Amica Mid Summer Olympic Triathlon

Amica Mid-Summer Olympic Triathlon

July 31, 2011

Blue Lake Park, Fairview, OR

1500m swim, 40K bike, 10K run

Time:  Total—2:50:14

The train keeps on chugging along.  Race #4 in as many weeks was the Amica Mid-Summer Triathlon back at Blue Lake Park.  Second race at BLP this year and pretty much the same courses as the Rev 3 Half Iron distance I did 4 weeks ago.  I admit it freely; coming into this event I was tired and beat.  I was also a bit burned out and blah, blah, blah.  No spark, no fire in the belly.  I ached all over; I was sleepy and just kind of wanting to do something different this morning.  But as my dad taught me at an early age, I am no quitter and I aim to finish what I started.

This is an Olympic distance or “International” distance triathlon.  Pretty much universal all over the world, it uses metric distances.  I think these events are the most challenging.  With a sprint event an athlete can basically go all out for 90 minutes, hold everything at threshold and do okay.  At half and full iron distances everyone has to execute some kind of proper pacing strategy otherwise you’ll blow up.  But Olympics require a combination of hard core effort and disciplined pacing.  The balance comes in just how much intensity do you burn.

SWIM  1500m, 28:12 (1:43/100 yards)

I did this same event last year, same distances and pretty much the same course.  My strategy for the day was to go conservatively on the swim and bike and then go all out on the run.  So in the water I go for an almost 1 mile swim.  I immediately started drafting off of the feet in front of me.  I was going to draft as much as possible and keep things nice and smooth.  About 200m into the swim, my feet disappeared.  Better find some other feet.  But no one was around me.  What the?  For the first time I was hugging the buoy line.  I was right next to the marker buoys while everyone was a good 15 yards off.  No one was near me.  How weird.  So, I just kept plugging along and tried to stay smooth.

My swim stroke was not pretty.  I tried doing different techniques and visualizations but then I would have to breathe or sight or once a wave hit me in the face when I was trying to breathe and I gulped a bunch of Blue Lake water (ewwww).  Oh well, just keep going.  My swim time was about 1 minute slower than last year.  Okay, that is alright. 

BIKE  40K, 1:16:51 (18.6 mph)

I had a good transition time and got out on the bike.  The bike course is flat and super fast.  When I did the Rev3 I averaged 18.8 mph on the 56 mile course.  Today I would only have to go about 25 miles so I wanted to do about 19 or so.  I tried to stay in the aero position as much as possible and keep a high cadence. 

Ooooh, my legs are sore.  After 3 intense events, my legs are hamburger.  No power, no drive and they were already screaming at me.  Okay, so much for a good speed average.  I will just stay steady.

An interesting phenomenon happened during my ride, the odometer on my bike that I started in January 2010 was getting ready to turn over 2,000 miles!!!  Holy crud!  I don’t want to miss this, so as the odometer approached 1,999.9 miles I watched it as I pedaled and tried to keep my pace.  Well, talk about distracted driving, I drifted off the path and into the gravel on the shoulder of the road!  Doh!!!!  Good thing I have superior off road skills, the skinny tires were sliding and washing out all over the place, but I calmly brought her back to the tarmac and shook my head, “way to go, dummy!” 

For nutrition I guzzled my full aero jug of water (about 24 ozs), drank 6 oz of diluted G2, and ate a gel and 2 snickers bites.  Came into the dismount line slipping my feet out of my bike shoes and running barefoot into the transition.  My time was almost 6 minutes slower than last year, but the proof would come on the run.

RUN 10K, 59:54 (9:38/mi))

My transition time was fast, the fastest in my class by a long shot.  I am pleased that my transition times have improved, that was one of my goals for this year.

Headed out on the run, saw Wendy and she had made me another awesome sign!  I love it, she is so creative.

Ouch!  Almost immediately I had a bad side ache.  Ooooh, ouch!  It hurt badly.  Okay, time to dig into the toolbox.  I tried stretching while I ran by raising my hands above my head.  That doesn’t work, it seems to make the muscles cramp even more.  Maybe I need to slow down?  I was running at about an 8:10/mi pace.  Oh yeah, that’s way too fast.  I slowed to a 9:10/mi but it still hurt.

