Home› Races & Places 🏁⛺

Mark Maurer's IM CDA Race Report or Fire on the Mountain

Mark MaurerMark Maurer
in Races & Places 🏁⛺

Fire on the Mountain

Long distance runner what you standing there for?

Get up, get up get out of the door.

IM CDA Race Report

Swim: 1:16:26

T1: 6:08

Bike: 6:28:14

T2: 4:08

Run: 4:00:32

2nd AG/252 Overall

This was my 7th IM distance race but only the 2nd Ironman branded race. The other was CDA in 2010. That race was on the old course that went up north to Hayden and it had a lot more steep, rolling hills. I finished in 13:28 so this was a little of an avenge race for me. I also age up this year to the 60-64 AG. I had set a macro training plan out 3 years ago to do 1 IM per year and build to an Kona qualification shot this year. So this was THE race. I did IM CDA 70.3 in June to practice on the course and get some things dialed in.

After reading many threads in the forums about training and racing, especially when getting older, I loaded up the Advanced IM plan 10 weeks out, but I went into it knowing that I would have to keep a very keen eye on recovery. I have not used an alarm clock all year except for races and other must make appointments. If I didn’t get up in time to do a workout then I must have been too tired. I did miss a few morning workouts, but if the morning workout was my high priority workout for the day I would substitute it in for the afternoon workout. I did all the high priority workouts on the plan and did the rest of the ones that I could. The upside is that during this IM training cycle I didn’t get sick nor did I have any injuries. Both have happened in the past.

Race week was pretty uneventful. We got to CDA on Thursday and got checked in very quickly. Went out to our rental and got settled in.

Friday we did a swim in the morning and hooked up with Marc Taylor at the swim venue. Later that morning we went out and got in a short bike and run on the course.

Saturday we went to Java for a free cup of coffee, checked the gear in, and then went to meet up for the team lunch. It was good to finally get to meet some other EN folks in person. After that we went back to the rental made up our drinks (my wife Susan was racing too) and chilled.

Sunday morning came early with an alarm at 3:30 (although I did wake up on my own at 3:25!). Breakfast was a half a bagel with PB and honey, some muesli, and coffee. Sunscreen, tape, HR monitor and kit on and head to the venue. I was going to wear arm coolers from the start so I just got my age marked on my legs. We had forgotten to bring any flagging for the bike and run gear bags but we did have some bright green doggie poop bags in the car so we tied them to the bags. That made them very easy to spot. Loaded the nutrition on the bike, started the 810 and calibrated the PM, visited the porta-potties, wet suit on, morning bag checked and down to the beach. I did a short warm up and started looking for Susan. I saw Scott and Marc before I found Susan and wished them well. Found Susan and gave her a hug and a kiss and moved up to the 1:00-1:15 start. The beach was very crowded for that start time and I couldn’t get up as far as I wanted. Next time I’ll have to get there earlier I guess.

The Swim: The cannon went off and it took a few minutes for the line to really start moving. The good thing was they were only letting a few people into the chute at once so the start was relatively uncrowded. I was able to get into a good rhythm right from the start. There was a little chop on the water and that made sighting a little more difficult than normal. At one point I lost track of the buoys and headed towards the wrong ones, more diagonal than straight, and a kayak gently pointed me in the right direction. I hit the first turn and then it was right into the sun. I couldn’t see the buoys because of the glare so I looked to my left at the kayaks that marked the outside of the course. That worked well even if it meant that I probably went a little wide there. Coming back to shore the sun was on the right and the buoys on the left. That made sighting much easier. On the second lap I found my mule and followed him/her for most of the way out, around the turn and some of the way back in. At that point someone muscled their way in between us. I followed those bubbles for a while but too many people were trying to glom on and the disruption to my stroke was not worth the drafting effect. I moved over and let them all go. I exited the swim and ran up the beach to the strippers. (According to the locals the CDA Strippers are the best in the world!)

T1: There were volunteers there trying to grab bags for people but I was able to spot mine from afar and ran right to it, grabbed it on the fly and ran into the tent. There was a very helpful volunteer there who immediately swooped down to see if he could help. I emptied my bag and handed it to him along with my swim stuff. Helmet, glasses, socks, and shoes on and out the door. Grabbed my bike and jogged to the mount line. Took a deep breath, mounted the bike and started out.

