IM 70.3 Newfoundland Race Report

My Destination A Race of the Year

After 5 - 6 months of training it's time to put it all to down for the record. It is Sunday, July 29 and it is RACE DAY! The weekend has started out well with few issues considering the logistics of racing at such a remote location. No travel issues (bike or non-bike related) and we settled in Corner Brook nicely before the race. We put our bikes together, had it tuned up at the local bike shop (Cycle Solutions - they were great!), got in a practice swim and a short brick and we were set. All that's left is to race. Let's get this over with!

The Swim

The race started promptly at 8:00 am and since the field is so small (< 300) it was a mass beach start. I hung wide and back and walked into the chilly water until the people in front of me started swimming. It was the most comfortable swim start I have ever had. My heart rate remained in control, I was sighting well, and despite getting bumped, kicked, and knocked around a lot I was calm and collected. I actually I was kind of happy to be knocked around a bit since that meant that I was actually swimming with a group and not dropped or totally off course like I usually am. The turn around buoy came quickly and I was so happy to be headed back so soon. The water got choppier on the way back, but nothing unmanageable and I was back on the beach with very little drama. One leg down two more to go!

Swim: 46:41 (Exactly 8 minutes faster than my swim at Eagleman. Yeah!)

T1

Even though this was only a half ironman race, they had wetsuit peelers and changing tents. How luxurious to be able to change into real cycling shorts for the ride! The only down side to this was it added over a minute and a half to my T1 time. And as we shall see, didn't really pay off. The good news was I got to see Shannon in the changing tent, she was only a couple of minutes behind me.

The Bike

After changing I grabbed my bike and was quickly on the Trans Canada Highway heading from the town of Pasadena to Corner Brook. It was kind of surreal to be cycling on a major highway, but this is Newfoundland. They had closed off a whole lane of traffic for the bike portion of the race (and for some of the run). It's like closing off a lane of I-66 for a triathlon. Can you imagine? So the bike course was very cushy, great road conditions (they must have swept it for debris also, I've never seen roads so clean), and more than enough room to pass. These Newfies sure know how to put on a race!

The bad news is that there was a noticeable head wind going out to Corner Brook. It made the course tougher than I had anticipated. I had better save something for the second loop. To compound the problem, I noticed that my butt was getting sore already and I was barely 5 miles into the race. This is not good. Head wind, saddle issues, this is beginning to look a lot like Eagleman again. At almost exactly mile 8 I saw the pros coming back from their first loop. It was a nice distraction and given their pace they are going to pass me on the big climb on their second loop.

Well, the saddle issue got worse and worse and pedaling became more and more painful with every mile. Getting down in the drops and rolling my pelvis forward didn't help. Getting up on the hoods and tilting my pelvis back didn't help. Sitting up helped some what but then I couldn't generate any power and was getting hit full blast with the head wind. It's ok, I'll just tough through it. The first major climb came around mile 12 and it was actually a nice distraction from my sore butt. The last part of the climb was steeper and longer than I had thought (somehow, driving it didn't give me the same perspective ;-)). I made to the top and to the turn around at the same time as a couple of the elite guys on their second laps. It's a miracle I made that turn without taking one of them out. They always pass so close! Don't they know that I'm a total hack on the bike? :-) I saw Shannon right after the turn around and yelled out a cheer as I streaked down the descent. It had started to rain and the roads were wet, but my bike handles great and I just let it rip. I passed this bad-ass looking guy (he must not like fast descents on slippery roads) and got a little confidence boost for that. Of course he promptly passed me again when the roads flattened out and he was actually pedaling and not powered by gravity. It was good while it lasted. :-)

Coming back to Pasadena was a little easier because the wind was at my back. However, the saddle issues were still building and I just couldn't find relief. By the time I was back at the turnaround for the second loop I was miserable and could barely pedal. Worse yet, I had totally forgotten about the head wind. It was even worse now. It was at this point that I thought about quitting. The pain was just unbearable. Shannon passed me shortly after the turnaround and asked if I was ok. I muttered something about the wind and watched as she disappeared from sight. Wah! At this point I decided to stop and get off the bike for a little bit to see if I can get the circulation back to butt and legs. It felt so good to stop pedaling and get off the saddle. I stretched out my back and shoulders and rubbed my sore bum a little but I was getting more and more depressed as people that I beat out of the water went zipping by. But I was NOT going to DNF this race so it's back onto the torture machine and I plugged through for another 10 miles or so. I stopped again just to give my butt a recovery break before hitting the big climb again.

