"B2B Full" Race Report - Rob S
Sorry, this is my first and possibly only Full Distance Ironman so I will take the liberty to babble a bit.
I’ll start with a brief background of myself to put the race in proper perspective. I had a bone tumor excised from my left leg as a teenager, grade 3 tear of my left hamstring in college, and a meniscal tear (left leg again) as a 39 year old adult. As you might imagine, I run, ok I jog with an asymmetric gait. Nevertheless, I’ve been pretty hard-headed about trying to continue to "jog" over the years. Once I recovered from arthroscopic surgery as an adult, I was deployed to Afghanistan, where I finished my tour early on the operating table at Walter Reed as a patient to have 2 cervical discs replaced. I decided to start swimming again (I had a brief career in college as a sprinter but tore my rotator cuff in the weight room) and picked-up cycling to take the stress off my knees. It wasn’t long thereafter I started to sign-up for a few local sprint triathlons. That was three seasons ago (this is my second season with EN) and so now that I am a "young" 46 year-old I felt ready to enter my 1st “full distance” Ironman.
I chose Beach to Battleship to stay within driving distance, race in cooler temps (I lose 6 pounds/hour while training in the summer here in Virginia Beach), and I wanted a flat course. My TSR from Coach Rich had me doing Out Season plan =>Short Course plan=>Get Fast, and then jumping into the Full Intermediate plan already in progress. Unfortunately, only one other EN athlete had signed up for B2B this year, that made for no "EN mojo" to help pass through the Ironman training. At least I had teammates for the earlier part of the season. I probably completed 75-80% of the IM workouts as prescribed. Going into race week my long distance swim pace wasn’t pretty 1:46/100m (1:38/yds, remember I was a sprinter - 500m used to be an “endurance event” for me let alone 2.4 miles, I should be much faster), bike FTP 287 (3.54 Watts/Kg), and my run vDOT a very gimpy 38.
Because of family/work commitments, I didn’t arrive to the race venue until Thursday afternoon (keep in mind this is a Saturday race, not Sunday) but otherwise I followed the race week check lists for everything else. We rented a beach house on Wrightsville Beach (near swim start location). Very convenient to the race but away from the crowds at the official hotel in Wilmington by the convention center (T2 and finish line area). I picked-up my race packet, sorted my gear, and ate out at South Beach Grill (had eaten there last year for the Half IM so I knew the menu was pretty safe). Friday, I slept in and then drove the bike course. I dropped off my T2 bag to the convention center and then spent the rest of the day chilling in the beach house while my family enjoyed the beach outside.
I should mention that I both took pictures of the location of my T2 bag drop and made a short video of running though the bike hand-off to where my bag was located. I repeated the same when I dropped my bike off to T1 and noted the location where my T1 bag would be (which I dropped off on the am of the race). I had a large lunch of pasta, very light diner and went to bed around 8pm. I got up at 4am for breakfast (toasted multigrain flatbread with peanut butter, honey, banana, granola crunch in portions to equal about 450cal). I went back to bed with the alarms set according to the race checklist. I arrived to T1 with my T1 bag, and bike/run special needs bag for drop-off. They used race tattoos this year so no need to get marked. I set-up my Garmin Edge 810 on my bike, zeroed it, and switched-off the auto-shut off setting. I boarded the shuttle to the swim start.
I should mention that I had my EN race top, and local team race shorts (I prefer black shorts to my faded “orange” appearing EN bottoms), sleeveless wetsuit pulled up to my waist, and sweat top/bottom. Air temp was 54 degrees with a 5 mile/hr wind from the North. After hitting the port-a-john early, I pulled up my wet suit and meditated until my family arrived to cheer me on. I made sure to leave my wedding ring with my daughter. I put on my separate DeSoto neoprene swim sleeves, neoprene cap, and booties. (now that I have a shaved head and rapidly dropping body fat, I need a little extra insulation).