After about a mile of hurting I had to walk.  Okay, just 30 steps to assess what is going on.  It didn’t subside and just at that time a guy in my class comes running by.  Oh no you don’t!!!  I ducked in behind him and kept pace.  Okay, this isn’t too bad, we are running about a 9:30/mi.  Other than my side ache I felt fine.  I stayed right behind him, no more than 2 paces apart.  He would look back every once in a while to see if I was still there.  Hah!  This helped keep my mind off of the pain and focus on other things like race strategy.

At mile 2 we came into an aid station and he stopped to take in aid.  I wasn’t about to stop so I grabbed 2 cups of water pouring one over my head and slurping the other.  A few dozen yards down the path he came up to me.  He asked me what Ironman event I did (he must have seen my tattoo).  I told him CDA and he said he did it this year and last and that he also did Canada.  Well, you go then, champ.  He then picked up the pace and went on by.  I tried to keep up with him, but I was really hurting.  My side was on fire and now my legs were feeling like jello.  I had to walk.  Grrrrrr.

There is no shame in walking during a triathlon, no matter what the distance, but I was really trying to smoke the run.  Dang it.  I even thought to myself that I would have done pretty good if not for the side ache.  After walking about 2 minutes I was feeling better and then got back to running, but I could tell that it was at a much slower pace.  I was hovering around 9:30-9:50. 

I could see the guy in my class, with his red and white top, just up ahead.  Okay, lets see what kind of race strategy I can put together to pass this guy before the finish.  I had about 3.5 miles remaining in the run.  I decided to run 30 right foot strikes at an 8:00/mi pace and then 30 right foot strikes at a 9:30/mi pace and keep doing that until I caught up to him.  The first couple of rounds weren’t too bad.  But I checked my heart rate.  150!!  Oh goodness, I can’t sustain that for very long!  I think one of these times I should ditch the Garmin and HR monitor and do everything by feel.  I wonder how that would turn out?

I was really tired and really, really hot!  I had to dowse water over my head at every aid station.  I didn’t have my fancy cotton towel to soak in cool water and place around my neck.  One other problem surfaced at about mile 4—chaffing!  Remember by raw nipples from the safety pins from last weekend’s half-marathon?  Well, they didn’t like rubbing on my wet shirt and became so raw, they started to bleed.  In addition, I had developed some chaffing under the armpits on my new top.  Oh bother.  I need to some Vaseline, but they don’t have any on this course.  I would have to suck it up. 

Finally made our way back into the park and I couldn’t wait to cross the finish line.  As I ran by the picnic shelters I could smell someone barbecuing chicken.  Mmmmm, oh it smelled so good!  I had drunk both of my bottles of G2 (blue flavor) that I later found out turned my tongue blue.

I was trying really hard to keep my run less than 1 hour and sprinted the last couple hundred yards and barely made it in 59:54.  Oh brother!  The finish was anti-climatic, I heard them announce my name, but I was so tired and dizzy it was all a blur.  I saw Wendy and thanked her profusely for being there and supporting me through my adventures.

So I was a full 5 minutes slower at this year’s event over last.  I am not pleased with that performance, but given the big picture of my training (lack thereof) and the intense event schedule, I think just finishing in a respectable time is victory enough.

Next up is the Hood to Coast 197 mile relay the end of August with my sister’s crazy team.  I am looking forward to that.  Thank you everyone for your amazing support.

Mike

Lacamas Lake Half Marathon--July 24, 2011

Lacamas Lake Half Marathon

July 24, 2011

Camas, Washington

Time:  1:58:50  (9:04/mile)

Validation!  Yes, I validated my ambitious desire to finish a half-marathon in less than 2 hours.  Remember this was a goal of mine to accomplish this year, which I did back in May at the Eugene Half Marathon finishing in 1:54.  Then I had a disastrous performance at the Vancouver Marathon when I tried to finish a full 26.2 miles in less than 4 hours a month later.  I had not specifically trained for this  half marathon, I did it just for fun and have been trying to focus more on triathlons with the short season I will have this summer.  But I had heard this was a fun event and I should do it at least once. 

