2010 Ironman Augusta 70.3 Race Report - Part 3 (Conclusion and thoughts...)

Hello Everyone,

     It's Saturday, just got out of a Federal Tax Accounting Class, and I needed something to do while my lunch was settling before I can get in my afternoon workout.  Missed the morning 8am run with the West Stride Support Group.  Sorry Lee!  Was out at Ormsby's and Waffle House too late last night.  I was planning on being late to class this morning anyways because of the run, so I did not feel guilty getting up late, waiting for Planet Smoothie to open at 9am and then go to class.  So I decided I would complete the last part of this race report, put some thoughts and feelings behind how I felt about the event and my completion of it to tie everything together.

     First off, I think that my attitude and priority towards this race was all out of whack!  I think you may have gathered that from part 1 of this race report.  I signed up for this race in May and did not do enough training for it.  I kinda feel like 2008 and 2010 were lost years with respect to training and racing.  In 2007 I had a huge racing season (not that I was actually good, just a lot of races) and then I guess I was burnt out when I hit 2008.  In 2009 I did IMCDA, so there was the motivation there.  There were a couple times during the season where I slacked off and I admit that, both for being burnt out and trying to keep a relationship in check.  2010 I think was the same result as 2008, though it was due to training really hard for one race rather than multiple races.  There were also other major things that happened in my personal and business life in 2008 and 2010 that had significant impacts on my training and competing in triathlons in general.  In 2011 I am trying to remedy that situation by one, getting back into a year where I am fully training and participating in the sport and two, actually not having another "off" year going into 2012.

     Second, and this is more of a humor related intermission for this post (but still topical to it), I really need to start taking some sort of laxative around 5pm the night before the race.  I mean come on!  I stopped 4 times on the run????  Not to mention I did not go at all BEFORE or during any other portion of the race.  And not only that, it was like 2 days worth of food!  Not cool!  And the fact that I wasted somewhere between 25-30 minutes waiting in line for a porta-john and using them.  I mean, I think I added a 4th discipline to the sport that day so we could call it a quadrathlon.  Swim, Bike, Run, and poop.

     Third, I really need to work on my run.  Not necessarily the time, but the running off the bike.  In most, if not all of my long distance races (HIM + distance events), every time I come off the bike I have to walk at some point due to cramping or leg fatigue (notice I did not say body fatigue, usually when I stop I feel fine, just my legs are trashed).  One of my tri-resolutions for the year is to do lots more bricks, and not all of them are going to be 2-3 hours in the saddle and then 15-30 minutes of running.  My buddy James that I did CDA with and also trained with, his original discipline was duathlons, and he has a few key workouts, similar to bricks, that I am going to employ so that when it comes time to race in another HIM or IM distance race, I am not gonna have trashed legs/cramping all the time.  That's not to say that I won't ever get a cramp again, or that I won't ever walk again, I just know there is a large area of improvement for me in that area.

    Lastly, I think something that will stop the huge roller coaster effect from year to year when I participate in this sport is to have fun and remember not to be so serious about this sport all the time.  Sure you have to have discipline to train, you have to plan out your workouts, you have to schedule your events in advance, etc.  But once that is all over with, we should all be able to cut loose and have a little fun with this sport.  If we forget to do that, then we go down a path where it is not fun anymore, and we decide to cast it by the wayside like some toy we got for last Christmas knowing there is a new present wrapped under the tree right now for this Christmas.

Hope you all have a great, safe training weekend.  Don't know who all of you are rooting for in the Superbowl, but I hope that Pittsburgh gets their butts kicked!  :)

2010 Ironman Augusta 70.3 - Part 2 (The Race - or moreover, how not to train/race)

It Begins...

Swim Leg

I am suddenly awoken from my trance by the loud bang of the referee's race gun.  As I came back to reality, my body had done what it has been always trained to do.  The current was fairly strong.  My last half I completed (I was also a bit slower then than I am now) was in about 48-49 minutes in the ocean, so you would get a little help on the way in, but none on the way out.  This was all one way downstream.  I did attempt to sight, and my sight line was in closer to shore as to stay away from other swimmers, and the fact that we were getting out on the same side as we got in on, so there was no point in swimming all the way out to the buoys.  Swim was 1.2 miles or just over 2100 yards (6 in one, half dozen in the other).  Kinda forgot to do some extra kicking the last couple hundred meters to get the blood flowing back into the legs.  I want to say that my best form was during the middle third of the swim, when I got all my race jitters out from the first third and settled into the race.  The last third I began getting fatigued and got back into my old swim (bad) habits which slowed my time.

