Jorge Duque IMCA Race Report: A comprehensive guide of what not to do and how to deal with crap!
Warning:
This might not be your typical race report.
This
report doesn’t begin on race week, it doesn’t begin with the OS, it starts 10
years ago when I couldn’t run one mile if my life depended on it. Yes, this is
one of those stories so if you are looking for tips on how to gain 0.5 watts on
the bike, this might not be the best place to look for that.
I
was born in Colombia and grew up as an active kid: soccer, tennis, swimming,
basketball, etc. After high school had to join the army for mandatory service
and I was in top physical shape back then. A year later (I was 19 at that time)
I finalized my time in the Army and went to college. It was downhill from that
point on. There are no collegiate sports down there besides partying and I
found out I was very good at it. As a result, I gained more than 60 lbs over the
next 15 years.
I
moved to the US in 2005 to pursue my master’s degree and my daughter was born
one year after that. When she turned 1-year old I joined my local YMCA so I
could take her to swim lessons. To make the story short, I decided that I
needed some exercise and began walking 1 mile on the treadmill every day. One
mile turned into two, and two into five. After a couple months, I began
jogging. I couldn’t understand at the time how people dare to compete in 5K’s.
What kind of superhuman do you have to be to in order to do that? After several
months of failed attempts of walk-jog, one day I decided to run a 5K on the
treadmill. It was amazing, I almost pass out but I was able to finish my first
5K with an impressive time of 00:38:15. No one around noticed the enormous
achievement taking place that day but me. I thought I was deserving of a sports
center highlight that day. Tanana tanana!!!
That day proved that hard work and dedication pays off. I decided to change my ways. I became more involved with the YMCA and took indoor cycling lessons, I began swimming again, and kept running to bring that time down. I even volunteered as a cycling instructor once per week. I meet amazing people and heard about all of this amazing races, rides, and swim meets. At the same time, some friends of mine where participating in all kind of events and that’s when I heard about Ironman, and I remember saying to myself “One day I will do one of those things”, despite that I was just being able to run 5K’s at 11-minute miles. I began watching videos on YouTube and I was captivated by all the different stories, specially Team Hoyt. If they can do it what’s your excuse?
A
lot happened between that day and Jan OS. I lost 40lbs, have done multiple bike
rides for several years including Seattle to Portland, Seattle to Vancouver,
RAMROD, multiple races including over 15 half marathons and a full marathon,
and different triathlons including sprint, Olympic and IMAZ 70.3 last year. On
a side note you might find funny that on my first sprint I got off route and
rode over two hours on the same gear because I didn’t know how to shift (I had
bought the bike the day before the race).
After IMAZ 70.3 @Doug Sutherland and @Robin Sarner introduced me to EN and I began training with the team and good things happen right away. After many years of attempting a sub 2 hour half marathon, I was able to do it back in March. I was following the program and it was paying off. I was getting stronger, faster and more confident about actually finishing an Ironman.
Here is when the story gets a twist. Here is when crap happens and the biggest lesson starts to build up: Adapt and move forward. Finalizing the OS (about mid-March), I was riding with @David Glenn and remember having a conversation that said: “All we need to do now is stay healthy and we will make it”. Needless to say, I jinxed it badly. That same night I ended at the ER and the next morning I was having gallbladder and hernia surgery. When the Dr. said they needed to remove the gallbladder I asked if they could replace it with a carbon one but no one got the joke.
Recovery from surgery required for me to stop training for over a month. In the meantime, while everyone was going to Swim Camp (and God knows I needed swim camp) I was barely waking. Two weeks after surgery I was allowed to walk, so instead of getting stronger and faster, I was walking. No, actually I was power-walking with the grace of a Golden Girl. I meet all the senior citizens of my neighborhood and kept them entertained telling them about our training schedule. They couldn’t believe that I was training for an Ironman. They were so nice that I am sure if I asked them politely they would crochet a tri-suit for me.
