IMWI - Gene Pish - A "first timer's" Perspective
Sorry it has been 2 weeks since IMWI for me to submit my race report. I wanted to offer my perspective on my race from the “first-timer’s perspective”. I started triathlon three years ago by learning how to swim and then entering a sprint tri. Fast forward 3 years and there I was treading water getting ready to start IMWI. I never would have thought that I could complete 140.6 miles… it seemed so far out of reach.
First I want to state that I exceeded my expectations in IMWI and I truly attribute that to the EN Coaches and Team! What did I get out of being a Team EN member while training for IMWI and working with Coach Rich and Patrick?? In one word…. Confidence.
When I first signed up for IMWI, I had no “structured” training plan and had just finished what I thought was a “great” bike in IM Branson 70.3 in 2010, but followed by walking the last three miles of the run…
I found the Four Keys talk on-line and decided to purchase an IM training plan. My confidence grew through the year as the training plan provided a map for me, and all of the other team resources continued to build my knowledge.
As I arrived in Madison on Thursday, I found that having an agenda written out with everything that I needed to get done hour by hour was very helpful… significantly reduced my “stress” level and helped me not waste time or energy.
It was wonderful to meet everyone on Friday night at the team dinner. I found it very helpful to get in Sat morning, get bike, T1, T2 gear delivered to the site and get out… away from all of the “nervous” energy.
Saturday afternoon found me relaxing in my hotel room, surfing the tv, and running the Temperature Impacted Run Pace application (which turned out to be very helpful!).
During my race rehersals, I had been doing the 2am/4am Naked Smoothie nutrition, and I did that for the race. I can say that this strategy was very successful for me. Felt good going to the swim, and didn’t have any “digestive” issues throughout the day!
For the swim, I had planned on a 1:30 + whatever time was “lost” due to waiting at the start, congestion at the turns, etc. I figured around 1:40. I seeded myself in towards the back of the start, but in the middle. I didn’t want to be right on the buoy line, but I also didn’t want to be far on the right side (shoreline) so that I didn’t have to swim much additional yardage. This position worked perfectly for me. I think everyone around me had the same swim charma…. Some contact, but everyone was cool about it. I got into a great pace right away and really enjoyed the swim. When I exited the water, I was thrilled to see 1:25:20!!
T1 was smooth and steady…. But slow… but I took the approach to change into my biking shorts and apply liberal amounts of chamois butter. I knew I would be on the bike for a long time, and figured the 1-2 extra minutes to do this was worth it in the overall day.
I had planned on JRA for the first 90 minutes, and then Z1 for the rest of the ride. Note that I am not a power rider, but used heart rate. (I can definitely see the advantage to riding with power now!!) I had been successful with this for all of my race rehersals. I immediately noticed that even with JRA, I could not get my heart rate down to Z1. I tried and tried, but could not get down to where I wanted to be, even though I felt like I was just coasting. The only time I could see Z1 was coasting downhill, but as soon as I would start to pedal, it would go up. As soon as I saw this happening, I thought about a post that I had seen on Saturday from Coach Patrick… he said take care of your body and it will be there for you at the end… no highs / no lows. This was now my “one thing” on the bike… I just kept repeating… “take care of your body”. I felt like I was riding Z1 from my effort (I could relate that “feeling” from all of my training), but my heartrate was just not showing it. So, I did the ride at a Z1 effort (and the corresponding heartrate). Looking at the data from my ride, my overall speed was reflective of what I expected from a Z1 heartrate in my training rides. I guess excitement of race, coming out of a 1:25 swim, etc. had an impact on my heartrate. 7:09:04 (15.66 mph). This did include 5 stops at the porta-potties. I did these stops right before and after the climbs. I figure this added 13 minutes (?) to my time, but did those “breaks” maybe help me later in the day during the run????
The excitement of riding the IMWI course is amazing. Amazing how many comments I received from spectators and other racers wearing my EN jersey. Typical comment was… “hey EN racer, great job executing!” Very cool. Lesson learned on ride is that everyone needs to pay attention during the feed zones. I saw two accidents right in front of me where people ran into one another. “Thrill” moment of ride for me was on the 2nd lap. There was a fast downhill right after the last climb. At the bottom there was a bridge that you had to cross. There was fresh asphalt joining the road and the bridge and on the first lap I hit it like a speedbump at 45mph and just about lost my teeth! On the second lap I did not want to slow down because I would lose all of the momentum, so I BUNNYHOPPED that bump at 45mph on the 2nd lap!! Wow… that was fun… all that time in Moab paid off.
Nutrition on bike was 1 bottle of Perform every 30 minutes. This is what I had trained and rehearsed with all summer. That was 350 cal per hour, but it had worked all summer and I felt very comfortable with that from a calories, hydration, sodium intake.
T2 was smooth and steady also.
My E-Pace was 10:10/mi going into the race. TIRP run on Saturday indicated 11:49/mi (5:12:21) goal. As I thought about it, I decided on a plan for 12:00/mi for the first 6 miles, and then 11:30/mi for the rest of the run. I was a little faster that the 12:00/mi for the first 6, but I didn’t go crazy. I felt incredible during the run and held a steady 11:30/mi pace for the first 13 miles. Nutrition was two cups (about 8 oz.) of Perform each aid station, walking 30 seconds. I did “briskly” walk observatory hill. I ran into my wall at mile 20. I felt a slight cramp in my right hamstring, so I backed off my pace. As soon as I did that my left knee started to hurt, etc…. Mile 20 to 21, 21-22 were about 2min/mile slower than I wanted to be. At mile 22 aid station, I hit the magic elixcer…. 2 cups of Perform, and one cup of Coca-Cola, two Advil. I can say that by mile 22.1, I felt like a new man!! Simple sugar and caffine! I continued taking Coca-Cola at 23, 24, and 25. I felt WONDERFUL those last 4.2 miles, and continued to get faster. I had not been looking at overall time at all during the day. When I got to mile 26 I asked a Police officer what time it was. He said 9:00….. I started thinking… I should be at 15 hours at the point… but I was at 14 hours. I couldn’t believe it! That is when they eyes started to tear up. Approaching the finish line I tried to make sure that I didn’t come anywhere near the person in front of me for their picture. It was amazing to go down to the finish line and hear my name announced.
I felt that I had very good execution. There are many areas that I can improve, but overall I was extremely happy with executing the plan that I ahad made.
Overall, when I started this journey my number one goal was to finish under 17 hours, and RUN the entire marathon. My “perfect” goal time was 15 hours. I finished 14:07:57. I am still absolutely thrilled!! And I did RUN the entire marathon. Mission accomplished.
One point that my wife pointed out was that every picture of me has me smiling J I told her that if they could have taken pictures of me underwater that I still would have been smiling! Thank you to Coach Rich and Patrick, and the entire EN team for helping make my IMWI experience WONDERFUL.
Comments
I love your race report! Congratulations, Ironman! I think I remember you coming in because you almost had my time from last year (I was catching).
Serious style points for that bunny hop.