DS IMC 2016 Race Report
IMCDA '15 was my first IM and did not satisfy my curiosity about the full 140.6 distance because of the outrageous temperatures that day (variously recalled as 105-143 degrees by other survivors) and the fact that I woke up that morning with a viral gift from my then 3yr old daughter. Though I was knighted an IRONMAN on that most epic day, my time (13:48:xx) did not reflect my perceived training effort, a 30lbs weight loss, or ability. After licking the wounds for a few weeks, I received an email ad for the IM Victoria 70.3/IMC bundle within days of reading Dave Tallo's IMC'15 race plan (http://members.endurancenation.us/Forums/tabid/57/aft/19111/Default.aspx#2093470), which expertly spells out exactly how to do this IM, and thus the revenge IM seed was sown.
And then IMC '15 happened with half the field going down with frost bite...which I tossed firmly in the denial corner of my psyche.
If you have never been to Whistler in the summer, you really need to put it on your bucket list. This place has it all - the beauty can only be described as majestic. The people who live here appear to be the happiest people on the planet. The mountain biking here is, in a word, sick. The ski lifts are turned into bike lifts and the downhills are pristine with there are mini-terrain parks everywhere. The food is great and plentiful. The atmosphere is pure happy. Just not sure how to make a venue any more appealing... other than to ship in a flatter IM course!
During OS and build to IMC I became a more competent 70.3 athlete with back-to-back PRs at Austin and Victoria. Though my weight crept up 6lbs over that interval, my general understanding of triathlon was unquestionably better. What stands out most in my memory of IMCDA was the hit-by-a-Mack-truck pain felt on the second half of the run/post race. So my goals going into IMC materialized into: PR the race, ninja the EN/Tallo plan without a time goal to obtain my first 'real' IM data point, run all of the marathon, and set a PR walking from finish line to hotel (I didn't really walk home from IMCDA, more like a zombie waddle that took 45 minutes).
The Race
Arrived early at T1 and the scene was set for a perfect day. Perfect blue bird sky, no wind, 65F water. I warmed up with some pylos, running, walking, and grooved to the music. Got down to the swim start, made some friends, picked a spot in the 70-80 minute slot. Guns off, get in, and purposely pick a line out of the fray. The first 400 went easy. I practiced drafting off many, sometimes it worked, sometimes not so much, but the whole swim I felt great and mentally went through my T1 plan many times. For no apparent reason, Taylor Swift "Bad blood" was playing on a repeat in my head.
Swim time: 1:12:xx, AG rank 81, gender rank 398, OA rank 470. This is a PR by 6 minutes over IMCDA.
T1: 5:25: Tent was full, slowed me down. No seat available. I made the mistake of failing to put on the arm coolers under wetsuit, so struggled to get these damn things on. The rest was fine and I got to see my wife and dog as I exited - huge boost there. However, as soon as I mounted, first pedal - dropped the chain. No idea why.
The bike was really fun, no other way to say it. Tallo was in my head the whole time telling me what to do for each segment. The scenery was distractingly gorgeous. My meal plan worked well - 1/2 a bar every 30 minutes. I was drinking a ton, had to pee once I got to Pemberton, but the bladder would just not release. Held it figuring it would eventually come out, but it never did. Aside from that unpleasantness, the execution was there. Only stop was at special needs to reapply chamois and to grab a bag of goldfish for the flats. Top speed on the downhill was 52mph twice, no brakes, aero for everything over 13mph and every headwind regardless of pitch, VI in pemberton was 1.02 (which I did with John Denver "country road" in my head - just, why!). I must have passed 150 people on these flats. The 90 minute, 2000ft climb back into Whistler was a big W for me: my NP was 190 VI 1.04 on this segment.
Bike data: 5:57:xx as 18.81mph, NP 196 (goal was 204), IF 0.71, VI 1.05, TSS ~280. AG rank 38, gender 226, OA 244.
T2: 1:51 *with a pee break*. Pretty sure I would have tied Potts on this day had I been able to relieve myself on the bike. Pure EN gold got me here. Looked at my AHR (144) and turned the Garmin off at 109 miles, saved file and attached to wrist before turning into the Whistler village. Feet out of shoes at mile 111, "flying dismount" achieved for first time. Volunteer who watched this and took my bike said "well, that was f***ing awesome!" Grabbed bag, walked into tent, first chair open, dump bag, shoes on and go bag in hand, ran out of tent. Hit the toilet, stopped to kiss my wife, and out.
"If ever there was a course to run the first 6 miles stoopid slow, this is it" says Tallo. I dialed in my AHR from the bike, which was buying me 9:30 miles, a full minute slower than on my RRs, but it felt fine. Really easy. There was a 50yo dude who was running this pace who I just attached myself to. Interestingly, this is the same guy who passed me on the Callaghan and Whistler ascents while standing. He started to struggle any mile 6, so I took him for another EN tactical win! After mile 6, I decided to "let the race come to me" and just stuck to my AHR. My pace started to degrade by a minute at mile 10-11, but I was still running. Seeing EN teammates Robin, Mike, and Brian was huge. Stopped at special needs (25k), applied vaseline, and grabbed a Starbucks double shot. Took two tylenol. Major boost, got my pace back, which started to look like the first 6 miles except on the uphills. Mike caught me at mile 17, told me Robin was finishing just after 10hr, I damn near cried. Brian caught me at mile 22, but I just couldn't keep with him. My "Line" happened at mile 22. I didn't bonk, but I definitely began feeling the Mack Truck. Broke out all of my "one things". Began singing "fight song" and quoting out loud poet Dylan Thomas which garnered some funny looks (https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/do-not-go-gentle-good-night). Walked the uphills, ran flats and downs, 12:15-12:50 min/mile pace. Last half mile was between 9:30 - 6:50 pace because my straight up bada$$ wife ran the segment before the chute with me.