The climb was even more painful the second time around and worse yet there were no pros to distract me, in fact there were no other cyclists in sight. And all the volunteers at the turnaround were cheering me on with extra enthusiasm, in the way that they save for people who REALLY needed it. I must have looked bad. I was really afraid that I was the last bike on the course. The only highlight happened on the second descent when I had to chuckle as I zipped past a police car on my bike. I wondered if he was going to pull me over since I was going well over the speed limit. :-) It's kind of funny that the only time I can get away with zipping pass a police car on the highway is when I'm on my bike! The humor ended with the end of the descent and the way back was just more of the same pain in butt. Only now it was pouring rain. I was sopping wet and my bike shoes were full of water. I looked at my time and realized that I was already at well over 3 hours on the bike with over 13 miles to go. There was no way I was going to beat my Eagleman bike time. And no way I would even finish the bike in under 4 hours. It was so depressing. But I had already gone this far. Can't give up now. So I kept on moving forward, with as much momentum as I could muster.

Eventually for some reason, the saddle issue disappeared. I can now actually sit on saddle again without my leg nerves getting pinched. For the life of me, I can't figure out what this problem is all about! But even though I can sit on the saddle properly now, the nerve damage had already been done. I still can't bike at full power.

By mile 50 and over 4 hours on the bike I was so close to the finish, yet so down about the race. There was a slight downhill and I was just coasting to give my butt a break. That's when the Cycle Solutions support car pulled up beside me and the support guys asked how I was doing. I told them I was not good at all. They asked if I thought something was wrong with the bike. It wasn't anything that they could fix, so I said no. They yelled at me to keep pedaling. I mustered up the last of my pain tolerance and started pumping. They gave me encouraging words about my pedal stroke and cadence. That really made me feel better to have those guys complimenting me about that (even if they were just saying it to be encouraging). :-) I asked if I was the last one out here. The driver said, "No. There's five people behind you. And one of them is a GUY!" That totally cracked me up the way he said it. They yelled out some more words of encouragement before taking the last exit before the end of the bike course. With my spirits picked up I managed to crank it all the way home. About a mile out I saw Shannon on the run course. She looked great! FINALLY, I was DONE with the bike!!!

Bike: 4:18:55 (a full 35 minutes longer than my Eagleman bike time. UGH!)

T2

Pretty much uneventful except I think I flashed some of the volunteers changing into my running shorts. At this point, I was too weary to care. :-)

The Run

I headed out for the run feeling so glad to be off the bike. This was the easiest bike to run transition I have ever had that I even ran up the little hill out of transition. And given that I really didn't go that hard on the bike because of all the saddle pain, my energy level and legs felt pretty good. I passed a lot of people on the course, but they were on their second loop and I was on my first. Ugh! The worse part was at the end of the loop when everyone was heading for the finish line and people were cheering like crazy, and I had to turn to head out for another loop. :-( It was at this point that my Garmin Forerunner GPS unit ran out of battery and died. I had outlasted my training computer. Wonderful! Can I GET any slower??!! Now I can't tell my heart rate, pace, and whether or not it was time to hydrate or eat. Oh well, only a few miles left, I can wing it. I was just grateful to be feeling good so I just bopped along to my iPod and chanted Heidi's running mantra: "Pick it up, put it down, pick it up, put it down." By mile 8 my legs were getting tired. This was the point in my race strategy that I thought I could pick up the pace but that was NOT going to happen.

I prodded along as best I could and saw Shannon coming back in the other direction. She joked about never having been in the porta potty so much during a race, but she looked like she was in good spirits. Finally I hit the turn around and was headed back home! I tried to keep running as much as possible but did end up walking at a few of the aid stations. Finally, I saw Shannon walking up in the distance. If I can catch up to her, we can finish together! Well, I kept my focus on her and it looked like she was not running at all, just walking, but at a good clip. I wondered if she was ok. I caught up to her right as she veered off the trail and into the bushes around mile 11. "Are you ok?" Her response was a meek "I'm going to be sick." I walked up a little to give her a little privacy to throw up and waited for her to come out of the bushes. I had to keep moving, so I decided to walk up a little further and was sure that she would pop out any minute. I periodically turned around but she just never came out. At this point, I thought that since there was just another mile or so, I should just finish and she will be right behind me. I pushed to finish the last mile and was never so glad to cross the finish line!! Yeah!

Run time: 2:29:26 (12 minutes faster than Eagleman, good but not good enough to cancel out the bike deficit)

Total time: 7:44:47 How disappointing. :-( But I'm just happy to finish happy and healthy as we shall see ...

