After COVID shutdown racing in the March of 2020, I was still holding onto some hope that the racing will return by the end of year. It sort of did, but I ended up not racing any physical races for the rest of the year. I signed up for a marathon in Arkansas in mid Spring and got into a good running shape, but unfortunately ended up getting injured with 3 weeks to go. Had to cancel the plans to travel to Arkansas, and started getting back into the pool and into the saddle. Eventually, races returned and I did my first Olympic race in Lake Perris in April. It was a pretty pathetic showing since my swim skills definitely needed re-sharpening, and the bike power was largely gone. After that, I started a more focused training program with the goal to race the Malibu Olympic Tri and eventually Arizona 70.3 that I had rolled over into after Santa Rosa 70.3 got cancelled twice.
I rebuilt my trusty NP3 with some new components, got a shorter set of cranks, and started getting more time in the saddle over the summer. I definitely got into a decent shape and even came in 6th in my age group in Malibu, and I felt that I largely could have placed better had I had some slightly better luck on the bike course. The training was going well, especially in the pool where I was swimming the best splits of my life. With 3 weeks to go to Arizona, I focused on recovery and a few longer rides/runs. I also committed a cardinal sin - I decided to switch to the new source of nutrition for the bike using Maurten after it tested great during the last long ride and run. I also installed a new Profile Design Aeria HSF bottle, which required a new stem which required a slight change to position and some recabling... so basically the rule about nothing new on the race day was largely violated. But I thought that this would be my opportunity to go sub 5 for the first time, albeit on an easier course.
Wife and I drove to Phoenix on 10/15, got there by 4pm and I went to get my registration packet picked up. It was pretty warm even for the afternoon. The Ironman village was pretty empty, and I got through the pickup process in no time. Afterwards I stopped by the 5 o'clock athlete briefing and did not get anything super informative out of it outside of the fact that the swim was going to be going in the opposite direction of the last time I swam IMAZ. OK, so pretty much all into the sun. Armed with this bit of knowledge I headed back. We had pizza and beers for dinner, watched some Netflix and I headed to bed early-ish.
The next morning morning I tagged my gear with the provided stickers. Lucky number 84! Here it is, all good to go, even the wife's flip flops:
Wife headed for a drive to Tuscon to check out the local attractions (Biosphere, etc) and I headed to the Rio Salado park at 11 to drop off my bike. The fancy AWA transition section was a tad empty, and I left the bike there after deflating the tires to prevent them from blowing up in the hot sun.
It was pretty damn warm again, and so instead of the planned run back to the rental (about 1.5 miles away) I simply walked. The forecast for the race day was predicting temperatures about 3 degrees cooler, and with some overcast periods, and I was really hoping it would come true. The good news was that the water in the lake was relatively cool, and the swim would not be a bathtub like. I settled on the decision to go with the sleeveless wetsuit, and with that thought I focused on resting and relaxing for the remainder of the day. Can't recall what I had for dinner, and ended up heading to bed at 9pm hoping to fall asleep quickly. Ended up tossing and turning and eventually falling asleep by 11pm.
Got up at 3:45am, had a breakfast of 2 Eggo blueberry waffles with peanut butter and 2 bananas, had 2 cups of coffee and my awesome wife drove me to the race site. Got there and started with getting the tires pumped. Unfortunately the first pump I was able to borrow had a funky presta end and I could not get it to grip the valve even after several tries. Lined up to use one of the free pumps and somehow ended up using one with a weird gauge. Tried another pump and it seemed to be ok. I pumped both tires to 80 psi and started setting up nutrition and the rest of the transition items.
Lined up to potty at around 5:55am and after hitting it, headed out to the swim start. The line was already formed but it was easy to slip into my self seeded corral of 35-39min. The lake looked pretty clean that morning - the only gross thing that I could see was the dead duck about 25 yards from the swim platform. Life can be hard in Arizona, and I am sure that the creatures lurking in the depths of the Tempe town lake can appreciate a protein snack in the morning. With that, the race got going and at around 6:39am I headed into the water and my day has really started.
The swim
It was pretty uneventful. I felt great, swam fairly easy, sighting was good, and the water temperature felt perfect. Since I breathe to the right most of the time in races, it was a little bit harder to keep it in the straight line, but there were plenty of feet near me to keep me directionally correct. I think that this might have been the first time since Oceanside 2018 that I can actually enjoyed a 70.3 swim. Came out of the water with the time of 37:57, 29th in the age group.
The run to T1 was a little long and slippery but I was able to get the wetsuit off, although I had to stop for a 10 seconds to zip up the Roka one piece - as the zipper popped open in the water.
The bike
The course is shall we say an urban adventure? 3 loops, each loop is roughly circling the Tempe Lake, 5 u-turns per loop, you get to climb the Curry hill 2x per loop. It looks like a weird multilegged blob from outer space.
The ride started well, I was maintaining steady power and despite being slowed down by the ridiculous u-turns the first lap flew by quickly. I was getting pretty warm however, and grabbed a water bottle at the first aid station to dump on my head and the upper body. What I was getting concerned with is that every time I'd apply some power out of the turn, I'd get some squeaking coming from the bike - and it seemed like it was coming from the front wheel. I really did not want to get off the bike and since on the flats it seemed to be fine I pushed on.
On the second loop the sound became more pronounced and going up Curry it got LOUD. It really started to appear like a spoke was busted but I talked myself out of stopping to check it out. It was getting hotter and hotter and I had to get water from both aid stations on that loop. Also with everyone out of the water, it got very busy on the course. There were also lots of beginner athletes with unsteady bike handling skills, so I had to dodge them periodically, as well as the cracks and potholes (Rio Salado was especially bad).
The 3rd loop was even more crowded, the sound coming from the bike was just as loud, some u-turns were very tricky to negotiate with 4-5 cyclists trying to make them at the same time. I started soft pedaling coming out of turns and up Curry Hill being torn about stopping to check this out and knowing that I am maybe 4-5 miles away from finishing.
So I sort of limped to the end of the lap, got my feet out of the shoes before the dismount line and ran into the T2. Bike time was 02:45:49. The second transition was quick - I reapplied the sunscreen, changed into Vapoflys and socks, grabbed my hat, sunglasses and my belt and headed for the run start.
The run
The course was 2 loops, largely running east-west along the lake. I popped a Maurten gel right away and washed it down with water and picked up the pace a bit. After the first couple of miles, I really started to feel the heat as the sun was more less directly on top of me all the time. At that point it dawned on me that a sub 5 time was out of reach unless it cools down about 5 degrees. I decided to run tempo for a while, hydrate as much as possible, chug some Cola and see how I feel after the 4-5 miles. I still felt like crap after crossing the bridge on Rural road, but after making my way to Priest Dr and getting on the bridge back to the south side of the lake, I suddenly found my wings.
