Tom Box's IM Choo race report
IM Chattanooga report
Short story: 11:59:52. Ironman #11, second with Endurance Nation . 15/ AG. In my AG 9th position after swim, 21st after the bike and 15th at the finish. Third fastest ironman. Fastest ironman swim
. Fastest swim amongst ENer's. Average bike split. Hit the line at mile 17 of the run and struggled from there.
Long story:
Race week: travelled on Thursday so no workouts that day. Friday woke up and did a short 25 minute run but rained the rest of the day so didn't do any bike or swim. Power meter wasn’t working Friday despite putting a new battery in my power tap before packing the bike. Bought a new battery and it was working. Saturday rode my bike up and down the street when I went to check it in to test things out.
Race morning: awake at 3:45 with plan to leave hotel at 4:45. Checked bike, turned on Garmin, pumped tires, added nutrition, added items to transition bags. It had rained overnight so checked my transition bags. Visualized running through transition. Endurance nation team pic at 5:30 then onto shuttle bus to swim start. Smooth operation of the shuttles with virtually no wait. Got to swim start and went to the end of the line. Had a little under 2 hours to wait so sat down and just people watched. This was the worst part of the day. The waiting. I started to get cold and nervous just sitting there with all that time to think. Finally a volunteer came by and told us we would be moving soon. Put my swim skin on as the water temp was 77.1. Amazingly the water had warmed from the previous day when it was 76.4 (76.1 is the cut off for legal use of a wetsuit) despite not being above 76 through the night and raining. Drank my beet juice about 30 minutes before the swim start.
Swim: (57:58) Once the line started moving it went pretty quick. Wetsuit wearers were held off to the side and would start after the non wetsuit athletes. Said goodbye to my wife, handed off my morning gear bag and followed the quickly moving line to the dock. Crossed the timing mat, jumped in and started swimming. With no warm up, I just started swimming comfortably for the first 100-200 yards and gradually increased my pace. There were people swimming around me but no where near the normal ironman swim experience of getting beat up for the first 500 yards. As I got up to pace I noticed someone gradually overtaking me on my right side and decided he was the person I needed to draft. I fell onto his feet and probably swam 3/4 or more of the swim behind him. I lost him towards the end as he seemed to slow down a little so I went around him and swam past slower swimmers to the finish. Lots of slower swimmers were ahead of me and I felt like I was passing tons of people. As I came up to the turn buoy, I was on the inside. It's only another 25 yards or so to the steps but I aimed a little left of the steps to account for the current. The volunteers at the swim exit were exceptional. Not only was there someone on every step helping me, but I felt one of them unzip my speed suit before I reached the top of the stairs. In my mind that was huge. Before I was 10 yards away I had the thing stripped down to my waist.
T1: (4:45, goal 6:00). I had rehearsed over and over again in my mind the flow through transition and practiced at home in my street and driveway. I was determined to nail the transitions this race. It's a fairly long run to collect your bags but I was definitely on a mission. As I ran to my bag, my goggles and cap came off. A helpful volunteer handed me my bag and I had my sunglasses and helmet out of the bag and on before entering the tent. A quick spray of TRI slide down the shorts, and I was outta there. As I was leaving I asked the volunteer if he could put my stuff in my bag and the gift card in the bag was for him (thanks Jeremy for the idea). As I ran to my bike I took a gel. Grabbed my bike and went to the mount line. My shoes were on my bike because I didn’t want to carry them. Slipped my shoes on and was off.
