MR's IMFL Race Report
I've got a few minutes before I depart the now-stormy Panama City Beach, so I thought I would write down what happened two days ago while it's still fresh. Last 8 weeks of training went really well, besides weather forcing me to retreat to the trainer. Taper was spot-on. I got a little nervous on Thursday because it was crazy hot, as I completely soaked through my clothes walking 1/2 mile to check in at 9:00am. The surf was rough, the water nearly 77. When I went for a ride, there was wind, and I again completely soaked myself with sweat. By Friday, however, I felt great and had a plan to deal with all of the above potential variables.
Fell asleep at 9:15pm, jolted out of bed at 3am by the alarm. Best IM night sleep ever. GroupMe message: "no wetsuits." Ugh. Ate about 850 calories, headed to TA. Didn't even think about bringing my wetsuit, because the speed suit folks would go first, and I could ride ahead of several thousand people. TA was a zoo, as usual. After checking off the remaining items on my checklist, headed to the beach. Met up with the coaches and teammates, then headed out for a quick swim in pretty rough surf, then jumped into the corral and slowly snaked my way to the very front. The lady next to me said she went 1hr at Kona in rough conditions, so she thought she could go :58 here. Perfect.
SWIM - 1:12:11
When the horn blew, we started running into the surf. When it got waist deep, I dove under a pretty big wave, but found myself on a sandbar. When I got my first foot up, I saw another very large wave right in front of me. I think I tried to dive over it . . . not sure. But the result was me being pancaked by the wave, flipping me backwards, knocking my goggles off, and forcing me to swallow a bunch of salt water. Off to a bad start. Fought through many more breakers, eventually making it out to sea. Where things weren't much better. I just followed people because I could only see a buoy when I timed a sighting right at the top of a big swell. It took forever to get out to the first turn. I expected the return trip to be a lot better, but it seemed just like the way out . . . until I caught a couple of waves and rode them to shore. Out of the water, goggles up, cup of GE, rinsed my burning eyes with a cup of water, back into the surf. The Kona lady was right next to me, exclaiming: "wow! that was way worse than Hawaii." Well, I'm right there with a 1hr swimmer, so must be doing OK (I never saw a clock - thank goodness). The surf on the second lap actually felt worse than the first, but because I now knew how to search for the buoys, the second lap felt much faster (it was actually quite a bit slower). My stroke felt strong and in control the entire time, I never saw anyone pass me, I could easily hang with the various groups I latched onto, so came out feeling like I made the best of things and probably put myself in a good overall position.Although I didn't know it at the time, I had a terrible swim. 1:12, by far my slowest in eight IM attempts. 30th in my AG, 235th overall. Now, I know that most of the top 20 in my AG were actually slower than 1:12, and many of the 234 that beat me wore wetsuits, but the fact remains that there were many who still had fast swims despite the conditions. And I wasn't one of them. I assume I just didn't swim straight. Many were complaining afterwards that their Garmins said 4,200 meters, but I suspect it was more self-inflicted lengthening of the course. Not sure what I would do differently if I had a do-over. I'm just glad I don't have a do-over today, because ocean is even meaner right now.
T1 - 4:20
Jogged past the bored wetsuit strippers, one girl actually jogged along side me and unzipped my "speed" suit. Very cool. Through the hose showers, I yelled for 1118, and another girl was standing there with my bag. With more than 100 yards to the tent, I opened the bag, put my goggles and cap in, took out and put on my helmet, and removed my aero jersey from the bag. Once in the tent, I found a volunteer, stepped out of my suit, gave him my bag, and continued on. With at least another 100 yards to my by bike in the far tri club corner (only Rich S and Christina D had to run farther), I had plenty of time to fight my jersey on. Once again yelled 1118 and, sure enough, another volunteer was waiting in the aisle to hand me my bike. Yet another 100+ yards of jogging, this time with a bike. I should have put my bike shoes on in the tent, because the parking lot pavement was a very painful chip seal concoction. Eventually got to the line, where I saw my two coaches and was looking for some last-second advice for which I pay so much. Rich just yelled: "Get on the bike. Get on the stupid bike."BIKE - 5:22:00
I felt a little nauseated during the last quarter of the swim, but I chalked it up to the swells and the salt water chug. Once on the bike, I felt great. Very pleasantly surprised to see my HR was already down to 130-32 when it's normally near 150. Settled in, sole focus on getting the HR down to 128 or so. But even with soft pedaling and relaxed breathing, 130 seemed to be the floor. After a few miles, I decided to settle on 130, which is still a low HR for me. Started drinking GE, but by Mile 4 I started getting the cold sweats and feeling really queasy. You gotta be kidding - the race is just starting. After going from feeling bad to terrible, I parted with the red sea at around Mile 5, launching a mixture of salt water and fruit punch Gatorade all over the Florida concrete. Instantly felt better, I thought that was the end of it, back to work.