I picked the pace and the 2nd loop flew by quickly. I was passing people all the time and honestly everyone looked cooked and completely beaten up by the heat. I pushed the pace from mile 12 onwards, and finished strong. The run time was 01:32:51 - fastest in the age group. Overall, this put me into the 10th spot in the age group. A good viz of the results here.
And done done - with 2 water bottles and a smile!
After the race
My wife met me at the exit from the finish line. I was pretty conked and wanted to head out as soon as possible. Unfortunately the transition was not fully open yet and it took me about 30 mins to get through the line to get a volunteer to accompany me in. I packed my stuff quickly and headed out. That's when I discovered that my rear tire was inflated to the point that it would not spin at all. The overinflation before the race must have been extreme - it was likely that I accidentally pumped it to 100 psi or more, and then, as the day heated up, the latex tube expanded and added another few psi. C'est la vie, bring your own pump next time dummy!
We headed to the parking lot, dumped my gear in the back of the car and then walked to Mill Ave for some sustenance and beverages. Ended up at Illegal Pete's since it had a nice patio and was not busy, and who can say no to Mexican food and fruity beers after a hot race?
All in all, I think that the race went well. I did not like the bike course - it is boring, crowded and the u-turns are not my thing. I love racing in Tempe though and will be back there in January for the Rock'n'Roll marathon. The Maurten experiment was largely a success - it is a solid (yet highly liquid) choice for the bike, though I need to figure out why it was making me pee up a storm. Could have been a combination of caffeine and maybe something else. I will test it more. And now, onto building for the next marathon!
So who knew that this was going to be the very last major marathon held in the US in 2020? Not a soul. We were all completely blind to what was right around the corner.
Preparation
I had my first half of 2020 booked pretty solid. The plan was to kick it off with the Surf City half, do the LA marathon shooting for BQ-10, and then onto Oceanside and Santa Rosa 70.3s. Then recover and build for IMLou in fall. That would have been quite a ride! But the Universe laughed at my puny plans, and the things started to go haywire right from the start.
I kicked off the training on 12/23/2019 about a month off after completing IMAZ. I felt pretty decent but out of shape for sure. However, I almost immediately started having an Achilles issue in the right ankle - it was tight and achy and was not happy 3-4 miles into the run. I tried everything - a brace, different shoes, you name it... It got to the point where I could barely finish out NY day hike. I started stretching aggressively and was doing 4-5 sets of calf raises per day. I ended up taking a full week off in mid January just to calm it down a bit, and started swimming and riding more just to keep the aerobic fitness up. In February I was able to do 5 days a week of running, with some long runs, but no workouts. I think that I might have done a tempo run or 2 but that's about it. I cancelled Surf City obviously, but was still woefully under-prepared. The weekly average for the build was 32 mpw. This was not good at all.
On top of everything else I went for a recon run the Sunday before the marathon and in the process caught some usual March time upper chest congestion that lingered all week. With COVID just starting to become a real thing, it was not a very good omen of the things to come. I worked from home most of that week, hydrated and tapered (and took a ton of vitamin supplements) and towards the end of the week I started to feel better. But I had no idea what to expect from the race day.
Went to the LA Convention center on Friday with my friend Sam who flew in from NY to run the LA marathon as well. The rumors were swirling the entire week that the race might get cancelled, and we really had no idea what to expect. The feeling was definitely subdued with the hand sanitizer stations suddenly appearing everywhere. Perhaps it was just my overactive imagination but getting across Figueroa felt like we were crossing a street in Sarajevo during the 90s. We were in and out as soon as we could which was a huge bummer because I usually try to use the conventions to get deeply discounted stuff. 😀
My friend Ankur flew in on Friday and we did our shake out run in GP and I actually felt race ready. Right there after the run while eating a mediocre reheated bagel with equally mediocre cream cheese and yet some great coffee I decided to give it a go and see if Vaporflys would bail me out. On Saturday night Ankur was staying at my place and being a scholarly gentleman runner he showed up with a bottle of delicious Beringer Pink Zin! We had a nice prerace dinner where Ankur ate some not super carb rich vegetarian food, definitely not marathoner mainstream approved, chatted, played with the dogs, and then went to bed at 10pm.
Race day
We were up at 4am. I had my usual peanut butter and bananas sandwich, and my awesome wife Kristina drove us to the Dodgers stadium. It was foggy (or muggy depending on your opinion of the LA air) and a bit cool, but the weather forecast for the day looked fantastic, not hot temps wise. We found Sam near the gear dropoff and she took some badly lit pics of Ankur and I... Ankur was looking fierce!
We warmed up and I went into my assigned corral A where I saw my friend Jeremiah. The atmosphere was a bit subdued due to the COVID uncertainty just setting in, but we were all pumped for the race and hey - my Achilles was quiet as a mouse. The real question was - will the wheels fall off in Santa Monica or in Beverly Hills due to me being undertrained as hell? If the former, I felt that I could limp to the finish line... if the latter - this was going to be a walk to the pier. And on that cheerful thought we were out of the gate at 6:56am!
I started off pacing myself easy. The section through Chinatown and Little Tokyo is a net downhill and I let gravity carry me. That was fine, though I gave up a good minute right there. The section by the Grand Park is where it really gets going and I felt quite good all the way to the Disney Hall.
I cruised through the next few miles not pushing it too hard and eventually made to Echo Park in high spirits.
Then came the section through my old bike commute route that I knew all too well. The rollers on Sunset blvd were sharp as always and my quads started to talk to me, albeit very quietly. I was still holding a very good pace (about 7:10 min/mile average) and was starting to worry that I am going to overcook it. But soon we passed by my office building and then the Chinese theater and I was still pretty gungo ho about my chances, smiling even!
I think that around that mark I saw the first pro who blew up and was just walking in zigzags. I was hoping to see my co-worker Estela and her husband there but somehow missed her - such a bummer. And just like that we were back on Sunset and ran through my favorite section of Sunset Strip, and then came the big drop on San Vincente that I had truly feared. It is a super steep downhill and both times before it thrashed my legs. This time was no exception!
Since I was still ahead of the 3:15 group, I figured that I can duck into a portapotty and pee and take a 30 second break. Did that at about the 15.5 mile mark, came out and took my first GU and then started talking myself into powering through the Beverly Hills section.
It was on Burton way were my body definitely started to hurt. We ran into a bit of the wind and it was a slow grind uphill, in preparation for the rollers on Santa Monica and then the Sepulveda section. I made it to Rodeo drive, still had some spunk in me, though started to slow down a bit.
