Ironman World Championship 2010

What a fun day! I had a goal of racing sub 10 hours regardless of conditions. I was so close last year finishing in 10:03+ so I thought this was quite doable with the experience I gained from 2009. Read below to see how the day went.

                       Pre-Race

I woke up my usual 3 hrs early to get some food in the system. I took a shower. I know it seems strange that I'd take one knowing I'm going to sweat all day but it refreshes me and helps me get going. Not being a coffee drinker, this gets me going. I went down to the race area and got marked. I went into the hotels internet cafe and just relaxed in there for a while. I was trying to stay off my feet as much as possible. Around 6:30, I went down to the transition area and sat there until 6:50 before heading to the beach. I went in, looked around to truly appreciate the crowds and competitors and then swam out to the race start.

             The Swim

This years rules changed so that we couldn't wear a speedsuit. I had no idea how this would affect me but guessed it should be the same for everyone. I just wore my tri-shorts with no top and was ready to roll! Unlike last year, I started well to the left of the pier. I had been bruised and battered during the early part of the swim in 2009 and was looking to avoid that this time around. The gun went off and I was surprised by how much clean water I had in front of me. I was drafting others and not getting beat up. I was feeling great! About 10 minutes into the swim, a huge group all got together. We beat the heck out of each other for about 20 minutes plus. It was slow going but I stayed focused and just took the beating while moving forward. At the turnaround, things started to spread out. I tried my best to draft but wasn't doing so well with it. I swam solo most the way back and unfortunately, there was a current we were swimming directly into. While it's the same for everyone, it's still hard. Unlike last year, I came out of the water feeling GREAT and I was about 2 minutes faster than last year in 1:13:12. I was in 1017th place after the swim. I am a TERRIBLE swimmer!!

                               T1

I had practiced this a little because I knew I'd have to put a dry jersey on a wet body. I'd never done this before because I've always worn my full triathlon kit under my wetsuit or speedsuit. Everything went as planned and I got out of transition in 3:07.

                            The Bike

I jumped on the bike and felt pretty good right away. Rather than hammer away right out of the gate, I went into an easy ring. I did this for the first few minutes to make sure I was settled before the short climb up Kuakini Hwy. Once on Kuakini, I put it in a gear that was not giving away any speed but not beating my legs. After the turnaround on Kuakini, I was flying. I was also incredibly relaxed. I was more relaxed for this race than I have been at any of the 6 previous Ironman distance races I've been in. It felt kind of weird not being all worked up. There was a slight tailwind with the downhill from Kuakini.. Everyone was motoring so my concern was to not get caught up in someones poor bike handling skills that could take me out early. The bike was really uneventful for the first 30 miles. I was taking in my nutrition at regular intervals with no issues. About that time, I was coming up on a small group of riders. There were 6-8 of them riding legally and I figured I would pass them over the course of the next mile. Right as I came up on the guy in the back, a group of 10-15 guys who were not riding very legal boxed me in. At this point, I was full on drafting the three guys riding three abreast at the front of the group so I immediately hit the brakes. Doing so had all those other guys spring past me. I was trying to stay legal and doing a good job of it but was now going pretty slow. The group ahead were jockeying back and forth, out of the saddle....just hammering. I knew I needed to get past them but these guys weren't the type to let someone pass easily. I saw an opening that was created when the original group of 6-8 guys got passed by the group of 10-15. I hammered past them and tucked in to a legal position between the two groups. I gave myself a couple of minutes to get my heart rate where it needed to be then hit the gas to get past them. I got past all but 3 of them. Those last 3 were not going to let me go. 2 of those 3 guys got penalties over the next 3 miles. I have to say, one of them was a tough call because he was trying to pass someone then got blocked. The guy blocking got no penalty but the guy who didn't (couldn't) pass got nailed. I was now past this big group and only focused on passing individual riders and small groups ahead. As I made the turn to climb to Hawi around mile 41, I was feeling good. There was no wind and no whitecaps on the water so I was thinking this could be an easy climb. I made sure I was up on nutrition after riding harder than I wanted to get past that earlier group. Everything changed 2 miles later. There weren't whitecaps in the water. It was more like waves. I had my bike completely leaning toward the water to stay upright. The wind was relentless. I was in the small ring on the front and needing all of my gears on the back to keep moving forward. There wasn't a whole lot of passing now. I was just trying to keep my HR at a reasonable level until the turnaround. About 2 miles before the turnaround at Hawi, the wind eased. It did pick right back up on the descent but I did much better with it than on the trip up. I ended up getting past a lot of people who were upright and nervous. Once at the bottom of the climb, I was feeling really fresh. I didn't go hard but went at a pace to keep my speed up but not pushing hard enough to damage the legs for the run. There was a head wind the final 30 miles but nothing too bad. Living in Colorado has made that type of wind the norm so I just focused on getting calories in for the upcoming run. There were no issues the rest of the ride and I made it back to T2 with a bike time of 5:12:39. The ride was pretty drama free except for that short section where I was trying to avoid drafting. My time was slightly faster than last year and I passed 437 people during those 112 miles. I was now in 580th place..

