion was caused by dehydration which started at the end of the bike! (After the race I rehydrated over the course of several hours and then felt better.) Long boring story short I suffered through the rest of the run walking the whole way. Not what I wanted to do! I did the math and knew that I could still finish if I kept walking. That’s what I did, I finished but it was not pretty and not the way I had planned. I would not even have been able to finish walking if not for the encouragement of many folks and especially my wife walking with me for several miles, she helped me keep going!
Summary:
Up until mile 7 or so of the run things went to plan. After that I just held on. So I finished my first IM but not the way I wanted to. I feel like I let myself down and in some ways the EN team down as I was taught better than what I did. I ended up being that guy walking MOST of the run! I’m very disappointed with myself. I feel like my fitness was much better than what my execution allowed me to show. EN is all about execution and that is not what I did.
While I was walking the run I felt like I didn’t want to even think about another IM. It hurt so bad that I was afraid if another one went that wrong I didn’t know if I could make it through again. Do I have another IM in my future? YES! I still have something to prove to myself! I want to execute such that I can use my fitness.
After reading Mark’s report on Boulder and seeing people’s comments it has me thinking about using my current fitness and doing IM Chattanooga. Ultimately I don’t think that will happen though. Right now I think I need another week of few WO’s and no plan. I have a lot to catch up on that I have neglected over the past many months. I would love to get out there and prove myself though. If there were a local IM over the next few weeks I would strongly consider it. J
Many thanks to everyone for all the support! I could not have done it without you! I especially need to thank my family and my wife. Their support throughout this process has been unbelievable! They kept me going over the final month; they gave so much to support me!
For those who made it through all of this, thanks! I welcome any feedback!
The numbers:
DIV Rank: 247
Gender Rank: 1439
Overall Rank: 1986
Swim: 01:28:54
T1: 15:45
Bike: 07:04:51
T2: 24:11
Run: 07:35:13
Finish: 16:48:54
The Before:
This is my first IM. The only goal I advertised was to finish. Inwardly I had a goal of getting through the run without having to just walk it out… I finished! Unfortunately, I ended up walking all but the first 7 miles of the marathon. More on that later…I want to make sure I thank all the great EN folks I met in Boulder, all of their support on race day and before was wonderful! It’s been a great ride to my first IM finish!
Morning:
I woke up as planned and ate the planned breakfast. My wife and I headed to the high school and dropped off my SN bags… All very uneventful!
Swim:
I had been thinking it would be a wetsuit swim and had myself mentally prepared for that. After finding out on the way to the shuttle that it was wetsuit optional I had a lot of debate with myself on wearing it or not. I typically am cold natured and did want to be cold on the swim. Ultimately I decided not to wear it. This was the right decision; it felt right in the water. The only issue was that I decided a bit late and was slow getting in to the starting chute. All of the non wetsuit folks were lined up with the wetsuit folks after that. I had to fight my way through the wetsuit folks to get lined up where I wanted to be, with the 1:20 – 1:30 group. (I can’t remember exactly what the group was labeled). After being late getting in the chute I didn’t have time to get my goggles on in a relaxed fashion and set properly before the start… Swim started and I got moving. I felt like there was a lot of contact for a long while. I didn’t really get in to great groove for a long time. I often have this issue in race swims. There was a lot of contact! Eventually I found a bit of a groove but not really my normal groove. My breathing pattern was irregular compared to what I normally do. I tried to work my way to the outside of the pack and swim there to stay out of the scrum, it worked except that I didn’t swim very straight and would end up back in the scrum. Lesson learned: I need to practice more in open water and practice sighting. I also had issues with my goggles staying put, never had this issue before. I don’t usually swim with a cap, maybe I need to do that more to get my goggles figured out better with the swim cap. My time was 1:28, In practice I was usually 1:23-1:24. Not too bad to me….
T1:
T1 was a mad house of people! There were people sitting outside the entrance to the change tent but volunteers said there were seats inside. So in I went. That was a mistake, it was crowded and dark. In hindsight I should have just stayed outside. I put on my tri-top and some more body glide. The tri-top was tuff to get on while all wet! No surprise but still a pain. Maybe next time I will swim in it. My T1 was 15:45. Not exactly short but I wasn’t really trying to rush either. I told myself beforehand I wasn’t looking at my overall time so much as each part, so I didn’t really try to rush through transition.