And then we turned on Wilshire and I got caught by the 3:15 group, which was a long time coming. But I hung onto that train, and had them pull me all the way to the turn on Sepulveda. By then I knew that the wheels were getting ready to come off, but I actually had a nice run up Sepulveda. I grabbed a shot of beer from someone once we turned right on Federal way, and even took a sip of Nuun for the 1st time during the run soon after (nasty!). It was encouraging that I was maybe 15-20 seconds behind the group all the way til Bundy Dr... and then the wheels finally came off. Suddenly I was stiff as a board and for every step taken the price was sharp pain. But I knew that I only had to make it past the Country Club and then I could just let roll downhill all the way to the finish line. Which is exactly what I did with the crowds just making me a bit more oblivious to the discomfort. Just a few more miles and we were on Ocean Ave!
I guess that I felt that throwing up some horns was a good idea.
Well, just a few more iterations and I have crossed the finish line for the finish of time 3:15:31, or BQ-4.5. The Garmin file here.
I guess that I was pretty elated to get there in one piece with no walking. And sure was thankful to the 3:15 group for pulling me through the toughest section of the course! In retrospect, I should have powered through the downhill section on San Vincente and recaptured about 60 seconds... but the hindsight is 20/20.
After getting my morning clothes from the gear check, I reconnected with Ankur who very quizzically asked me to guess his finish time. Being a nice person I said - 3:05 only to be excitedly corrected by my friend who had run a blazing 2:55:14! Holy shit, what a monumental achievement! We walked back to my dad's place to get a ride back to Burbank, well more like limped back... it was a very happy moment indeed with both of us exceeding our expectations. Also happy to report that Jeremiah and Sam also PR'ed and generally kicked ass - and I am so sorry for not joining Jeremiah and his wife for lunch after the race! Had I known that we would not see each other then for 5 more months.... humans and our puny plans.
And just like that it was over. The lockdown started soon after, although Sam and I hung out til Thursday when I drove her to her red-eye from Burbank. She did give me a very important reward before parting ways:
Seems like it was many lives ago, but yet it was right on my birthday! Well, either way it was an awesome time. Hopefully it will get me and Ankur into Boston 202x!
It's funny how things change over time. For a while, I could not really bring myself to sit down and write a recap of what I see as my worst IM race so far. But now that we are in the midst of a cancelled season, and after having spent a ton of time reading numerous threads on the web about various races cancelled/postponed/not coming back at all, I have realized that there is a non-trivial chance of this being my last IM race for a long time... and so, it is time to write it down, because some key lessons were learned on 11/24/2019, and in retrospect there were some bright spots in my IM number 6. Alright, here it goes.
In terms of the gear, I was worried about the desert heat in the middle of the day, so brought with me my old Rudy Airwing helmet and my LG M2 one piece suit. The wind situation was pretty uncertain, so I opted for the trusty Zipp 404 FC set that handled well in any conditions. I definitely remembered the lesson from Boulder and brought my Hoka Cliftons v1 reissue edition shoes. The lower legs felt a little tired from a big hike the weekend before, so I brought some calf sleeves just in case... for placebo effect mainly.
Here's the bike setup for the race.
In theory I was about 25% fitter in mid-November based on the Elevate app as compared to my pre-Boulder fitness level. By the end of November I had logged about 1800 miles more vs the previous year. I had my bike dialed in real good. I was swimming well and often. It looked good, and I was heading into the race thinking of going sub 10 hours. With that mindset I drove to Phoenix and got there late on Thursday night. The whole place was drenched from the rains in the last 2 days - so much for the desert!
Day 1
Woke up on Friday and had to switch rooms the first thing in the morning. I ended up with a room right next to the elevator after the check in since I got there so late and at night the noise drove me nuts. The hotel clerk was super accommodating and I ended up with a massive room upgrade too! That was a good start. I ate breakfast after moving, went food shopping, got the necessities (PB, gatorade, bagels, turkey, Budweiser 😀) and met up with my buddy Brad at 11am at the IM village. We got checked in, went down to Tempe lake, made sure it is still there - and it was pretty gnarly looking water quality wise as always, with debris and dead fishes.
After enjoying the view, we made plans to grab dinner later on. I went back to the hotel, assembled the bags, checked the bike... realized that I was probably short a tube, a GU or 2 and possibly a CO2 cartridge. Made plans to stop by a bike shop nearby before dinner to get the missing items.
Took a nap and then headed downstairs for some hot tubbing. Almost drowned my cell phone, had a bit of a scare with the water getting into the charging port (hair dryer to the rescue), and then drove to the bike shop. After buying the stuff I was looking for and receiving a sage advice to get some Gatorskins to avoid thorns inflicted flats on the Beeline highway, I met Brad for some beer and Mexican food near ASU. We talked about the weather, whether it makes sense to pre-swim tomorrow, old work anecdotes... He had to leave early to pick up his wife from the airport, and I drove home, and was in bed by 10.
Day 2
Got up at around 6:30 am and did a quick pre-ride/pre-run near the hotel. It was pretty chilly and I did not do anything too strenuous. The area was not super bike friendly or perhaps not friendly period
and so I was back in the lobby for breakfast by 8.
I had my drop off time at around noon, and I drove to Mill ave. Everything went well, except for somehow getting stuck behind a very slow moving train at the rail crossing for good 15 mins! After the drop off walked around the village again, but headed back by 1. Later at night met Brad (and his wife Mara) again and we tried to get into an Italian restaurant near their hotel, but it was packed. We ended up in a place that looked a bit like Chucky Cheese's but had decent sandwiches. Brad told me that he had swam in the morning and the water was cold. I joked that now he knows what to expect and is already infected with the TTL bacterium. And yep, more dead fish and odd colored things were in the water during the swim!
Well at least we will have a protein snack available if it comes to it. Was back at the hotel by 9:30, and in bed by 10.
Race day
Got up at 3:00am, ate 2 bagels with PB and bananas and a Starbucks espresso. The forecast looked perfect - mostly mid 60s to the low 70s, some overcast, no real wind. Was out of the door by 3:50 am, parked at the same lot as I did on Friday. The T1 was the usual chaos. Found my bike, attached the bottles, the batteries and the Garmin, pumped the tires to about 90 psi, checked on the gear bags... tried to meet up with Brad, but we kept missing each other. Went to the water at around 6:40 am. It was still dark, but the sun was poking through the clouds. Lined up with the 1:10 group and started making peace with the Universe once again.
Swim
I took it pretty easy early on but got into a good rhythm after 200 yards. However, by the time we got to the 1st bridge, I started to get cold. By the time we turned around I was very cold - as in starting to shiver. No idea why - the water did not seem that cold... but yeah I should have listened to Brad. The swim to the Tempe bridge was the worst. I wanted to quit several times, and caught myself looking longingly at the paramedics who would rescue me from this watery hell. I tried to go faster but the muscles were not having it. The last 800 yards were done on pure adrenaline. It almost felt like I was struggling for my life in some bullshit 2 mile swim, how pathetic. Never been happier to see the finish platform before. Total time 1:27:48, Garmin file here.