The next 40-45 miles were just execution, honing in on 170-75 NP and 133HR. By Mile 20 or so, my HR Avg was 133, and it stayed there the rest of the ride. I got passed by a few riders, but most of the first 50 was me passing people who managed the surf far better than me. A large pack passed me around around Mile 50. A few miles later, I passed a lady, and the official sat and watched the entire thing. When done, the official said, "good pass." I told her, if you want some real action, go catch the pack of 30 a half mile ahead. At the penalty tent after SN, I saw about 60 riders spilling out of it. At least they tried this year. By this point, I felt good, was holding consistent 175 NP, and had peed 5 or 6 times. Every time I got an opportunity to stand up and coast, I made it rain. The wind was pretty light from the NE, meaning we had a head wind the first 40 or so. Went through a rough patch around 65, but made it through. But the nausea returned around Mile 80, along with abdominal cramps. This was a first. I did a lot of standing and coasting, but things deteriorated. Somewhere around this point, I again painted the concrete, this time with an orange GE mixture. Felt better, decided to move to water. After the turnaround at 83, I went for my 3x caf gel (first caffeine in a week), and it went down fine. Then, about 4 miles later, I got a huge second wind, felt awesome. Decided to pick the watts up to 180 and hammer it home with a slight tail wind while keeping HR no higher than 135. I was now passing dozens of riders and - for the first time all day - really having fun. Then, at 93, I was startled by what sounded like a gunshot. Then I immediately started losing control of my bike. Front flat. Off to the side, I calmly went about fixing this minor problem. PitStop to the rescue - fail. I should have suspected that the flat was a big blow out, not something made for PitStop. Next, my back-up tubular. Go to take of the front wheel, and skewer lever breaks off. Simply sheered off. Absent a hack saw, the wheel was never coming off. I quickly reached rock bottom, then to resignation that I tried and I couldn't have possibly prepared for this. I waited for Bike Tech, hoping they would have an answer. But then I decided to take the lever off the rear skewer (the levers screw in) and see if I could make the front move despite the fact that several mm of the old lever were still in the front skewer. After several minutes, it started to move. Wheel off! I removed the tubular in a way that would shame Norman, got the new one on, CO inflated it perfectly, got it back on, and - truly amazed - I was about to re-enter the race. I thought it took 15 minutes, but it was "only" 8.5. The next 20 miles was basically nothing but me passing at least 100 riders. Climbing the bridge around Mile 100, I heard a loud intermittent squeak. I asked myself out loud, "what the hell is that?" The guy next to me said, "dude, it's you." Front wheel rubbing against the brake. Perfect. No way I'm touching that wheel again, so on I went. Felt amazing the last 12, continuing to hold 180-84 watts, allowing HR to move up towards 140, absolutely thrilled to get off my bike, still in the race, even though at this point I had totally abandoned any thoughts of a good AG placing.
https://www.strava.com/activities/428487002 I was very happy with my bike overall, overcoming some serious obstacles while maintaining a solid watts/HR profile throughout the ride. In the race, I was now down to 32nd in my age group, somehow up to 205 overall. But clearly out of the mix. Or so I thought.
