Jon's Ironman Canada Race Report

Before leaving for Canada: as many of you know, I went to see mydoctor 1 last time for the series of small injuries I was dealing with.His last words to me: "this won't stop you from finishing, but I'm not going to lie to you, you're going to be in some pain on the run. Hopefully it won't hit until half way through." Not exactly theringing endorsement I was looking for! But on the positive side, it could have been much worse.

On the way to Canada: my left foot was really bothering me. We finally arrived at the place we were staying Wed night, and I found thatI had a long blister on the left side of my left foot. Really strange,I still have no idea what caused it! Aside from starting to rest for the taper, I made no changes in the week before the race, and I never had this kind of issue before. Oh well... So from that night until the race, I was icing a couple of times a day. It finally started feeling ok Sat afternoon, to the point where I could walk around normallywithout pain. Nothing like cutting it close!

Fri early afternoon: we drove the bike course and I was pleasantly surprised. I think I used the word "easy.". Minnie told me it was harder than it looked, but there were only 10 miles of climbing and most of it was flat or slightly downhill. There were plenty of places to eat comfortably on the bike, and compared to our training, this looked (andI still think was) REALLY easy. So at this point in the week I was feeling really confident. Probably overconfident. I knew the swim would be bad, and the run was dicey given my injuries, but I was really looking forward to the bike. And at this point in the week, I was still focused on having a good finishing time, versus just finishing. The bike course would definitely be a good place to make up time.

Fri late afternoon: we took our bikes out for a short ride. This went fine, except my plantar injury started acting up after the ride. Forthose who don't know what this is, think shooting pain at the bottom of your foot! This is the injury that knocked me out of the NYC marathonl ast year, and was on again off again for the entire year of training for Ironman. Great, this was not the right time to be on again! The other bad news was that going South (the first 40 miles of the bikecourse) there was a strong headwind. The forecast for Sunday was nice with only light wind so we hoped for the best. But this would be bad if it held for the race, which it did. For those who train in CA, it felt like riding on Canada road for the whole first 40 miles of the race! At this point in the week I was still feeling good about the race. Minnie was feeling much better. She was still a little concerned about some lower back pain on the bike, but physically and emotionally she was in much better shape than I was.

Sat afternoon: we went into the lake for the first time. The water was FREEZING! I was planning to wear my sleaveless wetsuit. No way! After about 20 minutes in the water my arms and hands were numb. My left hand started cramping up, and I was having a tough time pulling on my swim stroke. Some locals told us it was 62 or 63 degrees in thewater, but it felt much colder! And I was used to training in a heated pool, with a wetsuit!! This couldn't be good. And you all know how I love the cold! So at that moment I decided to wear my full wetsuit,which I've only used 2 or 3 times. Not good. The last thing you wantgoing into a race is a change from your training. But oh well....there's no way I'd finish the swim with hypothermia! Another bummer, the swim course wouldn't be set up until race morning,so we had no chance to get a feel for the course. Minnie struggled with sighting the year before, and lost about 15 minutes in the water swimming to the wrong buoy. And she's a much stronger / better swimmer than me! So 12 hours away from the start I was feeling REALLY nervous about the swim. The overconfidence from the day before was definitely gone!

Nutrition: they say this is the 4th discipline in triathlon...swim,bike, run, eat! But this was candidly the least of my concerns going into the race. Aside from 1 bad nutrition day in training, I was feeling really good about this. I knew what worked for me, I knew my calorie needs, I had a great plan going into the race, and I had a fall back plan if that failed. Or so I thought...

Race morning: I basically couldn't sleep the night before, but thiswasn't a huge concern. All of the experts say the sleep that matters isFri night for a Sun event, and we had a great night sleep Fri night. SoI got up at 3am, ate about 600 calories, stretched, got ready, and was feeling good. F1 qualifying was on Speed from Valencia, so I watched for a good hour or so, flipping back and forth between that and Olympics coverage. This took my mind off the race. I was still feeling VERY nervous, but otherwise pretty good. All of the injuries were ok. Not great, but ok...and certainly good enough to race.

Race start at 7am: the water as expected was FREEZING, and the house boat at the first turn in the water seemed like an ETERNITY away fromthe start! It took me a minute to actually figure out where it was! Minnie kept pointing to it and I couldn't see it! Not good :) The gunwent off, Minnie and I wished each other well, and that was the last time I saw her until my race was over.