                    T2

I came into transition and just let my bike fly off to a volunteer as I was trying to save every second possible.  I had a little issue with the tongue of my shoe but got through that and headed out to the run feeling AMAZING. My T2 time was 2:49.

                  The Run

The run was where I hoped to pull back the majority of those 3+ minutes from last year to break 10 hours. I had never felt so good starting an Ironman run as I did on this day. While not 100% fresh, my legs were completely underneath me. No Ironman shuffle or anything like that. I was able to immediately start running like I would on any other day. I was running most of my miles in the low 7 minute range (don't pay attention to those run splits or Ironmanlive...they were quite inaccurate). I was really focused on a solid first 10 miles. This is by far the fastest section of the run. It is completely flat and there is a good breeze off the ocean before you head out to the Queen K Highway. It really helps keep the core temperature down.  I hit the 10 mile mark feeling pretty good. I was determined to run out of town better than I did in 2009. This happens just after the 10 mile mark. I took me over 11 minutes for that particular mile last year. Not only did I run it that slow, I was beat down and it took a couple of miles to get back into a good rhythm. Not this year. I ran up the hills well focusing on my cadence. While climbing Palani was tough, I managed to run that same tough mile in 8:24 this time. It was way slower than any mile I had run so far, but a lot faster than 2009 and I still felt pretty good. This was very encouraging. I continued to keep checking my internal systems to make sure I wasn't losing cadence and keeping fueled. I would count my cadence at least once per mile for a minute and I was holding the same turnover. The conditions were pretty good. While still hot, there was this cloud cover that would come and go throughout the run. I tend to do well in the heat so when we'd have longer stretches of direct sun, I'd end up passing a lot of people. When the clouds would come out, I'd just kind of hold my position. I started to feel the effects of the day around the 13 mile mark. Nothing drastic. Just some fatigue in my hamstrings. It was a reminder that this was not easy! My cadence was still the same but the push off wasn't quite as strong. I had no issues for the remaining miles into the Natural Energy Lab. It was pretty hot down there and I passed a lot of people even though I was slowing down. After the climb out of there, I was feeling good but ready to be done. The legs were achy and wanting to stop but I never did. I'm proud to say I never stopped the entire marathon...not even to walk an aid station. I was taking in all the volunteers energy and hopefully giving back some of my own with high fives and hang loose signs. They were fantastic the entire day. I hit mile 24 and all of a sudden, things weren't feeling so good. The left hamstring was really tight. This went on for the next 15 minutes or so but eased up to the point where I was loose and running well. That was the only excitement of the entire run. Here are my run splits. Miles 1 and 2 are combined because I forgot to hit the lap button out of transition.
1.14:40          8.   7:13         15.  7:50       22.  7:59         
2.                   9.   7:22         16.  6:35       23.  7:53

3. 7:11          10.  7:28         17.  7:43       24.  8:39

4. 6:59          11.  8:24         18.  7:32       25.  8:38

5. 7:00          12.  6:51         19.  7:48       26.  6:59

6. 7:11          13.  7:20         20.  7:59       .2    1.22

7. 7:11          14.  7:39         21.  7:45

Signaling to my family watching me back home

I ended up running the marathon in 3:17:55 passing another 256 people in the process. This had me finish in 9:49:42, 13:44 faster than 2009! Overall, I had a good but not great day. I do consider my run to be great for my standards. This was a run PR in an Ironman by almost 8 minutes. I'm feeling pretty good about it.

