Ironman Canada
Penticton, British Columbia
August 29, 2010
2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run
Going into this race, I was feeling sluggish, not super confident, injured, and did I say sluggish?
The swim started off with roughly 2800 people spread out across a quarter of a mile with plans to meet at the first buoy. I thought that since we would all be meeting there, I would at least get to the front of the line and have people pass me instead of the other way around. This idea popped into my head after speaking with a bunch of other better swimmers and it turned out only 1161 people beat me out of the water. This could have been due partially to my strategy of swimming in a zig zag pattern. Straight lines are over rated and I was very happy with my 1:11 swim which was a 7 minute PR from IM New Zealand and a 5 minute PR from Aquabike in July.
The bike is something that I have gotten progressively stronger on but multitasking is tough which has resulted in nutrition issues, cramping, throwing up… in previous races. I decided this time around to stay in Zone 2/3 (aerobic) so that I would have good legs to run the marathon. Riding conservatively was a very hard thing to do but I stuck to my plan even when people were passing me. That is until the rain started. I was really trying to keep taking in nutrition but when the rain/hail started with about 25 miles to go, I got so cold that I couldn’t stop shivering and was therefore unable to grab my water bottles to drink. Plus all my focus was on staying alive as I went down the backside of Yellow Lake at 30 mph in the wind and rain with both brakes fully engaged. Seeing 3 ambulances at the bottom of the hill wasn’t very comforting. I was hoping to ride at least a 5:30 but was happy to be off the bike in 5:39 and made up a lot of positions, 1162 to 407 and 131 to 54 in my age group.
When I ran into the transition tent, I wasn’t able to put my socks and shoes on by myself because my hands were frozen. Thank goodness for the volunteers! I was nervous starting the run since my legs started to tighten during the end of the bike but decided to just stick with the plan of running a sub 8 pace and walking each aid station. For the most part it worked on the first half with me crossing the ½ way point in 1:46. I quickly realized that the return trip started out with a hill and what felt like a nonstop headwind. My pace slowed a bit but I tried to just focus on drafting anybody who passed me. This worked perfectly as everybody I drafted, I ended up passing J I didn’t manage to keep up a 8 minute pace for the return portion but was happy with a 3:44 time which shot me up 140 spots to finish in 267th place out of 3029. I passed 14 guys in my age group to sit finish in 40th out of 247.
Overall, it was a great day with many friends finishing their first Ironman and others pulling of awesome finishes on a difficult day.
Bike Breakdown.
Run Breakdown. You can see how often I had to go to the bathroom… lots of stops
There was an unexpected obstacle course at Marina Green (around mile 3) of the SF Marathon. Felt bad for the woman who was running when they started as it basically nailed her in the face.
April 14, 2010. Baker Beach/Sand Ladder.
Here’s the video of the day before the race.
California 70.3
Indoor skydiving on Friday night. Saturday bike and run. Sunday swim and run.
Golden Gate Triathlon Club’s Expo where sponsors explain their services, raffle prizes are given out, snacks & drinks are consumed, and an all around good time
GGTC representing at the Kaiser Half
A bunch of triathlon clubs are currently in something called the National Club Challenge where they keep track of miles swam, biked, and ran. Each month has a focus such as December was swimming, January was cycling, and February is running. With my ridiculous amount of cycling in January, I was hoping to move up the charts and for quick minute I broke into the Top 10. A few clubs were still uploading athlete info and I’ve found myself comfortably in the Top 20.
My 15 seconds of cycling fame:
Where I currently sit:
A fun little video of a ride I organized. About 25 people came out for the GGTC Paradise Loop ride.
Beautiful day. We are in such better spirits compared to days 1 & 2.
Carmel to San Luis Obispo. Long day in which we got through 135 miles. Started and ended in the rain. Pretty cold day.