Kent Gavin - You are an Ironman! 2018 IM Wisconsin Race Report
1st 140.6. 2st Triathlon in 2017 (would have been 3rd but missed Victoria 70.3 due to injury), 5th Triathlon
Bib #: 551
Age group: 45-49
Pre-Race 2018 Strava Stats: Swim: 180,307 yards, Bike: 2,724 miles, Run: 703 miles
Narrative:
Sorry to jump to the punchline, but I am an Ironman! My first 140.6! I’m so fortunate and blessed. I can’t believe that less than 4 months prior I couldn’t swim, bike or swim due to a broken clavicle, 3 broken ribs and multiple other injuries due to a bike crash during training.
The trip from Seattle to Wisconsin started off with a few bumps. Issue #1 surfaced at airport security on Thursday when they pulled my carry-on bag out for inspection. Crap, I’d packed a couple bike tools in my carry-on (longer than 7 inches). Panic started to creep in. Luckily my good friend and fellow EN member Jason Brandt hadn’t checked his main bag, so he offered to put my tools in his bag and check it. Problem solved (thanks Jason!). Issue #2 surfaced later that day at the hotel when assembling my bike. Crap – my skewers didn’t make it in the bike box. That might be a problem. At the time I wasn’t sure if they were left at my local bike store, at home, or if airport security lost them. After almost losing my cool – Jason restored my focus and we planned to find a bike store Friday morning.
Friday was our busy day. We started with a swim meeting up with several EN folks. Next a visit to Machinery Row Bicycles. They literally saved the day with new skewers for me and some tune-up fixes for Jason. My only worry was that issues tend to happen in threes…so I was worried about potential issue #3 all weekend. We proceeded with registration, the requisite spending of obscene amounts of $ in the IM store, and a drive of the run and bike course (including driving down pedestrian-only State Street thanks to my attentive navigation) and a short bike without incident. We met the team for dinner Friday night. It was so great to meet folks and hear stories…even though I was super distracted by nervousness for Sunday and feeling a bit out of place as a newbie!
Saturday we took it easy. Sleeping in a bit, huge breakfast of pancakes and more. Bike check-in and an early dinner with some of Jason’s family which was nice.
Race day! Up at 3:30. Race breakfast of coffee, applesauce, Gatorade endurance, banana and a honey stinger. Left the hotel before 5. Prepped Bike – checked air, filled aero bottle, etc. Met the team for a pre-race picture and headed to swim start. Jason and I lined up near the front in the 1 – 1:10 group (glad we got their early!), I had 1 gel, and chilled out and thought about the opportunity ahead.
The swim was amazing for me. I can’t remember a race swim that was so relaxing – even more so than most practices. My focus was on form and energy conservation. I had open water most of the way except a couple times close to the turns. Based on other race reports, I think it was a big advantage to start near the front. I may have gone a little extra distance staying closer to shore than the buoys on the way out, but the uninhibited swimming was worth it for me. I wish I had GPS data of my swim but I had my watch off to conserve battery as I use it as my bike computer and for the run (a good call as it was almost dead at the end of the run). I could have gone faster on the swim but knew that in the big picture it wasn’t the right strategy for my 1st IM. Coming out of the water I noticed Jason right in front of me. We’d had almost identical 1:08: swims (not too surprising based on our training together).
Swim prediction: 1:06:53 actual 1:08:32 (27/210 finishers in AG top 13%)
The run to T1 was long and hard barefoot on concrete. I took it easy up the helix (as compared to Jason who was truckin’!). Helmet, glasses, socks on – ran with shoes to bike (I could speed things up w/ tri shoes – mine are super hard to get on). Nothing else notable.
T1 prediction 9:30, actual 7:21
Starting the bike, my heartrate was higher than I expected, so I really tried to dial it back even though it felt like I wasn’t exerting any energy (Jeremy later explained the heartrate may be due to going from horizontal during swimming to vertical during biking – something I didn’t get to rehearse). I feel like I followed my plan well, drinking 2 bottles of Gatorade Endurance the first hour and about 1 an hour after that. Had a gel about every 45 minutes – usually most of it making it into my system although I was “wearing” quite a bit by the end. I think 4 salt pills too. I need to track better as “race brain” is a bit foggy. Plenty of Gatorade Endurance (GE) disposal…a slight distraction & delay at times for sure but I kept going. It was fun seeing the coaching from EN come to light. I focused on biking the EN way – smooth and steady up the hills and powering over and down. I was amazed how many would pass me going up and I’d return the favor going down. I’d really like to know how they finished. I didn’t think about “racing” anyone – just riding my ride. One of my high-points was another biker commenting to me that they’d been watching me and was impressed how smooth I was and how well that would serve me. I wish I knew who that was (was it you?) it made my day! While I was worried about the hills based on everything I heard about IMWI bike, living in Seattle I really don’t feel like I had any issues. I did go a bit faster on the downhills than I do in training, hitting 44.3 miles / hour max with some sketchy winds at times. Some of the roads were rough which got old. On the stick back, I was ready to get off that saddle. I did have two close calls (three if you include that creepy clown on the course) – first when a bunch of turkeys decided to cross the road in front of me and the second when a car stopped at a four-way (with a cop directing) decided to turn right in front of me. I locked up the back tire, but he saw me last minute as well and we avoided a day-ruining event which after my biking accident in training in May was always front-of-mind. It was great to see Jeremy multiple times on the course offering encouragement and to mix it up with Danielle!