T1
We had to run from the exit point near the museum back to the park - about 600 yards. I was so cold that I was not thinking clearly.... and took off my weitsuit. That was a seriously dumb move. I got even colder by the time I got to the tent. Had to sit full 20 mins near the heater (which got crowded quite fast), sip some chicken soup and shiver in my space blanket. Eventually I got warm enough to put on my bike gear with removable sleeves and head out. Total time 28 mins.
Bike
The first few miles through Tempe were a struggle. Was still cold, shivering and not quite seeing straight. Tried eating a a Clif bar that I taped to the top tube, and after about 15 mins I started feeling a bit more normal. The first lap on Beeline was not bad, and the turnaround came up quite quick. I lost the sleeves, stopped for 20 seconds to stretch the back and flew down that hill. During that stretch for the first time in the morning I felt fine. A bit better than fine perhaps. The second lap came and went quick but I started to get that grinding sensation in the lower back and the slow ambient heat from the desert was starting to bake me ever so slowly. On the way back into town I got a new set of bottles from the special needs and a cold cola, chugged half of it and continued. The goal was to start preserving energy for the run since I knew that the 3rd loop will be a struggle - and always is.
But to the contrary it went pretty easy. I had to push some watts up to get to the turnaround, but coming back felt quite good save for some chafing in the nether regions. Unfortunately the spec needs already chucked my bag, so I could not get my lube... but the good people manning the station gave me some Vaseline and it helped. I pulled into town feeling kind of exhausted and having to dodge the pot holes on Rio Salado. Bike time 5:53:18, Garmin file here.
T2
It went quick. I left the shoes clipped in as always, grabbed my bag, threw on the HR strap, changed socks, put on shoes, calf sleeves, race belt, a hat and sun glasses and was out of the door. Total time 5 mins.
Run
I knew that the swim and the T1 fiasco killed any chance of it being a PR or anything close to it. I also knew that during the first 20 mins of the bike I burned a lot of matches... so the goal was to run a steady pace of about 8:20. I was planning to stick with the trusty diet of cola and water, and an occasional Clif shot or 2. It seemed doable pretty much until mile 11 or so where I started to feel (quite suddenly) that the bottom is about to fall out. In fact I was panicking that I could not even make it to the split to the 2nd lap. I got there though and the next 3 miles went ok, but once I crossed the lake I felt that I had to hit the portapotty which meant peeling the top off from my sweaty skin... and that's when the run/walk started. From that point everything was bugging me. The M2 suit was chafing, the glasses were hurting my nose (I ended up chucking them), the shoes felt wooden... The race was effectively over and I sort of limped along to the finish line, although I ran up that pesky Curry Road hill with some spark. It was a weird feeling - the stomach was perfectly fine, but the energy was just gone. I walked the 24th mile aid station and after that jogged to the finish line in darkness. Mike Reilley butchered my last name for the 2nd and the final time that year - here the finish chute video. Thanks Mike nonetheless.
Run time 3:59:03, Garmin file here. The total time was 11:49:24 good for the 80th place in M45-49.
Post race:
Well I was exhausted. Ate some food at the finish line with some equally beat up triathletes. Tried looking for Mara or Brad, did not see anyone. Went back to the park, collected my stuff, reconnected with the world and limped back to the car. Got to the hotel at around 7:15pm, ate a little bit more food and had a beer finally. Mara texted me as I was eating, and confirmed what I saw on the live tracker - Brad was walking. I grabbed some Gatorade and water and headed back to the park. Eventually found Brad and Mara, and they were walking roughly through mile 15. Brad was looking wrecked, and definitely could not hold down any nutrition. We walked together for about 30-35 mins, tried to talk Brad into finishing since he had time... then I crossed to other side of the lake from the museum site to meet them there since my feet were starting to kill me.. That's when Mara texted me that Brad gave up after feeling dizzy from dehydration and got carted back. Shit. I walked back to the park, checked the med tent, he was not there... his bike was still in transition... kind of went back and forth and then Mara told me that he was ok. Knowing that his mood was probably not great I headed back to the hotel now completely exhausted. The day ended up like this.
The day after I got a hold of Brad, exchanged some texts, he was alright just tired and obviously upset about the DNF. I was not happy either, but it was what it was. I started planning ahead to 2020 (lol, goes to show what we know), stopped by the Cosanti store in Paradise Valley and got my wife a bell she wanted to hang by the front door. Drove back, listened to the podcast... and that was the end of the 2019 season. Though I had lots of Trislide left!
I have been building for the race since mid-January. Averaged 10.5 hours per week which is pretty light. However, this includes 2 short vacations when I could not train all that much, some taper and a 7 day break after St George 70.3, and about 5 days of downtime in late May when I came down with a chest cold . All in all,I felt that it was a decent prep cycle, although the timing of the illness around the Labor day before the race threw a wrench at my plans to have a graduated taper. Cannot control stuff like that, but unfortunately it had some effect on the race. The long and short of it, I had to ease off in Boulder because of the nasal congestion that I could not completely shake off.
In terms of being race ready, I felt that my cycling fitness was probably the strongest ever. The swim fitness was pretty good too, but the run was somewhat weaker than usual - I just could not do more than 30 mpw, and that honestly worried me. But nonetheless the race week came and it was time to go to Boulder and test my limits one more time.
Day 1
I flew into Denver on Thursday of the race week. For the 1st couple of nights I was staying with my childhood buddy Leo who has been living in Colorado since the early 1990s and is always super hospitable. Picked my rental car and drove it to Aurora where Leo lives. Got there at around noon, settled in and went for a quick run. Although it was sort of overcast, I started to feel the sun a couple of miles into it. Was very glad that I had put on a lot of sunscreen! An important lesson learned in St George. The run went pretty well, I did not struggle with the rollers or the altitude, and overall it did not feel that much different from my easy runs in the Valley. The rest of the day was spent napping, checking the Sunday forecast (it was showing a significant cooldown from Saturday with a chance of rain), playing with my buddy's kid, their dog, having a nice dinner and... well I did have a couple of beers. Maybe 3.
Day 2
Got up fairly early, had my usual morning fare - a bagel with peanut butter, a banana and a cup of coffee type of breakfast, and then headed to Boulder to checkin and pick up my bike. The drive took a little bit over an hour. Got to Boulder at around 10am, parked and headed to the IM village. It was setup on a grassy lot next to the parking lot of the high school. The grass was a mess - it could have been cut by the city, and there was also some road construction going on literally right next door to the tents. The village was pretty empty since it was early-ish, so it took me no time to grab my registration packet, a few souvenirs from the store, and then go get the bike. I was pretty relieved that it had seemingly arrived with no damage - well, more on that later. Threw everything in the back of the car and drove back to Denver. On the way there, I got an email from the RD stating that this was going to be the last year of IM Boulder. It was a bummer for sure, but it also gave me a good reason to do my best on Sunday.
