Redman RR
Redman Race Report
Redman was my first HIM distance race. I chose this race because it is supposed to be cooler with great support. The day turned out to be HOT and the support was AMAZING.
Thursday: John and I drove to Oklahoma City from Houston. About an 8-9 hour drive with stops. Not a bad drive at all.
Friday: Up early to get to practice swim. I haven't been swimming much lately, much less in open water. I haven't been in open water for probably 3 years. The lake is low due to the drought, so you walk out on what is normally underwater about 100-150 yards to get to the water. Get in and it is nice and cool (wetsuit legal and recommended). I go through the normal shock of putting face in cold water, fright about the choppiness, etc. Swim out then back in. Go back out and it is much better.
Get back to the hotel, shower, change and go to breakfast. The rest of the day is spent going to Target for supplies, driving the bike course, a conference call, packet pick up, bike check-in, etc. What's missing? Lunch. Ended up having a bagel and PB in the hotel room mid-afternoon. Have dinner at Outback about 5, done and back to hotel about 6. Get everything together and in bed about 8 or 9.
Saturday: Alarm goes off at 3 for a med that has to be taken an hour before I eat. Can't really go back to sleep. Real alarm goes off at 4. Up, eat bagel and PB, get ready, head to race site. When we arrive, we go to wait for the "shuttle" that turns out to be a hunting golf cart thing. It can fit 3-4 on the seats and another 5 or so in the back pickup bed-like area. Get to the race site and get transition setup, get chip, then start looking for a porta-john. There are only 5 in transition for 1000 people. Find another 2 outside transition with a shorter line but still end up waiting in line for 20 minutes. Very unhappy about this. Porta-johns are an easy thing to have. This is ridiculous! Finally get my turn, hustle back into transition, find John, get wetsuit on, two puffs of inhailer for exercise-induced asthma, start sipping on G2 and wait to head down to the water.
Swim
Finally head down and wait for my start. Decided to get in and get that first cold shock out of the way. Get back out and wait for my start. Finally my turn, get in, the horn goes off and start trying to swim. Did I mention I hadn't been in open water and in a group start in a while? Have some moments of panic, having problems sighting, slight panic attack. Having problems breathing (have been sick with allergies/infection/virus the past week or so). Finally get some free space in the water. Eventually figure out my sighting. Make it to first turn buoy and think "OK, I can do this." Make the next turn buoy and head back to shore. As I'm coming back I feel my chip strap flopping around. I stop and reach down to check it and get a calf cramp. Work it a little, then start swimming - "gottal make it to shore." Swim time: 58:42. I'm really happy with this time considering how much extra swimming I did in the first 600 yards. I swear I was swimming in circles.
T1
Make it out and walk up to transition. I normally breathe on both sides but have gone to breathing on one. When I get out of the water I'm dizzy, so I take it very slow in T1 to try to get it to settle down. Take 2 more puffs on the inhailer. Finally get up and head out (T1:10:45 - I know this can be improved, but I'll take it).
Bike
Get out on the bike and have a good time. However, I forgot the GasX in T1. (Lesson: If you think you might want it, put it out, don't leave it in your bag because you'll forget it.) I had 3 servings of Infinit in the A2 between my handle bars and about 40 oz of water with 4 servings of lemon-lime Nuun in the Speedfil. I had been using the berry but decided to try the lemon-lime. Turned out not to be a good idea because of the flavor (Infinit is also lemon-lime) and the berry turns the water pink so I can easliy see how much is in the Speedfil, the lemon-lime doesn't. My goal was to follow EN strategy for the bike. However, I hadn't rode rolling hills so I had a hard time keeping my wats where they were supposed to be. It got better as time went on. I also had problems because my shifters are down on the handlebars, not on the areo bars so I spent a lot of time out of areo to shift. I stopped at the 4th aid station to fill up the Speedfil and put in some berry Nuuns that I had in my bike bag and a quick porta-john stop. Took off and had a good ride back. My stomach started feeling a little off towards the end of the bike. (Bike: 3:27:19 - pretty happy with this.)
T2
Uneventful. Again, took my time. (T2: 5:47)
Run
When I started runing the left calf that cramped in the swim started complaining. It eventually worked out. Had my water belt with 3 bottles each with 1 hour of my run Infinit (in 10 oz of water), one bottle with 10 oz water and 1 serving of Nuun. Additional Nuun, inhailer, and cough drops in the pouch. Again, goal was to stick to EN execution. The run is all in a park with no trees on concrete and asphalt. It was HOT! All was good until my stomach totally went south. Queasy, bloated feeling, lots of lower GI discomfort, thought I was going to throw up, couldn't take anything down, etc. Dumped out the water & Nuun and re-filled it with water. That helped. Ended up walking a lot to try to let my stomach clear. Stopped at a porta-john, no relief. Got caught by Donna from CA and we talked for a little as she walked with me. Started walking and running as stomach cleared. Ended up getting 1 bottle of Infinit down in the first 90 minutes, so I was OK with that. On the way back I started coughing. Pulled out a honey lemon cough drop. Thought "this is either going to be OK or a really bad idea." Turned out it quited the cough and settled my stomach a bit. Go figure. The first of the two loops was tough - lots of walking. Started the second loop thrilled that I knew I could finish. Got in more running on the second loop. Stopped at the porta-johns at the turn around and got some relief (ended up probably losing 10-15 minutes in porta-johns, but it was time well spent for the relief). Could run more after the second stop, but still did walk/running. Also, took several inhailer puffs on the run. Notice my fingers had turned inti sausages, so I may have overdone the salt. That also happens sometimes but not so bad when I run longer distances. As I came up to the finish, John found me and ran in the last little bit with me. So glad to be done. (Run: 3:25:03 - YIKES!)
Lessons learned:
1) On the second loop I figured out one thing that was causing the GI problems. I was on antibiotics. Antibiotics always mess with my stomach and, um, slow transit time. I've also been on a codeine cough syrup. Not sure the affects that may have had.
2) Heat eats my lunch on the run. I'd had problems with this in the RR in Houston. I've got to work on that somehow. Thought it would be better up here since it was supposed to be cool.
3) May re-think my nutrition. Now that I've got some time, there are some other products I want to play with. I'm happy with the A2 and Speedfil. I need to practice refilling the Speedfil when moving.
4) I need to work on the swim. I'm happy with my time, but want to improve this.
5) Want to work on my running in general. I want to get faster on the run.
6) I'm thrilled to have my first HIM done! Plenty of room for improvement and things to fix. I can see doing another next year.
7) Not sure I'll do Redman again. The volunteers were amazing! Not thrilled with the bike or run courses.
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Comments
I started using the Nuun in my water this year, since all of my races are in dry areas (IMSG, IMAZ, Vineman). I found that citrus flavor gave enough color to see how much was left, but wasn't as sweet as berry to make me have taste fatigue or become queasy.
So I use a PD on front with Citrus Nuun and 2- 24oz bottles on frame with Skratch Lab, 2 scoops per bottle. I used raspberry and orange at Vineman, but now have pineapple that is not too sweet. Every 10 minutes I had some of each. I also had 1/2 a Bonk Breaker every hour starting at 1 hour mark. I keep chews in SN just in case my stomach needs something else.
Good luck with changes.