Peter's IM Wisconsin 2015 Race Report
<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 36.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 36.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 43.0px} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 14.0px} span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
</style>
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 14.0px} span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
</style>
Peter’s IM Wisconsin Race Report
First of all, a big thank you to my wife and family who supported me on this journey. I am very grateful for the opportunity to train and race.
I arrived in Wisconsin late Thursday with my wife, 2 sons, parents, and fellow ENer Jon. We stayed a few miles from the race. There was so much going on logistically that unfortunately I was unable to spend too much time with the EN crew. I met up for the practice swim and the 4 keys talk.
Race morning I did my usual breakfast, 3 cups applesauce, protein, banana, beet juice, and a bottle of gatorade. My dad was great and came with us early and took care of our bags and the bike pump.
The swim: 1:10:xx
I lined up to the right of the ski jump a few people back. I asked around for target times and I got a wide variety of answers. One guy was lined up at the front expecting a 1:40 swim. Once the cannon went off I entered the washing machine and pretty much was in it until at least half way through the race. At the first turn I was elbowed really hard in the left eye. The vision immediately went dark in that eye and my goggles filled with water. The contact and congestion was so bad that I didn’t think I could even stop. I just kept swimming out of fear of even worse contact. I still had decent vision in the right eye so I just soldiered on and hoped for the best. After I finally found some clear water, my navigation was terrible, I swam off course a fair amount because I couldn’t make out the buoys very well.
T1:7 something
When I got out of the water I was hoping that I would take my goggles off and my vision would be fine. That was not the case. Everything was blurry. I was pretty disoriented, upset, and confused. My time was slower than I wanted because I had a lot going through my mind and was not focused. I decided just to press on and hopefully my vision would improve. I also put arm warmers on. In retrospect, I really should have just toughed it out.
Bike: 5:27:XX
At the start of the bike I couldn’t read my bike computer, but I could at least see well enough to navigate the course. There was a ton of congestion early on. After about 30 minutes my vision did improve, I could finally read the computer. My only remaining problem was that I kept having episodes of intense eye pain and loss of vision that would last 5-10 seconds. I finally figured out much later in the ride that it was sweat getting in my eyes that caused this.
I used up all my one things finishing the bike. I didn’t feel safe. I never really got settled. I was nervous the whole time. My VI was 1.06 which was way too high. I think it was the congestion at the start, the cautious riding, and my lack of familiarity with the course. I really wish I had ridden it before. My NP was 185, 10 watts less than my target. I was really only feeling good on the bike the last 15 miles. I had juice left in the tank to push the power, we had a tail wind, and a gradual downhill. I was no longer getting sweat in my eyes and I was able to tick off a bunch of fast laps. I was pretty happy to see that I was going to break 5:30.
My nutrition was pretty good. I was planning to front load the liquid but I messed up a bit and went through an aid station without getting anything. I only had 3 bottles in the first 2 hours. I did end up having 9 total bottles, 1 cliff bar, and 3 gels. I peed 3 times. The rice paper worked out great.
T2: 2:20
It was quite a relief to be off of the bike. I saw my family and my wife screaming for me as I transitioned from the dismount line. I ran in, got my bag, and sat down. A volunteer helped me with my shoes and I was out of there with my go bag.
The Run: 3:24:xx
I spent the first mile getting sorted out. It took me a bit to get my watch started so it only picked up 26.1 miles, oh well. I did pound a beet juice, and kept it down. I saved my go-bag which turned out to be great down the road.
I raced by heart rate. I got my HR down to 140 in the beginning and then slowly let it drift up to the high 140s. At mile 6 I let it get up to around 150 and the pace seemed just about right. Any time my HR went even a few beats higher, 153-154, I could just feel that it was not sustainable. Early on I was ticking off some 7:30 miles but I eventually slowed a bit. The course was a ghost town on the first lap. A few guys tried to run with me early on but within a few miles they dropped back. I needed help at every turn to figure out which way to go. I saw Rich and Jeremy on that first lap. Bruce ran with me for a few seconds on my first lap as well and told me I was 21st in my age group. That lit a bit of a fire in me. I ended up running straight through most of the aid stations, drinking water and gatorade at each one. I was managing heat with sponges at first. At some point I decided to try ice in the go bag, so I grabbed a cup of what I thought was ice, but it was water. I dumped it in anyway. I then got a cup of ice and dumped it in. I zipped the bag (it had one of those sliding lock mechanisms) and put the whole thing in my shirt. This water/ice combo was awesome. It stayed cool a long time. Things started to feel hard at around mile 15-16. I wouldn’t say I reached the line, but that is when I think my pace started to slow a bit. I told myself at mile 18 I could switch to coke, but I messed up that aid station and got nothing 
I finally got my coke at mile 19 and started to walk about 5 seconds each aid station. I didn’t want to splash coke in my eyes. At around mile 18 or so my vision completely went to hell. I could no longer read my watch, everything had a halo around it. I lost track of how far I had to go. There was one final out and back on the bike path and that was my darkest spot on the run. It never seemed to end. Once I was getting close to the finish I was really afraid I would screw up and go out for a 3rd lap. I was also really afraid that I was going to completely lose all vision and DNF with a few miles remaining. I kept shouting to volunteers at every point that looked like it might be the turn off for the finish, I didn’t realize we had to do one last mini lap around the capital. Finally I got to the finish and I was just relieved to be done. I finished in 10:12:xx, 10th in AG, 44th overall, and 43rd in gender. I was thrilled with that time, especially the swim time. I did a ton of work in the pool and it paid off.