The swim begins near the Southern tip of Wrightsville beach where the ocean meets the Atlantic Intercostal Waterway. The arch of the start empties into the Atlantic Intercostal Waterway and from what I read as well as my own past experience, the Atlantic Intercostal Waterway is usually very smooth and calm. The race is timed with an incoming tide. We had very motivating music with Eminem “Lose Yourself” blaring just before the start signal. It is a mass start. I was in the middle near the North side of the crowd. I got to the middle of the channel to catch the incoming tide as recommended by EN teammate Ralph Moore. I assumed my “stay in the box” focus very early. This proved to be very critical at the half way point as the winds picked up to the predicted 10-12 mph out of the North. As we were swimming North with the incoming tide the opposite flows of wind and tide made very uncharacteristic chop and actual waves, that I had never seen or heard about. It really felt more like swimming in the ocean. Nevertheless, I didn’t panic, I “stayed in the box” to finish the swim. There are plenty of navigational markers to help keep you straight during the swim and one near the right angle turn to the left also well marked. This takes you into the one of the many marina areas off the Atlantic Intercostal Waterway. As we neared the finish which is a dock with 4 or so ladders, both of my hamstrings cramped up. This made climbing out of the water somewhat comical to watch. Once up on the dock with the help of a race volunteer, I had to take a few minutes to stretch out before I could even walk. There were plenty of wetsuit strippers and a row of warm showers to run through before running to the fenced off T1 area which is across the street from the finishing dock of the swim. If I remember correctly, the timing chip mat was in between the showers and the street. I had stopped my Garmin at the finishing pier at 49:38, so my official swim time of 52:35 (71 overall) reflects the time it took me to stretch out my hamstrings strip off my wetsuit, and run through the showers.
I’m glad I had taken the time to video the location for my T1 bag and bike. I had reviewed the night before so the rest of T1 was without any mix-ups. Since it was a cold morning I used the newspaper trick between my EN race top and EN race jacket with sleeves on. Not sure why my T1 was so long 6:50 (112 overall), perhaps I took the “slow is smooth, smooth is fast” advice too literal. I was just too slow in both transitions.
After mounting my bike I kept repeating the EN coaching staff advice to just keep to my race plan and not worry about the people passing me. I felt as though I saw most of the early passers again by mile 100. There is an open steel grid bridge early on and a large one around mile 111. As long as you hold your pace without accelerating or braking you will be fine. I was well warned about these and did not panic.
The 10-12 mile wind out of the north on our swim responsible for the unexpected wave effect was on the course there for the ride out. This I had expected and kept repeated the mantra “patience, discipline” over and over. Once through the city of Wilmington onto the highway, I did a pretty decent job of holding areo position. I kept to my race nutrition plan that I calculated using the EN nutrition calculator.
Here is one of the only real problems with this race - the organizers use Hammer nutrition but not Perpetuem. I bring this up as the company clearly has labelled on the HEED bottle that for events longer than 2 hours use Perpetuem instead of HEED. If you look at the calories/sodium etc, it is not on par with being a true endurance formula. I had trained with EFS but found out the hard way during the race rehearsals that there is too much Magnesium to use it in the volume that I need to race (strong laxative effect). The makers of EFS, First Endurance, recently put out a new formula “EFS Pro” with less magnesium so I made a risky last minute decision to use this (nothing else in my race rehearsals had worked so I knew I need to do something different). Usually one should never try something they haven’t trained with before but I knew what would happen if I did use what I had in the race rehearsals. The next decision was “what to do with the mix” (pre-mix and carry a ton of bottles like a pack mule or cary the mix packets only and mix with water at the aid stations). Coach P kindly sent a post-Kona text to use the latter strategy. I really wish they would use a true endurance formula at the bike aid stations, as I had to watch bikes go by as I mixed up my nutrition at the aid stations. Then I would head out holding only my race plan power until reaching the bikes that had passed. I then had to crank up some power to pass, otherwise sitting back 3 bike lengths would put below my power goals. Fortunately at the special needs station I had several pre-mixed bottles to cut down on some of the required passing wattage.
The next problem was performing getting rid of the urine building up in my bladder. I knew that urinating at least twice on the bike was recommended. I am capable of voiding while on my bike but on race day I had a new problem. I had a history of kidney stones in the past and fortunately I had been lucky to avoid during the race rehearsals but on race day it seems I had developed some obstruction down very low. I couldn’t urinate no matter how hard I pushed and I felt quite a bit of pain the level of my prostate. Finally I felt something give and I notice that I seemed to have blood in my urine. I was able to void 4 more times on the bike without any difficulty. Later while using a proper porcelain urinal at T2 and in the bathroom at the halfway point on the run I was able to see the contrast of hematuria on the white porcelain urinal. Either I had some sort of urinary tract trauma from my saddle and the bumps in the road or a stone had passed. It was way too early (not very long ride and not very hard effort) for it to have been rhabdo. Regardless, I was urinating unobstructed and now pain free so wasn’t going to let a little blood ruin my first Ironman.
At the halfway point, I ditched my newspapers, and unzipped my sleeves for the ride back in. We did have about a 10 mile segment around mile 80 where the seems in the road were over filled with asphalt creating mini-speed bumps. Very painful but we had a nice tail wind so I focused on just staying in my box.