Wendy and her sister Maija joined me on race morning.  It was really low-key and we arrived right at the time when the runners were lining up for the start.  I had about 2 minutes to warm up and then get on the running track at Camas High School for the start of the event.  “Just 13.1 miles,” I thought to myself.  Sounds so ridiculous.  That is still a freaking long ways! 

My strategy was to run on feel for the first few miles and then see where I was.  In the back of my mind I would love to finish in less than 2 hours, but this wasn’t my big, high-reaching goal for the day.  It was really warm, the sun was out and we would have to tackle two very steep hills, one at mile 6.5 and the other less than a mile from the finish.  Whatever strategy I employed, I would have to consider these obstacles.

Things started out well enough, I got into a nice smooth pace and tried to just take it easy.  There were lots of people at this local event and I like to people watch, it helps keep my mind off of the pain.  So many people….. so many stories.  Makes you wonder what they went through to make it to the starting line.  Do they do this just for fun?  Was this the result of a dare from a friend?  Are they running for a cause?  Do they do this to remind themselves that they are still alive?

About mile 3 I started developing a sharp pain in my right foot.  Not something I had felt before, it was rather weird.  This persisted off and on for the rest of the run.  I still don’t know what it was, but my body was really fatigued coming into this event.  My body was trashed from the 70.3 triathlon 2 weeks prior, then I did the sprint triathlon last Sunday in which I went all out for 75 minutes.

Up to mile 4 my pace was about 9:25, I was still just running on feeling, not too hard but not too easy, either.  Mile 5 was a blistering 8:05.  I don’t recall why I went so fast for this mile.  I think this was a slight downhill and I wanted to see how I felt.  I didn’t feel too bad, but I still had a big hill to climb at mile 6.5. 

As we ran along the northside of Lacamas lake, we made our way to the Camas Meadows Golf Course.  Pretty setting, but here came an out and back route with a very steep hill.  I sucked down a gel just before the hill and guzzled some of my Gatorade G2.  I tried running up most of the hill, but it was very steep and my legs were burning and my heart rate was over 150.  I had to walk.  Goodness, would this tank my pace?  I got to the top and there was an aid station there, I doused my cotton rag with water and drenched my head with cool water.  I guzzled some water and started heading down the hill.  My legs were feeling much better on the descent and so I really stretched them out and just flew.  Nice.

Gut Check Time

I came upon Mile 8 and did a quick calculation.  The time read 1:15.  With 5 miles to go, I need to average better than 9:00/min mile for the next 45 minutes to make the 2 hour mark.  Oh brother.  I have already ran 8 miles, my heart rate has been around 142 for a long time, I knew I was getting tired.  But I decided to go for it.  I wanted to see what I was made of.  Am I an Ironman or what? 

My strategy was to run hard for the next 3 miles to bank enough time to permit me to walk the hill at mile 12.5.  We had just entered the Lacamas Lake Heritage trail.  This is a beautiful gravel trail that runs along the southern side of the lake.  I have run this trail numerous times and it is one of my favorites.  The trail is about 3.5 miles long.  I dug deep and took off.  Mile 9 was an 8:36, okay super, I just banked some serious time, but what can I sustain?  Mile 10 was an 8:33!  Holy cow!  But now I was starting to hurt.  The thighs especially were on fire.  Mile 11 was a bit slower at 9:12.  Amazing, I had just ran a 5K in the middle of a half marathon and it was a very respectable time. 

But I couldn’t let up.  I wasn’t done yet.  The looming hill still concerned me because the hill is about a half mile long and if I end up walking the hill, it could take 7 minutes.  So I keep digging.  Mile 12 was an 8:47.  I was really, really hurting.  I was starting to employ some self-talk.  “come on, Mike, come on!”  “you can do this.” “What are you made of?”

The Hill

Okay, here it comes.  “Yes!  Here we go!”  I put my head down and concentrated on good form and fluid, effortless strides.  “oh goodness.”  The hill was gradual at first.  Then we made a turn into a neighborhood and it was steep.  It was really steep.  Some of the neighbors had their sprinklers going and their kids had water pistols spraying down the runners.  I signaled over to a dad and a little girl to hit me.  “Ahhhhhh, woooooo!”

