I haven't been as good about posting the last two month. Far to much going on between training and switching jobs.I raced the Tupper Lake Tinman last Sunday which was the last big training event before our taper started for Ironman. Here is my race report and a few pics from the event.
It’s been 8 days since Tupper and with Ironman looming my mind has been racing. For peace of mind, I can’t procrastinate writing this race report any longer…
For the most part my Tupper Lake ½ Ironman seemed uneventful – that is until I had an opportunity to reflect upon the experience and what mentally was going through my head.
Sunday, June 22nd - Drop off Little Miss G… at TOGA for a tune-up. After the 100 mile ride she was dirty so I figured they could clean and tune her up for Tupper Lake. Besides for being tuned-up and cleaned I wanted TOGA to switch my wheels for Emeka’s race wheels and switch out the 12-27 he had on his race wheels for the 12-25 I have on my regular wheels. Why the switch-a-roo? Because I was trying to determine what to race Placid on. Simple… right?!$%^*& More to come on that at a later date and time.
Wednesday, June 25th – Pick up Miss G at TOGA so that I could test drive her with the race wheels Thursday morning at practice. Before bed, I top off the air in her tires so that I don’t have to in the morning.
Thursday, June 26th (the @ass crack of dawn) – Get up and put all bottles, ect on my bike that will be there on race day and head out the door. Before I left my building I notice that my front tire was flat. Crap! No time to change it now. I take the wheel off my bike, run up 6 flights of stairs and grab my other wheel. I wasn’t happy about this but at least it wasn’t the rear wheel. I put my regular wheel on and get to CP as fast as possible.
Perplexed at to why my front tire was flat I started to worry about my lack of familiarity with the race wheels. I get through the workout fine and all seems to be working (must say that the bike wasn’t shifting quite as well as it did pre-tune up but I chalked that up to TOGA doing the tune up and not Will from Road Worx). At the end of practice I ask George about the tubes needed for the race wheels since I’d have to contend with the flat tire on the front wheel when I got home. Really… how hard could it be… I’ve changed a tire before.
Feeling a little anxious about this, I immediately attempted to change the flat when I got home. After punching the spokes three times and cutting my knuckles each time, I emailed Emeka to see if there was some secret to getting the tire off the rim of his race wheels. Confused as to why I had a flat he called me and walked me through the putting of air in the tire since they were new tubes used only once. He made me aware that the valve on these tubes could be unscrewed in two places which could have been the cause for the leak. I filled the tire with air one last time since I couldn’t get the tire off the rim and left for work. The goal was to see if the tire held the air.
No luck… the tire was F.L.A.T. when I got home. Now what! I still wasn’t able to get the tire off the rim. Emeka graciously came up to my apartment to help me change the tire. Boy did I feel like a dumb blond. I’m happy to say that Emeka had just as much trouble with the tire as I did. Phew. We get the flat fixed and fill with adequate air and hope for the best.
Friday, June 27th – 6:00am up and at’em. Front tire still had air so all was good on the bike front. I had an appointment with Conlon at 6:30 since my right calf has been bothering me since our 20 mile run. At this point I wasn’t sure what was in store for me at Tupper. Would I be able to finish the run? Only time would tell. Since I was “working from home” I had the rest of the day to get packet for the weekend and chill out.
Before bed on Friday night, I confirmed with Heather our travel plans and told her I’d give her a call around 4:50am.
Saturday, June 28th – 5:00am Call Heather. Voicemail. No biggie, I figured she was in the shower. I hopped in the shower to wake the body up and then gave her a call around 5:15 to make sure we’re on schedule. Still no answer. Hummm… very odd. I call her home phone. Voicemail. Ok, starting to worry ever so slightly so I call Keri. At this point I’ve called Heather 3-4 times and I’m starting to have visions of her lifeless body on the floor of her apartment.
Keri picks up. Phew. Rationally, Keri assures me that Heather was more than likely still asleep and tells me she’ll call her too. Phone rings. It’s Keri. Still no answer on Heather’s end… Oh, wait a sec. My other line was beeping. It’s HEATHER! Thank God. =) I click over and apparently her cell was in the living room and her bedroom door was shut. Ok, only 20-30 minutes behind schedule. Not that our schedule was set in stone but Heather and I sort of wanted to ensure we made it to Lake Placid with plenty of time to unpack leisurely, prepare for the race and be in bed at a reasonable hour.