First 20 minutes of the swim: REALLY tough to get moving. The cold water definitely shocked my system, and the current in the lake was consistently taking me off target (too far left). We were swimming in aclockwise direction and I typically swim to my right, so I was hopingwith the current coming to my left I'd swim straight. No such luck!So the entire swim I basically zig zagged back and forth. Everytime I looked up to sight I was off target, but it wasn't consistent, which made it really frustrating! For those of you who golf, picture goingto the driving range and going from slice to fade to slice over and overand over again. Not fun! Plus, I knew it meant I was swimming much farther than the 2.4 miles on the course, which was definitely not agood thing for me!! I finally got to the first turn (1400 meters), which should have taken me 34 to 36 minutes. It took me 50! I started doing the math in my head, and I knew at this point I might not make the swim cutoff. I was expecting to finish the swim in about 2 hours (cutoff is 2:20). My pace in the pool for 3800 meters is about 1:40, and my longest swim beforethe Ironman was 3500 meters in 1:30. So I was now looking at swimming 50 minutes longer than my longest swim! Yes Michelle, I know, I should have done more open water swimming! Given my time at the first turn, I started to push a little harder. Iwas now swimming directly into the current, so my "faster" pace didn'ttranslate into any more speed, but at least I didn't fall back any more.I hit the second turn (a little more than halfway) in 1:10. So at thispoint I knew I could finish before the 2:20 cutoff if I had a decent 2ndhalf. But.... I was feeling REALLY thirsty (very ironic given I was surroundedby water!) and I was starting to cramp up. I was also WAY behind therest of the field, and I was swimming with a group of people whohonestly looked pathetic! Now, I'm the first to admit I'm a lousy swimmer, but come on...these people looked horrible!! And yet, there I was, swimming with them. Sigh.... The second half was more of the same. The cramping got worse, my sighting was still terrible, but I started getting into a rhythm and I felt like my pace was picking up. I had no way to gauge speed, other than knowing I was pulling away from the other lousy swimmers :) Who given their terrible form could have been easily slowing down!About a 1000 maters out (little more than half a mile) one of thevolunteers in a kayak came over and started talking to me. This guy wasawesome! He was able to tell me how far I had to go, and he was going straight in the kayak, so it was much easier for me to swim straight by using him to sight. With about 250 meters to go my legs completely cramped up. The rules say you can grab onto a kayak as long as you don't get any forward progress. No time for pride now! I yelled over to the guy in the kayak, grabbed on for a minute, and he actually tried to massage my legs a bit. It didn't help but it was a nice gesture. At this point it was about 2:13 on my watch so I had 7 minutes left. A 250 normally takes me 6 minutes, so it would be really close. He told me what I already knew:"you can still make it but you need to go NOW!". So I pushed off and basically swam as fast as I could. Which at this point wasn't very fast! But it was just fast enough to make the cutoff... I came out of the water a little under 2:19, and I was actually the last person to finish the swim before the 2:20 cutoff. The whole crowd on the beach was cheering me on, easily 500+ people with an announcer yelling on the loudspeaker, so this whole part was really cool. I thought the worst was over....

Transition: I knew this would be slow, and it was. I thought I was moving quickly, but it still took me about 20 minutes. More time lost...

Bike: Now the fun begins. Or so I thought. I started on the bike and immediately got hit with 5 things:

1) It was 70+ degrees but I was REALLY cold from the swim. This passed after about 15 minutes, but it made the start of the ride feel terrible

2) My legs were dead...I had a huge build up of lactic acid from the swim. I went to an easier gear to increase my cadence, hoping I'd start feeling better as I got going. I did, a little, but I never felt good on the bike the entire day

3) I was incredibly thirsty and hungry, but I knew in the first 10 minutes after T1 you're not supposed to eat (you need to let your heartrate come down), so I drank a lot of water but no food or gels

4) The weather people were wrong! There was a strong headwind going South, so I was only going about 17mph instead of 20-22. Not terrible,but not the speed I was looking for on this part of the course. And to sustain that speed, I was pushing about 75 percent of my peak watts,which is higher than I wanted to push at the start

5) I was completely alone on the bike course! Given my slow swim and long transition, I knew I was AT LEAST 15 minutes behind the last biker on the course, maybe farther. With no IPOD to keep me company.