I was forced to walk, it was just too much.  I looked at my watch, goodness, this will be close, I can’t give up now.  I really amped up the self talk, started swearing at myself, saying stuff you really shouldn’t say to yourself, but sometimes you need to find motivation somehow.  I decided to walk 20 steps and then run 20 steps and repeat.  I did this about 5 times as I got to the top of the hill.  I liked this, it helped. 

The Finish

I got to the top of the hill, I could see the high school, I checked my time, I knew I was going to make it!  We entered the running track and I had just 300 meters to go.  I stretched it out and finished strong.  Yes!  I was so thrilled to come in under 2 hours.  Yes!  I saw Wendy and Maija and I was so glad for it to be over.  Yes!

So, wow!  I proved a lot with this performance.  I didn’t give up, I didn’t wuss out, I dug deep, I showed some good mental toughness and mind-over-matter techniques to get the job done.  Sweet!  I will have to file this away in my catalog and pull it out again if needed.

Thank you all for your support!

Mike

P.S.  One thing to remember next time, take note of the location of the safety pins that hold the race number to the shirt so that the pin protruding inside the shirt does NOT match up with the same location as one’s nipple.  Uh, yeah.  That really hurt.

Girlfriend's and Dude's Sprint Triathlon--July 17, 2011

Girlfriends and Dudes Sprint Triathlon

July 17, 2011

Frenchman’s Bar, Columbia River, Vancouver, WA

0.5 mile swim, 12.5 mile bike, 3.1 mile run

Time:  Total--1:15:49

The calendar reads 'July' but it was more like a morning out of April.  As I laid awake in bed I could hear the rain on the carports outside and the water trickling through the downspouts.  "Oh goodness," I thought.  "Why do I do this crazy stuff?"  If I weren't so dedicated to this new lifestyle, I would have rolled over, hugged my pillow, and gone back to sleep.  But if I did that, then what would I write you all about? :-)

It was a wet day and before the day was over, it would be recorded as one of the wettest days in July on record.  To top it off, the rain must have driven away some of the event sponsors and entertainment because there was no PA system in the morning and Tommy O's, one of the food sponsors, did not show so all they had was bagels and grapes.  Bummer.

But I try not to let things like this dampen my enthusiasm to push myself and see what limits there may be to my physical abilities.  This is a sprint distance triathlon at Frenchman's Bar on the Columbia River.  It has received lots of praise in years past as being one of the funnest events in the region.  I am coming off of a half-ironman distance event just a week ago and typically a person should take about 3 weeks off, but I need to get in as much racing as I can before Ironman Coeur d'Alene in 2012.  Racing experience, just like the training, is important so I can experience a number of things and issues that only racing can bring about.  Remember my forgetting the liquid nutrition last week?  Yeah, that's the kind of stuff I am talking about.

SWIM  0.5 miles, down current 10:53 (6th out of 33 M40-44)

One of the big draws to this event is that the swim is with the current of the Columbia River.  We walk a half mile up the beach to the starting line and then swim with the current.  Swim times are usually very fast and this was no exception for me.  Although there wasn't much current and the water was FREAKING COLD!  I don't know what was colder, Lake Coeur d'Alene last year or this.  I started in the Men 40 and over and the Relay Team wave.  After about 100 yards I looked up and I was in 4th place overall.  Cool.  But certainly faded after that since I was getting pretty winded.  The swim was pretty easy except the Columbia was very murky.

BIKE  12.5 miles, 36:28 (20 mph avg  9th out of 33 M40-44)

Came into transition and hustled up the hill and tried to be as quick as possible.  With these short events the transition time is just as important as overall time.  Although I had trouble getting my wetsuit off.  I was really dizzy and almost fell over twice.  I had to steady myself on the bike rack.  Got my shoes on, helmet, race belt, Garmin and glasses and I was off.

