I headed back home without completing my training for the day and pulled it apart to see if I can fix it. I had bent the spring so I was out of luck. I tried the local specialized store but as with all bike shops in my area they don't stock the TT range so no spare parts. I had no way to fix it and didn't know what to do. I decided that I would just have to make sure I didn't use the front brake. I mean its a race so I shouldn't be braking anyway.
With that small set back as sorted as it was going to get I waited for Adam to show up and we went to check-in the bikes and go through the registration process. Getting there a little before rego time we had a chance to look through the ironman store. I had a feeling that if I didn't get my shopping done that day I would not have a chance on race day. I found some cool stuff. They had towels and shirts with all the competitors name printed on them so never having my name on a shirt or towel I thought that I better get those.
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| The names are in the m-dot logo |
After we registered we racked our bikes. I don't know what it is with some people but they just don't have any real care about how they rack their bikes and how it will affect other people. The girl across from me racked her bike so it was basically sticking out my side and my bike no matter how I positioned it would not fit. A quick chat to the marshal and they swapped her bike around. While not required we thought that we would take the transition tour. It gave us something to do. I knew I would not be winning so I knew I could just follow the crowd on the day. With that complete we headed over to see the compulsory race brief video and then looked through more of the expo. After that we went home to relax and make sure we were sorted for the race.
Race day was an early start. We were up by 3:45am. Having to be there by 5am we needed to be on the road by 4:10am. That makes it a hard day to begin with. But it does give you time to have something to eat and know it will be digested before the race starts. Lucky we left close to the time we wanted as just before the entrance we hit traffic. Loads of it. Everyone trying to get in. While it was moving reasonably time was ticking away. We only have until 5:45am when transition would close to get our setup complete. We made it in there but didn't have long and time seemed to fly by. Before I knew it they were pushing us to leave. Lucky I have everything sorted. All I needed now was to drop my bag off and have one last bathroom stop before heading to the start line. Yeah I should have done that earlier also. Damn line was long. Because of that I just made it in time for Adams start group. They were already in the water and moving to start position. I knew I was 22min behind is group so I had time to warm up still. No rush. They moved through the groups reasonably fast and before I know it I was in the water waiting for my start.
I don't know what happened but 30 seconds before our start there was a call for assistance and a rush of people to help someone in our group. I didn't get to see much apart from them pulling him into the boat as our race started. I guess the race waits for no one. We were off. I held a nice steady pace for most of the swim. I was happy with it in the end. Yeah not the fastest I could have done but I got out of the water feeling like I had done a good swim.
In transition I could see that Adam had gone so I wondered how long it would take me to catch him. I had hoped I had taken a good chunk of time from him in the swim and hoped I would see him not to far down the road. Anyway I jumped on the bike and got into a nice pace. Not to fast but I could still feel it in the legs. As usual some guys came blasting past and others I caught. I tried to keep my mind occupied knowing that it was going to be a long ride. I started to eat my food early on as I had planned and knowing the day would be hot got more drink in me than I normally did during training. Not long before the first turn around I saw Adam heading the other way. We called out encouragement and kept going, At the first turn around I made sure I didn't use the front break and headed off after Adam. On my way back I saw Mike who had started 3min after me was closing in as he normally does on the bike. I knew it would not be long before I was seeing him pass me. By the second turnaround before heading back to complete the first loop I had not seen Adam nor had I heard him call anything out. Strange but it can happen. So I didn't know how far he was ahead of me. Heading back Mike finally caught me. Later than I thought he would so I felt pretty good. Actually I was feeling good about almost all of the ride. My heart rate was down most of the time. Sure my legs and hips had some pain by the end but then again I knew I had good pace. Finishing the first lap you get to see the crowd but its not long before you are back out and relatively alone. It did take about 60kms but I did catch Adam. I know I should have not been concerned with it but as always if you have someone to chase you will. Adam must have had a good ride for me to take so long to get him and yes his results showed he had. Nothing much happened for the rest of the bike leg really. Coming into the finish of the bike I felt a small twinge in my leg where I had experienced cramps before in Husky. I knew I had some tablets for cramps and took them as soon as I could on the run.
Transition 2 and I get to my position. I did have a space to my left where some guy had not shown up so I put my gear close to my bike on that side to give myself a little more room. Unfortunately I found the jerk next to me had his swim gear all over my runners etc. I threw his gear to the side and changed. The run started well but the temperature was picking up. I didn't go out to hard which made for a nice change. About 4kms in and the heat was getting to me. I started to take on as many fluids as I could but that gave me what felt like a stitch but not a bad one. So from that point on I was trying to manage my intake of fluid so that I could keep going on. I knew in the heat and the way I was feeling I was not going to run the whole way like I had hoped. I had gone into survival mode. I wasn't alone. Almost everyone around me was doing the run/walk/run technique. The heat had really picked up and I was trying to run all the way between aid stations and walk while I took in fluids. As the run went on it became slightly longer walks and a lot harder to motivate the body to start running again. I found I had a standard process at the aid stations as well. Grab a water in one hand, then grab the ice and shove it down the tri suit. Grab a coke or electrolyte drink and take a mouthful. Dump the rest of that and grab a water at the final aid table. Now with the two waters dump the warmer of the two over your head and then take a few sips of the last one before dumping that on my head as well. I don't know if that's how I should have done it but it was all I could think about. Having ice melting around your junk while running is rather interesting the first time but soon I was only thinking about getting to the end and not where the ice was. I did find that if you tip the ice down the back of your suit at some stage one piece will work its way to your crack and running with ice in your crack is not that fun.
One thing about the run is you did get to see other people on the two and a half loop course that doubled back on itself a few times. This can be good as you get to say hi but when Adam is running with a smile on his face and you are struggling you kind of wonder what you are doing wrong. What really happened is Adam was also having a great run. Damn him. Finally I made it to the last 2kms and really the final aid station I was going to use before the finish. I could see the end. I walked about 100m to the hoses they were using to cool people down and that was my mark to start running. I was determined not to walk any longer. As I got closer I could feel I was going to make it all the way without having to stop but I knew I didn't have my normal ability to speed up at the end. I just kept the same pace and finished it off. Making the finish carpet was great. Sure I was in pain but I was happy I had done it. It might have been ugly but it was done. I got my medal, took my shoes off and jumped into the lake to cool off.
While I know the full ironman is going to be harder I have been told we will not have the same heat which will be nice. :)
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