Bike:
Well I started the bike and kept my power low for the first 1.5hrs as planned. I spent the first 30mins to an hour catching up on my hydration from the swim. I had at least 2 bottles of GEF before the first aid station. I picked up one bottle of GEF at each aid station. (Except for the last 1 or 2, more on that later.) I also consumed my salt pills according to plan. I noticed at some points I had a bit of a sore throat on the bike. Not a big deal. Overall I think I did a reasonable job of maintaining my watts until the end. I had been trying to bounce my heart rate against my watts during the bike but my HR dropped out not far in to the bike, I was never able to get it back the rest of the day. No big deal. I also consumed about 5-6 Power bars over the course of the bike.
I had trouble at the end of the bike, I would say the last 45-mins to an hour I wanted off the bike more than anything else. I think this contributed to my problems overall. Towards the end of the bike in hindsight I did a poor job of hydrating! I don’t know why I didn’t recognize it better at the time. I skipped bringing on GEF the last aid station or two. I think this was a big problem for me later in the day. I need to look back at my splits and compare this to the location of the aid stations and see if I did my 2 bottles per hour as planned. Next time I need to find a better way to make sure I’m consuming my GEF as planned. In practice with my normal speed I was able to use this to check my consumption. (In practice I was about 1 bottle per 5 miles, 15-20mins) My speed was more varied on race day so I couldn’t use that as a measure as well. I have a 10min timer set on my watch but I need to make sure I consume my expected amount over the course of a half hour. More practice and paying attention are needed. Not rocket science, just need to execute! Time: 7:04, I am happy with this.
T2:
My T2 was very slow at 24mins. I must have taken a nap I forgot about. J I took my time and got things changed, I was happy to be off the bike! I know it was hot on the track because I have never seen Body Glide be melted the way it was when I took it out of my bag! Anyway, other than being very slow it was uneventful.
Run:
I felt good at the beginning of the run, at least as good as I could feel considering I just biked 112 miles. The first 6 miles or so went according to plan, I was at my Z1 plus 30sec, plus. I allowed myself to run at what was a comfortable pace even though after the first few miles it was slower than Z1 plus 30sec. I walked the aid stations as planned and had GEF at each one. After 30mins I had a gel as planned. OK, first lesson I learned here. No reason to carry my hydration belt! I should have listed to Mark C on this one. Walking the aid stations I had plenty of time to drink GEF and it would have been fine. I will also consider using the on course gels so I don’t have to carry mine… During the first 6 miles I had a bit of indigestion, but nothing too bad except that it got worse.
Ok, so after the first 7 miles the wheels came off!! My indigestion got unbearable and was worse while running! I dry heaved several times, it was not fun. The indigestion was even up in to my chest. I stopped eating and drinking because I thought it would make me feel worse. In hindsight this was a big mistake! I think my indigestion was caused by dehydration which started at the end of the bike! (After the race I rehydrated over the course of several hours and then felt better.) Long boring story short I suffered through the rest of the run walking the whole way. Not what I wanted to do! I did the math and knew that I could still finish if I kept walking. That’s what I did, I finished but it was not pretty and not the way I had planned. I would not even have been able to finish walking if not for the encouragement of many folks and especially my wife walking with me for several miles, she helped me keep going!
Summary:
Up until mile 7 or so of the run things went to plan. After that I just held on. So I finished my first IM but not the way I wanted to. I feel like I let myself down and in some ways the EN team down as I was taught better than what I did. I ended up being that guy walking MOST of the run! I’m very disappointed with myself. I feel like my fitness was much better than what my execution allowed me to show. EN is all about execution and that is not what I did.
While I was walking the run I felt like I didn’t want to even think about another IM. It hurt so bad that I was afraid if another one went that wrong I didn’t know if I could make it through again. Do I have another IM in my future? YES! I still have something to prove to myself! I want to execute such that I can use my fitness.
After reading Mark’s report on Boulder and seeing people’s comments it has me thinking about using my current fitness and doing IM Chattanooga. Ultimately I don’t think that will happen though. Right now I think I need another week of few WO’s and no plan. I have a lot to catch up on that I have neglected over the past many months. I would love to get out there and prove myself though. If there were a local IM over the next few weeks I would strongly consider it. J
Many thanks to everyone for all the support! I could not have done it without you! I especially need to thank my family and my wife. Their support throughout this process has been unbelievable! They kept me going over the final month; they gave so much to support me!
For those who made it through all of this, thanks! I welcome any feedback!