Bike: (6:06:01, goal 6:00). As I headed out on the bike I settled in and made sure the power meter and heart rate monitor were working. They seemed to be fine and so I settled in. Congestion from other bikers wasn't too bad. The first hiccup came after crossing the second or third set of RR tracks. I was carrying a bottle of perform in my rear cage and that was ejected on one of those sets of tracks. My nutrition plan called for the first 48 oz of fluid to be perform and then switch to on course gatorade endurance. Oh well, guess I'll be drinking the GE a little sooner than expected. I knew I might be a little short on calories since it wasn't as warm as I was expecting. I took in 24 ounces in the first hour so I planned to take an extra gel or two along the way. The second hiccup came at about mile 14 when I looked down and had no power meter numbers on my Garmin. Don't know why this happened. Had just put a new battery in the power tap hub and was working fine on the test and first 14 miles. Oh well, guess I'll use my heart rate from here on. Hiccup number three cam shortly after that on a short little climb when I dropped my chain. What the.....? I thought this wasn't supposed to happen with electronic shifting (in fact it never has happened). The chain had gotten jammed between the frame and the small ring so it took what seemed like forever to get it corrected. A nice women stopped and held my bike for me while I got it fixed. As I finished I had blood and grease all over my hands, quickly wiped them on the wet grass and was off. For the next 50 miles things were uneventful. I saw my wife and friends a couple times as they hopped around the course. I was using my heart rate now as a guide and tried to keep things under 130 but I really didn't know how a heart rate of 135-138 correlated to my power when it rose on some of the shorter, steeper climbs. I suspected I was burning a few matches but hopeful that it wasn't costing me too much down the road. Then on the second loop, another dropped chain! And again a couple miles later!! At that point I decided I might have to keep it in the big ring the rest of the way which is what I did. I tried to weigh the cost of climbing a short little hill in my big ring 28 cog versus having to stop again for a dropped chain. So most of the second loop was in my big chain ring. I did risk it going up the steeper hill out of chickamauga and shifted to the small ring and fortunately didn't drop it again. The ride back to town was uneventful and my legs felt ok. I did pee three times during the bike so I knew I was hydrated. Calories during the bike were 6 gels for 660 cal, 24 ounces of perform (210 calories) and the rest GE (1200 calories) for approximately 345 cal/hr.
https://www.strava.com/activities/406073133
Since I don't have any power data after mile 14, all I have is my average heart rate of 127. Could I have had a better bike split if I had a power meter? Probably. Did the lack of power data hurt me during the rest of the day on the run? Possibly.
T2: goal: 4:00, actual 3:58. I slipped out of my shoes as I was finishing the bike. Jumped off, handed bike off to the volunteer and ran down the line of bags. The volunteers were very helpful for me this race and had my bag before I got to it. I took off into the tent pulling my helmet and sunglasses off on the way. I sat down next to a volunteer and dumped my bag. Put my socks and shoes on being careful to make sure my socks were smooth to
eliminate any potential blisters during the next 26.2. As I was busy with my shoes I caught the volunteer emptying my "go bag"! I quickly said no, don't do that, I just take the whole bag with me! He stuffed things back in the bag and I was off. As I left I said the gift card in the bag is for you. He replied, "you didn't have to do that". I said, "yes I did, thank you for everything". Leaving through the tent I was pulling my can of beet juice out of my go bag and stopped briefly at the water table in the tent to chug the juice and chase it with a little water. I needed to pee so stopped real quick for that and was off. I saw the wife and friends as I was leaving which gave me a boost. I could have been 30 seconds faster without the bathroom stop and the chugging of the juice in the tent but I really needed to go and I would have had to stop moving somewhere to chug the juice as well so I took advantage of the opportunities.