We make it to Tupper Lake by 12:30pm, pick up our race packets and then opt to head to Lake Placid because of the rain. With the team only meeting at 3pm for a casual pre-race swim we didn’t want to hang around in the rain.
We make it to Placid by 1:30pm grab lunch and then head to Northwoods. After a less than smooth check-in we were told that our room wasn’t quite ready so we grabbed our wetsuits and bikes and went down to Mirror Lake. WOW! What a difference a month makes. The water was beautiful.
Back at the hotel by 4:30pm we decide on dinner at Mr. Mike’s. Dinner was quick and uneventful. Keri, Heather, Suz and I talk a little about race plans and looked up other Lifer’s race results from years past at Tupper. Surprised that that the coached hadn’t sent out anything more formal to help us devise a plan for this race, I sort of resorted to the “this is just another workout” attitude.
Sunday, June 29th – Race Day
Heather and I were up at 4:30am and ready to roll in record time. We were on the road by 5:15am and in Tupper no later that 6am. We had plenty of time to get our stuff to transition, come up with a way to guard our running shoes from rain and visit the Port-O-Jon numerous times.
I was surprisingly calm! Before Timberman, I was a ball of nerves. What was going on? Hummm… could it be that the distances we were going were so familiar? Oh well. It was just another workout. Right?
I headed over to the swim start with Keri, Heather and Jim and jump in the water quickly to acclimate to the water temperature. The water was nice. Not too cold so I didn’t have to worry about the frigid water panic attack.
We coral into our age group and watch the first two waves head off. Ok… it’s my turn. Into the water the 30-34 males and females go. I position myself up at the front to claim my space. The first buoy is pretty visible so this is where I’ll head to first. The gun goes off and we start swimming. There was nothing really overwhelming about the this swim start but mentally I make myself aware of where people are around me and what they are doing. Mistake. I start to panic. What the “F”! I’m now breathing every stroke. Crap. I calm myself down and focus on long strokes and gliding through the water. The buoys aren’t as easy to see as I thought they were going to be so I follow the crowd. By the time I made it to the turnaround, I was hoping to have found my swimming rhythm. Not so much. Getting from buoy to buoy took much more energy than I anticipated. I swam as far as I could to shore before standing up and starting to peal off my wetsuit. By the time I made it to land I was glad to be done. It wasn’t an awful swim but it didn’t feel great either.
Official Time - 35:26 – 100m splits 2:58
I get back to transition, struggle with getting my wetsuit off my calves and hope that the volunteers on race day don’t have any issues stripping my wetsuit off of me. Socks, bike shoes, headband, helmet, sunglasses… check! Grab bike and off I go.
My heart rate feels high. The numbers are blinking on my HRM so I know that my heart rate is above 160. Ok… focus. Breath. This is just a workout I tell myself. I try to settle in but never get 100% comfortable on my bike. Everything seemed very laborious. Mentally where was I? I pass the first Aid/Water Station. I didn’t give much thought to grabbing water because it didn’t appear that I needed any. My watch was programmed to beep every 15 minutes to remind me to eat/drink. To the best of my ability I drank my nutrition when the course profile allowed me to.
My bike nutrition plan was my Infinite which was 917 calories. Note – this was my second time using it. The first time I used the Infinite was for the 100 mile ride I did the Sunday prior and it seemed to work well then.
I tried to keep my eyes on people in front of me and use them to pull me forward but every time I hit a hill I felt I was getting pulled backward. Arg. Batman needed Robin. When was I going to see Anne? Finally. I see her. She looks like she’s having a great time. Blah! Not me. But I keep trying. I get to the turnaround, grab a bottle of water and fill up the aero bottle. Wow! I didn’t need that much water. Was I not drinking as often as I should have been?
I keep riding and now I’m starting to see more Lifers. I stay as focused as I possible can and I start to anticipate those who are going to be passing me shortly. In no particular order… Scott, Parks, Bill, Philip, Adam… and Ross. As Ross goes by he touches my lower back and says “Good job… keep it up.” Did I really look good?
At this point I’m aware of Emeka and the car he’s driving. He catches me a couple time on film and my face feels like stone. I didn’t want to smile or acknowledge him. I’m serious and lacking any kind of personality. Why was this?
I make it back to transition and hear Stella yell out…”Katie, you look dehydrated. Drink some water!”. Was I dehydrated? Did I not drink enough? Did my bike nutrition not work. I only took in 80% of my bottle – 733 cal. The weather sure changed since the beginning of the race.