I was able to resume training by mid-May. Plenty of time @Doug Sutherland & @Coach Patrick said so I believe them and got back to work. After race rehearsal weekend (first week of July) I found out I had exercise induced hematuria (in plain English: peeing blood). I thought at the time that EN should change the slogan from “Work is speed entering the body” to “If you ain’t peeing blood you ain’t working hard enough” but don’t know how that would go with the Marketing Department.
A week later I had trouble walking and went to the Dr. to find out I had Achilles Tendonitis due to overuse. Great news with less than a month to my first (and what seemed at this point my last) Ironman. I couldn’t run at all. I had clearance to swim and bike but no running until race day. Only on race day I would find out if I could run or not. I was put in an orthopedic boot for all of July to accelerate the healing process but went to race day with almost no run training for the past 40 days.
I swim, ride and aqua-run (back with the senior citizen crowd doing aquaerobics). I couldn’t ride my tri-bike due to the injury and had no time to adjust the fit on that thing to make it less painful. I tried the road bike and felt no pain at all: good, the road bike it is then. Adapt and move forward. Let’s put race wheels on that thing and go for a ride. I did a couple centuries and it felt great. On my last ride, the front tire slashed close to my house so I could go back and grab the first wheel I found in the garage (an aero but not deep rim). It felt so good that it became the setting I used for the race. Something good came out of this.
If you are still with me, thank you. It’s long but we are getting there.
Race week:
Monday: What a better way to kick race week with a Bruno Mars concert on Monday.
Tuesday-Wednesday: Work like there is no tomorrow (not by choice)
Thursday: Drive from Gig Harbor to Whistler with @Dave Glenn"
Friday: Register in the morning, attend race briefing, listen to the pro-panel. Zip-line (I know this is part of the what not to do but it was too much fun to pass and didn’t wanted to disappoint my daughter). Pack race bags (Swim, bike, run and special needs) – Review @"Dave Tallo" race strategy
Saturday: Good breakfast, 10-mile bike ride for final check. Bags drop and bike drop at Alta Lake (T1 and T2 are located at different places). Review @Dave Tallo race strategy, easy afternoon at the hut tub, review @Dave Tallo race strategy light pasta dinner, review @Dave Tallo race strategy and go to bed early (9:00pm)
Quick stats & equipment:
Age: 43
Weight: 210 lbs
Height: 6.3
FTP: 264
Experience: 0
Race Day:
Woke up at 1:30 am – Too much adrenaline going on. Tried every technique to go back to sleep but nothing worked. Had cereal, PB&J sandwich, 3 cups of coffee and grapes for breakfast. Head to T2 at 4:45am, put running nutrition in running bag, drop special needs bags, jumped into the bus to go to T1. No lines at all. Plenty of buses departing one after the next one. Weather was nice (around 55 degrees) and light was out (didn’t needed my headlamp). The ride to T1 is about 12 mins and the bus is a very silent place.
Arrived to T1 (5:35 am), put air in the tires (plenty of pumps around), installed tool bag and the computer (forgot to turn it on – What not to do #2 – I knew better than that), put two bottles of fluids in the bike (Gatorade & Nunn) and put the bike nutrition (Huma Gels) in the jersey pockets.
SWIM
Time to get ready for the swim. Put your new wetsuit on (Yes, brand new; another big what not to do: never try anything for the first time on race day but in my defense, I had no time due to work commitments). Lucky for me that didn’t bite me in the ass. The new suit is a Blue Seventy Helix and I highly recommend it. It’s a major upgrade from a TYR Hurricane One and you can tell the difference in terms of flexibility.
The swim is a self-seeded start so you can group yourself according to your expected time. Volunteers hold up signs with expected times and you line up accordingly. I place myself in the 80-90 min since my race rehearsal swims came about 95 mins (I was following EN protocol and placed myself five mins faster than my rehearsal). The lake is super clean and the temperature was comfortable (about 68 degrees). I followed the advice of swimming far away of the buoys to avoid traffic and it worked perfectly. For the most part I had a clear lane ahead of me. I tend to panic the first part of the swim and second guess if I will be able to make it but this time it was different, there was a weird calm from the beginning. I focused on rotation and long arm stretch, breathing on every stroke and primarily pulling for the first 400 meters. After that I started to kick and felt a great flow…. It was kind of effortless. My swim time was 1:29:33 according to the tracker. This might not impress many, but I was very satisfied with it, especially because it felt good. On my race plan, I had estimated 1:30:00 for the swim.
