Pre Race Day

We had a great Saturday at the race, even went for a smooth swim in the lake and a loop of the bike course at comfy pace. Registration was fast and we got a shirt a hat and a medal in the end. I saw and talked to Lori Bowden for a few minutes and that was cool, more on that later though. A good meal on Sat. eve and early off to bed at 9pm under gloomy cloudy skies which was a foreshadowing of things to come.

Race Day

Woke in the morning to a light drizzle and we anticipated this the day before so set the transition bags with all the rain gear. Man was it upsetting cause it was kinda cold. We got up did our thing and went for a quick coffee to 7-eleven. I ate a bagel w BP my usual and made sure the night before I salt and potassium loaded as well as gorged the stomach with carbs to load up the intestine so that I would not run out of fuel; my usual. Went to transition in the drizzle to get body marked, get the timing chip and set up transition. They had set up transition in age groups so that everyone would be able to be of the same age. Cool I thought cause you get to see who all the “compeators� are. I tell ya, very intimidating to see some of those bikes people have. Man!! You’d think zipp sponsored everyone. It was difficult to set up transition cause of the rain, deciding what I should wear for the bike to stay warm AND still not spend too much time in it for T1 and have quick access for T2 bag to run. The swim started at 8a.m., a civilized hour I think and good cause it let the air warm up so that we were not too cold. I set up the bike as I would ride and had 2 plastic bags and the gym bag for transition. The bike was on the rack and I had my helmet on the tribars with the cycle hat in it so that I had a visor to keep the rain off, all was ready to put on fast. Under the bike I placed the shoes, a long sleeve shirt and my glasses all covered with the clear raincoat I was gonna wear. In the gym bag was a plastic bag with the run stuff: shoes, visor, Ibuprofen (hehe) and socks. I was gonna bike without socks. I placed the number on the belt and under the wetsuit I had my trifuel tank top and bike shorts. At about 7:40 I made my way to the beach. I was excited but undecided which way I should go with the emotions yes, and went in the water for a quick warm up. Water was warm and drizzle was falling. Many people came to the beach and all were in the water splashing about. It was cool to be on the tri thing again. However, from the get go I felt icky, uncomfortable unlike at IMC last year or the othe half last year. I really didn’t wanna do this. Maybe it was the pressure I put on myself? Dunno. I decided to take the chance at the last minute and hug the right side in the dreaded wash machine. Later I found it would be a big mistake. The floats were out there in a kind of triangular pattern, 300m x 400m x 300m. I’ll call them bouy 1, 2 and 3 as a triangle with bouy 1 being the closest to shore, #2 being farthest out and 3 being the one to the most right by the beach. One loop was a kilometer. First the 49yr and under men went and 10min. later the 50+ and women followed.

Swim (2kms. Two loop course)

All being said the horn went of and we were swimming. I was pushed in the back by a bunch of guys. A different feeling to the swim I have ever been in. I usually am on the far left. The left of the mass is MUCH MORE CIVILIZED PEOPLE!! Several guys went over me as we went out, ok, I can take that I thought. I swam as I usually do but found that I had to go right and left a lot of times to avoid people. Arms hit me on the back several times and my feet were constantly being grabbed and touched, as were the arms and legs. Finally, it happened, some guy came in from the side and with his toes, like intentionally, he swept the goggles off. Oh man! I came up and started to look for them but in the mass of arms and legs, I couldn’t find them. As everyone went past me I was looking. Again, people climbing around and two guys over my shoulders causing me to get pushed under. I choked on the water; swallowed some too, icky. Then after like what seemed forever I saw them to the right and grabbed them, put them on adjusted them and continued. Finally, most of the crowd had dispersed and I felt at ease. After swimming past bouy 1 and 2 about half way I had a guy stick his heel in my nose. I stopped and popped up to check it for blood. It was a hard hit. You know that feeling you get if you get rammed in the nose. Luckily no blood. So I continued. Following people as best I could thinking form all the way. Made it around the 3rd bouy and that caused us to swim to the beach again. Then we had to run out of the water and commence again, the swim for the second loop. That was fine this time with no probs. As I ran onto the beach and looked at my watch it said 18min. Ooooo not to good for me. But then I did have probs with the goggles etc. So off I went for lap 2. All was fine till I came around bouy 3 again into the home stretch. Why? I dunno but even last year I had a prob with loop courses. I also went off course at the Oly I did last year. Well, I did it again after bouy 3. I swam around the bouy straight for a while and then veered to towards bouy 2!! Eventually I found myself head on with the swimmers!! Ooooo man. I looked up and found out I back tracked into the lane from bouy 2 to 3 I noticed this as some guy came head on into me What the….?!!!!! How the hell did that happen, so I immediately started swimming to the beach. The first thing that came to my head was a marshal is gonna stop me and give me a penalty for crossing the line. Luckily this did not happen. So, I swam to the beach and looked at the watch, 43min Aaaaaaaa!! A cold sweat ran down my back but the first thing that came into my mind was the thought of, ya know who cares! That’s just 10min slower than predicted and I will have a fast bike time and I’ll just have to run faster. I will make it up, so up the stairs I ran into T1. No time to dwell on it now, move on. It’s done forget it!

