Nate's IM Texas Race Report - Great First IM Experience
Summary: I was very happy with my 15:44:22 performance at Ironman Texas. My goal was to finish my first iron distance race and that was achieved. Better yet, my training partner was able to finish as well, despite walking the last 8 miles on a stress-fractured fibula. I was fortunate to finish as well as I did given my level of training, and give a lot of credit to the race execution planning, mental focus training, and “race rehearsal” brick workouts I completed in the last six weeks leading up to the race. Although it was a tough day, I enjoyed completing the race and interacting with spectators and volunteers. I finished the race with energy and a little gas left in the tank, and am recovering quickly. This makes me optimistic that I could improve my time in future Ironman races.
Pre-Race: The three-week taper leading up to the race made a huge difference in healing my runners knee and a bad case of bronchitis that had been hanging on for more than a month. I felt healthy and rested on race week. Took 600 calories of Ensure at 1:30am, and woke at 4am to eat my pre-race standard: peanut butter toast with two cups of coffee. It had rained overnight but the streets were mostly dry. Conditions were high 70’s and muggy with cloud cover. I parked near the bike start, completed transition activities quickly and walked the mile to the swim start – so I guess this was really a 141.6 race…
Swim (1:27:43): Since this was a “to finish” race for me I chose to wear a wetsuit, although with the water temperature at 77.9 degrees this meant I would not be eligible for awards. I swam the course in 1:35 in practice but expected to be a little faster with people to draft. Although I am a confident swimmer in open water, I was not prepared for the mayhem of a mass swim start with 2,300 people. There was a lot of physical contact in the first 1,000 meters, and I was punched in the face (accidentally, I think) at least three times. After the turn the course opened up a bit and I was able to swim more freely, although for the whole course I don’t think I swam more than 50 meters without making physical contact with another swimmer. The final swim down the Woodlands Waterway with spectators lining the sides was exciting, and sighting was easy. I was happy overall with my swim time and level of effort exerted.
T1 (10:44): I walked the transition to settle my heart rate, and did a complete change into full bike gear.
Bike (7:23:04 / 15.2mph): This was my third time to ride the complete bike course. I had a lot of friends watching on the way out of the Woodlands, so I rode heads up and enjoyed waving to people I knew in the crowd. I also stopped to hug my wife and daughter. We expected a strong wind from the south, so my strategy was to ride the first 56 miles to Richards in Z1 heart rate and then increase effort slightly on the return trip. On my training rides my neck and back really bothered me after riding on the aerobars beyond 80 miles and I ended up sitting up into a head wind a lot on the return trip. On race day I decided to ride more of the first half of the course on the hoods (any time I knew I had a direct tailwind). This really saved my back and allowed me to ride all the cross and headwind sections of the course on the aerobars. I also coasted all the downhills and any time my speed was above 20mph to save energy.
Each hour on the bike I drank 180 calories of concentrated Infinit, 110 additional calories from a combination of bars or gels, and 40 oz (two bottles) of plain water. This nutrition worked well and I was never hungry or thirsty on the bike. To stay cool I was also pouring any leftover water over my head and back before each feed station and picking up fresh bottles. This felt really good while riding in the wind and my feet never got wet.
During the bike ride I made four stops – 1) to hug Katie 2) bathroom and mixing a 2-hour bottle of Infinit, 3) special needs / sunscreen reapply 4) bathroom and mixing a third bottle of Infinit.
On the second half of the bike the wind was more of a crosswind than a headwind and wasn’t very strong, and that made the hilly section between Richards and 105 much better than expected. I continued to ride high Z1 for the remainder of the bike ride. I could have ridden faster, but I knew that a bike split of <7:30 would give me plenty of time for the run and help me save energy for later in the day, so I avoided temptation and kept my “to finish” goal in mind. Despite maintaining a Z1 effort, I noticed that I began to slowly and steadily pass riders after mile 80 and this continued for the rest of the ride.</p>
T2 (10:00): This was the happiest I have ever been to get off a bike! In T2 I did another complete change to run gear (Tri shorts and a lightweight white bike jersey). By this time it was getting quite hot and sunny. I took extra time drying off my sweat and applying a thick layer of sunscreen.
Run (6:32:53): I left T2 with more than 7:45 to finish the race, and at that point I felt pretty sure I would be an Ironman. I am prone to running injuries and my longest run in training was only 15 miles, so I had already planned to use a 3 minute run / 3 minute walk strategy on the run course. I figured this would get me to the finish in 6:30 or so. Throughout the run my heart rate responded well to the walk breaks. I would reach a heart rate of 145-150 (10-15 beats below LT) on the run, and recover to 115-120 on the walk breaks. I monitored this closely because I knew if my heart rate stopped recovering on walk breaks it would mean that I was getting too dehydrated. Fortunately that never happened.
The run was hot from the beginning – approaching 92 degrees with full sun at the peak of the day. I saw Coach Patrick from Endurance Nation at mile 1 and he advised me to eat at the first two aid stations to top up on calories before the heat really got to me. I ate two banana chunks and half a power bar between the first two aid stations. After that I drank one cup of water, one cup of perform at each aid station and saved the ice to carry in my hands between aid stations for the psychological cooling benefit. On the second lap I noticed that my hands were starting to cramp/tremble a little bit and guessed I was getting short on electrolytes. I took two salt tablets and began drinking two cups of perform with ice at each aid station. I also ate a banana chunk whenever I thought I would be able to swallow it, which was rarely. This kept the cramping from getting to my leg muscles.
I didn’t allow myself to take any cola, broth or special needs items until the start of the third lap. At special needs I changed the hard orthotic insoles in my shoes for gel insoles and changed socks. I also put on a dry tech shirt (short sleeved). This did wonders for my mood. Between miles 18 and 19 I met up with my training partner, who had passed me at special needs and was slightly ahead. He was struggling with a lot of pain (we later learned that he had a stress fracture of the fibial head and would be put on crutches), and he was planning to walk the rest of the race. At that point we had 3:45 to finish ahead of the cutoff, so I decided to walk with him on the final lap to pump him up and make sure he didn’t decide to drop out of the race.
My spirits were high on the last lap although my legs and feet were on fire. I feel that I could have continued my run/walk strategy and finished the race 15-20 minutes faster, but my real goal was to finish, and walking in the race with my friend was a great experience for both of us. We actually passed quite a few people in the last lap even though we were walking. We met the families just outside of Market Street and stopped for a few hugs with the kids. Then we ran the last quarter mile and I heard…. “NATHAN PEPPER…. YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!”
Recovery: Immediately after the race I drank several glasses of water and ate all the salty snacks I could find at the house. I took an ice bath (15 minutes of uncontrollable shivering – I didn’t realize how weak I was) and then went to bed. Although my feet were a little tender the next day and there was a lot of soreness, I was able to get up and down stairs with difficulty and able to go through normal daily activities. Day two was the worst for muscle soreness but I kept up my ice bath / advil strategy. On the third day almost all the major soreness was gone and I felt like I would after any normal hard workout day.
Opportunities for Improvement
- Fewer stops on the bike, premix Infinit to save time at stops
- Body glide on the chamois of my tri shorts for the run to avoid chafing
- Could have pushed the pace slightly on the second half of the bike and picked up quite a bit of time.
- Run / walking on the last lap of the run instead of walking would have improved my time by :15 to :20.
Comments
You are an Ironman! Can't beat that. Sounds like we will see you out there next year! Congrats on a great first IM race.