Once I got back, I reattached the race number, reinstalled the aero bottle cage, the pedals and the eTap batteries, pumped the tires and headed to a nearby bike path to pre-ride. The bike path ran through an awesome looking open space with lots of greenery, sizable creeks and so on - and it was also twisty as all hell, so staying on the aerobars was a challenge since I had to make sharp turns every few hundred yards. Turned around after about 10 miles and rode back - and suddenly the storm cloud appeared out of nowhere and right around the time I was about 2 miles from my car it started pouring. Had to ride a bit faster while avoiding wiping out on the sharper corners.
Got back to my buddy's house and did the final prep for the race - ie hand tightened every single bolt. As I was working on the front brake, I had noticed something odd - the fork was now turning all the way, while before there was a little stopper pin in the top tube that was restricting the fork to about 30 degrees of movement to the left/right. This was a bit of a surprise, but I did not think much about it.
Assembled the gear and the special needs bags in the afternoon. Was not 100% sure how the weather was going to turn out, so just in case threw in a rain vest and the arm sleeves into the bike gear bag, and an extra t-shirt and a trash bag with holes for the head and arms into the run special needs bag - in that neck of the woods you just never know if the temps going to drop or if it rains. Threw in some extra GUs and a Clif Bar into the bike special needs bag. Also taped 5 GUs to the top tube just in case I wanted some change of pace for my nutrition - one can only have some much Infinit on any given Sunday 😄
In the evening had another awesome dinner with my buddy and his family - they made shrimp fajitas with some salad. We had a bottle of wine between of us and stayed up fairly late just chatting, reminiscing about our childhoods and enjoying the weather. Went to bed at around 10:30pm. Slept well.
Day 3
Slept in as long as I could - still got up at around 8am. Had another bagel/banana and a Clif bar with a cup of coffee. Loaded my gear into the car, said bye for now to Leo and his family and headed to Boulder for the gear drop off and some pre-swimming in the reservoir.
Got there at around 10am and was able to park in the lot right next to the water. Dropped off the bike and the gear bags. Since the forecast was sort of iffy with regards to the rain in the morning of the race, I wrapped the aerobars in a trash bag, and put a plastic bag on the seat. I was very worried about the fork moving around too much.
Then I went for a quick swim. The water in the reservoir was very warm, easily in the upper 60s. Since I missed all of the previous days' supported swims, I could only swim in a small circle near the beach, but honestly it did not matter. Right away I knew that it was going to be a single cap swim in a very comfortable water temperature. I also really liked swimming with just an underlayer under the wetsuit as opposed wearing a full aerosuit - it really did not restrict the range of motion in the shoulders.
Once I dried up a bit, went back to the car and set out to drive one loop of the bike course. It took me a little bit of time to find the beginning of the loop but after that the map was easy to follow. The terrain consisted primarily of stretches of mostly flat roads with some rollers and a few sharp climbs with top kickers that looked quite steep. The back end of the loop had some more rollers but I did not see anything that looked like a concern.
Came back to Boulder around 3pm and headed to Dina's place. She's my cousin's cousin who moved to Boulder when her hubby got a job at CU over there. They invited me to stay over for a couple of nights and I gladly accepted their offer to couch surf 2 miles away from the Boulder High School. We had a nice dinner that night - all while it suddenly hailed outside!
The weather went from warm and sunny to overcast and cold... just like that. In any case, I was in bed by 9:30pm and fell asleep quickly.
Race Day
Woke up at 3am and had 1.5 cinnamon raisin bagels with peanut butter, 2 bananas and a Starbucks espresso double shot. The goal was to get about 750 calories in and I think that I came pretty close.
Headed out of the door at 4 am, drove to the corner of Pearl and 15th and parked in a structure (yay free Sunday parking!). It was VERY cold and wet outside - I was shivering although I had a warm underlayer on and a shirt/hoodie on top of it. Took quick walk to the Boulder high and dropped off my special needs bags on the way before lining up to get on the shuttles.
It was a quick ride to the reservoir, listened to Viktoria by Marduk on the way there - lots of adrenaline in that record! Got off the bus at around 4:50am - and yes, it was even colder there.
We had to walk up this little hill to get to the transition area, so that warmed me up a bit. The bike was in a good condition, a little wet but nothing critical. Took the bags off, attached the batteries and my Garmin, tested the wheels and found that the front wheel was rubbing for some reason. That was odd as this issue was just not there in the morning on Saturday. I had to open up the brake a little - that's one great thing about the TriRig Omegas, you can always fine adjust just one side... that took care of the rubbing issue, but I was still worried about the brake moving during the ride. Just in case, I laid out a trash bag under the front wheel to minimize the movement.
Ate another Clif Bar, put on my wetsuit (swam in a HUUB suit this time) and headed out of the transition area. Lined up for the 1:10 group and started to get mentally prepped for the race. We had Mike Reilley at the start line - he was doing his usual banter/cheering bit and I had realized that I had really missed it last year in Santa Rosa. He made the time go by very quickly, and I was somehow feeling at peace with the universe. Did not get in the water til 6:46am or so... and then it began.
The Swim
The first 100 yards felt great. And then something happened... I felt a weird discomfort in the upper body, and I suddenly had to stop. I was breathing way too hard. After a minute or 2 I started to feel ok. People were swimming around me, and I decided that I was ok to continue. Had to swim a bit slower than normal until I hit the first left turn. After that I got into the rhythm, which was still a little slower than my usual pace, but I was feeling relaxed and just making sure that I was doing a good job sighting and breathing. After the second turn the chop picked up a little bit and the going got a bit harder. The water was at least 15 degrees warmer than the air but was definitely cooling down minute by minute. The last 300 yards or so were a struggle as the arms started to get a bit sore, so I started kicking harder. Got out and the watch showed 1:31 as the swim time. Ouch. The Garmin file here.
T1
Was out of the wetsuit very quickly, did not have to stop and have it stripped - that's one thing I really like about HUUB (if it only was not such a pain in the ass to put on). The run on the grass to the bags was pretty short and the volunteers were very helpful and I was in the changing tent in no time. Here I really did mess up. The plan was to take off the underlayer, put on the HR strap, pull up top of the aerosuit, throw on my rain vest, and head out with the shoes on putting on the helmet as I was running to the bike. Sure enough I forgot to put on the HR monitor and only realized it when I had the vest on... I really did not want to risk not knowing the heart rate on the run, so I had to dress up twice. That sucked. The run to the mount line was basically to the top of the same hill again, this time in bike shoes. 10 minutes left there.
