Leading up to the race I had my last week of tapering so on Sunday I did some easy biking, Monday some running at 8:20/mile pace for 5 miles to nail that down. Tuesday I ran 4 miles at the same pace. Wednesday I squeezed in a 17 mile bike ride in through the rest of what I had to do that day. Thursday was filled with driving 11 hours to get to Ottawa and get checked into our hotel. The city is amazing and I love how there are bike paths with a lot of people actually using them for running and cycling along almost all of the major roads! The traffic was pretty bad as we arrived at rush hour, but we eventually made it to our hotel. Friday I checked out the course some, but only rode on the bike path next to Colonel Bypass Drive where I would spend a long time on the next day. I ran through part of the run course and nothing real exciting to report.
The evening before the race I got checked in, went to the meeting and also ate my dinner which was spaghetti and meatballs. I probably took in an extra 250 grams of carbs throughout the day (not all at dinner) and kept hydrated with water during meals and gatorade between meals. I got to sleep around 8:30pm with a race time of 7:15am the next day. Woke up around 2am to use the bathroom and drank an Ensure to get some early calories in my system without hurting me by the time the race started. Alarm went off at 4am and I had a bagel with peanut butter with 16oz of water. On the way to the stadium I drank a gatorade bottle and ate another bagel with peanut butter. We arrived at 6am and set my bike up in transition, put my special needs bag for the run on the table (only had extra sunscreen in there but now I know what I really do need in there), and was ready to warm up. With the race length I only did about 1-1.5 miles of jogging to get my blood flowing and start the race ready. I turned on my watch with 5 minutes til the race and my heart rate was 120 while I was waiting for the start of the race.
My equipment:
Bike - 2003 Specialized Allez aluminum road bike converted to have bullhorns and aero bars
Shoes - Saucony Grid Profile shoes with 4mm drop
Me - Wore bibs the whole race with a race jersey
First run - 4k run plus T1 - 20:01
The weather was around 70 degrees at the start of the race and according to weather.com the humidity was 95% when the race started. It did feel humid, but my feelings were all over the place as I was anxious and nervous at the same time. We get a countdown and start from the finish line on the track of Terry Fox stadium. My plan is to run out at a 7 minute/mile pace and just hold that while not going too fast through the first run. There is one other competitor running that same pace so I just ran right behind him for about 1.1 miles until he sped up and that wasn't the pace I wanted to do. The first split was the 4k run and T1. In T1 I already had my biking gloves and sunglasses on so this was pretty basic. I changed my shoes, put on my helmet, put 4 gels in my biking jersey and started the quarter mile jog to mount my bike. Not sure of the exact distance, but this does not seem like an exaggeration.
180km bike - 5:50:39
The bike course goes up and down the same road that is closed off to traffic for a total of 12 laps that are 15km each. The race was set up so that different distances would start throughout the day so that it wouldn't just be the 11 of us doing the duathlon and the 32 people doing the triathlon version of the 226km race on the course all by ourselves. There was a super sprint, sprint, try a tri, olympic and half iron distances raced throughout the day. They were timed very well to where traffic was not bad at all. There was a night marathon that started at 5:30pm and half marathon at 7pm to liven up the run course as well.
I had a plan of taking the bike at an average heart rate of 130-140, but did not take into account that it is race day and I am also tapered, so it was a little tough to settle into the right heart rate. I rode the first lap, the course winds to the left and the right a little bit, but no sharp turns except the turnaround at the far end of the course and the turnaround at the beginning. It is right next to a river or creek so even when winds are low around there is some wind that you can usually feel and it didn't always seem to be in the same direction. The road had a lot of bumps on it where the road had cracked and my GPS had the course as about a quarter mile long, but every single competitor was on the same course, so I had to find my groove and go with it.
I did the first lap and my heart rate was steady around 145-150, but I was not pushing hard at all and riding right along at the pace I had planned. I knew my heart rate would be a little higher and with going by heart rate and speed as my only judges I made a decision and went for 140-150 heart rate and kept within that range, usually from 140-145 during the first 6 laps of the bike portion. I focused on drinking one bottle of water every 3 laps and taking two good drinks every lap of my nutrition bottle (1500 calories of powder gatorade, 180 calories of protein powder and 990mg of potassium). I followed that perfectly as planned. I took two gels, but my body did not feel right when I took them so I stopped after the second. After 6 laps I was at 2:48 for the bike leg and 3:08 accumulative race time. I started doing too many calculations and forgot to just keep pedalling, checking heart rate and knowing when to drink what. After my 9th lap my left foot started hurting on the ball of my foot. This is something I should have been able to find a solution to during training, but never did. All my long rides ended up with a sore left foot but it usually went away within a few minutes of finishing my ride.