The Fourth Leg of the Race

I got my finisher's medal and t-shirt, water and food and waited at the finish line for Shannon. I was sure that she would be just behind me. Five minutes went by and still no Shannon. I was getting worried, and feeling guilty about not waiting for her at mile 11. I decided to walk the course backwards to look for her. At the TCH entrance I saw the race director and asked him if he knew where she was. They did a really good job of tracking everybody and he had her down to show up any minute now. Sure enough I saw her walking up in the distance. They offered to drive me to her in the golf cart. When I got closer, I saw that she was not in good shape. She was pale as a ghost and about the same shade of blue as her race jersey. I asked if she was ok and she said that she had never felt so sick doing an athletic event before. I asked if she wanted something to eat or drink but she said she couldn't keep anything down. I walked along side her and just gave her words of encouragement and prodded her to not give up and to keep going because she was so close to the finish. I knew she wasn't going to give up, but I just wanted to reinforce it for her. We walked into the finish shoot and I decided to go around the barricade so she can finish on her own. I ran down to the finish ahead of her and let them know that she was going to need medical assistance ASAP. The doctor promptly ran up to catch her right as she cross the finish line and walked her straight into the medic tent. Boy did she look bad. I was really worried, worried that she would have to be hospitalized in a foreign country, worried that I would have to call her parents, worried that I was the one that talked her into all of this in the first place. Ugh!

Turns out she was just really (REALLY) dehydrated and just needed IV fluids and sugar to recover. After much fan fare of not being able to find an adequate vein since they were all so flat due to her being so dehydrated, they finally got an IV into her. After a liter of fluids or so, Shannon was beginning to look like her old self again. We all sat around the medic tent and joked about the race and how she was going to really get wasted tonight to celebrate. All it would take would be whiff of someone's beer. Thank goodness, all is well after all!!!

Overall a great race experience. Newfoundland is a great course, challenging but still fun. And the people were incredible, very supportive and very well organized. Even though I had a disappointing bike leg, I would have to chalk this up as a great race experience. And I think even Shannon feels the same way. :-)

Next stop - the bike store for a new saddle!

Practice Swim

We are now settled in at NFL and with the exception of the fire alarm this morning at our hotel (false alarm although we had to get out of bed, get dressed, and stand outside for 15 minutes) all is well. NFL is a very rugged but beautiful place. It's a lot more industrialized and populous than I had thought, although Corner Brook is supposed to be a pretty big city for them.

After the fire drill, we slept in to catch up on our ZZzzz's and then got up, picked up our packets, and headed over to Pasedena Beach to do our practice swim. People at the expo were saying that the water was pretty cold (13 - 14 C) and Shannon and I started to freak out. The drive down to Pasedena was very scenic and we got to scope out the bike course. Looks hilly, not steep hilly, but long steady climbs hilly. I think there is more than one hill on this bike course. I think the race directors made up that elevation profile.

When we got to Pasedena Beach, the beach was packed with tons of people and there were lots of little kids playing the water.



Little kids! Like 3 year olds, no wetsuit.



How bad can the water temperature be if they're in there? Well, it turns out these are little Canadian kids made hardy by the NFL winter because the water was chilly! But it wasn't unbearable. Shannon and I decided to swim out to the 3rd buoy (about half way out) and then head back, following the course.




On the way out there was a noticeable chop in the water. But it wasn't too bad. I got to the third buoy and then turned around. That's when the water got significantly choppier. I had flashbacks of the Delaware River and had a minor panic attack. Crap, this is going to SUCK big time! Well, forget about any time goals this race. I'm just going to concentrate of not DNF'ing on the swim!!!

We made it out of the water and was glad to hear from the other triathletes there that they thought the water was choppy too. Everyone however, seems optimistic that the water will be calmer in the morning. Glass they say, glass ... Let's hope so.

Leaving for Newfounland

I am on my way to conquer the Rock! The Canadian Rock that is, bigger, colder, but yet more hospital they say. Other than a minor passport panic on my part Wednesday evening, the trip here has been pretty uneventful.

Embarrassing story #1 (first of many to come I'm sure):

We land at Deer Lake airport at around 2:00 am local time, groggy and bleary eyed. (For some reason Newfoundland time is 1 1/2 hours ahead of Eastern Time. Don't get that at all, must research why later.) Our plane was full however so there were a lot of people milling about the baggage carousel. Shannon and I got our bags and were waiting for our bike boxes. The baggage crew finally opened a side door and loaded some bike boxes on the other side of the carousel. As we made our way across the crowd, I saw a guy rolling a bike box that looked exactly like my box. So I asked him, "Is that your bike or mine?" He lifted the bike box to reveal an Ironman sticker on the bottom of his box. "I'm pretty sure it's mine." Yeah. That's definitely his alright. How totally embarrassing. He must have thought I was a total ditz!