I had set my Garmin to display power averaged over 3 seconds with my goal hold 205 watts ~ IF .71 which I took from the EN bike calculator sheet. I also had a running IF readout. The interesting thing is that on the way out in the head wind and the frequent passing, I was around .73 -.72 so I dialed it back a little. I arrived at T2 with the overall IF reading 0.716. The only problem is that I hadn’t updated the FTP on my Gamrin unit, so it was an IF of 0.716 for an FTP of 270 not 287 so I really finished with an IF ~0.67. My chip time was 5:40:19 (95th overall).
T2 is at the Wilmington Convention center and has a very festive atmosphere. With my inadvertent under achievement of IF 0.67 my legs felt great. I was sitting around ~ 6 hours 40 minutes and if I wasn’t such a lopsided gimp runner, I might really finish with a reasonable time. Again, not sure I did anything particularly off plan in T2 but still a little slow 5:59 (115 overall).
With my injury riddled left leg, I have had to modify my training to keep my left knee happy. I discovered the Galloway method literally the last few weeks of training and had used in my last race rehearsal. I might not have the ratio just right yet but I used it and found the 1 half of the marathon to be very pleasant. There are aid stations every mile and I tried to alternate HEED and water. I used Base Electrolyte Salt to keep my sodium intake on track with my plan. I ate only when hungry but couldn’t stomach another gel after mile 5. Of course with a 2 loop event, you have to run by the finish line to start your second loop. Its very disheartening to run "away" from the finish line.
Speaking of lines, I seemed to have reached my “line” as discussed in Key#2 of the 4 keys of around mile 14. I suddenly became very depressed, but I would say there are a number of things that turned this around for me. First, I had taken some tylenol back at the special needs station. Probably the biggest boost to my spirits came when I met another runner using the Galloway method. We happened to be the same age and holding similar paces for the moment. We started up a conversation and the miles started passing again. Finally, I started drinking Coca-Cola at the aid stations and I would say a "second wind" kicked in at mile 18. I said goodbye to my new best-friend and pick-up the pace the best I could.
The final cruel trick was that the mile marker signs for miles 24 and 25 were placed at miles 23 and 24 respectively. Just plain mean. After running what seemed to be another mile after passing the mile 25 maker and no finish line in sight, I thought I was going to cry. It was then that I saw EN’s Mariah Bridges. It turns out since there weren’t many other EN athletes the odds were now in my favor. There is nothing more motivating than being chased by Mariah holding up her cellphone while broadcasting on Periscope. I’m not sure anyone was really watching, but if there was, I wanted to make sure I didn’t let the other EN members see their teammate falling apart on the last mile. I put on my best show to the finish line. I thought I was happy to see my family when I got home from Afghanistan but the finish line at B2B "takes the cake". I was greeted by my wife, kids, and Mom. Let the celebration begin! - I was finally an Ironman and my family would getting me back.
Comments
@Doug - thanks for the kind words. Congrats on your unofficial PR at IMCHOO. I have friends trying to talk me into doing that race...maybe 2017
@Mariah - thanks for being there. Perfect timing!!! i was either going to cry or just start screaming that the finish line wasn't right there and you seemed to pop out of nowhere. Very motivating!!!
Great report - I got the full flavor of all you saw. felt and did that day. Passing a stone while doing an IM - thats about as hard-ass as it gets, I think. You didn;t seem to bat an eye, just went thru the differential diagnosis, reassured yourself you weren't about to die, and kept on with the plan.
The second stone I passed occured while I was operating. Fortunately it was a shorter thoracic case instead of a long cardiac case. As soon as we finished, I had the anesthesiologist put in an IV and give me fluid/Toradol. You would think all of that we scare me straight enough to stay on my low oxalate diet.
The day before driving down to the race, I went for an open water swim in the Chesapeake Bay. On the day I drove down I woke up with a sore throat and achy all over which I blamed on swimming in the bay the day before. The night before the race I had flank pain but played it off as part of my viral prodrome. On the day of my race I felt pretty good only a dull ache in my flank - certainly nothing that felt like renal colic. However during the early miles on the bike leg I started to have the pain radiating down into my groin. Again I told myself its the usual saddle soreness I sometimes get in the first hour or so in the aero position. Then at the half way point the rest of the events unfolded as described before.
Looking back I was just in denial. However, clearly the pain wasn't as bad as my first episode or I would have been off the side of the road carrying on like a baby. Regardless, once passed, as you know the hematuria that follows is painless. I would say I was just "in the zone" and that I was lucky the stone wasn't significantly impacted. I am certainly motivated to stay hydrated and keep to a low oxalate diet now.