Swim Time :          31:24.00
Swim Avg/100:     1:30

Transition 1

Legs felt like two stumps and I was tired.  Remember that almost no training thing I did most of the year.  Yeah it was coming back to me and I had not even gotten on the bike yet.  Oh well, this was just about finishing the race.  I told Mike while yes I would love to beat my time from 5 years ago, I just wanted to finish.  I jogged through transition to my rack position.  Of course (as is always the case) my rack position sucks, the tri-gods have cursed me with horrible rack position for the rest of my life for some reason.  Took my time getting everything on (still lightly raining) and I was trying to dry anything off that was soaking wet.  Ran with my bike past the porta-johns..... Nothing.  Although I did pee in my wetsuit prior to the gun going off.  Man it feels great, especially when the water is cold.

Transition 1 Time:  6:55

Bike Leg

After getting a good look of the bike course the night before on YouTube (thanks to whomever loaded that!) The elevation profile was not as bas as advertised on the Augusta course part of the site.  One thing I do distinctly remember is how crappy the roads got as soon as we hit South Carolina.  See Augusta splits between GA and SC and 90 percent of the course (if not more) was in SC.  Once we got off of the main roads that were heavily traveled, the roads got a bit better, but not much.  It began raining again about halfway through the ride.  I only got water at the 2nd aid station, as I already made sure I had everything I needed on the bike before the ride.  I am gonna re-think that strategy this coming year, since the aid stations at most 1/2 iron distance events are evenly spread through the course and have everything I usually want, the exception being the brands that I consume. On the back half of the course, there were some pretty technical turns and some pretty steep downhills, so I made sure to keep my speed down just to be safe.  I did not want to incur some horrible bike injury due to inclement weather.  After looking back at Mike's speed as well, I am assuming that he did the same thing.  My back was beginning to ache a bit as I got to the last 10K of the bike, so I was out of aero for the remainder of the ride.  I was in and out of aero a lot on the second half of the ride, but I am used to that since I am in group rides and even some of the solo rides I do in Atlanta get pretty technical, so I find myself out of aero more than the average person.  As I got close to the finish I had to pee again, which was good because I knew I hydrated well during the bike despite the wet weather. 

Bike Time:            3:06:52
Bike Avg Speed:  17.98 mph 

Transition 2

Light rain, but the clouds began to look like they were clearing up.  Hmm... "I wonder if it is going to heat up and get really humid if the sun comes out...?"  Once again because the bike to run transition was not the same as the swim to bike transition, my rack position still sucked.  It is like they put me in the one corner out of 4 that has no entrance or exit.  Changed into run gear and once again took my time, and it was wet, but there was nothing I could do about that.  As I was heading out of T2 I went ahead and went pee at the porta-johns, but nothing.  This was going to be the bane of my existence during the run. 

Transition 2 Time:  6:00

Run Leg

The main problem I have in my longer races is that I have issues running off the bike.  I am going to fix that this year, as I have a few things on my tri-list that I want to improve about my races.  It is not that I am not going as fast as I wanna go, it is that I cramp up and my legs are too fatigued.  This is from not doing enough brick training so I get used to the bike/run transition.  I got about a mile down the road before I cramped up and had to walk.  Someone in the crowd yelled for me to pick it up, it was just the first mile, and then he kinda calmed down he he saw me limping in pain from the cramps. 

The run course is a two loop course with multiple back and forth areas, which is cool for spectators, so that they could stay on the same block area and just walk back and forth between streets to see their racers.  Celine had gotten to the race site just in time for me for the run.  I saw her as I was passing through the 2nd mile, trying to look my best even though I felt like crap and my legs hurt.  Just before I saw her I was actually walking again (for the second time).  After I had passed I was kind of in a groove and then it hit me...... Thank goodness mile marker 3 was coming up, and there are porta-johns at each mile marker.  What had been eluding me all day since I woke up had finally come back to haunt me.  There were two people in line in front of me and I thought I was gonna die.  Also I was somewhat in the back third of the pack for the day in general, so there had been close to 2000 people that had passed by this way two times before I got there.  I lost about 5 minutes waiting for my turn, then took another couple in the porta-john.  Phew!  I am sooo glad that was over.