The Bike
The first 90 minutes or so were pretty much punctuated by this one uniform sensation - I was cold, shivering and everything. Having the vest on sure helped, but the arms and the hands were uncomfortably cold. I was very grateful that I had put on some warm-ish socks in T1 - at least the feet were not ready to fall off. Once we started hitting the first hill going up to the Hwy 36, I began to feel more normal and had a pretty good climb where I was able to push out of the saddle and generate good steady power. But then came a fast descent down Nelson Road and I got cold again, to the point that when I was riding up the 65th I had a hard time putting back the nutrition bottle in the cage behind the seat. It fell out and landed on the nipple that broke off and ended up inside the bottle - boom! Half of my 1st loop nutrition spilled out. I had to turn around and go salvage whatever was left in it. Stopped at the next aid station and transferred the remaining Infinit mix into an empty water bottle. Also grabbed a few GU Roctanes just in case. For some reason one of the was open which I did not notice - and the GU leaked out gluing my vest to my aerosuit in the back. Good times!
The rest of the went pretty much without a hitch, although I did have to stop about 10 miles later on Hygeine Rd when my chip band slipped down my leg and was hanging a bit too loose for my liking. I retightened it - as turned out too much, so that the ankle was sore for a few days after run, more on that later. I made it up Hygiene Rd which was probably the steepest bit of the course and that's when I finally stopped being nearly hypothermic. The backside of the course was great - the sun was out on the Hwy 66, we were passing neat little lakes - life was suddenly good! The rollers on the 75th Ave were fun and I hit pretty good speeds coming down. Most importantly I made up a ton of time.
The 2nd loop flew by pretty fast. I got my 2nd bottle of Infinit from the special needs station along with a cold can of Coke, spent about 45 second sipping it and was off fighting the wind on the Hwy 119.
For some reason the out and back on Monarch was very bumpy the 2nd time around and the turnaround was very tight - I actually had to unclip to make it. The climb up Neva was a lot of fun again and I really enjoyed it although it is a mere bump by the standards of Santa Monica mountains. Here's a picture of me cresting there.
By the time we got to Nelson/65th it was plenty warm, so I stopped there for a sec to take off my vest. Nothing remarkable to report on the rest of the ride, although I started feeling a tad fatigued going through the rollers on the 75th ave. By then it was almost over. I was a little bit surprised that the course ended up being short by about 2 miles - with 2 out and back segments repeated twice I'd have imagined that the organizers could have gotten it right, especially since this was the 2nd time they used this course. The finish time was 5:42. Garmin file here.
T2
This went pretty smoothly. I left the shoes on top of the pedals so that helped a bit. We had to run through a short stretch of uncovered rocky dirt which sucked, but other than that no complaints. I did change into my running clothes (shorts and a singlet) which took about a minute and I reapplied lots and lots of sunscreen, but I was out in 6:19.
The Run
The first 3 miles or so were on some country roads leading out of the reservoir area. There was one sharp hill in the 1st mile, and then it was a gradual climb until mile four. I wanted to try the idea of running faster but walking the transitions since I was very concerned with the possible dehydration from the recent cold. Have to say that worked pretty well for the initial 10 miles or so. I would grab some water in the beginning of the water station and then some Coke, walk briskly while drinking and then pour some more water on my head and shoulders at the end of the aid station. But after a while my brisk walk became a lot less brisk and I ended up moving slower and slower through the aid stations. The other thing was that the bike path we were was relentlessly rolling, and lastly it was super hard on the lower legs. After about 15 miles I was feeling super beat up. The Nike Vaporflys that I was running in provided a lot less cushioning than the Hoka Cliftons that I was so used to in racing. Eventually I started feeling the unusually crushing fatigue - probably the effects of elevation were becoming more and pronounced, on top of the nasal congestion that was still lingering. At around mile 19.5 when I finally came to the last turnaround I started playing this game in my head where I'd promise myself to walk some if I can run one more mile... and then I'd get to the mile marker and would postpone walking for one more mile, promising some walking in the future, rince and repeat.
The worst part was that we passed by the Boulder high school twice and the bags and the bikes were clearly visible from the path... but yet we had miles to go. Had a minor panicky moment when I could not find the mile 25 marker (it was for some reason misplaced and instead showed up at around mile 25.6). At that point I was negotiating with myself running in quarter mile stretches and the prospect of having to go an extra mile or so was just unthinkable, as sad as it sounds. But it turned out that the course was probably spot on distance wise - I ended up logging 26.4 miles which is pretty good for a twisty bike path with lots and lots of underpasses where GPS just does not work at all. Finally I got off the bike path, headed to the finish line, heard Mike Reilley call my name. It was all over. A 3:57 run, giving a 11:27 finish time for the 23rd spot in the M45-49. Garmin file here.
Full video:
After The Race
Have to say that I was spent - close to 100%. Like a zombie I lurched towards the food tent which was all of 500 yards away Started to feel very cold, so I threw on my finisher shirt on top of my singlet along with the space blanket I got at the finish line. Finally saw Dina and her husband and their daughter near the food tent... they started asking me about how I was feeling... I was out of it. Was not even sure where I was probably! Tried to eat some food from the tent and had to put it down - just could not digest any real food, save for some Chips Ahoy cookies. That whole plate in the picture - it was left on the bench in its entirety.
Since I was getting colder and colder, decided to go get my morning clothes and the bike. That was an even longer walk and there was a line to get to bags and bikes since you had to be personally accompanied by a volunteer. The kid who walked me was super sweet and patient, wish I had an appreciation wristband to give him. I changed right there on the grass, and decided to drop off my bike with the TriBike transport right away. That took a little while as they had trouble taking the pedals off and for some reason the front derailleur was stuck in the midshift position. Eventually the things got figured out and the bike was signed for and filed to be on the way to Burbank. After a bit more walking I made it to the car, threw my gear bag in the back and headed to Dina's house. Had a great dinner with them again which was sorely needed. I almost passed out from being low on sugar when I waited too long to eat! And then came a great black wave of sleep, with no dreams or sensations...
In Conclusion
I feel happy with the results. Sure, no PRs here, and the course was not all that hard, especially if you mad the right equipment choices. But I think that somehow I did not leave much on the table, and unlike in St George I raced to my fitness level. Kind of sad that I won't get to give this course another go any time soon, but I am quite content with how things went. And the pictures of the peaks of the Rockies that I took on the flight back are still quite stunning. Til we meet again!