T2 - 2:47
This transition was far easier. Handed my bag, off with helmet, found a volunteer, on with socks and shoes, grabbed go-bag and left. Turned on the 910xt during the exit, and it acquired pretty quickly. Couldn't have done it much faster.RUN - 3:56:02
The first thing I noticed was, it was really, really hot. The sun was baking, and the humidity was thick. My HR was 140 already, and I need to keep it there or lower. I felt like I shuffled those first 6 miles out to the park where Coach P was stationed just keep my HR down. I filled my gallon-sized go-bag with ice each AS and just took a constant full-body ice bath. In the park near the turn-around, the abdominal cramping started again. Good lord - this race really wants to throw everything at me today. A quick stop at Mile 7 and another longer porto stop at Mile 10, and the stomach issues disappeared for good. Ate a banana to start, followed by four gels, the last one at 15. I walked every aid station, some of them the entire aid station. Between them, I focused just on form and HR. I was actually able to get in a good rhythm and maintain it over the entire run. But the struggle now was keeping my HR below 145, my average long-run HR. Although I pretty much accepted the fact that this was just an event, no longer a race, I did notice by the half way point that no one was passing me and I was passing a lot of people. Just had to get to the park and Coach P one more time, then finish this thing. At Mile 20, after switching to Coke, Coach told me now was the time to suck it up and race. For some reason, I took his advice and did. Even though it felt at times like I was sprinting, the best I was ever running was 8:30s. Walked at Mile 20 through the aid station and had a brief low point during 23, but otherwise ran the whole way in. I knew the sun went down at precisely 10:37 into the race, and it seemed like it was around sunset. But I had no idea what my time was. Didn't even find out until well after the race. Got some high-fives, very relieved to cross the line. https://www.strava.com/activities/429210837. Not my worst IM marathon, but certainly not my best, and nowhere near what I wanted to do.
OVERALL - 10:37:20
Very, very surprised to later learn that the effort had moved me from 32 in my AG to 15, and from 205 overall to 103. Less than 25 minutes from a KQ, sometimes it really is just about surviving and not stopping.
The best part of the race was getting to share it with great coaches and arguably even better teammates. It was a really tough day out there, and the entire team did great. Already looking forward to next year.
Comments
The phrase "trust your training" comes to mind reading your report. You trained well and you executed well. So of course your result was where in was in our AG. Get some rest. Se you next time.
Rest up and then it's time to get back to work.
Sorry about the mechanical.
So what caused the gi problems?
Nice running near the end. In retrospect could you have spread the pace and done a bit faster total time on the run?
Thanks so much, everyone. Having had a couple more days to reflect, feeling better about the race. 15/434 may be my best AG finish, percentage-wise.
As for my issues, I don't think throwing up really hurt me. It certainly didn't take any time to accomplish it, I still drank a ton on the bike, and I peed constantly on the bike and twice on the run.
@Robin, I've never had GI issues in a race before (have during long training runs), so not positive of the cause. But I get car and sea sick pretty easily, and it may have just been a byproduct of the bad ocean swim. I also skipped coffee on race morning so that the caf jolt during the race would be more pronounced, so I'll return to pre-race coffee next time. I probably only got hit with 4-5 waves of cramping, but it never lasted long and didn't really slow me down much. The long break I took in the john took less than 90 seconds (Mile 11 was 10:00, sandwiched by two 8:30s), so my stomach problems didn't seem to cause too much time loss.
As for run time, I think I accidentally ran a very smart race (or, I did exactly what Coach P made me promise I would do, and he happens to be very smart). I was absolutely committed to keeping HR down the first 6 and I achieved that during the portion of the day when it was really hot. Had I run by pace, I almost certainly would have blown up. By the time I got to 11, the clouds and wind cooled things off, my GI issues were gone, and I had the energy to negative split the marathon. Usually, a neg split IM run is a sign of a bad run, but given the heat on the front end, I think it might have been the answer on Saturday. The only thing I could have done faster was walk less through the aid stations, and I think I did that because I never really thought about racing the marathon, knowing from the outset that I was out of it. Another lesson learned.
I raced two IMs this year, both with 3:56 marathons. In NZ, my avg HR was 138, and Strava gave that effort a 278 suffer score. On Saturday, my avg HR was 144, and Strava gave that a 404 suffer score. Interesting how conditions can dictate the different levels of effort required to go the same speed. Makes me even more committed to the HR approach.
"Felt amazing the last 12" I have yet to experience this...good job.
You were hit with a challenge day and were able to stay calm and focus and keep going.
Mike, I was very impressed with the race you put down. These were difficult conditions for me. Your execution was great and when I saw you on the run it was a great lift.
strong fight to the end. way to finish the drill!
Everyone has said it above! Great job on managing the whole host of challenges. BUT, no one gets to say how cool it was to share the stage with you at the awards getting the Tri Club award but me!!!
regarding your response to me::: sounds good regarding the pacing and following heart rate.
Jan Frodeno's recent Kona run execution has me rethinking the aid stations. (he stopped at some aid stations) I plan to get back to taking my time at many aid stations, especially during hot races.