T1

It was a long run from the beach to T1 but after I got there all the bikes in my AG were gone except for like 5. Oh man! What a downer. Again, I said to myself screw it. I’ll just haul butt on the bike. I got my disk and new zipp 404! So I stripped the wetsuit and slammed it down, put on the raincoat, never used the long sleeve shirt cause the rain had almost stopped, put on the glasses then the shoes, left the raincoat open for ventilation and ran for the mount section. Off I went.

Bike (94km)

Smokin’ course and I have to say very interesting. Light drizzle and not too cold. The rain let up after like 20min into it which was nice, and the roads dried as we rode. At first I rode strong and let the HR get up higher than usual. I had time to make up man!! I was at 75-80% for the most of the first lap trying to make up for lost time. No probs. cause I do that in training so I knew what I could handle. I averaged 35km/hr through the entire race. Not bad. Well, after like the first 20km I got a flat. Oh man! What is this day I thought? Why here!?!? All I could do is get off the bike and change it. ……….the stuff that was going through my head. Man!! I knew I had the sub 5hr goal for the race but it was getting bleaker by the minute. I kept telling myself, “It doesn’t matter. Just change it and haul ass. Keep going. Just do your best and push harder. Forget what is in the past, just focus on up ahead, that’s what matters. You can’t change the past, it’s done!� And I did. Fixed the flat and just as I was putting it on the bike Lori Bowden flew by. I figured, make it a goal to catch her and follow her around, she’s fast! It was her first loop too. So after getting back on the bike I guzzeled down some gatorade and started with the gels and hammerd it to Lori. Finally, after like 15min of serious mind blowin’ hammerfest pedalling and downhill suicide attempts I caught up and stayed behind her. Now THIS WAS COOL people. I learned a lot from just watching her and her form on the bike. Interesting to see what the mechanics and bike position she had, the arms, the shoes clip position the way she peddaled, the slope of her torso, the entire pedal stroke…….. She was pushing a big gear and almost effortlessly for the speed she was going. We were averageing like 35km/hr (21mph) I thought to stay with her cause she was so smooth so I tried to emulate her pedal strokes and speed. I ended up following her for the lap and then sped up past her for the several hills. She eventually passed me and I never did catch up. Maybe the consistancy is what it takes. Another lesson learned. I never did carry much on the bike for the two loops but picked up drink from the aid stations, downed them and continued on. I saw Geoff (PoC) call my name out I think in lap 2 and just yelled hey! But kept going. All in all I ended in T2 after 2:41hrs. Even with the flat that wasn’t too bad.

T2

Smokin fast transition this time. Finally something good happened after I got in. I looked at the racks of bikes in my AG and there were like 4 bikes in. Oh man!! I though this was great! I made up all the time I lost on the swim. I exited with pretty much all the bikes gone. I passed a lot of people. So I quickly dumped out the plastic bag at T2 like at IMC last year and collected the pieces. Put on the socks, the visor with ibuprofen taped to the inside of the visor for you know what. And started off. The achilles felt good on the bike and I felt strong coming out of T2.

