70.3 Miles of Canadian Torture: The Calgary Half Ironman Race Report
From Ironvan.com
Okay Van Fans, it’s the time for another one of my race reports. Get you eyesballs ready, cuz this is going to be more in depth than the Titanic!
Pre-Race Morning:
After a traditional night of tossing and turning, I woke around 3:00. I finished off the last of the “Asian Tsunami” and donned by ultra bad ass EN kit. After getting dressed, my thoughts turned to breakfast. It was at this point that I realized a flaw in my EN Ninja strategy: there was no food available at that time in the morning! To add injury to insult for my nutrition, when I went to mix my Infinit solution, I found that I only had ¾ a cup left in the bag!
After getting body marked, I searched high and low for some foods. Finally, with some luck, I found a vending machine with some Sunchips. Luckily, I had enough Canadian dollars to buy a pack. Also came by a random fruit bowl with an Orange in it.
Disaster relatively averted, I boarded a yellow school bus that was to be my transportation to T1. Unlike some other races I’ve been to, this race takes the cake for inconvenience. Our bus ride was about 40 minutes long to T1. On the way out, we encountered a driver going to the wrong way on the highway. Colliding head on with a SUV, even if I was in a school bus, would surely have dampened my day. Luckily, we made it pass unscathed at arrived T1 at around 5:25 am.
Pre-T1:
The scene a T1 was far from ideal. It had been steadily raining the night before and everything was soaked. Not just, ooh it’s a little damp out; were talking full on Niagara falls soaked. To make matters worse, the gravel/dirt parking lot was basically a mud bath.
One thing I have never understood is why everyone takes so long to check out their things in T1. I found my bike, spun the wheels to make sure the brakes weren’t rubbing, made sure there was air in my tires, filled my water bottle, and headed back out in less than 4 minutes. I swear some people were in there doing their taxes.
Other than the rain, there was one other thing no one had expected. Mosquitos. EVERYWHERE. Before I go into this, I need to offer you some history. I am a venerable magnet for mosquitoes. Seriously. I have been stung literally 5 times in the matter of 10 yards. They LOVE me. I have never seen a greater concentration of mosquitoes anywhere in my life than this morning. They were so bad; I got into my wetsuit about 30 minutes early and wrapped my neck in a T-shirt so they wouldn’t bite. For refuge, I waited on one of the buses, which still had like five mosquitoes buzzing around each window. It was intolerable.
I waited to the last moment to leave the bus and head down to the water. Watched the pros go off, including my Montana colleague Linsey Corbin, at around 6:10. Then it was our turn.
1.2 mile Swim – 37:21 38/74 AG, 283 OA
Warmed up for a few minutes in the water. It was pretty cool, but not too much. Clarity was awesome, even though it was pretty dark out still at 6:20. Seated myself just behind the start line. 6:20, off we go. Immediately found myself on top of the front line and I did my best to avoid getting clobbered. No one swam over me, and I quickly found some legs to follow. Mentally, I concentrated on counting my strokes, and working on efficiency rather than on effort. Had some small waves on the way out of the start, and then we turned left for the main part of the swim. For some reason, despite having plenty of space, I kept bumping into people. I took a hard something to the head at one point, but nothing too serious. At one point, one guy kept swimming against my back; I had to give him a quick something in the side to let him know I was there.
My goal for the swim was sub 40:00, so my time of 37:21 is good in my books.
T2: 6:35
Up the ramp I go and into the strippers. I was wearing my Timex watch for the swim. Unfortunately, as the strippers attempted to get me out, my suit got stuck on the watch, and it took a good 45 seconds to get things untangled. After stripping, made my way to a grassy patch to get dressed. No socks. Donned some arm warmers and my Garmin 310xt. As I was shoving my swim gear in my bag, it ripped. Lucky me. A volunteer said not to worry about it and that they would seal it up later. Made a short little jog around the transition fence, grabbed my ride, and then another short little jog to the road. Then it was adios mosquitoes.
58 mile Bike: 2:57:44 – 40 AG, 263 OA
First up, it was raining. Miserable, overcast, soggy rain. Starting out, felt pretty good. Not too much water in the belly, and relatively comfortable temp wise. As you saw from my scouting report, there were some pretty good hills in the beginning. I managed well through the flats, catching quite a few people. The hills were a little slower going, but I managed to keep pace with most. Unfortunately, the course had a couple of 90 degree turns, and with the rain, I lost a lot of speed navigating through them. I came into the first AID station hoping to get a GU or banana. No luck. I guess I would have to carry on with nothing but Sunchips, an Orange, and half dilute Infinit to carry me on. When I reached the half way point, I was looking at 1:28:23, slightly slower than what I had wanted. About this time, I made into Cochrane and began tackling the big uphill for the course. It wasn’t too bad of a grade, but it just kept going and going; torture mentally. After the hill, there was an AID station where I grabbed more water and finally, a half a Power Bar.