When I finished I found Mariah and Rich were right there so I plopped down next to Rich. He helped me stop my watch. I got some water and started to walk and thankfully my family was right there to greet me. I gave my wife I kiss and said I needed to go to medical.
In medical I met up with Jeremy and Matt. We had nice EN representation in there. The medical folks put some saline in my eyes but said that I really should go to the ER. My dad drove me straight there and they found bruising in my eye and abrasions on my cornea. I was given ointment and sent on my way. They gave me a referral to a specialist if it got worse. We headed back to the race. I had 8 slices of pizza.
That night was horrific. I could not sleep. I just laid there with cold towels on my eyes in extreme pain. The next morning it hurt to even open my eyes. We had breakfast and then my dad took me to the specialist.
The specialist found that both eyes had the abrasions. He put band-aid contact lenses in my eyes and switched me to drops. This helped a lot.
I was hoping to go to the roll down ceremony but we got there right when it finished. I saw Rich on his way out and we did some ice cream coordination. As it turns out there were only 4 slots in my AG, I was pretty far from qualifying.
We met up with Rich at Ella’s Deli and had grilled pound cake smothered in ice cream. It was pretty good. My family had been going to this ice cream spot on campus and I was pretty jealous so we also checked that place out later that day. That ice cream was amazing. I had 6 scoops there making a total of 11 scoops for the day.
This race has given me the Kona bug. I feel like it is attainable. If I do qualify I think it will be on this course. I believe the key is my swim. I really want to shave another 10 minutes off and be around an hour. At that pace I should avoid the washing machine, and have a clear bike course. With more course familiarity and good vision I should be able to nail that 1.03 VI I wanted and shave some time off of the bike.
Of course no race report of mine would be complete without something toe related. I only got one black toe this time. If you are brave here is my home surgery video:
https://youtu.be/7uaor5xFfro
Comments
Hey Peter,
Outstanding race under stupid conditions. 10:12 on that course is well under 10 on most. While virtually blind. With continued improvement in a few places and a little luck, KQ is definitely within grasp. But this team's recent come-back adventures have become legendary: Dave wrecks and still KQs. Jeremy does the same. JW wrecks his 48-pound wrecker and raises 25k. You look like one of Tyson's ex-girlfriends, and you finish 44th OA. Some crazy sheet in the Haus, that's for sure.
Keep refining that swim stroke and get that TP down to 1:25/100 yards. No one can kick you if no one's in front of you. 8 pieces of pizza and 11 scoops of ice cream . . . may be the most impressive stat. Oh, and that stache probably cost you 2 watts.
"...Any time my HR went even a few beats higher, 153-154, I could just feel that it was not sustainable..." That's the secret of a good run: never run any harder (RPE) than you feel you can sustain for the ENITRE remainder of the marathon. Adopting this approach means you'll keep working harder, even if you don;t go any faster.
I agree: imagine what you could do if you could see! I was glad to hear it was "only" abrasions, and not something like a retinal detachment.
It's been great getting to know you, train with you at TOC, and race with you in Madison. The corneal abrasion on the swim is one of those things that unfortunately we can only do so much to avoid. You put up a monster time despite significant challenges. I dropped 18 minutes between my IMMOO times in '13 and '15 and I think you could do every bit of that and more. This course is totally set up for you...fast runner, high w/kg on the bike. You cold knock off 10 minutes on the swim and 10-15 on the bike and you'd be right in the hunt for a KQ. Sometimes you just need that fire to be lit. That's what happened to me.
Do you age up next year? There will be more spots in 3539 but the times also get a bit faster typically.
Hope you recover quickly. Look forward to hearing what the next challenge is.
It was great to meet you. That is an unreal performance with those conditions. Way to soldier on through it. I have no doubt that with actual functioning vision your bike and run both would have been a bit stronger. Your swim improved a bunch already, more work on that will shave some of those minutes you are after. Great race and good luck with your recovery bruiser!
I am also wondering about bike gearing. I could never coast at 38mph+ as Rich described in the webinar. I can pedal up to 35mph but it was really hard to go any faster. I wonder if it was just the wind and my weight. I am thinking I might want to go with a 52/36 next time and just stay on the gas always.
It really sucks about your eyes but as others have said thankfully it's not permanent damage. Despite that you overcame a crazy obstacle and put up some serious times. KQ is totally in your near future and I agree with Jeremy the course is made for you.
Watching your swim sessions on Strava tells me those 10+ minutes are there for you to take. You put up some great pink mist times and with more work you'll do the same on red mist sets and watch your threshold times just keep going down.
In terms of gearing the alpine double 52/36 is a sweat gear combo and worth a look. Keeping the wide range cassette in the back will still give you the wiggle room going up hill (not that you have any issues with going up hill insanely fast) if you need it but going down it will give you a little extra ummph to spin out later for some free speed. I also tried and now love the Rotor OCP Q-rings so these might be something else to experiment with.
BTW toe video was pretty awesome but the only fail there was the vertical video:
Hats off to you for showing great courage and determination coupled with super smart execution. Can't wait to see what you do next.