Run (21km)

Came out of T2 smokin fast for the first km of like 4:05 pace (6:48/mi). I looked down on the HRmonitor and it said 77% so I thought not too bad but cool it down cause you have a long way to go and it’s the start. Just like at home when you did the tempo 21km run. That’s what you want cause I did that in like 1:36hrs. The quads had no pain and were quite refreshed. All those bricks I do REALLY pay off. This was proof for me. After getting composed I filled with gels at each aid station for the first loop and drank gatorade, coke and water till I felt “that� feeling I usually get that says no more or you’ll puke. The run was a 2 loop course of 10.5km. out and back. Along the way at the farthest out we had a timing mat that we had to cross. This confirmed that we made it out. Sections of the course were over sandy gravel trail that wasn’t bad. I made it out to the first click of the mat and back again to the turn around at the finish. Checked the watch and it said 43:40min for the first 10.5km. Man!! I thought I must be smokin or this watch is wrong. Then the crap happened. The achilles was starting a bit just before the turn around but I dismissed it, took the IB and carried on. I was gonna get sub five if it killed me. I hit turn around for the second loop at about 4:10 - 4:15hrs into the race. By the 12km mark the pain in the achilles became pronounced to such a degree that I started running at 5:00 pace (8:00/mi) that was the end of it cause I started to feel it baaaad. It came on fast too, like in 100m or so. I ended by 13km with a run/hobble walk cause of the pain. It had gotten real bad and all I could do was to carry on with the walk, stretch and jog but the pace was very slow. I kept pushing but the pain was much too bad. By km 14-15 that was it. I could not run or even walk anymore and I called it. I didn’t wanna tear the achilles. That would be VERY bad. That was the time I gave up, or stopped and didn’t care for the finish time. After I crossed the mat at the farthest out point I basically started hobbling with everyone passing me. I was emotionally very down. After all I went through in the swim the bike flat and theffort I put out and the time I made up with the bike and the great first half of the run THIS was beyond my control. I walked, rested, walked, rested………I hurt bad and I was in excruciating pain. Gritting teeth as I hobbled like Terry Fox. People were clapping and cheering me on to continue. I tuned it out. They had no idea what it was like.

Despite the pain and all that occurred, many many things went through my head, the season, trifuel, Sheilas Brazil IM, and my tri season…… over and over I felt like there was nothing I could do. I tried to run but couldn’t even get the heel up off the pavement and the sandy trail was worse. Ended up hobbling from station to station resting and continuing. I thought I should stretch it but thought I may do even more damage. So, I continued on till the end.

I crossed with something like 5:35hrs. Oooooo I hate that time. SOOOOOO Much. I took the medal off after they put it round my neck and walked to the med tent for some more advil and a tenser for the ankle. Then, put the medal in my transition bag and just went and sat to watch the others come in and wait for my friend Larry to cross.

All in all a very depressing finish for me. I tried, I tried my hardest to slug it out and overcome but there is only so much you can do. I finished yes, but it doesn’t really mean much to me. I know I can finish, that is a given for me. Just a long training day as I see it. Like waking up and seeing the sun come up kinda thing but the worst part about it all is that even though I had all the probs, I overcame them in the end the tri Gods just said “….ok good so far, try this one!� That did me in. I didn’t stay for the awards, instead Larry and I went to have some food at the post race lunch and drove home.

The ankle hurt real bad, in fact more than it had ever last night and I couldn’t walk on it. Today it hurts too and I am hobbling around like an old man. Elk Lake is on June 18th and I have 2 weeks of recovery. Will it heal? I dunno, I don’t think so. I am doing NOTHING on it, no biking or running at all just resting and drugging myself to keep the inflamation down. Hopefully in the next few days the pain will go and the remainder of the time will allow it to heal so that I can do the same thing over again at Victoria half. It will be hard but I have no choice. I don’t care after the next one what happens to it cause if the same thing occurs I know I will not qualify for IMC. I’ll give it a chance but we’ll see what happens. The plan is to rest for 2 weeks and in the interim, just swim and aqua run to keep the fitness there. I probably won’t lose much in the two weeks but I wanna do something.

Hope your races all go very well and all the training and races are without injury. I may be ok, or I may be out for 2006. I am NOT gonna decide that till June 16th. Rock on!