For some reason, the flat rate was apparently very high today. I counted about ten people with flats, ranging from the usual “working on the bike” type incidents to the “chucking the wheel and CO2 cartridge into a field” scenario.
My goal for the bike was sub 3:00. Ideally, the best I could have hoped for was 2:30:00 ish. I made it just under the mark at 2:57:44, with no dropped chained incidents.
Power wise, I was shooting for around 160 W, and an IF in the 70's. Here’s the data from the Garmin:
Route
Up and down.....
Me like a cadence of 80 long time.
T2.2:51
Much easier for this one. I was in and out of my gear quickly, especially since the mosquitoes were swarming around me. The rain had stopped at this point.
13.2 mile Run – 2:05:12, 44 AG, 305 OA
The first thing I noticed in the run was that my back was KILLING me. One small lean to the left or right sent it into spasms. Another thing was my energy levels: I felt completely drained. I chalked this up to my single half a power bar meal the entire morning, and made my way to the first aid station. There, I was able to refuel with some Gatorade and GU. After a short 2.5 miles in a park with some slight inclines, we made our down into the valley. This started out with a huge steep downhill. Of course, everything that goes down must eventually come up, and I was greeted with a significantly steep hill around the middle of mile 3. This was too much to bear, and I ended up walking for a few seconds before retaking my stride. This pattern of flat with super steep short sections pretty much continued to mile 10.
Ironically, this run was way harder than the run at CDA in 2009. At that time, I literally felt great. Today…it was like diving into a swimming pool filled with razors blades and rubbing alcohol. I was hurting from the get go.
At around 6.5 miles, we looped around, and every steep hill had to be repeated. To add injury to insult, the course was about as interesting as a Readers Digest from 1913….in Braille.
I was aiming for less than 2:00. My PR is 1:57. Unfortunately, I knew this is one goal I wouldn’t meet early on, and I came across in 2:05. From what I saw on the run, I lost about 4 places here.
Here’s the Garmin Data:
Route
Synopsis
All I can say right now is that my body feels like it’s been beat on by the LAPD. Today was hard, harder than I imagined. I can barely move my back and my left toe nails are throbbing something fierce. I’m very glad it’s done, and even gladder to be heading into the OS now. Despite not meeting my goal of sub 2:00 on the run, I met my overall goal of going sub 6:00. Not too shabby for a guy in his second season if I say so. A little under a year to go until Couer D’Alene; it should be a good time. Will I be back in Calgary? Probably not, but if I do, I’m bring Deet or Napalm for the mosquitoes.
By the way, I ran into fellow EN teammate on the run and he was looking good. I also got to meet ENer Wayne, my brother from another mother. Nice to see some representation.
Things I Learned:
Do not depend on nutrition at AID stations.
It’s a good thing to eat.
HIM are hard!
Things I Need To Work On:
Right now, being a good dad and a physician.
Comments
Sounds like a tough day. But you learned. And looks like you have some unfinished business for next year!
Thanks for sharing.
Good job Greg. Those mosquitos were killer. I heard a story that one guy was so bitten up they had to call the medic for Benadryl out on the course. I also heard about all the flats out there; my buddy had two and his brother had three...sounds like someone was out there sprinkiling the road with something. Great race in some tough conditions!!!
Hey Wayne,
Great to meet you man. Wow, thats pretty scary. Im not allergic to mosquitoes per say, but they leave welts on me that can last weeks. Im pretty eaten up on my neck, but nothing some good old cortisone cant handle hopefully. Do you guys always have mosquitoes like this here?
If your ever down my way in Montana, drop me a note!
Greg
Hey Guys,
Here are my numbers from the Powertap for you to dissect:
Lap 1 (2:57:20.07):
Duration: 2:57:49
Work: 1624 kJ
TSS: 199.8 (intensity factor 0.824)
Norm Power: 167
VI: 1.09
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 58.991 mi
Elevation Gain: 3030 ft
Elevation Loss: 3370 ft
Grade: -0.1 % (-336 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 442 153 watts
Cadence: 46 201 90 rpm
Speed: 0 112.5 19.9 mph
Pace 0:32 0:00 3:01 min/mi
Altitude: 3619 4493 4019 ft
Crank Torque: 0 647 146 lb-in
Looks like my IF was a little too high, which may have had something to do with my hard run. Cadence looks good at avg 90. Im not sure why my computer thought I went 112.5 miles per hour at one point...I wish.