Run: goal 4:20, actual 4:47:00. My goal was to run entirely by heart rate and not look at time or pace at all. I accomplished that mostly. I hit my lap button at each mile and my watch displays the lap time so I had a good idea of my pace for each mile but I didn't use it to adjust my pace at any point during the run. I just kept looking at my heart rate. My heart rate off the bike was 127, and during training I knew I wanted to keep it around 130 in the first 6 miles. My strategy was to then let it creep up to mid 130's. In the first mile there is a good 1/2 mile hill which makes it hard to keep your heart rate in check. It drifted to upper 130's but I knew coming down the other side it would come down. The first 6 miles were uneventful and I felt like I was just clicking them off. After 6 miles I don't think my pace really changed but my heart rate was mid 130's so I didn't push my pace. I saw my supporters at mile 8 just before going across the bridge and starting the hills. Barton hill is steep and long. I tried to take coach Rich's advice and pull my cap down and let the legs churn up the hill. Passed a couple EN'ers coming down the other side and we gave each other a wave. The whole part of the course on the north side of the river is challenging. Not a flat section of road to be found until just before coming over the bridge back to start loop 2. I was still running fairly well for the next 4 miles until I turned back onto the river walk at about mile 17. I was passing lots of walkers through that section as well. I was drinking GE 4-6 ounces at each aid station and taking a gel every 4 miles. At mile 17 I realized I had forgotten to take my gel at the mile 16 station. I was really starting to run out of gas at that point and began wondering if missing the gel was part of it. I took a gel at mile 17 and then again at mile 18 in the hopes that the extra calories would revitalize me. I started coke every other aid station on the second lap as well and took some salt at mile 20. Even though my mind was saying don't walk, the legs won out and I took some walk breaks. As I got to the bridge that takes you over the river to the north hilly side of the course and the final tough 5 miles I saw my wife and our friends from Memphis that drove the five hours to support me. They needed to drive back to Memphis that night and although I didn't know what time of day it was, I knew that for them to wait for me to finish meant a late night drive back home. I told them they shouldn't wait because I didn't know how long it would take me, but I was anticipating a long time. After I had gone past them and started over the bridge my wife ran to catch up with me to say they really wanted to see me finish. That gave me the motivation to at least not walk the rest of the way. I told my wife "okay, I'll do my best". I ended up running much more than I thought I was capable those last 5 miles. At the 24-25 mile point down the last long hill Emily Brinkley passed me. We exchanged encouragement and I tried to hang with her but she was just too fast for me! From there to the finish line I ran/shuffled as best I could. As I came down the hill off the bridge, I just wanted it to be over. I don't think I high-fived the spectators nearly as much as past races but it's always a great experience. The only thing that really bothered me through the finish line this time was how bright the lights were shining in your face as you crossed the line. I was nearly blinded, couldn't see the arch, and almost stumbled across the line. It was great to finally be done and see Mariah there greeting all the finishers. My wife was right there which was great. She is so supportive of my craziness.
The numbers: Bike first 14 miles NP 177 (goal 180), VI 1.04, IF .67
Time lost with dropped chain X3= 5:00
Why did I run out of steam on the run? Not sure. Maybe overcooked the bike a little. Maybe started out the run a little fast especially over the hills but not sure. My heart rate stayed pretty steady those first 17 miles.
Positives: the volunteers, my transition times (fourth fastest in my age group which was a huge improvement for me), pushing the last nine miles despite feeling no energy, using heart rate to guide my pace on the run, having my wife and friends support me, the city of Chattanooga.
Negatives: having to wait in line for 2 hours for the swim start (bring a chair or pad to sit on), the first 5 and final 5 miles of the bike (and all the potholes in between), losing my power meter, dropping my chain X3, those nasty hills on the north side of the river, and those blinding lights at the finish line.
Thanks for reading!
Comments
Tom,
HUGE, well fought battle on a tough course! Well Done!
I watched you train this year and was so impressed by how consistent and hard working your workouts were leading up to this race.
You described exactly how I feel most times fighting through the mile 17/18 transition into DARK LAND and forgetting at times to take my nutrition......guess that's why they call this Ironman.
Hope you rest, heal and have more time to reflect back on what an awesome job you did out there with this one!
Congratulations!
SS
I really think this race was jinxed from a power meter standpoint. I think at least half the ENers had PM issues of some sort. Maybe it was the rain? Again, congrats on a great race!
Rest up!!!
Success dealing with the challenges on the bike. "I ended up running much more than I thought I was capable those last 5 miles. " There may be a clue there as to why you were walking more than you wanted the second lap. Its always harder than we anticipate or desire, but your training was apparently good enough to carry you through.
Al, curious as to what you think the "clue" is to my walking more in the second lap?