got into arizona early friday afternoon and picked up my race packet. woke up early saturday, water is 67 degrees, i get to use my wetsuit today. I'm in the 2nd wave of 3.
I was curious to see how i would deal with the elevation (the race is between 5600 and 6500 feet), the swim being situated at an elevation of 6200'. my goal was to come in around 5 hours on this course, that would put me on target for lake placid. I lined up near the middle of the swim start. i had some significant issues the first 200 - 300m. i was unable to find a rhythm, i had trouble with my breathing, and wound up stopping completely 2 or 3 times to try and relax. after the 3rd stop, i decided i was going to just put my head down and keep swimming, breathing will happen. i found a pretty good groove, and cruised pretty comfortably back into t1.
The swim turned out to be pretty quick, especially considering my issues the first several hundred meters (0:32:26). out of the water, and i have the pleasure of wetsuit strippers (it's good stuff, i take the top of the wetsuit off, then lie down and bam, they yank it off the rest of the way). then a slight uphill to the transition area.
There are still lots of bikes here, that's a good sign. T1 went smoothly, ran out dropped my swim gear, adorned my helmet and locs, grabbed my bike on my way. The bike course was pretty hilly, and i was already breathing pretty heavy, so i settled into a decent pace and started taking in some water and nutrition (carbopro infinit blend). the hills started almost immediately, slight rollers, nothing too challenging, just enough to keep everybody honest.
the real climbing doesn't start until mile 40 ish.i took in nearly 6 water bottles of liquid on the bike course. the temperatures were pretty warm (mid 80's), and exceptionally dry. around mile 20 my legs started to feel better, so i picked up the pace slightly, and around mile 25, i hooked onto another rider and stayed with him for roughly 15 miles, then we got to the hills and it was time to start climbing. i made some good time on the climbs, and my legs were still feeling pretty solid. I took in 8 - 10 salt tablets during the bike, one of which broke on me, salt tastes really bad, and takes a fair amount of time to wash completely out of my mouth.
The last 5 miles or so i pulled back slightly and picked up the cadence to start preparing for the run. I came off the bike with a decent split, right around 12th place overall, 2:37:35 (21.3mph), slightly slower than i would have liked to see, but still on target to come in under 5 hours. the good news is my stomach is pretty comfortable so far, no nutrition problems. i had some minor troubles in T2 (some minor issues tying my shoes, but it's all good).
the first 4 miles of the run would have roughly 1/2 of the climbing on the course, and they seemed to go all right. the run started out fine, mile 1 was around 7:30 min/mile, mile 2 a little closer to 8:00 min/mile, after 4 miles, i was pretty close to a 7:30 min/mile pace. i was taking in 4-6 oz of water at every aid station, and 1 or 2 salt tablets.
At mile 4, i decided to try the hydroboom (the sports drink they had on the course). that sent my stomach into the verge of fits, i had acid reflux, and some significant sloshing deep down in my stomach (generally i get the sloshing right in the middle, but this stuff seemed to work on either extreme). i dropped my pace a little, to try and settle my stomach. in addition, my legs started to fade. damn i forgot to get some gels, they are supposed to be at every other aid station, so maybe 2 miles before i can get some nutrition in me. mile 5, no gels, or i forgot again, mile 6 definitely didn't have any gels, and mile 7 had no gels.
my pace probably dropped to 8:30 min/mile or so at this time. i'm still taking in 4-6 ozs of liquid at every aid station, and some salt tablets. shortly before mile 8, the aid station purports to have everything, until i ask for a gel, oooh, we are out of those. damn it, 2 more miles?? lesson learned, pick up nutrition before i need it, and always carry a spare. at this point, i'm pretty much overheating and dehydrating pretty good. i have been getting cold water dumped on me at nearly every aid station to try and cool down, and drinking, but it's not working real well.
mile 9 goes by slowly, at the aid station, they are giving out gatorade, which turns out to be more of that damned hydroboom, some fo the same effects. lesson learned, little kids call sports drinks gatorade, much like i call bandaids bandaids, regardless of what brand (see, i don't even know how to refer to them without the brand name) the run is starting to turn into a shuffle, i walk up some of the rollers between mile 10 and 12.
finally get a gel at mile 10, it provides a little help, but is hard to swallow with so little water. after mile 12, there is a bit of a downhill, and then minor climb then a short distance to the finish. i muster a slightly more respectable pace for the downhill, and begin to pick up the effort on the climb, to finish strong. probably need to work on better heat dissipation and more consistent nutrition during the run. the run was done now, 1:57:17 (8:57 min/mile).
time to start putting in the miles. lessons learned: - more liquid on hot days- more nutrition on the run (try 2 or 3 gels) stockpile these early- remember the boost before the swim next time- no hydroboom sports drinkthings i learned in florida that helped:- more electolytes on hot days- no accel gel
times can be found at: http://www.doitsports.com/newresults3/client/171767_201330_2007.html
photos at: http://www.fotojack.com/race/index.htmrace=950&sid=3fe1e998275804ac35adf85da6b6318d
(race number 128)
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