Note the distance? That is correct, the bike is a little long.
OK, I hurt just reading that. I hope you'll re-read it with the benefit of some down time and objectivity and see how FREAKIN' AWESOME you did given the skeeters, the course, the lack of food, the braille RD! Congrats, man!!!! Nicely, nicely done. Good things in store for you in '11, that's for sure.
I like your priorities of things that you need to work on too- sounds like a perfect plan!
Greg
Great report!!!
I was on the same bus as you as we had to stop for wrong way traffic.
Mosquitoes, mud, rain, flats, bike crashes all make for a testing day. When our bus pulled into the mud hole at T1, in the dark and rain, I thought about my "one thing". You should not have to do that before the race starts but it was one of those days.
The upfront logistics of a point to point adds a lot of complications to an already hectic day.
Good to see you on the run and when I came down the finishing shoot.
Awesome overall results in cruel Canadian conditions!!!
Paul
Hate mosquitos. Way to man up!!
@Paul: Yeah, what a day! Great to see you on the run also. Wish we could have met up after, but I had to bolt before I was drained of all my blood! Good job to you too!
@ Brian: I share your hatred. Mosquitoes are the one thing I truly, absolutely hate in life. I dont care if they serve as some important food chain element or not. I would get rid of them all if I could.
@Stark: Yo man, good to hear from ya. Unfinished business indeed!
If you dont get this, watch this video:
Way to stay focused throughout the entire race and finish strong!
@ Kit: You should see my bike; it looks like we did a cyclo-cross! And I have counted 10 major bites on me today, some of them swollen to a dime size. Breaking out the Medrol Dose Pak!
Next time, I'm thinking you should bring one of those green coil smoking mosquito repellant thingy to transition.
@ Kit: Woh, thats weird! I never knew it was a Thai thing...I guess they like spicy blood. I so know what you speak of with those green coil things! In the US, I usually dont mess around. I actually have some 100% deet. It stings slightly and I may get cancer one day, but I dont get bit!
Greg,
I could read anything you write. No matter what it is, I laugh out loud. Are your patient files as funny? I'm sorry you had such a rough day, but you provided me with a few good laughs tonight.
Wow, getting into the OS already, huh? You must mean business for IMCDA next year.
Dave
@ The Halligan: Thanks man. Im glad I can make someone laugh. In regards to my patient notes, I try not to add too much humor. In any case, the lawyers do share your passion for reading everything I write.....
Need your input to put things in prespective guys. I just took a look at the overall results. I made it 45/74 in my age group. 305/765 males overall.
So, Im all about racing against myself and having FUN, but its still nice to know how I stack up against the rest of the field. This year I was pretty consistent with slightly better or worse than mid field in my age group. Some people Ive talked to have said that 30-34 is a pretty competitive group and not to worry about it. Sure, Ive only been at this for two years, and I have LOTS of room for improvement. Still, I just dont know where I stand. On one hand, my overall male finish seems okay, I was hoping for midfield for my age group. If I hadent died on the run, I probably could have shaved ten minutes off the run and ended up somewhere around 38 or 39th.
Just looking for some reframing as I plan out my goals for next year. Thanks!
ADDED PICS!
Photo Evidence Of The Pain
Posted: August 3, 2010 by Ironvan in RACE REPORTSTags: calgary 70.3, half ironman, pics
As a past photographer, I feel obliged to by at least one set of my race pics every year. Naturally, with Calgary being my main race for the season, this made sense, despite the damage reliving the events may do to my mind.
First up, here is the water start. It was much darker when I started at 6:20. If its looks hazy, its probably because of all the mosquitoes.
This is by far my favorite. Caught me right in the middle of my levitation illusion coming out of the swim. Eat your heart out Chris Angel!
Heading out of T1 now. I saw that guy with the Dr. Seus jersey a couple of times that day:
Climbing. Lots of this pose that day:
On to the run about mile 2. If I recall, I remember wondering at this time if my back was going to give out before the end of the run:
Giving my one last kick while coming down the finishers chute:
And the exact moment my mind went from looking for the finish line to looking for a beer!
30s thru 40s do seem to be the toughest AGers
Great pictures. Congrats on an awesome race.
Thanks Eric!
Yeah, Im going to really work on the outseason stuff. I selected advanced and Im going to start next week. More details about my season plan coming.
Van - Great report; I was right there with you, although I wasn't sure I wanted to be, considering the lack of calories, the swamp and rain, and the mosquitos. Love the visual aids! I promise, next year in CDA, you will NOT experience this level of discomfort - probably, you'll find an entirely different one! See you then.
Greg - great race, great report.