               Wrap Up

I look at this race as real boring as far as things happening out of the ordinary during the race. There was no spot where I was in a real bad place that I had to pull myself from. That doesn't mean it wasn't very hard. It was and I had to dig deep at various parts of the race. That's expected and had been planned for so it was very normal in that sense. I enjoyed race day much more than last year. Having done it before, I knew a lot of what to expect. I was able to enjoy the crazy groups of spectators, the energetic volunteers, men hammering so a woman wouldn't pass them, and most importantly the amazing group of athletes that I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to race against. This is a race I would love to be able to do every year. I had to go without my family so I had an empty feeling the entire week as well as post race. They are such a big part of this journey and to not have them there took a lot away from it. For that reason, I am done racing Ironman as far as I can tell. Unless we come into a bunch of money to bring the entire family over, I'm going to go for some different things here in Colorado. It's been a great ride. I raced my first Ironman at Ironman Coeur d'Alene in 2005 in 11:52+. Since then, I've been able to take over 2 hours off that time at the World Championship. With the help of a great group of friends and an incredibly supportive family, I've been able to race in the pinnacle event of our sport in Hawaii twice. Hopefully I'll be back some day but if not, I have no regrets.

Busy Summer

It's been a busy summer for the Pikes Peak Triathlon Club. From Boulder Peak to the Boulder 70.3 and other road triathlons, the Xterra Mountain Championships, Indian Peaks and Xterra Lory, to a wide variety of road races, cycling events, mountain bike events and social gatherings, the club has been very busy! Unfortunatly posts and race reports from all the events have been slim.

There was a large contingent of PPTC members at the Xterra Lory on August 29 and there were plenty of appearences on the podium. Bruce Wacker and Carol Lyndell made the podium in the 60-65 age group, Nicole Rosa in the 50-54, Michael Orendorf in the 55-59, Kim Baugh in the 30-35 age group and Tracy Thelen winning the women's race overall. Tracy has her race report posted on her blog http://tracythelen.blogspot.com/2010/08/xterra-lory-race-report.html

Race Report from Kansas and Xterra

A whole group of PPTCer took the I-70 tour through Kansas for the Ironman Kansas 70.3. President Nicole D, Jessica B and Steve V (and a few others) all faced up to the rolling hills, wind and heat and humdity of Lawrence to finish the challenging 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run. Nicole wrote a race report about her travel and race - part 1 and part 2

Tracy Thelen made the trek out to Birmingham, AL and Oak Mountain State Park on June 13th to tackle the course, the conditions and the competition at the Xterra South East Championships. While the competion was stiff and the conditions brutal for racing, she handled the course well! Her race report is up on her blog.

open water swims

Hey Gang
I think there have been emails about this, but if not I saw that without limits productions is doing a series of open water swims in Denver. Web site is www.withoutlimits.com for more information.

Good luck to everyone racing Kansas 70.3 this next weekend.

Happy Memorial Day

Rich Kiser

Weekend of Triathlons!

This past weekend was a busy one with an XTERRA down in Waco, TX and the Summer Open Sprint in Longmont.
Results from Waco:
Pros:
Braden Rakita took 6th Men's Pro, but was actually first out of the water with the fastest overall swim!
Tracy Thelan was 8th Womens Pro (her race report)

Age Group:

Michael Orendorff got 2nd in 55-59

"The old man" Bruce Wacker 60-65 won his age group, apparently after losing a cleat on the bike early on.

Results link: http://jtltiming.com/results/x-wac.html#M

Congrats to everyone - I hear it was some stiff competition!!!  If you were there and we missed you, let us know!

Summer Open Sprint Tri Participants:

Jessica Bell

Craine Runton

Nicole Drummer (race report here)

Dennis Watts

Terri Walters (1st 44-49 age group)

Karen Fady (1st 65-69 age group)

Results link: http://www.myentryfee.com/results/RaceList.aspx 

Another round of applause!!!
(Did I miss anyone??)