T1
My goal was to finish and overcome injuries so I planned for maximum comfort. I decided to ride in full cycling kit (What not to do again – I know the time savings achieved by racing in a tri-suit but that didn’t apply today). I wanted my beloved Assos bibs, and a comfortable jersey, socks, and gloves. I had planned for a 15:00 transition (at this time the most experienced members of the group are in cursing) and it only took 7:22, so that’s pretty good.
BIKE
There were plenty of bikes in the racks as I left T1 and that provided some comfort. I had studied the course pretty well. I read multiple reports from EN members, and attended the webinar with @coach and @mariah and that proved to be the best strategy.
Equipment: Specialized Roubaix S-Works, wheels: Sram S80 on the back and Cosmic Elite on the front, Chainrings 53-39, and Cassette 12-30.
I knew exactly what I had to do. I started riding at 70% of my FTP for about 30 mins until the legs felt strong. After that I pushed the envelope and continue to ride smart. It was mentally tough to let some people pass, but I was committed to stay in my watts range. I constantly told myself “you make it or brake it on the bike” & “there is not a good bike followed by a bad run” and that helped a lot. The bike course is as beautiful as it comes. Its very demanding and you are going up or down for the first 60 miles facing tough climbs of up to 14% grade and super-fast downhills reaching more than 50 mph. For the first 21 miles I averaged 14 mph, for the next 33 I averaged 20 mph. At this point we have already rode to the Callaghan Valley, climbed back to Whistler and then down to Pemberton. During this period you get a lot of support from the crowds close to Whistler.
My nutrition plan for the bike was very simple: Eat every 20 mins as follows – On the hour have a gel, on the 20 have 1/3 of Vega Protein Bar, on the 40 have 1/3 of Epic Bison Bar. With the high temps experienced that day the fluids plan had to change (Adapt and move forward), instead of 1 bottle per hour I switched to 1½ bottles per hour alternating between Gatorade and Nunn with an Endurolyte capsule every hour. At the midpoint of the ride I stopped and asked for my special needs bag, stretched, pulled a ham and swiss sandwich and a box of smarties (M&M’s on steroids) and had lunch. Why not? It was lunch time anyway. It took less than 5 minutes and I continued. For the next hour I only had fluids. I know the fluids strategy was working because I had to pee twice (mile 40 and mile 80). I stopped and use the porta potty. I am not comfortable peeing on the bike. I think that there should be a speed requirement to justify peeing on your bike and I am not that fast. If you can average more than 25 mph go for it. If not, its just nasty.
The next segment is a flat portion including a turn around that let you see how many people are ahead and how many are behind. It’s a great time to spot EN members and send some good vibes. During this time just go low on the bars and have a constant pace of 185 watts. There is not much to see and very little support. After reaching Pemberton the fun begins. Welcome to mile 90 and the toughest climb of all day. With an average of 7% including spots up to 14% it was a “break it or make it” ride. I was very happy to have a road bike at this point. I continued to stay on my watts eventually going up to 100% of FTP. The speed was depressingly low at some times but at no point it felt impossible. People were beat up, guys and girls sitting on the side of the road, and many walking their bikes uphill. I felt fresh and comfortable during the entire climb. Just stay on your watts. Pouring water over the helmet was a great strategy to avoid overheating. Reaching Whistler there is a lot of support from crowds. For the last 18 miles I only average 13 mph, but as I crossed the dismount line I still had a big smile on my face and was ready to run. For the first time in the day I saw my family and that was absolutely great.
On my race plan, I had estimated 7:00:00 for the bike and the tracker shows 7:29:32. I am not disappointed by this. It wasn’t my race the one that was wrong, it was my prerace calculation. I have cycled enough to know that at the watts level I was riding with that kind of elevation, I was going to average 15 mph which is exactly the average I got.
