Pre-Race:
Leading up to this race my training had gone quite well. Having raced the distance once before I knew I was ready and now just needed to execute. I was excited to finally be doing Ironman Canada, a race I'd heard so much about.
After almost missing our flight out of LAX (it's a long story...), Kyra, Liya, and I finally arrived into Kelowna Thursday afternoon. We waited a few hours for my parents to arrive and then the five of us made the beautiful drive south to Penticton.
That night we met up with some of the other Endurance Nation athletes doing the race. It was fun to put some faces to names and also get some advice from those that had done the race in prior years.I was amazed at how "busy" Friday and Saturday seemed leading up to race day...trying to get in a few workouts, picking up the bike, registering, dropping off gear bags, attending the mandatory athlete meeting, among other things took a lot of time and coordination, but by Saturday afternoon I was off my feet relaxing and feeling good.
Not surprisingly, I slept terribly the night before the race. At 2:15am I awoke for breakfast: two packets of instant oatmeal w/milk, banana, PBJ, and 16oz of Gatorade Endurance. I went back to bed, but didn't sleep much before my alarm went off at 4:15am.
I normally only do 3 to 4 races a year, so any race morning is always filled with lots of emotion and excitement for me, but particularly Ironman. It's the culmination of almost a year of hard work which requires sacrificing time away from my family and it's also my opportunity to push myself to the limit to see what I can really do...not against others, but against the goals I've set for myself. I truly love this aspect of triathlon and it makes all the long workouts 100% worth it!After getting my transitions setup, I went into the changing tent and just mentally reviewed my day and tried to chill as much as possible. About 30mins prior to the start I warmed-up in the 70 degree water and then watched the pros start.
Swim: 1:02:56 (1:40/100m, 43rd in AG)
I decided to seed myself in the middle (left to right) and front for the swim start. I thought if I had a really good race I could swim close to 1hr flat and thought that this seeding would give me clear water yet avoid the really fast guys who would be going straight up the buoy line.
My strategy worked out really well. I was surprised by how tame the entire swim was (I've since learned it was the largest mass swim start in Ironman history with 2600+ athletes starting all at once), but particularly during the first leg. Maybe I just expected it to be a complete washing machine, but it wasn't, at least not for me. The one hiccup that I did encounter was that my new Aquasphere Vista goggles started fogging big time half-way through the swim. This combined with sighting into the sun on the way back basically rendered me blind, so I just followed the masses and somehow landed back on the beach. I've never done anything more than spit in my goggles in the past, but this wasn't working on these guys.
T1: 4:34
Wetsuit strippers were awesome, I made a quick change into my bike gear and hit the road.
Bike: 5:45:45 (19.4mph, 79th in AG)
My goal for the bike was to ride my watts and keep my power in check on the climbs even if I felt I could ride harder. It was going to be a long day and following this plan would allow me to have a good run.
At mile 10 of the bike it happened. I've been saying "it's not a matter of if, but when" and it finally happened...in a race...in an Ironman race. After making a left on McLean Creek Road, I hit the first aid station and grabbed a bottle of Gatorade. As I was riding away with another rider on my right, I hear some guy yell "on your left" and all of a sudden he rams into me from the left side. I've gone over what happened a hundred times and what transpired still isn't completely clear, but I think our handlebars got tangled up and as he pulled back left I went down hard on my left side.
For several seconds I just laid there in complete shock as other riders rode around and past me. Only 10 miles into my Ironman bike I was laying on the ground, bleeding from my ankle, knee, hip, shoulder, and back. After peeling myself off the rough pavement, a nurse from the aid station ran up and started treating my worst wound, on my elbow. While she was doing this, another one of the awesome volunteers looked over my bike, which besides some road rash itself was still in good working order. About five minutes later I was on my way, but wasn't the happiest camper. I was really bummed. How could this happen? Why now? Fighting back tears, I told myself that it could have been much worse and that I was just extremely fortunate to be out here doing what I'm doing on this beautiful course. From that point forward I honestly didn't notice my injuries and can't (or won't) say they impacted my race in any real way.
After making my way over McLean Creek the next 30miles were pretty straightforward until Richter Pass. I just settled in and watched the hammer heads go by me. Yellow Lake was incredible as it reminded me of the famous Alpe d'Huez climb during the TdF with hundreds of fans (several in constumes and even more drinking cold Canadian beer!) lining the road leading to the summit. About a 1/4 mile from the summit my family was waiting and they went crazy upon seeing me. The way my 2 year old daughter's face lit up when actually seeing me (my wife said that she'd been yelling "Go Daddy!" to every racer that went by) was just priceless. And so was the descent!
I stayed on the watts and passed a ton of folks on the way back to Penticton which was a real rush. I hit 47mph on the descent which is definitely the fastest I've ever gone in a race.
Looking at my PowerTap numbers afterwards I probably could have pushed it more on the bike. I was shooting for a TSS of 300. So given my actual TSS of 268.5, I theoretically left 31.5 points on the table but given my run I'm not so sure using all of those points would have been in my best interest.
Bike by the Numbers:
Entire workout (173 watts):
Duration: 5:44:16 (5:47:16)
Work: 3567 kJ
TSS: 268.5 (intensity factor 0.685)
Norm Power: 181
VI: 1.05
Pw:HR: 3.43%
Pa:HR: 4.81%
Distance: 111.528 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 497 173 watts
Heart Rate: 118 164 146 bpm
Cadence: 31 203 86 rpm
Speed: 2.5 47.2 19.5 mph
Pace 1:16 24:08 3:05 min/mi
T2: 4:39
Dried my feet, put on socks, and out I went.
Run: 3:50:48 (8:48min/mi, 24th in AG)
I followed the EN pacing guidance and kept my first 6miles to right around an 8:30 pace. I felt good and thought I could continue to bring down my pace during the rest of the run. The course was just stunning in it's beauty and I found a few other athletes to pace off of on the way out which was a big help. That said, I was surprised by the extent of the hills and how much they took out of me. At the turn around I showed a half mary split of 1:50 on my Garmin and at this point thought I could hold onto this and run close to a 3:40 marathon.
I settled into a 8:30 pace on the way back, but at mile 18 started to hurt. Thinking it might be due to a lack of calories or even dehydration (I'd been in the sun all day long and the forecast was for the high-80's), I started walking aid stations to make sure I was taking in enough nutrition. The last 3 - 4 miles of the marathon were tough, as they almost always are.
With a mile to go I saw my family and they went crazy which was great motivation to start the kick for the finish. After a quick kiss for my wife and daughter I headed for the finisher's chute, savoring the moment, remembering all that went into this day, and finally crossing the line an Ironman again.
Summary:
I finished in 10:48:41, 38th out of 220 in my age group and top 10% overall. This was a 6min PR over the Full Vineman I did last year and IMC is known to be a more difficult course. While I had really hoped to have a better marathon, I just didn't have the mojo down the stretch.
It is what it is and overall I'm very happy with my day. I had a great time racing a beautiful course with amazing volunteers and those closest to me supporting and sharing in the experience.