Signed up for St George 70.3 as a way to test my fitness before IM Boulder in June. I have been training steadily since mid January. Spent a lot of time climbing on the bike on Zwift and in real life. By April I had felt pretty good about the bike and the run, and the swim training was actually showing some real progress too after a year spent working on a Vasa trainer. My easy time for 100 yards free was about 1:38, with a hard effort repeats time being around 1:26-1:27. I made some improvements to the bike, lightening it up a bit and getting a custom storage box that attaches to the area above the bottom bracket.
Arrived at St G on Thursday afternoon. Checked into the
hotel (Tru by Hilton, very convenient!), unloaded my gear and went to the town square square to pick my registration
packet.Got there right around the time when Andrew Messick was starting his announcement of the full IM returning to StG in
2020, with the 3 year rotation. I tried to listen to the speech but the
tent was too loud, and I really did not want to lose my space in line, so I just turned on their Facebook live feed and listened to it
instead. Much better J.
The pickup lines were pretty long and I ended up spending about 30 minutes
waiting for this and that.
Got back to the room, laid everything out on the spare bed
and assembled the gear, sorting it into 3 piles (morning/bike/run). Everything
was in place except for the chain lube, so I breathed the sign of relief. By that time, it was almost
6:30pm local time and it was time to get some food. I went out to the local
diner called Black Bear. Had a substantial dinner by my standards – with Cobb
salad and a baked potato. The diner was teeming with the tourists (non triathletes by the looks of it) and the locals. The food was quite good,
especially the bacon. Yum! Afterwards I drove to the nearest supermarket and got
some fuel for the race day morning – ie Gatorade, peanut butter, bananas and a
few bread rolls. Got back to the hotel, watched TV for a bit and turned in for the night.
Slept pretty well,
although the noise from the Interstate 15 right outside the window was a bit
annoying.Woke up at around 6:30am and headed downstairs for
breakfast. The hotel clearly was doing a good amount of business with the
triathletes – saw quite a few loading up on carbs or heading out/returning from
rides. I had some oatmeal with cranberries and a banana with coffee. After
that it was time for some equipment testing. Rode my bike for about 15 mins, no
hard efforts, just making sure that the shifting was working the way it was
supposed to. No issues, although the return route via River Rd was not great – the
bike lane was too narrow to stay in aero. Rode it on the bullhorns mostly. Got
back, put on running shoes and headed out for a quick run. The sun was already
pretty hot, and there I made my first mistake – not putting on lots and lots of
sunscreen right away. Went downstairs,
had a waffle and more coffee, and then headed to a bike shop up the street to
get some chain lube. It was so fantastically dry outside that I realized that
the chain needed to be dry lubed. Picked up some dry lube and after that was
finally all set.
Loaded my gear bags and my bike into the car at around
11:30am and headed towards the town square. The plan was to listen to the
athlete meeting, drop off the run gear bag and then head towards the reservoir.
By the time I got the stage, the area in front of it was pretty full and I
ended up sitting sort of high way between the shaded area and the area exposed
to the sun. That was a really dumb move. I got baked there big time, while
learning absolutely nothing new from the presenter. And then I had to wait
another 30 mins for T2 to open up. More time in the sun without the proper hydration
and sunscreen. Arggh.
Once I had dropped off the run gear, I headed to the reservoir. It
was a bit longer of a drive than I had expected with the traffic being heavy. I got there eventually and the parking
situation was not great… had to make myself a parking spot. Lubed the chain, racked the
bike, hung the bag on the numbered rack and then went down to the water to see what condition my condition was in.
The water was definitely not warm, but felt about 62-63 degrees, which was exactly what I was expecting. I walked ankle deep in the water of the shallow end of the boat ramp for a few minutes and decided that it is going to be a 2 swim cap thing. Finally got
to the car at around 2:30pm and drove back to StG. Stopped by a supermarket on
the way back and got 2 slices of pizza and a chicken sandwich for dinner. Was
back at the hotel at 3pm. Charged all of my electronics, mixed my Infinit drink, rolled a little bit on the foam roller.... At that point, the plan was to park myself in front
of TV, and only step out of the room to drop off the stuff I won't need in the morning by the car at around 6:30pm.
I followed the plan to the T, but unfortunately, when I went
down to the car, I had discovered a huge nail sticking out of the rear
left tire. Not sure where I picked it up, but there it was. I checked with Google for the tire shops nearby that were still opened and the only one without 2 miles that was still
open was a WalMart down street. Drove there quickly, but they had a line of
cars out of the door and the manager told me to come back tomorrow. At that
point, I simply put on a spare and drove back to the hotel, bummed knowing that
I had to take care of the tire right after the race.
Got to the room at 7:30, had my sandwich and did my best to
calm the nerves down and prep for sleep. I really started to feel the sunburn on
my neck and my back and even my arms. Slept fairly well, not great… got up at
3:45am. Had 2 bread rolls with Justin's peanut butter and honey mix, a banana and a Starbucks
Espresso shot can. Rolled on the foam roller, got my bags, checked out and
stepped into the cool, dark night. The hotel was about 1.5 miles from the
finish line, so got there at 4:15am, parked 3 blocks from the shuttles and
headed out. Boarded right away, no wait… the drive to the T1 in the darkness is
always a weird experience (somewhere between exciting and terrifying) – listened to Burzum as I always do before races,
and his magic was lifting my spirit off this planet one more time.
Got to my bike, re-installed the eTap batteries, pumped the
tires to 85/90 front/rear, put in Infinit, filled up the aero bottle with a mix of Gatorade and water, milled around… was looking for a couple of my
buddies, but the T1 got hectic quick, and suddenly it was 20 minutes to the
start and the portapotty lines were long as always… I did not get to the swim
start til about 5 minutes to 7. There I made another mistake. I did not realize
how long it’d take to let everyone into the water, so as I lined up with the 35-38 minute swim section, I did not start swimming until 7:35am. One weird thing was that I felt something in the right eye as I was tightening the goggles. Perhaps, I somehow overtightened one side?
The swim was uneventful but.. once again, just like in Palm Springs
earlier this year, I could not find my groove. I was not struggling, but it was
not a smooth swim at all. Although the water temps were in the low 60s I felt cold, and was not just in my element. The
course was very easy to navigate, as it is a simple triangle swam
counterclockwise. At one point, somewhere before the 2nd turn, suddenly
the wind picked up and it got choppy. In any case, I was out of the water in 40
minutes. Well, 40:34 for those who care. Garmin file here.
In T1, somehow the wetsuit got stuck on the right leg (the one
that did not have the chip on, go figure) and I had to get down on the mat to
get it to come off. Once that was done, I grabbed my bag off the rack and got
the helmet and the shoes on. Ran up to the bike in shoes since we could not leave them
clipped in and we were off into the desert.