And it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway: it's really lonely and somewhat demoralizing when you're literally last in a field of more than2200! The euphoria from the swim finish was definitely gone!! But positive energy can carry you a long way. I figured all of those issues would pass, and as for being last, there'd be more people to pass later on! At this point my goal for the day was just to finish, so Ihad 7.5 hours to finish a bike course that on a good day should take meabout 6 hours. Maybe 6.5 hours with the headwind, but 7.5 hours shouldhave been no problem. Then I tried to eat...This was the first moment it hit me that I might be in trouble. About 5minutes after I took my first gel and water, the gel came back up. Hmm,I purposely started with a gel because it's easier to digest, and Icouldn't hold it down. So I slowed my speed and waited another 15 minutes to eat, and in the meantime kept drinking Gatorade and water. I hit the first aid station at mile 10, and tried to eat another gel anddrink Gatorade. Same result. This went on for the next 30 miles. I'deat, keep it down for maybe 10 minutes, and then throw it back up. By this point I was finally starting to pass people on the bike, even though I was going relatively slow trying to let my body recover. But I gave up on food for the time being, no point trying to keep doing what wasn't working. At this point I basically had 2 options:

1) keep going at a light pace with no food and hope I'd feel better, or

2) stand down for 15-20minutes and hope my body would recover. Time started to come into play. I figured I had an hour to give up and still make the bike cutoff, but I had already used up some of that time going at a slower pace, so how much time could I wait?

Long story short I decided to keep going. I still don't know what Ishould have done, but I'm not sure it would have mattered either way.If I waited I'd risk not making the bike cutoff, and I had no way of knowing how long I needed to wait. I was feeling fine physically, so there would no obvious sign for how long I needed to wait. So I kept going at a light pace. For those who know the course, I had 10 more miles into the wind to theturn at Richter Pass, and then the climbing would begin. So I basically had 10 miles to recover and get some food in. But I knew I needed electrolytes before I could take in food, so I just focused on trying to hold down Gatorade. I can normally drink Gatorade like water, but now Iwas struggling just to drink half a bottle.

Skip ahead: I made the turn for Richter Pass at mile 40. I was now out of the wind and about to start the most difficult part of the course.The temp at this point was in the low 80s, with bright sunshine, and the air on the climb was completely stagnant. My speed on the climb should have been 8-9 mph...I was at about 6. My cadence was also WAY lower than it should have been. And this was no longer because I was tryingto conserve energy! I was trying to push but had no power. Very discouraging! At this point I knew I needed to stand down for a few minutes to get some food in. So I stopped for a couple minutes which seemed like an eternity. The people I had passed earlier on the bike began to pass me again. And much like the swim, these were NOT people I should have been bikingwith! Sorry M2, I know you're shaking your head about now! At least Iwasn't wearing any of your M2 Revolution gear on the course :) After a couple minutes I started feeling better and thought I had turned the corner. I took in a gel, starting climbing, and saw my power output nearly back to where it should have been. I started passing people again and was feeling a lot better. I hit the top and started the first descent. Still feeling good...And then it all began to fall apart. Halfway down the first descent I threw up what felt like everything I had eaten the entire day! This was at about 40mph on the bike!! Then it got worse, I started coughing. Not your normal cough, but this dry hacking cough like I had bronchitis or something. Really strange.I was thinking maybe I had fluid in my lungs from the swim. As it turned out, the most likely cause was fluid going down the wrong pipe at some point when I was throwing up. The next 20 miles was rolling hills, mostly downhill, at a very fastpace. Absolutely stunning scenery. But I was feeling horrible! And I knew this was the only place on the course to recover before the next set of hills at mile 85. I needed electrolytes if I had any chance ofgoing on, so I just focused on drinking Gatorade and washing it down with water. This section got me to mile 70. I tried to eat again a couple times and immediately lost it each time. I was also coughing a lot more. I wasn't sure if it was because of the speed of the descents, or my condition getting worse. I stopped for a couple minutes at the turnaround point. This was no longer by choice. I couldn't stop coughing and I was going so slow itwas almost pointless to keep riding. My only shot at finishing was to take a few more minutes to try to recover. It was now a little before3pm, and the day had turned dark and looked like rain. Very fitting!I had 42 miles left on the bike and exactly 2.5 hours to finish. I typically average 18-20 mph on the bike so this still wasn't a huge concern. But I definitely had no time to waste! And at this point I needed time to recover!! The last 25-30 miles of the course are mostly downhill, so I knew I still had a good chance of making the cutoff if I could stop coughing and get some food down. For those who like #s, through all of this I was averaging about 15.5mph on the bike, with my watts at about 60 percent. So I was still doing ok considering, but this was WAY lower than I was expecting. AndWAY below any training ride I had done the entire year! I think in manyways all of the data at my disposal was a bad thing. I knew exactly howbad I was doing, and at this point in the ride I wasn't looking at these#s in any kind of positive light. I knew where my speed and poweroutput should have been, and this was way off. I also knew I had expended about 2300 calories on the bike, and at least 1200 on the swim,so my calories in (~600) / calories out (~3500) equation was WAY out of balance. I stopped coughing and tried 1 last time to take in a gel. Same result,and after another 2-3 minutes I was again coughing almost uncontrollably. Time was getting short, the weather was looking more and more ominous, and I finally started thinking about pulling out. I know, I know, what took me SO long?! Hey, I trained for a year for this thing!! I was only about 2 miles away from special needs, so I had 1 last decision. Anything in my bag that would have helped? Maybe, probably not. And at that moment the 2 miles seemed more daunting than the swim!So I officially pulled the plug at mile 71. About 2 minutes later it started to drizzle, and then pour! I was happyI stopped when I did. It took about 30 minutes for the SAG vehicle to arrive. And by this point it was 3:30, so anyone still on the course where I was had NO CHANCE of finishing. But yet people still continued to ride. Stopping is a tough thing, even when the writing is clearly on the wall. About 45 minutes after pulling out I began to feel good enough to eat and keep food down. At some point on the ride back into town I realized my core body temp was way too high, so I was definitely running a fever.You can't gauge this stuff when you're riding! There was nothing Icould do now, but again, I was happy I pulled out when I did.