Sure enough they kept pulling out bike boxes through that door. I've never seen so many bike boxes at the airport. Or so many bad ass people claiming them. This is going to be an interesting race indeed.

Five Days Until Race Day!

My deepest apologies for being MIA for so long and not posting anything for over a month. But I have been busy with training, work, and life in general. Lots of things going on as usual with summertime work and fun. And of course training for a half ironman is just slightly time (and energy!) consuming.

So it is now IM 70.3 Newfoundland race week! I rode my bike for the last time in DC before my race. Shannon and I broke down our bikes and packed them into our bike boxes tonight. No more cycling until we are in Newfoundland!

I'm a little nervous and getting more so every day as the race gets closer. Overall, I feel pretty good about this season now. Training has been going well. Lots of long hilly rides and long runs, some completed well, others with challenges, but all completed without too much hardship. I feel good physically and mentally. I have a good race plan, nutrition plan, and pacing strategy. So I just hope everything comes together on race day and not fall apart. :-)

I'm off to Canada on Thursday and will try to be more diligent about keeping the blog up to date, so stay tuned!

My First DNF

Well, this racing season's karma is just getting worse and worse for me. First, a monsoon canceled the CapTexTri and now I have just suffered my first DNF (Did Not Finish) in my tri career. I should have known not to try this race, but I really wanted to get a race in before my half in Newfoundland at the end of July. And since I didn't get to race in Austin with my TNT team, I figured I will race with them in Delaware instead. I was aware that the swim across the Delaware River was going to tough, but I figured I'd give it a try.

To make a long story short, the swim was AWFUL (RIPPING current, LOTS of surface chop) and I just didn't have the will to conquer the Delaware that day. It had been a weird season and I was just not mentally (and probably not physically as well) prepared for that swim. Oh well. I have 6 weeks left until my big race of the season. Hope I can fall into a better rhythm by then. Or at least get better karma. :-)

Many of my teammates also didn't complete the swim. Some put out tremendously courageous efforts. But the river turned out to be too tough. I felt bad for the ones who were attempting this as their first triathlon. Oh well, it will just make them appreciate their first tri WHEN they complete it, that much more special.

On with the training ...

On to Delaware

The team has finished pouting about our lost race and have regrouped to race Escape from Ft. Delaware in two weeks! Go team!!!

I am just terrified of the swim across the Delaware River ...

Race Day Synopsis

I am now back in DC and have been reflecting on the past days' events. Race day was just amazing but not in a good way. :-) I'm amazed at what Mother Nature can do when she decides to turn on you. The entire weekend was perfect Central Texas race weather (overcast, relatively low humidity, nice and cool) and then for the 8 hours before the race, it just rained non stop. I mean really rained.

We were really lucky to be staying at a hotel that was so close to transition and managed to stay dry most of the time. But after the word was out that the race was canceled, we had to go to transition to get our bikes (which had been sitting out all night in that rain!). Some of the braver folks who went out first came back looking like drowned rats. Transition was under two feet of water with water falls cascading down the grade wall. The river was raging, there was no way we could swim in that, damn or no damn. I waited for a little while before going out to rescue my bike and luckily, it stopped raining. But transition was still so flooded, that I had to carry my bike out of there.

I searched for some news about the race, but I guess Austin-ites are still not that big into triathlon (Lance or not) since the only things I managed to find is this (very) short press release from the race director, and a small slide show that doesn't even do the weather justice. I guess the photographer didn't want to get wet. :-)

All is not lost however, since the National Cap Area chapter managed to raise over $89,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. And overall, all the TNT chapters who participated in this race raised over $900,000 for LLS. So race or no race, that money will still go to helping find a cure and towards patient advocacy. That's the one silver lining for the weekend. Special thanks to all who donated to the cause!

Coming back to DC, it is sunny and 90 degrees out. Oh, the irony ...

I will post pictures from the trip shortly.

Race Cancelled due to Weather ...

We got up today at 4:30 am to meet the rest of the team to head over to the race. When we got downstairs, the hotel lobby was packed with people waiting in the hotel instead of heading out to the race. It turns that it has been (and still is) raining heavily and the race director has informed everyone by text message to stay dry and hold for further status on the race. The most likely scenario right now is that they will turn this to a duathlon and have us run a 5K, bike 40K, and then run another 5K. This is not good news to most people and we anxiously wait for the rain to subside.

At 7:10, Geoff (Coach Laura's husband) gets the official text message that the race has officially been canceled. The first thought that comes to my mind are the first time triathletes who have been training so hard for this event. I really feel bad for their disappointment. We were all joking about how much we were going to dread the swim, the very technical bike course, and the run after the bike. But now, that the race is canceled, we are overcome with frustration. But we also understand that the race directors have our safety and best interests in mind when making their decision. I'm not really sure how I feel right now. But this doesn't seem like good karma for my race season ...