Since I got about 7 minutes of rest out of that so my legs felt fresh enough to go another mile or so before I was going to have to walk.  I was alternating between water and Gatorade at every aid station, I had my endurolytes in my tri jersey pocket, and I was taking in a gel about every 40 minutes.  It started to get warm outside because of the sun, and this also began to make it humid as well.  Began sweating even more.  I got to mile 6 on the backside of the run course where we were about to do our second loop when... Oh no not again!  Twice???  Well I did have quite a bit to eat over the weekend, but come on, I thought the first time was bad enough.  There was only one person in front of me this time, so I only waited 2-3 minutes and then I was in there for another couple minutes before I emerged to begin the second loop of the course.    Now we are up to a 11-12 minute delay in finishing because of bowel issues.  Never fear!  I pushed on (no pun intended)!

Going into the second loop I felt much lighter, however the fatigue and cramping had set into my legs.  I was basically alternating between walking and jogging every quarter mile.  The sun at this point had been out for a good 30-45 minutes, parts of the pavement were steaming.  I was grabbing sponges at every water station and pouring some additional water down my backside to cool off and to wash off from the prior two visits.  On the second loop I stopped not once, not twice, but three times more for the porta-johns (the third time was just to pee, I was two miles away from the finish and I could not hold it)!!!!  I mean I must have been backed up for a couple days, because every time I went throughout the run was serious.  I ended up wasting another 15 minutes in those three visits for a total of 26-27 minutes waiting and using the restroom on the run.  I would normally never talk about bathroom breaks affecting my time during the race because I seldom go and when I do it is usually on myself, unless I have to go #2. 

Run Time:     3:02:53
Run Pace:     13:58

The Finish!!!

I saw Celine a couple more times on the run and I believe that I did see Melissa once or twice on the run.  The sun was out in full force when I was crossing the finish line and the weather was great!  I was jogging the last mile of the course and i tried really hard not to walk.  My jog while crossing the finish line was pitiful.  I have not bought any pictures from the race, but when you look at them online, all of them are horrible, most of them are of me walking and the one at the finish line you can tell I am doing some kind of turkey trot because my stride is next to non-existent.  Celine was there to greet me at the end of the race and a few minutes later I saw Mike and Melissa.  Melissa had already checked them out of their hotel, so whenever Mike got cleaned up he would be ready to go.  We both got some pizza, water, and beer, and then hung out for a few minutes before parting ways.

Final Time:                               6:54:02
Time Spent in Porta-Johns:       26-27 minutes
PR in minutes from last HIM:    31:48

My PR would have been almost an hour if I had not had sooo many stops!  Oh well, that is how the cookie crumbles.  Post race report to come soon!


Murtha...

2010 Ironman Augusta 70.3 Race Report - Part 1 (Prelude)

Let's face it guys and gals,

     This 2010 has been pretty much a busted up season for me.  I know I have re-edited my 2010 race schedule, but if you would have seen the "projected" 2010 race schedule at the beginning of the year, There were double the races, including new ones I wanted to try, "B" races that were training feeders in to my "A" races, and just some others for fun.  Well... Life doesn't always pan out the way you want (why not?).

     The race I completed prior to IM Augusta 70.3 was TRI - PTC Sprint Triathlon.  That was my 6th year competing in the event, and I make a point to doing that race every year because it was the first race I ever completed.  Going from the Chattanooga Riverfront Tri to PTC I got in about a dozen workouts total.  Not a very productive summer tri-wise.  But hey, I am in good enough shape to wake up on any random day and do a sprint tri.  Doesn't mean I should be doing that though, bad idea.  After PTC (late August) I only got in about 10 workouts or so before Augusta (late September).  I thought to myself, "hey I have done an Ironman, and I did a half 5 years ago, so what if I have slacked on my training?  I paid for this damn thing, even if I DNF, I am doing it."