The numbers:
DIV Rank: 247
Gender Rank: 1439
Overall Rank: 1986
Swim: 01:28:54
T1: 15:45
Bike: 07:04:51
T2: 24:11
Run: 07:35:13
Finish: 16:48:54
The Before:
This is my first IM. The only goal I advertised was to finish. Inwardly I had a goal of getting through the run without having to just walk it out… I finished! Unfortunately, I ended up walking all but the first 7 miles of the marathon. More on that later…I want to make sure I thank all the great EN folks I met in Boulder, all of their support on race day and before was wonderful! It’s been a great ride to my first IM finish!
Morning:
I woke up as planned and ate the planned breakfast. My wife and I headed to the high school and dropped off my SN bags… All very uneventful!
Swim:
I had been thinking it would be a wetsuit swim and had myself mentally prepared for that. After finding out on the way to the shuttle that it was wetsuit optional I had a lot of debate with myself on wearing it or not. I typically am cold natured and did want to be cold on the swim. Ultimately I decided not to wear it. This was the right decision; it felt right in the water. The only issue was that I decided a bit late and was slow getting in to the starting chute. All of the non wetsuit folks were lined up with the wetsuit folks after that. I had to fight my way through the wetsuit folks to get lined up where I wanted to be, with the 1:20 – 1:30 group. (I can’t remember exactly what the group was labeled). After being late getting in the chute I didn’t have time to get my goggles on in a relaxed fashion and set properly before the start… Swim started and I got moving. I felt like there was a lot of contact for a long while. I didn’t really get in to great groove for a long time. I often have this issue in race swims. There was a lot of contact! Eventually I found a bit of a groove but not really my normal groove. My breathing pattern was irregular compared to what I normally do. I tried to work my way to the outside of the pack and swim there to stay out of the scrum, it worked except that I didn’t swim very straight and would end up back in the scrum. Lesson learned: I need to practice more in open water and practice sighting. I also had issues with my goggles staying put, never had this issue before. I don’t usually swim with a cap, maybe I need to do that more to get my goggles figured out better with the swim cap. My time was 1:28, In practice I was usually 1:23-1:24. Not too bad to me….
T1:
T1 was a mad house of people! There were people sitting outside the entrance to the change tent but volunteers said there were seats inside. So in I went. That was a mistake, it was crowded and dark. In hindsight I should have just stayed outside. I put on my tri-top and some more body glide. The tri-top was tuff to get on while all wet! No surprise but still a pain. Maybe next time I will swim in it. My T1 was 15:45. Not exactly short but I wasn’t really trying to rush either. I told myself beforehand I wasn’t looking at my overall time so much as each part, so I didn’t really try to rush through transition.
Bike:
Well I started the bike and kept my power low for the first 1.5hrs as planned. I spent the first 30mins to an hour catching up on my hydration from the swim. I had at least 2 bottles of GEF before the first aid station. I picked up one bottle of GEF at each aid station. (Except for the last 1 or 2, more on that later.) I also consumed my salt pills according to plan. I noticed at some points I had a bit of a sore throat on the bike. Not a big deal. Overall I think I did a reasonable job of maintaining my watts until the end. I had been trying to bounce my heart rate against my watts during the bike but my HR dropped out not far in to the bike, I was never able to get it back the rest of the day. No big deal. I also consumed about 5-6 Power bars over the course of the bike.
I had trouble at the end of the bike, I would say the last 45-mins to an hour I wanted off the bike more than anything else. I think this contributed to my problems overall. Towards the end of the bike in hindsight I did a poor job of hydrating! I don’t know why I didn’t recognize it better at the time. I skipped bringing on GEF the last aid station or two. I think this was a big problem for me later in the day. I need to look back at my splits and compare this to the location of the aid stations and see if I did my 2 bottles per hour as planned. Next time I need to find a better way to make sure I’m consuming my GEF as planned. In practice with my normal speed I was able to use this to check my consumption. (In practice I was about 1 bottle per 5 miles, 15-20mins) My speed was more varied on race day so I couldn’t use that as a measure as well. I have a 10min timer set on my watch but I need to make sure I consume my expected amount over the course of a half hour. More practice and paying attention are needed. Not rocket science, just need to execute! Time: 7:04, I am happy with this.
T2:
My T2 was very slow at 24mins. I must have taken a nap I forgot about. J I took my time and got things changed, I was happy to be off the bike! I know it was hot on the track because I have never seen Body Glide be melted the way it was when I took it out of my bag! Anyway, other than being very slow it was uneventful.