I mostly sat up through town until I got to the final turn onto the long straight away. I ate and drank to get started on my nutrition. Then I got aero and kept an eye on the power meter (PM). People were passing me constantly through that first stretch to the lake. It was difficult to keep from chasing them, but I kept my eyes on the PM and marshalled on. I had decided that since the forecast called for temps in the low 90’s that I would lower my watts a little from my plan. So that made the early stages even harder. There were only about 1,500 people signed up for the race so it wasn’t too crowded on the bike and nothing like the 70.3 so I was able to settle in and ride my own race. I was slow up the hills and fast on the downhills. I ate ¼ of a powerbar or clifbar every 15 minutes and drank at least that often. I switched to gels and shot blocks about mile 30 which was 60 miles before I planned, but the heat was starting to rise and solid foods weren’t sitting well. I had to stop for a porta-potty break because of it. Other than that, the first loop was rather uneventful since the wind was still relatively calm. There’s a saying though about the calm before the storm and I knew from the forecast that the winds would hit eventually.

And they did hit on the second lap. There was a high pressure system moving east and a low pressure system moving in from the west and we were stuck in between these titans. The winds picked up from the SSW and were blowing between 15 – 20 miles an hour with gusts up to 30 mph. Going south on the 2nd loop I averaged 13 mph. I had to pedal to go downhill. I stayed aero and only sat up to go through the aid stations and grab fluids and nutrition. I drank when I was thirsty (I had already peed several times) and ate every 15 minutes and when I was trudging up the hills. I also had some crystallized ginger and I ate small bites of that when everything was getting too sweet. I mostly drank Skratch labs hydration, but I supplemented that with water and GE. I got to the turn around and knew that I could start flying back into town. It is generally downhill, but there are some long climbs heading back. On the downhills I would soft pedal and stay as aero as possible. However, on the climbs I would sit up since there was such a strong tail wind to get all the assistance I could. I got back into town and did a flying dismount, ran to the line of volunteers who took my bike, and ran into T2.

Bike stats: NP 152, VI 1.06, IF 0.63 Bike file: http://tpks.ws/MSZhK

T2: As I was running down to the run gear bags there was another man in my AG looking for his bag. I spotted mine and ran by. As I did I heard someone over the fence talking to the other man saying there were 5 people in our AG ahead of him. That’s all I needed to hear. If I could run down one of them and stay there I would be on the podium. In the tent there were more helpful volunteers. One draped a cold ice towel over my shoulders (heavenly) as I emptied my bag. Off with the bike socks, on with run socks, shoes on and double tied, grab the go bag and take off. One of the volunteers was right there to stuff all my bike gear into the bag so I didn’t have to think about that. It was sweet.

The Run: I had a little tube of sunscreen in my go bag so I ran past those folks. Hat on, belt on, stuff pockets with run stuff, race saver bag on wrist, ditch go bag in litter can and start to apply sunscreen all while moving. I hit the first aid station and grabbed some water to douse my arm coolers, took a sip and tossed it. I was moving too fast so I consciously slowed down, but try as I might I couldn’t slow to a 9:30 pace which was my first 6 miles goal. I was over 9 minutes generally so I decided not to fight it too much. My HR was in the mid 120’s so that was fine.

I walked every aid station taking on ice, water and GE. I ate a shot block every mile as well. At mile 3 they had a big Red Bull station set up so I took a cup and had a little sip. That woke me up big time. The last time I’d used Red Bull was in my first IM in 2006 so it was a shock to my system, but in a good way. I continued on keeping my HR low but it was creeping up into the high 120’s by now. I saw an athlete from Olympia who trains at the same club as me and I also saw Kyle and John from EN on that first loop. Kori saw me and yelled out, but I didn’t recognize her. That is one of the things I liked about the 3 loop course, I was always passing folks and passing around the mojo. I got to the end of the first loop and Mariah and Eric were there. Now I knew what and when to look out for people.

When I got to the split for going to more loops or to the finish line, the announcer recognized the EN kit and stated that my pace was really good. He went on to say that there were 65 Kona slots and that my pace might get me one of those slots. Amen to that, I carried on.

Second lap. I passed Mariah and flashed the EN gang sign and headed out on the second loop. Things were starting to get a little serious. I had passed one or two people on the first loop who I knew or suspected were in my AG. I had settled into a 9:00 minute +/- pace and I was passing a lot of people. At this point I couldn’t tell what loop people were on so I just wanted to maintain and keep moving forward. Nutrition was still the same although I did have a gel or two on that loop. My stomach was starting to get a little rebellious so I started eating ginger and peppermint tums occasionally. I also had salt tabs but mostly I was relying on the Base Salt they had handed out on the course and the margarita shot blocks I brought with me. At the turn around I looked back to the west and saw a huge plume of smoke headed our way. The forecast called for “extreme fire danger” that afternoon and sure enough they hit it on the head. My first thought was that it would be bad for Susan since she sometimes has asthma attacks. The other “event” of the second loop was that my 920xt started saying low battery. I slowed down to a walk and turned off the wi-fi, blue tooth, and glonas to save the battery.