I got on the bike and only then had realized that somehow I got either some speck of sand or something like that into my right eye. It was starting to itch bad and would kind of get worse every few miles, and then let up. I managed to sort of initially wink through it, but then a thing happened that could have ended my race right there. We were going up the first incline when some guy in front of me dropped his bottle and in some inexplicable fashion turned around to catch it as it was rolling down. In the process, he almost took me down, but thankfully I was able to make a stealthy evasive maneuver. After that I rode the next 10 miles trying to warm up and get the hips going again. It was not going well, and I kind of tried to just work through it. Things got better once we turned left on the highway (Hwy 6/State st), but the problem was that by then I was riding against a fast moving traffic on the right, and the left lane/shoulder was full of rumble strips. Basically til mile 19 I could not do much and was just going as fast as possible given the conditions.
Once we turned on Telegraph Road, I felt a bit better. I was not shivering anymore and was pushing good wattage up up the inclines. There was one descent that could have been taken very fast in aero but it was so crowded that I had to brake hard in a few spots. Nonetheless mentally I was feeling pretty strong but the power in the legs was just not coming back. The course was starting to wind through the suburbia for a while until we hit Red Rocks Parkway where we rode on the opposite side of the run course - but that time the pros were starting to climb the infamous Booyah Bend. At the top I managed to drop the chain shifting into the big ring... that was a big bummer, and I kind of lost my motivation there.
We rode back into town and did an out and back on Snow Canyon parkway which is basically just a series of false flats. It was starting to get a bit warmer and I could feel the sun on my arms and my back. Once we started going up the actual Snow Canyon climb past the ranger station, I started to feel back in my element and powered through the segment. To be honest, it is not that hard of a climb if you pace with power - although it does get fairly steep within the last mile or so. Oh and it also is completely exposed to the sun. Once I crested it, there was a water station - grabbed a bottle of water and poured all over the head/neck/back... and then I dropped the chain for the second time. The irony! That was the point when I mentally threw in the towel and decided to just cruise through the rest of the race.
The descent into town was a lot of fun - it really is fast and by then the road was pretty open since the climb broke up the packs of riders. A few sections were exposed to the wind so I had to get off the aerobars but generally it was a pretty screaming ride all the way to the turn off on Diagonal street. The last mile or so was along the run course again... and I was pretty surprised to see a few age groupers clearly on the way to the finish line. Assuming the run in the range of 1:30-1:35 and them lining up at the front of the swim - that meant that the faster age grouper times were going to be in the 4:40 range. Ouch. The final bummer was the fact that the bike course was about 0.6 miles short and I stupidly did not get my feet out of the bike shoes fast enough so that I ended somehow with the right foot on top of the right shoe, but the left foot dangling on top of the left shoe... at the dismount somehow the left foot ended back in the shoe, which almost caused me to drop the bike... just the series of unfortunate events. Bike time - 3:02:38, which is pretty sad. Nutrition wise I had about 550 kcals of Infinit mix, 2 GUs with caffeine, about 15oz of Gatorade and 1 half of a Clif Bar. I think that I could taken about 200 kcals more since I came off the bike feeling a bit low on fuel. Garmin file here.
The T2 was already hot and I somehow ended up having trouble getting the run gear back untied. The the Nikes shoelaces would not tie... at least I got 2 packets of sunscreen smeared on quickly, but another 5 mins wasted.
The run was the least eventful leg of the race. I would take a cup of water and a serving of Cola for nutrition and try to stay as cool as possible by dumping water on my head and shoulders at every station. The first climb was steep but went by quickly, About a mile into it I saw my co-worker and studly triathlete Jeremy running down towards the finish. From there onward I was not definitely working particularly hard, keeping the heart rate around 160bpm give or take. Somewhere towards the top some dude ended up running along with me, and we basically ran together until mile 12 where he pushed forward and I had no real desire to push any harder. We chatted as we were going up and down Red Hills parkway and the time flew by quite fast. We passed a ton of people, don't think that anyone really passed us at all for the entire stretch... the course is actually quite fast if you did not burn all your matches climbing Snow Canyon or going up the Booyah Bend climb out of town. The only thing that bugged was the soreness in the right eyelid, which was probably aggravated by the sweat and the sunscreen running down... it got bad enough with 0.5 miles to go that I had to stop and pour some cold water on the eye. It did not bother me until I sat down to get some food after the race. Run was done in 1:40:58, average heart rate 159bpm, Garmin file here. All together, the total time was 5:34:28.
The finish line was a bit disorganized by the WTC standards. I got my medal and my finisher's hat and then sort of hung around the chute, waiting for god knows what, until I had realized that we were supposed to walk back towards the town center square. I was so overheated that I jumped into mini creek where the kids were splashing and just submerged in it for a few minutes. Was joined by a couple of other triathletes.. one of them stated rightly - hey, we're all just big kids! That made me laugh, and I felt so much better... proceeded to the food tent, got a box of what looked like Chipotle food with a banana and a soda. The eye was still bugging me, and at that point I just wanted to get to my car quick because I had some artificial tears in my backpack... I got my morning bag and my T1 bag from the volunteers, thanked them, piled everything up, grabbed the bike and walked to the car. Still was a bit out of it, and took some time to actually find where I had parked 😁.
Threw everything back into the car, and then drove back to that WalMart place. Half way through the eye started hurting so bad that I had to stop to drip in more tears. The mechanic told me it'd take 2 hours to put on a new tire, and I used the time to get more food at some local BBQ place (which was just awful, as an aside) and catch a cat nap on a patio furniture at the Garden section of the said supercenter (very comfy). The sun was just burning me up, the eye would itch like crazy every 10 minutes or so... not good. At that point I bailed on the plan to stay overnight in Las Vegas and instead called the hotel where had I stayed the night before and booked a room for 1 more night to get myself together. In the hotel, I could not stand to see any screen glare at all, so I listened to podcasts, ate the leftover peanut butter, bread and bananas... fell asleep, woke up at 7am, had the breakfast downstairs and decided to take a chance on driving back to LA... with the hope that the eye won't be an issue anymore. Drove without any problems (not counting the Vegas traffic), although had to stop twice to stretch the legs and the back.
What are my thoughts, now that it's been 2 weeks since the race? I think that it is a tricky course for a number of reasons. I was told by the number of people to bring a compact crankset to avoid overbiking on Snow Canyon. Well I did that and certainly did not overbike by any stretch of imagination, but I also spun out on every downhill losing a bunch of time. I will switch back to 52/36 upfront and 11/28 in the back for Boulder. To hopefully fix the chain drops, I am going to set my front derailleur as close to the SRAM specs as possible. My OWS continues to be my weakness and it keeps me from riding a less crowded course - will try to get more ocean swims in summer. The run is the only reliable constant. Lastly, definitely no more athlete briefings or ignoring the sunscreen or hydration in the dry climates! Lessons learned hopefully.
Some pretty pictures of the pretty sites I saw on the way there and in StG