Terri and Karen showing off their awards (the mugs and the shades!)

Jessica, Nicole, Terri and Karen.

New Orleans 70.3 Race Report - Alan Sage

PPTC Member Alan Sage raced New Orleans 70.3 last month...keep reading to learn about a great race in the Big Easy...

Ironman New Orleans 70.3 was both fun and challenging for me. It was my first race longer than an Olympic distance so I was anxious to see what this was all about. A couple days prior, I mentioned to my sister and brother in law that I thought I was pretty sure I could complete a full Ironman but I wasn’t sure about how fast I could do it. Let’s just say that I took that statement back about 3 minutes after crossing the finish line.
Deciding to drive to New Orleans was a decision I made because I like to have my own car during packet pick-up and race day morning. I also didn’t want to bother taking my bike apart and putting it back together. My journey started April 15th from the Springs and I arrived in New Orleans Friday night(16th). I enjoyed seeing family and friends leading up to race day. The finest part about racing in New Orleans is the food. I have never had any real nutrition issues prior to this race so I decided that I was going to enjoy my short time there and eat po-boys(shrimp, oyster, catfish) for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This leads us to race morning.

Pre race: Our swim wave (25-29M) was the last to start so there was no rush but I’ve always been the type to wake up early race morning and be one of the first at the transition area. Whole grain Cheerios and Vanilla Soy Milk is my race day breakfast of choice. I also made sure to take my vitamins and an XS energy drink. My bags were already packed so I took off pretty early. Everything was running smooth in the morning as far as getting body marked and getting transition area set up. I always bring a ton of liquids and extras just in case but in the end my transition area is very simple and easy to work with. Out of the 2500 or so bikes, mine was the closest to the run out. I was pretty excited about that……At that time. We had about a 2 hour wait so, being the extrovert that I am, I decided to make friends with fellow triathletes.

Swim: Well, well, well. I’ll start by saying that swimming once every 2 months is not a great game plan for a successful swim. It was a running start into the water so the start was more spread out than I was used to. My goal was to finish the swim in 35 minutes but I had to adjust 30 seconds into the start. There were some decent swells in the lake and there was an art swimming through them that I didn’t quite figure out. To make a long story short, I finally got into a groove. Although sunny on the way back to the transition area, I managed to stay comfortable and save some for the bike. I finished the swim in 48 minutes, which was obviously way off my goal.

Bike: I have never been one to take forever in transition so I was on the bike and ready for 56 miles in about 2 minutes. The bike portion is normally my weakest part, although the swim and bike were my weakest this particular day. I felt great the first 30 miles then fatigue started to set in. I learned that it is ok to pee on the bike, but not until after the race. I stopped 3 times to use the bathroom and was part of the reason it took me 3:19 on the bike. Oh well, lesson learned. I normally drink a sugarless sports drink which lasted me a good portion, but had to revert to orange flavored powerade, which started to give me some stomach issues. In any way, I finished the bike with an easy last mile of spinning and stretching to prepare for the run.

T2 was interesting in that I always take my feet out and pedal on top of my shoes right before dismounting and didn’t realize that there were a plethora of “stickies” that were going to stay on my socks. I took about 30 seconds trying to get them all off of my socks but in the end, I believe it would have taken me 5 minutes to get them all off. I put my shoes on and took off. (T2 was about 90 seconds). I only felt the “stickies” for about ½ mile.

Run: Feeling good is an understatement when describing how I felt on the run. I felt wonderful but also thought about how this was my first ½ Ironman and didn’t want to push it too early. Weather was a little toasty compared to Colorado (85 and humid) but had no leg cramps or stomach issues through the first 11.5 miles. I was feeling really great and heard a second line band with 1.5 miles to go so I decided to put the legs into another gear. For those that don’t know what a second line band is……..Imagine a brass band (trumpet, trombone, sax, snare drum, tuba, etc. ) marching down the street with about 100 others marching/partying behind them (One of the things I love about my hometown). That was enough to pull me through the end of W Esplanade Ave. I started to feel a small cramp come on in both of my legs so I started to run a little funny but who cares. I was thinking about beignets and crawfish after the race. I turned the corner to head towards Café du Monde and Jackson Square only to find a huge crowd and many high fives waiting. I finished the run in 2:01 and that put me at 6:13 for total time. It was a great experience and look forward to racing many more 70.3’s.