Official Time - 2:55:31 19.1 miles per hour I change shoes, put my race number on, grab my gels and visor and I’m off. Ugh! The stomach… It feels like lead. I grab a Gatorade on my way out of transition to get calories back in me since I stopped taking in calories around mile 40/45.
By the time I made it to the first hill I was walking. I had a cramp in the lower left part of my stomach and wasn’t sure if I was going to vomit or not. Ok… here goes survival mode. My mind is racing. Breath. Try to catch your breath. Lower your heart rate. I get to the top of the hill and start running. My plan is to make it to the next Aid Station and then go from there. Still not feeling any better, I take my HRM strap off and put it in my back pocket. At this point all I want to do is run comfortably. By mile two I take a gel because I know I need it and I also know that I need to practice taking in calories when I don’t feel like it.
I see Emeka somewhere between mile 2 and 3 (I think) and give him my HRM strap. At this point I know it’s going to be a long run. I start to think about DNF’ing. How does my calf feel? Is it ok? “Do nothing foolish”, I think to myself. Wait… what am I doing. My calf doesn’t feel great but it’s ok to run on. Why am I thinking of bailing? Because it hurts? Because my stomach doesn’t feel good? Well, this is exactly what could happen on race day. I have to keep going.
So, with that said, I take it one mile at a time. I could use a Port-Jon but there’s none in site and there isn’t any area on the side of the road for me to crouch. The next best option… pee on myself. Why not? I do it in my wet suit. So, hear goes. Will people behind me be able to tell? I hope not. So for the next 2-3 Aid Stations I’d stop, walk, pee and pour water over myself. Boy am I lucky to have holes on the bottom of my running shoes.
By the time I made it to mile 6 I was back. Ok, not totally back but back enough to run with a little more pep in my step. I see Adam Lake ahead of me and catch up to him. He’s not looking so hot but I get him to run with me for a bit. The trail running was sort of fun and a nice reprieve from the heat. I’m in the final stretch of the run and determined to catch people as I get closer to the finish line.
Wanting to finish strong and redeem myself from the first ½ of the run, I pick up the pace once I the finish line is in site.
Nutrition – I took 4 gels with me and ended up using 3 of them.
Official Run Time – 2:07:28 9:46 mile
Total Race Time – 5:43:39 A PR for a ½ Ironman.
Although I was happy with my finish time and the fact that I didn’t give up when I felt like crap I’ve had some time to think about this event and reflect on my attitude going into the race. I was much too casual about it. The race wasn’t just another workout. It was a test of the mind and body and I didn’t test either. I stayed in a zone of comfort for fear of failure and didn’t trust my training or my level of fitness.
Sunday, July 6th – Ironman is now 14 days away and I’m starting to doubt everything. From the shoes I’ll wear to the cassette on my bike. I went to TOGA today to have them put the 12-27 cassette on Emeka’s race wheels so I could test ride it and see if I’d be able to distinguish a huge difference in gearing.
I was able to wait while they switched the cassettes out and adjust the derailleur. When the bike was done Jose started to wipe it down for me as I told him my dilemma of figuring out the 12-25 or the 12-27 cassette. He looks down at my rear wheel and says well… that’s a 12-25 on there now. I say… what do you mean? I just had them change it for me. They were supposed to switch my cassette from Emeka’s race wheels to the cassette that originally was on Emeka’s race wheels which was on my regular wheels at the time.
Feeling like a total idiot I now had to have them take the bike back down and put the 12-27 back on the race wheels because they NEVER did what I had asked them to do in the first place. So, it appears that I raced Tupper with a 12-27 and then road Placid on Monday with a 12-27. CRAP!
Looking back at Tupper I’m even more confused now since I wasn’t aware that my gears were different. Fricken TOGA! Or more importantly Fricken Katie! You thought the cassette didn’t look familiar and that’s because it wasn’t!
Reflections:
- Don’t think… our movements are programmed at this point.
- Feel the glide through the water, the tick of the peddle stroke and the deliberate 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 of the run.
- Don’t trust your bike shop. You should know what it is that you’re asking to be done to your bike and be able to intelligently check/inspect the work done.
- Have fun!
- Remember why you started the journey.
- Don’t loose the focus.
While training for my Ironman people with whom I shared my aspiration seemed to have trouble with the event being called an Iron"man". The typical response would be ... "you mean Iron"woman"... right?