Barton Springs Rocks!

It's one day to race day and the big event on the agenda today is a morning swim at Barton Springs, a huge spring fed pool right in the city! I had heard about the spring before and was glad that we would get to see it in person. A lot of other TNT'ers from different chapters were already getting their swim workout in, so the National Capital Area Chapter (that's us) decided to go for our run first and then swim afterwards. This turned out to be a bad idea for me since I got so sticky after our run I could hardly get my wetsuit on. And then of course, I got my usual open water swim anxiety due to sighting issues, etc. Eventhough this wasn't a real open water swim, there were no lane lines at the bottom the pool either! I was starting to get nervous about the race and having my usual bouts of inadequacies. But one thing we all agreed on was how great Barton Springs was. Everyone wished there could be a place like that in DC for us to train in.

In the evening we all went to the TNT Pasta Dinner. The dinner was great and was very inspirational. It's no wonder the cause drove me to accomplish my first triathlon. All chapters of TNT participating in this race raised over $900K for the cause. What a great accomplishment!

The inspirational news was disrupted when we headed back to the hotel room after the Pasta Dinner. The race director informed us that the weather predictions were questionable and that they may have to alter the swim course if the rain causes current issues in Town Lake. They will make the call on an hour by hour basis. Well, we shall see what tomorrow will bring ...

We're in Austin!

It has been a long day that started at 4:00 am. I finished packing and headed off to the airport to catch a 6:56 am flight to Austin. All the news reports about how packed the airports were going to be this weekend made me extra paranoid, so I got to the airport extra early but the lines were not too bad. The flight was uneventful and we arrived in Austin around lunchtime. We could feel the humidity as soon as we got off the plane. At least it was overcast so the it wasn't hot at all, just a nice early summer day. After checking into the hotel (we have a great view of the city from our room!), we went to Ironworks to grab some authentic Texas BBQ. It was yummy but a lot of food! We then went back to the hotel to put our bikes together and Christine and I went for a quick ride around downtown Austin to test out our bikes. We rode down past the transition area and across the river and back down to the hotel. It was just a quick ride but I can tell that the bike course will be a fun course (if you can survive the crowd). I'm really looking forward to the race on Monday!

Here comes race weekend!

It's the Thursday before our race weekend for the CapTexTri and I'm getting slightly anxious but really I'm more excited than anything else. I am flying out on Saturday morning (early!) and will be in Austin, TX around lunch time. Yee haw! Then it is a packed agenda of getting our bikes and putting them back together and picking up our race packets. Sunday will be another packed day of checking out the swim course, visiting the expo, and the obligatory pre-race pasta dinner. I hope we can find some time in there to check out Austin, do some shopping and maybe hit the town on Saturday night. :-) Hey, I'm in no danger of winning this race, so there's no reason to not have some fun outside of triathlon on this trip! Monday is of course RACE DAY! Followed by a rocking post race party I'm sure. And then we are headed home. The weekend will go by in a flash! I will have to remember to go fast during the race, but take the time to enjoy the moment and most of all, HAVE FUN!

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A Week Til Race Day

Well, it's a little over a week until my first big race of the season at the Capital of Texas Triathlon. I am flying out Saturday morning with the TNT team and will spend Memorial Day racing in downtown Austin. But before that, I have to get through this weekend, which will be very busy indeed. I am running a 5K with Girls on the Run, I hope my buddy runner doesn't leave me in the dust. :-) But the highlight of the weekend is my Tuscany Cooking class fundraiser on Sunday. It will be a fun time for a good cause! Then I will be packing up my bike and shipping it to Austin. :-( I hope he survives the trip unscathed!

Birth of a Blog

Ok. So I'm giving up on emailing a huge distro list my race reports and have finally set up a blog. It's about time I've adopted some new technology. :-) Hopefully, this will be a more efficient way to keep everyone up to date on what I've been up to. This is the blog's first post so to update you on my 2007 race season, this year my plan is to do three major races:

Capital of Texas Triathlon (Olympic Distance) with Team in Training - May 28
IM 70.3 Newfoundland, Canada (Half Ironman) - July 29
Baltimore Marathon - October 13

My first race is only a month away. Yikes! Well, training has been slow in starting. Even though I'm training with TNT again (make a donation), I have not been able to work out as much as I would like. I'm suffering from other things getting in the way of establishing a good work out routine (mainly laziness). :-) Oh, well. I'll brute force it through Austin and then really buckle down then ...