Colorado Marathon Race Report - Don Byers

Several PPTC members ran the Colorado Marathon & Half Marathon last weekend. Here's Don Byers' account of the full! Congrats to Don and eveyone out there!

2010 Colorado Marathon
Sunday, May 9, 2010 – Fort Collins, CO

Short version
3:32:59 – 8:07 pace, 7/47 AG, 136/975 OA – BQ!

Long version

I had done this race twice before. My last race here was my marathon PR – 3:26:20 - and my first time qualifying for Boston. After my unsatisfactory race in Boston last year I wanted to qualify again and maybe go back to Boston to see what I'm capable of when fully healthy.

I started training for this race way back in September. My focus was to build up substantial volume and hold it for several months, then work on speed and long runs in the month or so preceding the race. During the eight months leading up to the race I ran over 2300 miles, with a peak week of slightly over 100 miles. As is my norm, I also raced frequently and set several new PRs along the way. In other races I set new personal course bests in almost every race. Despite the generally lousy weather I managed to have decent long runs with closing miles at or near race pace. My speedwork went well. Based on all this, I was fully expecting to set a new PR. I was thinking somewhere between 3:15-3:20.

On Saturday, I met Buzz Borries, Dan Boucher, and Dawn Barker for supper. They were all running the half marathon. They all ended up having decent races and Dan set a new PR, while Dawn finished her first half marathon nicely.

Race morning seemed OK. The weather was just about perfect, around 40 at the start and warming to the mid 50s as the race progressed, sunny and almost no wind. However, the bus got to the starting area a bit later than I was wanting, and by the time I got through the potty line and completed some basic routine prerace items I didn't have much time to get in a decent warmup. I did what I could and got in the line for the start. I figured I would ease into the first mile to loosen up, then pick up the pace to what I felt would be sustainable based on my previous recent longer races. This worked well as the first mile was 7:45, then I dropped to the 7:20 range. I was cruising along and not really feeling like I was running hard. I went through 6 miles at just about 45 minutes, a 7:30 pace, right on target and feeling good. At 8 miles I was just over an hour, still on target and feeling good. Shortly after that I could feel my calves starting to tighten up. It seemed very early for that and I had run a 10 mile race a couple months ago at a much faster pace with no issues at all. I felt like I was keeping the same effort, but in the next few miles people started passing me and I knew I was slowing down. Somewhere in those miles I knew this wasn't going to be the race I wanted and I backed off some thinking I could still salvage a PR. I went through the half at 1:40:34, about a minute and a half slower than my last race here. I thought maybe by backing off I could run the second half better than the last race and get that PR. But it just wasn't happening. As I could see the possibility of a PR slipping away, the goal now turned to maybe breaking 3:30. That still seemed possible even as I went through 20 miles. Then I seemed to slow a bit more and the focus was to just get the BQ. I had to really force myself to keep going because by then my legs were getting really tight. I shortened up my stride and increased the cadence to allow myself to keep moving forward at a decent pace. I recall passing the 25 mile mark in the last race with over 18 minutes to finish thinking I could walk it in if I had to. This time when I passed 25 I only had 13 minutes and I knew I had to keep up the effort in that final 1.2 miles. Mile 26 was my slowest mile of the race as the course was getting crowded with people from the half marathon and marathoners trying to finish in good form. When I finally made the last turn and could see the finish line I was able to muster up a final bit of energy and run the last .2 at a slightly stronger pace. I crossed the line in 3:32:59. Only 3 minutes under the BQ time, but nonetheless I had made it.

I met up with Buzz, Dan, and Dawn after the race and we went to the beer garden.

I'm not overly disappointed. It wasn't like the race was a complete failure. I'm just chalking it up to being an incidence of everything just not coming together on race day. I did make the real goal of qualifying for Boston again. Now I have several months to decide if I'm actually going to Boston again. The race itself is an amazing experience, but the associated costs of travel and accommodations are quite an expense.

After I recover I've got a bunch of other races to train for this summer including my first attempt at the Pikes Peak Ascent.