Run:
I felt good at the beginning of the run, at least as good as I could feel considering I just biked 112 miles. The first 6 miles or so went according to plan, I was at my Z1 plus 30sec, plus. I allowed myself to run at what was a comfortable pace even though after the first few miles it was slower than Z1 plus 30sec. I walked the aid stations as planned and had GEF at each one. After 30mins I had a gel as planned. OK, first lesson I learned here. No reason to carry my hydration belt! I should have listed to Mark C on this one. Walking the aid stations I had plenty of time to drink GEF and it would have been fine. I will also consider using the on course gels so I don’t have to carry mine… During the first 6 miles I had a bit of indigestion, but nothing too bad except that it got worse.
Ok, so after the first 7 miles the wheels came off!! My indigestion got unbearable and was worse while running! I dry heaved several times, it was not fun. The indigestion was even up in to my chest. I stopped eating and drinking because I thought it would make me feel worse. In hindsight this was a big mistake! I think my indigestion was caused by dehydration which started at the end of the bike! (After the race I rehydrated over the course of several hours and then felt better.) Long boring story short I suffered through the rest of the run walking the whole way. Not what I wanted to do! I did the math and knew that I could still finish if I kept walking. That’s what I did, I finished but it was not pretty and not the way I had planned. I would not even have been able to finish walking if not for the encouragement of many folks and especially my wife walking with me for several miles, she helped me keep going!
Summary:
Up until mile 7 or so of the run things went to plan. After that I just held on. So I finished my first IM but not the way I wanted to. I feel like I let myself down and in some ways the EN team down as I was taught better than what I did. I ended up being that guy walking MOST of the run! I’m very disappointed with myself. I feel like my fitness was much better than what my execution allowed me to show. EN is all about execution and that is not what I did.
While I was walking the run I felt like I didn’t want to even think about another IM. It hurt so bad that I was afraid if another one went that wrong I didn’t know if I could make it through again. Do I have another IM in my future? YES! I still have something to prove to myself! I want to execute such that I can use my fitness.
After reading Mark’s report on Boulder and seeing people’s comments it has me thinking about using my current fitness and doing IM Chattanooga. Ultimately I don’t think that will happen though. Right now I think I need another week of few WO’s and no plan. I have a lot to catch up on that I have neglected over the past many months. I would love to get out there and prove myself though. If there were a local IM over the next few weeks I would strongly consider it. J
Many thanks to everyone for all the support! I could not have done it without you! I especially need to thank my family and my wife. Their support throughout this process has been unbelievable! They kept me going over the final month; they gave so much to support me!
For those who made it through all of this, thanks! I welcome any feedback!
The numbers:
DIV Rank: 247
Gender Rank: 1439
Overall Rank: 1986
Swim: 01:28:54
T1: 15:45
Bike: 07:04:51
T2: 24:11
Run: 07:35:13
Finish: 16:48:54
Comments
Did you weigh yourself before and after to see if dehydration was actually a factor? It's possible you were taking in *more* than you could handle on the bike...
Small tip: "The tri-top was tuff to get on while all wet!" When putting on a tri top over a wet body, start feet first - step into it and pull it up to your chest, then throw the arms in the holes.
Bottom line, it's your first, you finished, and you want to come back for more, better. Sounds good to me!
Erik - Congrats on your finish! #1 is in the books. A couple comments....I think Al makes a good point in that were you maybe over drinking in the early part of the bike. If not, and if i recall during your race rehearsals you also had problems with hydration on the bike, you might want to consider the possibility that GEF does not work for you. It's nice to live off the course, but maybe do a few longer training sessions trying something else and see if you have similar results. On the indigestion on the run, i have heard of people taking Tums on the marathon for exactly this situation. However, i have no direct experience doing this so proceed with caution.
Beyond that, don't beat yourself up about execution. This race was about learning how your body would respond so you can try to get it "righter" next time. Remember, the perfect race is very tough to achieve. It's more a matter of learning from your past experience and learning from others to try and do better each time you do one of these things. So take some time to reflect and then ask as many questions as you have as you try to prepare yourself for #2.
Thanks very much for your feedback! I will keep all this in mind when I start to prepare for #2! Still need to earn a lot more SAUs back before I can think about planning next season. Looking forward to gaining some speed and skill in the off season. Take care all!
Thanks,
Erik