T2
I had a very similar experience than in T1. I had planned for 15:00 so I could have a complete change of clothes including underwear, shorts, shirt, socks, compression calf sleeves, hat, and race number. I saw some people in bad shape in the tent and was amazed of how fresh I felt. At this point I knew I could run and that was the most amazing feeling. Holy shit! I might be an Ironman after all!!!! I applied some Voltaren cream on my Achilles tendon, took three Tylenols, put 4 Huma gels in my pocket, applied sunscreen and there we go. T2 by the way took 9:11.
RUN
Here is the part of the race that was going to be played by ear. No plan other than avoid getting injured or causing further damage to the Achilles. The first five miles were at a10:37 pace with a heart rate of 145 (Zone 2) and it felt good. There are some nasty climbs at the beginning of the run so I decided to walk those rather than run. Most of the run had shade and in my case the second loop was during sunset so I could avoid the high temps of the afternoon. At mile two a group of 25 or so got out of the course. Someone decided to send us the wrong way and we hiked (it was a freaking hill) for half a mile until a volunteer came in a mountain bike to tell us about our off-course rendezvous. So I run a 27.2 mile marathon. Shit happens (adapt and move forward). We got back on the course and at that time I felt discomfort on my Achilles. At no point the pain was significant to stop but I knew running the entire course was not an option. I decided to go back to my Army days and perform a military march: no pain there. Good (adapt and move forward). New plan: run downhill march uphill.
The course is very well supported at all times. This is a great place to see friends and family on the course. Plenty of spots for them. A lot of people cheering up and aid stations all over the place. The food strategy was simple, water on every stop, Gatorade every 2 stations and Pepsi twice in the course. Additionally, I had a gel every 40 mins.
The sightseeing on the run was also beautiful. Lakes, mountains, forest and even a bear eating some plants in the forest made part of the day. I had to stop and check the bear for 30 seconds or so. That’s not something that happens every day.
Ending the first loop brought mixed feelings, you could hear in the distance the finish line and the announcer saying “..you are an Ironman”. At that point, I started to do what I do best and that is crushing numbers and realized that I could do 18-minute miles and will still cross the finish line before midnight. I just had to stay in the course.
Starting the second loop, I went for my special needs bag, pulled out the nutrition for the rest of the day, another box of Smarties (M&M’s on steroids) and letters from friends and family. Those letters were more helpful than I ever thought they would be. I enjoyed the Smarties and kept going. I was smiling, singing and honestly having a blast. I was mostly marching at this point but that was enough to average 13:25 minute miles for the marathon; 1:25 per mile slower than expected.
I had a very low heart rate all day (129 average). And never felt maxed out. I ran – march the entire day and even passed joggers while marching.
It was dark as I approached the finish line and the party was in full swing. I was lucky that I had no one ahead or behind me so I had the place for myself. That’s when I heard those sweet, sweet words…Jorge Duque from Gig Harbor, Washington, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!!!
Crossed the finish line to kiss my wife and daughter and give a big hug to my buddy @Dave Glenn who crossed before me.
It was one of the greatest days of my life. I had a blast and I can prove it because on every single picture I have seen I have a big smile on my face. Facing adversity and reaching this goal is an amazing victory itself. Having EN on my side made all the difference in the world.
The next morning, I jumped on the website to check my results to find out I am listed as a DNS. (Adapt and keep moving). I have contacted the people at sport stats and they are working on this. Those points should be up any time.
Comments
and now you get to rest up and attack IMAZ!
On a more serious note, your report is a great reminder that we can never take for granted what we do. It might seem like swim, bike and run… But everyone is dealing with their own mattress and challenges. I too have spent plenty of time with the senior citizens in my town, and have enjoyed the change in perspective.
Your ability to put it in adapt to change combined with your positive attitude is what made your day successful. In many ways we completed both the physical and the mental Ironman and you should be incredibly proud. I'll hit you back in the Coach thread, but for now I hope you are basking in the glow!