Run: 4:35:xx, 10:30 pace, AHR 143. AG rank 36, gender 214, OA 240
Overall time: 11:52:41, approximately 2 hours faster than my IMCDA time. Improvement in AG rank: 93rd to 36th.
Post race: Totally heard "you are an Ironman" this time. Walked to the house, though gate was slightly less than good. Still felt like I got smacked by the Mack. Crushed some indian food and got to sleep around 130am - I believe my core temperature was around 101.
Thank you all for all of the insight, wisdom, and advice. You guys are straight up awesome.
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Comments
Congrats! Looks like a pretty good day. You definitely win the award for fastest T2 and fastest race report turnaround, and you are threatening Mike Roberts with the entertaining prose! Well Done!
I'm wondering, in retrospect, would you have stopped the bike to pee knowing what you know now? Would it have made a difference for your ride? I have a really hard time concentrating on the bike with a full bladder.
Your time and ranking are just a proof that you did trained really well this winter/spring and it paid alot of dividends
You must post if any, your pics when quoting Thomas hah.
Rest well now, its well deserved !
Great progression in your training and race execution. Keep at it, and you'll be knocking on the door to go under 11 hours soon than you think.
- Eating solids throughout the bike. Kudos for you getting those down and keeping them down. IMO, though, you either got lucky or you're very special. You may indeed be special, but I wouldn't necessarily bank on it. There is literally zero benefit you get from eating bars after 2 hours compared to gels/liquids. All risk, no reward. Because I want you to crush IMAZ, please abandon the solids no later than the halfway mark. Ok, now safely down off my pedestal . . .
- Dehydration. You didn't pee until T2. Assuming you last peed an hour before the cannon (?), that could be more than 8 hours without going. Way too long. With your run strength and a sensible .71 IF bike, I suspect you could have shaved some decent time off the run if you were a bit less dehydrated. Big focus on hydration those first two hours of the bike.
Continue to celebrate your accomplishment, rest up, and then go tear up that Tempe course.
MR
Thanks Satish! The "fighting poet" in me (Whittier College alum). Fierce, angry poets...
Stopping is the right thing to do. I probably could have hit my watt target on that segment and the whistler ascent if I had. Thing is, I had spent the last few months preparing mentally to stay locked in the bars for those flats, and so I held it stubbornly. Damn prostrate.
MR, one day I will buy you a beer. Your advice is always spot on and so positive. Thx again for the kind words and setting the expectations.
In retrospect, there is no question I was dehydrated. I peed about half way through the swim, so the time interval was probably 6.5 hours to T2. I did not pee on the run at all, in fact I did not pee until around 10pm, a dark amber brew at that. So, my confusion at the time - I was burping up gatorade nearly the entire bike. I assumed the burping meant I was keeping up. I left T1 with 2 bottles. I skipped the first aid station (42 minutes in), but then consistently grabbed 1 bottle at every other station, and ended the ride with a 3/4 full bottle at T2, so estimating I took in at least 8-9 bottles total, plus maybe half a bottle of water. So that would be able 3/4 what I wanted.
As for the solids, admittedly, I tinkered with this race. on RR2 I was battling a growling stomach the whole day. It was then that I decided to up the solids. I took half a bar every 30 minutes for about the first 4.5 hours. After that, I switched over to gels, total of 3 over the next 90 minutes. Maybe this is why I was belching so much?
Excellent RP and even better execution!
I very much enjoyed reading your race report. Tough course to pull down a sub-12 hour IM. You did a whole lot of things right Doug! Adding to your experience the things your learned/mentioned below is going set you up for a serious competitor elimination performance for the forthcoming IMAZ battle.
Keep everything you did right at this race, add the nutritional/hydration adjustments below and we are going to see yet another PR!
Congratulations IM!
We're going to have to get together for a transition clinic. That T2 time of 1:51 was just wicked fast.
very nice work. luckily we are two age groups separated so will never have to worry about competition from you.
glad you had a good day.
great to visit with you folks up there. thanks for sharing the energy on the course. tickled you guys were worrying about my day during your days.
yea that nutrition stuff can be hard to figure out. I nailed mine this race. but in some races my body has not seemed to tolerate the Gatorade so I have had to switch to more water and more gels and salt tablets. can be hard to tell if urpy stomach is::: normal urpy, somewhat overfull, or gi shutdown. my best races have been where I have peed about every half hour on the bike (more peeing than most).
I am signed up for Arizona. ideally I might want to do this after kona, but not sure I can justify the expense, time away from work, and time away from family. will see.
BTW, I eat one powerbar during the bike. 1/2 at about 30 mins in and the other 1/2 at about 3 hrs. All the rest is gels.