I started looking for Susan on the last part of the 2nd loop but I didn’t see her. I passed Mariah and started on the 3rd loop. I grabbed my special needs bag and got the bottle of Skratch and absorbable magnesium I’d stashed in it. I stopped and applied some magnesium to my upper legs. I had frozen the bottle of Skratch and wrapped it in some paper towels. It was still half way frozen and it tasted so good after the GE and water diet. It also felt good in my hand because a lot of the aid stations had run out of ice and my race saver bag wasn’t doing me any good at the time. I ran out of the park and Mariah saw me and asked what mile I was on. I knew I was starting the 3rd loop but I hadn’t done the math in a while and since my Garmin was in low power mode it wasn’t giving me mile lap times anymore. I did know I was close to mile 18 though and I said so and that it was about to go dark. She told me to stop drinking red bull and go with cola. I ran on.

The highway's jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive

Everybody's out on the run tonight

But there's no place left to hide – Bruce Springsteen

By this time the course was getting jammed with people (the downside of a 3 loop course) and most of them were walking. It was so bad at times that I had to say on your left just to get people to move over. The lyrics above kept going through my head but also a derivation of it was too

Oh honey, champs like us

Baby we were born to run

And run I did. I was hurting. My HR had climbed into the mid 130’s with an occasional foray into the high 130’s. When it got bad I thought about my mom in the ER on Superbowl Sunday when she was hurting so bad that it took all my strength to keep her in the chair. The pain I was going through was nothing like that. I knew where every mile marker was by now and I just kept moving between them, dodging and passing people. In the last three miles my mom was replaced with the intention of honoring my training self. I had done the work and it was all a mental game now. Just keep pushing. By this time ash was falling from the smoke plume, but the smoke had also blocked the sun so it was somewhat cooler. I hit the park the last time and went left to the finish, it felt so good to get past that point. Across the bridge and up the hill to Sherman. I rounded the corner on Sherman and I was surprised to see how few people were there. In 2010 and at the 70.3 it was lined with spectators. But the crowds didn’t start for a couple of blocks. I could see the finish line though and that’s all that mattered. I got to the chute and people were holding out their hands for high fives. I reciprocated and got some energy. I crossed the finish line and was immediately surrounded by volunteers. They took my chip, gave me my medal, hat and shirt and led me to the photo shoot. By then the adrenaline was wearing off and one offered to walk me around. I accepted. Did I need to go to the medical tent? No. Well why don’t you come with me and sit down for a minute. OK.

The Finish: I hadn’t seen Susan on the run and I didn’t know if I had missed her or if she wasn’t out there yet, but all of a sudden she was there outside of the fence. I was right, the smoke was bad for her. She had an asthma attack on the bike and had to drop out at T2 with a trip to the medical tent. Luckily she was OK after some puffs off of her inhaler. She wondered later if she should have gone on, but later she read some race reports from some of the other women out there who had breathing problems later in the day and decided that she was good with her decision.

I had to sit there for a long time just to get my stomach under control. Then I went and had a short massage and a little bite to eat. It wasn’t until after that that we went to the info tent to check my results. When I saw that I was 2nd in my AG I knew that I had a trip to Kona in my future because the person who came in first had already qualified. That made me feel a lot better instantly. We walked over to the transition area to gather our stuff and head home.

Conclusion: I would like to thank everyone who got me to this place. My parents who instilled in me a work ethic and discipline to keep going and get things done. While they never really understood why I rode a bike when I was in high school or came to my races, they always supported me in what I wanted to do (but I never told them how much that custom built bike was that I bought in high school). Coach Patrick, thanks for figuring out last fall that I had a chance to qualify for Kona and encouraging me to do an IM this year. It worked out! The amazing EN teammates who inform me, inspire me, encourage me, and read my long plans and reports and provide great feedback. And last but certainly not least, my wonderful wife and training partner Susan who encourages me when times get rough, provides a point of view that reminds me that triathlon is just a game and not our life, and makes my heart sore when I see her out on the course.

It's finally soaking I'm going to participate in the Ironman World Championship. It's been a hell of a year so far!

Thanks for reading. Any and all comments are welcome. 



Comments

Sign In or Register to comment.