Note to self - fix things that hurt during training.
I was still going along at a decent pace and during the second half of the bike I was going the same speed as the first half but my heart rate was around 130-135. With 1km left to go in the 10th lap I used the porta-potty just to give my foot a break. I took my shoe off while I used it and found out that I guess I really had to go. 3 minutes later I get back out there and finish my last two laps (plus 1km). My foot did feel a little better, but not great. I get off the bike, I am still doing alright with the exception of the ball of my left foot.
T2 - 4:44
I jog my bike back, go to my rack and someone's swimsuit and stuff is all over my section, but oh well. I racked my bike, but it took me a few tries to get it to stay (had to move the other person's swimsuit and it took the third time before I realized I needed to move it, lol). I took my helmet off, gloves in helmet, sunglasses in helmet, shoes off and put my running shoes on. Had some vaseline to lube back up and then put on some more sunscreen. I put 6 gels in my jersey and planned on taking one of them every 4 miles on the run and I was ready to go.
Note to self - when sweating a lot use less or you will look like a white ghost when putting on sunscreen. Also, 6 gels in the back of a biking jersey bounces too much while running.
42.2km run - 4:48:30
The run was 8 laps through the park in Ottawa by the Terry Fox stadium and then went along Riverside Drive to a road where it went down to the 2.67km turnaround point. There were aid stations right by the stadium, half way out and at the turnaround point. The aid station at the turnaround point had the salt tablets, coke, bananas, bagels, gels and chicken broth. All of them had gatorade and water.
So I started off my run wanting to do a 8:20/mile pace and hold it as long as possible with a slow fade. I started off the first mile right on pace. Miles 2 and 3 were 8:25/mile pace. Miles 4 and 5 were 8:35/mile pace, and things were going well. I took a gel and went to drink some water at the mid-way aid station and there were no more cups so that aid station was closed down. I stomached the gel and kept going until the aid station by the stadium and then I drank some water. I wanted coke, but they didn't have it. I then proceeded to freak out as this is where I thought they were supposed to be fully stocked with everything for the iron distance competitors. I threw a fit while jogging and was told it should all be at the turnaround point (oops).
Note to self - pay more attention at pre-race briefing.
I let that get to me and during my 3rd lap my pace dropped down and luckily my watch ran out of battery so I couldn't see how slow I was going. I spent too much effort worrying about things I shouldn't worry about and let myself start to slow. I dropped down to about a 9:00-10:00/mile pace here and then my foot really started hurting on the way back. At the end of the 3rd lap I went to use the restroom at the stadium locker room, went pee and gave my foot another break. After this for laps 4-6 it was just a disaster, I was running at a 11-12 minute/mile pace probably and just trying to get to the finish line. I did, during that time, figure out what works nutritionally for me though. Drinking 4 cups of gatorade (was pretty watered down) and 1 cup of coke every lap helped a lot. After lap 6 I came a little more back into my senses. I realized that I was still in 2nd place, and I wasn't hurting as bad as I thought. I did cramp a little in lap 6, but took a salt tablet and it went away. I then started taking 1-2 salt tablets per lap. Lap 7 I went from running 40 minutes per 3.275 miles to running 34 minutes for 3.275 miles which felt better. During lap 7 it was like a burst of energy that came out of nowhere after exercising for almost 10 full hours already. Then lap 8 came and I knew it was the home stretch, the pain came back but it was easier to run through it knowing this was the last lap. I came into the stadium with a full head of steam and just ran the last 100 meters through to the finish and got my 2nd place overall finish!
Final Time - 11:03:51
Overall, it was an amazing experience and wrapping it up with a morning breakfast the day after with awards was a great way to cap off a great event. The staff that works the event is great and with how the course is laid out you see a lot of the same people so many times that when you see them the next day it's kind of like you already know them. I do have some key takeaways from this race though:
1. Don't go in with a time in mind that you will finish in as the day is long and the weather/conditions play a bigger part in how you finish than in shorter races.
2. Don't freak out ... you need to be able to roll with whatever comes your way.
3. Fix your problems during training because they won't fix themselves in the race.
4. Be ready to change your plan.
5. Special needs bag is less about nutrition and more about comfort - it would have been a good idea for me to have an extra pair of dry socks or two, another pair of shoes if I change my mind on what shoes to wear, a towel and sunscreen.
6. Apply small amounts of sunscreen so you don't turn into a mess.
7. With aluminum you feel every bump over 112 miles.
8. My aero position on the bike isn't all that aero ... think it is time for a real tri/tt bike.
9. As my wife stated, I need to run more. :)
Race pictures and a video of the finish line here (first 4 pics are of someone else, not me)
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