I got back into town and saw Minnie at about 5pm, just as she was starting her run. She also had a tough day, but still looked good, and said she'd finish for both of us. I went to the medical tent, got a massage, and then drove out to the run course to pick up my special needs bag and try to find Minnie. I got to her right around the turnaround point (mile 13). By this time she was feeling a lot worse,and it 8pm so it was just starting to get dark. She wanted to stop but she had a ton of time to finish, so she kept pushing on. The rain was off and on but it was starting to get worse. So with each passing hourI was feeling better about my decision to stop!I went to the finish line around 10pm, and I have to say the crowd was amazing! There were still hundreds of people at the finish, in a totalparty atmosphere. It was now cold (low 60s) with very heavy rain!Minnie finished in a little under 16 hours, which was a huge accomplishment given the conditions :). So, what did I learn from all of this?

1). I have a greater level of respect for anyone who can finish an Ironman! I know this sounds crazy to many of you, but when you'retraining for it and around lots of other triathletes, the race seemsvery achievable, almost easy. It's not. Going into it I was focused on a specific finishing time. Could I break 12.5 or 13 hours? If I ever try this again, I'll really just focus on finishing

2). You learn a lot about yourself when you try something like this!Especially about how your body works (or doesn't, as the case may be!).It's actually really cool. Your body can handle a LOT more than youthink it can, but there's clearly a breaking point and it's tough to figure out where that is.

3). An old takeaway, but it was reinforced. Would I have done anything differently? At this point, NO! I'll talk to lots of people and seewhat they think I should have done differently, but based on what I know now, I wouldn't have done anything differently. With the benefit of 2 days of reflection, I'm 99% sure my race was over when I got out of the water. I was fortunate to finish the swim, but it took way too much outof me to finish the race.

4). Never pre-purchase race pictures unless you're really confidentyou'll finish :) I ended up with only 1 race picture, from behind on Richter Pass. A fitting end to a tough day :)

So for now, Minnie and I are done with Ironman! I'm going to keep swimming and work on my speed. At some point in the future when I'm a stronger swimmer I may try again. But definitely not anytime soon!

The next goal is to qualify for the Boston marathon, so we're going to take a couple weeks to heal up and then start our run training. In the meantime we're both looking forward to getting back to a normal life :)