Ironman Canada, the longest report ever
Opps forgot to put my stats in the last blog,
Swim time 1:26:37, 2:17 100m pace, 99/107 age group, 2094/2600 overall
transision 1 time 4:14
So, over to the bike mount area. I click in my right pedal, and crank myself into place and onto the bike course in one fluid motion. Someone next to me did a hop on their bike while running and crashed, all the while the crowd was cheering madly and even gasped when the guy did a mini crash. At this point, I’m feeling really good. I beat my goal of 1:30 on the bike swim, with a fast T1 transition. I also feel good because I am a bit of a weak swimmer, the fact that the transition area was so busy is a motivation boost to me, I’m usually one of the slower swimmers, and usually when I grab my bike, most of the bikes are gone, but not the case today, tons of people still in transiton, a lot of bikes still awaiting their owners!
The first 6 miles of the bike are amazing. My father, happened to be a volenteer, was at about the 2 or 3rd mile. and his duty was to keep spectators off the course! Absoloutely impossible, the first 6 miles were totally tour de france style, with crowds on both sides cheering, and people kinda half in the road, and getting out of the way just before you passed by. Like each person wants to get closer in the road so they could see you coming! Awesome, so much energy radiating. My legs and body feel fresh still, awesome, right on schedule. They race course boasted, and I verified while driving, a hill at about mile 20, but I didn’t really notice the hill, I do remember passing a few people while climbing, but I was still focused on trying to regulate my heart rate and energy output. I remember passing a lot of people with uber nice tri bikes, (I ride a Specialized tarmac road bike, clip on aero bars) Someone had crashed at the sharp left turn right before the hill, they were hoping on their bike, but I did notice the blood on his shoulder as I passed. The first like 50 miles I averages a way fast pace. A slight tailwind, and mostly rolling down hill the first half of this race. So fast, I think at this point I had averaged (someone next to me said 32 km/h avg) I had forgotten my gps watch in Texas, so the whole day was riding and running without. Then a sharp right turn, and time to climb. First, up Richter Pass, a 2k foot climb, but once your half way up, there is rolling downs and ups. But it’s ok, I’m a climber, and I felt great, I peaked my heartrate a few times on this climb, but I must’ve passed more than 100 people. I remember wondering why they had chosen such a low gear. Grab a high gear, and keep the rpms cranking, and when I peaked, I felt like Lance Armstrong, dancing on my pedals, I really boost my conficience when I get out of my saddle and crank it out. Soooo much fun. Over the top of Richter Pass again it was crowds, watching us climb, watching me pass people the whole way up and cheering, cheering. yay, The next 30 or 40 miles were difficult, into the headwind, and the wind had picked up a bit, I rode next to a girl who told me a joke about the next 40 miles. Something funny but I can’t remember it and I didn’t hear the complete joke anyways, It referred to the next 40 miles as including the 7 bitches. referring to the 7 mini climbs in between the 2 large climbs, and the headwind seemed to complicate the climbs, it was difficult to maintain momentum into the next climb, while I still had better climbing capacity than those around me, and grabbed a better gear, the wind seemed to damper my downhill and into the uphill momentum.
ohh, should mention diet, by this time at mile 50-60 I had consumed a full bagel, 3x Gu gel packs, a bottle and a half of 3x concentrate Accelerade, and lots of water. I also ate of lot of Ritz crackers by this time as it helps me digest a lot of water.
So, somewhere around mile 70 was the special needs drop off, I had another bagel and ritz crackers in my bag and decided to grab just the ritz crackers. Then onto the climb up to yellow lake. What a beautiful ride, hard to notice when your racing, but still very noticable. This climb was difficult, at about mile 85 the climb steepened, my mojo was dimishing, my legs felt heavy, and my bowels seemed to churn, I didn’t notice passing many on this climb, but I did still enjoy the crowd. Once again like the Tour de France style, crowds on both sides, and traffic blocked and stopped. (One lane closure much of the course, so people just parked their cars while waiting, and got out and cheered!) Also remember noticing several people in the penalty tent. There was 4 penalty tents, and apparently, with the head wind, some had been penalized for drafting into the headwind. The whole course had tons of race support, motorcycle officials passing nearly every 10 minutes in charge of rules and safety. Ambulences frequently, many of them picking up cyclists, or using a shovel to clean the bike remains from a crash, hehe, and also who can forget the bike tech support vehicles, (bicycle repairs) I remember enjoying passing so many with flat tires, or broken bicycle parts, so many of whom had bikes whose value is 3 times my own.
Over the top of Yellow lake, and it was time to find a bathroom. the aid station at the top had about 4 bathrooms, all full, hand off more water and bananna, and kept going, about 4 more miles and it was perfect. Not even sure why that port a pottee was there, it wasn’t an aid station, hummm, parked my bike next to it, and taking my crap took all of 10 seconds, sat down and whoooshhh, heheh, felt so much better already, before hoping on my bike, I loosened my shoes, pulled my socks up, stretched for about one minute. Feeling so much better. Onto my bike for the finale.
Then next and last 15 miles of the bike were a lot of downhill racing. Passed my dad once more coming down a stretch of road at about 40 mph, what a boost of motivation he provided.
The last 6 miles of the course again, riding into town, lined with people on both sides, cheering, amazing. At the bike dropoff I hand off my bike to a volenteer and head over to grab my running shoes. My bike dismount was perfect, unclip right, unclip left, right leg over, and jump down while still goind 5-10 mph and run my bike across the bike dismount line. yay
Bike time was 6:17:22, avg speed 17.8, 75/107 age group, 1258/2600 overall.
I notice a once again one or two people in the penalty tent.
I head into the changing tent, I’m ready for a change, literally. shorts off, running shorts on, shirt off, running shirt on, decided with a different jersey than I told my dad about, glad I decided not to go with cotton, Running shoes on as fast as can be, and an extra amount of vaseline on the good ol nipples.
5:00 minute T2 time
Out of transition and onto the run course. see next blog as applicable