     One of my good friends Celine has family that lives just outside Augusta, and she said that she would come along and be my tri-sherpa for the weekend as well as let us crash at her family's home.  Celine used to date a triathlete who is currently attempting to go pro, so I was a piece of cake to handle compared to him (although she would have to wait longer on me).  We decided to drive up on Friday afternoon.  I took a half day so I could get everything together and then went to pick up Celine after she got off work.  I think we finally got to Augusta around 10pm or so after driving from Atlanta.  I went ahead and unpacked a few things since I had to drop off my bike on Saturday, etc.  We stayed up and watched some TV, she made me one of her famous Bloody Mary's and then it was off to bed. 

     Woke up the Saturday morning and had breakfast and Screwdrivers :) then got everything in the car to go register for the event.  We got down to the hotel (race site) around 11:00 or so, and we called Mike and Melissa, who were already in line.  They said there were hardly and registration volunteers and only one line, which was about an hour long.  Celine and I decided to go ahead and get some lunch while we were in downtown Augusta and let the lines dissipate before we headed in.  We found this great little restaurant at the corner of the street directly down from the hotel, about three blocks away.  Lunch was good (is that a pint of beer at Andy's table?)

     There was about a 20-25 minute wait just to make it to the registration table when we got there.  Celine took this as an opportunity to get a massage from one of the sports massage people while I stood in line and waited.  Once I finally got all of my registration stuff, I headed through the shopping area to see if there was anything that I could get w/ respect to this race.  I found a hoodie that I really liked, and then I got a cowbell for Celine to cheer me on.  Good purchases.  After that we drove down to the transition area to drop off my bike and get a look at the swim exit and then head back to the house.

     I was originally planning on driving the bike course to see what it was like, but someone had been nice enough the prior year to drive the bike course with a camera and then post the videos.  I plowed through those videos while Celine cooked dinner.  Her sister prepared a whole dinner for us, all of it was delicious!  Drinks for dinner, watched some TV and then went to bed for the evening. 

     Sunday Morning!  Race Day!  We got up early (me first).  I always take a quick shower on race morning.  Don't know why, since I am going to get sweaty and dirty during the day, but it makes me feel better in the morning.  Ate my usual breakfast items and got in some water and a bottle of Cytocarb/Accelerade.  Wasn't able to use the restroom, but I figured there would be plenty of porta-johns to take care of business when I got to the race site.  Celine's brother-in-law left his truck at the house for the weekend, so Celine drove his truck, since she cannot drive my car (stick-shift).  She dropped me off and wished me good luck, as she was headed back home to go sleep in.  The night before she asked me what my proposed times were for each leg of the race so she knew where to be on race day. 

After dropping of my gear in transition, it started to rain slightly.  I found Mike and Melissa at the transition site after finishing up my stuff.  Melissa decided to get in a good walk back up to the hotel and swim start, since it was only a mile and change away, and she had nothing to do for the next hour.  As Mike and I were about to get on the bus, I took a look at the porta-johns.... nothing.  Mike and I got on the bus, it took about 5-10 minutes to get to the swim start.  I kinda had a nasty blister from a couple days before that I should not have messed with, and did anyways.  It felt like not matter where I walked, I was stepping on some pebble exactly at my exposed blister.  Mike and I soaked the whole experience in.  This was his first half, my second, albeit my first was 5 years before.  We chatted some more and decided we would get in one more bathroom break before we donned our wetsuits and headed to our respective corrals.  I went in an peed...... but nothing (I hope you have gotten the idea of where this is going...).  Got the suits on, and it started to lightly rain again.   We got into our respective corrals. 

     It was cloudy and rainy, but it was becoming more light out.  The singing of the national anthem was the last point where I was in tune with my surroundings.  The silence of being alone in your head, even with the thousands of people around you, the race director barking orders, the 90's music blasting (thank god they have moved up decades, I have never been much of an 80's person).  I began reflecting on my experiences over the 6 seasons I have participated in triathlon.  The ups, the downs, the highs, and the lows.  Long training hours, meeting new tri-friends, going to places I have never been before, taking my body to limits it has never been before.  Now I am jumping off the dock into the water.  The current is decent, they let some water out of the damn earlier that morning to get the flow up.  Strong enough where I had to swim backwards a bit to stay behind the start line.  The silence in my head drowning out everything........Then...

(to be continued)