EagleMan 06
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Wind is a
Four-Letter Word (aka My EagleMan Race Report) - 6/11/06 It continues to amaze me how different a race can be from one year to the next, given different racing conditions. This year’s EagleMan IronMan 70.3 race, as compared to last year’s, is a case in point. While the heat (also a four-letter word) was the focus last year, this year it was the wind. Going into the race, everyone was excited that the temperature was going to be bearable. Last year, it hit 93 during the race. This year the temperature was projected to be in the 80’s, but actually never got out of the 70’s. The strong winds on Saturday were supposed to die down by Sunday…but they didn’t. Sunday morning, the pros entered the water at 7AM. My wave (the 8th) went in at 8AM. Given the way they oriented the waves this year, I was in the last male wave. Almost all the women’s waves were behind me. The water temperature was good. Cool enough to feel good entering the water, but not too cold (I think it was about 72-76). The wind was blowing and the river looked choppy with strong current, but I didn’t remember what it looked like last year, so I wasn’t worried yet. The first few hundred meters felt fine. Other than getting punched in the face a couple times, all was well. Then my right arm started tingling, like a lot of pin pricks. I guessed that I just found out what it felt like to get stung by a sea nettle (and it turned out I was right). It was very difficult to see the buoys and to swim in the right direction. As the swim went on I really found myself rocking in the waves. I think the current was somewhat from the side and behind, so it wasn’t too bad yet. After what seemed like a long time, I got to the pontoon boat that we were supposed to swim around. At that point, guys on jet skis were pointing to a buoy to the side and yelling that we had to circle that buoy too. There was a whole group with me and none of us had seen that buoy. After the race, I found a lot of others had the same problem too. Anyway, I swam back to that buoy and around it and back to the boat. That probably took a few minutes only. WOW, once I circled the boat and started upriver and in towards the shore, it was a completely different swim. Swimming into the waves, I was rocking like crazy. Also, it was extremely difficult to see the buoys. In fact, at one point, I swam towards a volunteer in a kayak wearing yellow thinking he was one of the yellow buoys. The waves were high enough that my arm strokes went right into the wave, not over. This was the toughest swim I’d encountered in a long time. BTW, my arm continued to sting, but it was only a distraction, it didn’t really effect my race. Finally, I neared the shore. But, even then, I had to tread water for a while because I couldn’t see over the waves to figure out where the swimmers were going to get to the beach. Finally, I saw that the entrance was hidden behind a pier and I swam in and finished leg one, the 1.2 mile swim. As I ran by Ellen, Talia and Ethan, I told them the swim was really tough and they said that everyone coming out of the water was saying the same thing. Transition one went without a hitch and I was off on my bike. After a couple miles through the town, we were on open roads. The wind was incredible and it seemed to be right in my face. I was determined to hold back a bit for at least half the bike because I was concerned about being under prepared for the run. I plugged along trying to keep an 85-90 rpm cadence, but I couldn’t stick to it. Because of the wind, I needed to be in a harder gear with a lower cadence to keep any level of speed going. I tried not to look at my speed too often. But, when I did, it was usually 16-18 mph, not the 19-21 mph that I was planning. Each 5 miles was marked on the road and each one came with a hope that we would turn out of the wind soon. That never really seemed to happen. We had a few short legs where the wind was at our back. I got up to 24 mph a couple times. But, it sure didn’t feel like half the ride was with the wind, it felt more like 10 percent. I got out of my seat and rode standing up for short stinks to get up some speed and to try to calm my hamstrings, which were really hurting. I tried to do that at least once every 5 miles, sometimes more. In the second half of the ride, the wind was still in our face. In one particularly tough stretch I looked at my computer and I was riding 13.5 mph, on level ground! Very frustrating. Eventually, I did reach mile 56 and hopped off my bike and back into the transition area. Transition two was also no problem. I felt like I had not over extended myself on the bike. So, the big question was how my legs would hold up. They had been hurting for weeks prior to the race causing me to take a lot of time off running and actually consider skipping the race this year. I smiled to Ellen and the kids and off I went. My hamstrings and my lower back really hurt, but I was moving along at a reasonable race. By the mile 3 mark, I stopped at the port-a-john (it is a 6 hour race after all, and I had already finished 5 large water bottles) and I also stopped to stretch my legs and back a little. That really helped and it was my only stop during the 13.1 mile run. I did walk while I drank water at each stop, but immediately started running again. I knew that my wave had entered the water at 8AM. I also knew that I started my run before noon. So, if I could keep a 9 minute mile pace, I would break 6 hours, which was a reasonable goal for me this year. It seemed that my splits put me right at 9 minutes per mile, including the water stops. So, I kept to that pace through the half way point. By the half way point I really felt I could pick up the pace, so I did pick it up for the next 3 miles. I was getting blisters, but luckily they weren’t hurting enough to make me want to stop and check them out. As an aside, I certainly know better than to wear a brand new pair of shoes for a race like this, but sometimes circumstances require it. I realized last week, that my old shoes were quite possibly the cause of some knee problems I was having. I bought new shoes but only ran 2 miles in them because I was trying to take a week off of running prior to the race to get my legs to feel better. Anyway, in hindsight, wearing the new shoes was the right call because I had zero knee pain. But, I did get blisters for not figuring out sooner that I needed new shoes. I continued to feel decent and picked the pace up again at mile 9. I actually ran an 8 minute mile on that one. I plugged along for the last couple miles and passed a number of people who were really struggling, many were walking. I crossed the finish line at a fast pace (not a sprint) and felt pretty good at the finish. As I like to say, “no ambulances involved”. My game plan had been to hold back a bit and try to have fun with the race. I stuck to the plan and it worked. My time was 5:51:51 and I felt tired but fine at the finish. For someone thinking about doing a Half IronMan, I continue to recommend EagleMan. It is super-professionally run and very exciting. The winners this year were Chris Leigh, the guy in the Gatorade commercial, and Natasha Badmann, a three-time winner. They are both among the top distance triathletes in the world. |
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