Bike prediction 6:24:19, actual 6:00:09 (34/210 finishers in AG top 16%)
FTP 251, Avg Power 179, Normalized Power 196, VI 1.09, Intensity Factor 0.782, Training Stress Score 366.6
https://www.strava.com/activities/1831475184/laps
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3002547699
T2 was a blur as I think I was still trying to process the bike ride and the fact that I had a 26.2 mile run to go. They pulled the wrong bag so I had to retrieve my own but that wasn’t much of a delay. I didn’t have a volunteer helper to pack up my bike gear and I had some delay in putting on my backup watch on my right arm (0:3:03). Next time I’ll just wear both watches from the start or add a bike computer (my Garmin 735x worked flawlessly but just barely lasted the bike & run).
T2 prediction: 6:00, actual 03:03
The first 5 miles of the run were a bit faster than planned, but my heart rate was in a good place so I only slowed down slightly. I pulled it back further to keep from burning too many matches finding a comfortable pace I knew I could continue which was slower than TRP but steady. My quads and inner thighs were tight the whole time – in fact they’d been that way all week. I think I need to add more (some) stretching and rolling to the mix. I walked aid stations (increasing a bit in duration later in the race) and hills. Stopped to purge GE one time on run (didn’t want wet socks). I had a great time going back & forth with several EN and other athletes. Emotions hit at mile 22 when I knew that not only would I finish, but I was on track to beat my 12-hour goal. I held back the tears and I was just so excited! I was able to up-the-pace slightly the last 5 miles – something I felt really good about knowing that I’d done pretty well executing to my plan.
Run prediction: 4:12:11, actual 4:28:08 (33/210 finishers in AG top 16%)
Avg pace 10:15, Avg heart rate 151
https://www.strava.com/activities/1831475221/laps
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3002548026
Jason met me in the food tent. It was great to see him. I wouldn’t be an Ironman without him. 9.9.18 will be a day I remember forever - surrounded by a great team, volunteers and fellow athletes. I’m so thankful…and looking forward to doing it again.
Finish prediction: 11:58:52 Actual 11:47:13 (33/210 finishers in AG top 16%, 283/1903 overall finishers 15%)
What would I change for next time? (YES there will be a next time – Arizona!) Please help me add to the list!
- I brought too much stuff, and still forgot something critical (skewers).
- I want to do more nutrition planning (sweat test and practice) so I’m more confident (not hoping) I got it right.
- More stretching, rolling and maybe a massage or two pre-race. My quads & inner thighs were tight all week, and I didn’t feel the rested, relaxed I hoped.
- Wear back up watch if needed (not in T2 bag)
- There is room for improvement on the swim, bike and especially run – hoping for feedback from the experts based on the garmin/strava data.
- I wish I got to know the EN folks there better (introvert – takes me awhile to open-up). The ones I did get to know a little were so great and supportive!
- There were times where I wasn’t in the moment due to worries – something I perpetually struggle with. Smile more! Show the fun you are having! Make that picture package worth it! Slower in the chute – rrreeeallllyyyy take in the moment and savor.
Comments
Congratulations @Kent Gavin, looks like you were solid all day.
For me the first one was all about getting over the line & completing, the second one is where I started to push some boundries & focused on certain areas to improve my finish time, hopfully it will be the same with you.
Just out of interest are your HR Zones correct in Garmin ? I know I could'nt bike 6h in Z3/4 then run a marathon in the same zones. Congrats again.
WOW! What a great race you had for your first!!! CONGRATULATIONS IRONMAN!!! Your report had me smiling and right there with you! Brought back memories of my first at IMFL in 2010~You are right...you never forget your first.
You moved through the day like a pro. You had great execution through all and the 15% of the overall field for your first shows it.
The good thing about mistakes is you usually don't ever make them again...oh there will be new ones, but always learning is all that matters.
I'm no genius, (and a bit ADD) so I'd say use checklists moving forward to make sure you have what you need before you go. You can get as detailed as you want, even making say a shopping list for when you arrive at the race site. I also make a *semi* detailed day to day plan for race week. But I'm a bit of a spaz, :D It helps reduce my indecision during the week and that means less stress. I never fully do every little thing on the list and often things get changed, but having the framework still is very good for me.
As to rolling, YES! DO IT. One of my new fav tools is the Roll Recovery R8. Its easy to pack unlike my roller for travel, really gets into the quads and hamstrings and even glutes if you dare. I got mine at a local run store. Maybe you could try one out locally and see if you like it?
Congratulations on a highly successful first IM! You've got a very balanced arsenal for triathlon - no weak links. SO you can work on EVERYTHING for the future...
Advice? Run pacing. You BLASTED out of T2, relatively speaking. Much better would have been to slow down until your HR was steady in the 145-150 range for the first 60-90 minutes. Then you probably would not have had that dip in the second half, and maybe saved ?5 minutes or so?
@KARL BONNER I don't think those heart rate zones are correct, in fact my heart rate zones never seem to sync w/ my pace/power zones. I need to look through my data and probably do some updated bike/run tests. Great observation - thanks.
@Trish Marshall Thanks for the checklist recommendation. I did the checklist, but have learned maybe there's some detail to add - and also I end up bringing extra stuff not on the checklist. Already working on the checklist for next time. Foam roller is next to me and looking at adding the Roll Recovery R8 to my arsenal - that thing looks impressive!
@Al Truscott Thanks for the run pacing suggestion. I hope to dial that pacing in better at IMAZ!