I started in the last start wave so there were a lot of people in front.  It was fun blasting by them, made me feel like a rockstar.  Whooooosh!  This was only 12.5 miles on a very flat course so it was going to be an all out effort.  Hold her at threshold as long as possible.  I could feel my legs burning from the start.  They were ragged from last week's event, bike ride to work and long hike on Friday.  Oh well, keep going.

I had just 2 people in my age group pass me that I could see and I think it was less than 10 bikes passed me the entire route.  I kept it plugged and averaged right at 20mph for the distance.  A first for me.

RUN 3.1 miles, 25:46 (8:17 pace  17th out of 33 M40-44)

 

Came into transition, pulled my feet out of my clipped in shoes while still on the bike, dismounted and sprinted to the bike rack.  Slammed my bike on the rack threw off my helmet and glasses and put on my runners and was out of there in 1:02.  Pretty good transition time looking at everyone else's.

Now to see if I screwed my race strategy or not.  Let's see how long I can keep my running at threshold.  I should be able to do a 5k at 140 bpm threshold and that should be about an 8 minute pace when rested.  I kept chugging along and while the rain was coming down, I could taste the sweaty salt from my face.  I was pretty hot and pretty tired.  Kept a solid pace and slowed to a 9 minute mile for about 200 yards, otherwise I was go, go go.  Just before the finish, two guys in my age group go whizzing by me.  I tried to keep up but after 5 steps there was no way, they were going a full minute faster than me.  Oh well, I'll get em next time.

Came into the finish and was happy to cross the line.  Great to see Wendy there waiting for me.  So awesome.  I finished in 1:15:49 a great PR for this distance by 7 minutes or so and was 10th out of 33 in my age group.

Amazing how I consider this such a short event.  I remember 2 years ago this was the BIG EVENT!  And it was, I won't take that away, but after doing much longer distances, this one was over about the time it got started.  I was pleased with my performance, finish and effort.

Next is a half marathon this weekend.  Going to go out and do this for fun, no real time goals, but would be nice to validate that sub-2 hour mark, you know? :-)

Thanks for your support.

Mike

Rev 3 Half Ironman Triathlon Report 7/10/2011

Rev-3 Half-Rev Triathlon

July 10, 2011

Blue Lake Park, Fairview, OR

Time:  Total--6:22:09

The Revolution 3 triathlon series is a popular series that competes with the Ironman-brand triathlons and draws top triathletes from all over the world.  This year they decided to have a Half-Rev in my own backyard in Portland.  With the new venue being at Blue Lake Park, the event was going to be flat and very, very fast.  And with my friend Scott doing it as well, I couldn’t resist throwing down my name and signing up.

Now, folks, if you recall, I have been training specifically for a marathon the past 6 months.  I haven’t been doing very much biking or swimming.  This is a half-ironman distance event (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 half marathon run).  Nothing to sneeze at, last year I did this distance and had trained for 10 weeks leading up to it.  I pulled off a perfectly executed race that time, but it was certainly the hardest physical event I had ever done taking me 6:42:19 to finish.  For this event, my plan was to go out and have fun, still execute a good race plan and keep a solid effort the entire 70.3 miles.

Race Day

Couldn’t have asked for more perfect conditions.  Beautiful sunny skies, very little wind and the temp were perfect for most of the day, although it got hot in the afternoon.

Shortly after arriving at the race site, I realized I had made a bonehead mistake…I FORGOT MY LIQUID NUTRITION!!!  Ugh!  I had my gels and snicker’s bites for the bike and run, but I didn’t have my special EnduroMax protein/carb/electrolyte mix and my G2 gatorade for the run.  These are very specially selected nutrition items that I have trained with and have dialed in to give me the energy I need without turning my stomach inside out.  Without these items, I would have to make due with what the event had to offer.  Two products which I had not trained with at all—Gu gels and Gatorade Perform 02.  I don’t tolerate sugar very well which is why I use G2 and Gu gels are way too thick and they taste like crud.  Oh brother.  I had many offers in my support crew to run home and get them, but there simply wasn’t enough time and I knew I needed to ‘learn my lesson’ from this bonehead mistake.  I would have to change my race plan.

Swim  1.2 miles 36:14

What do you know, my swim time was 30 seconds faster than the last time I did this distance.  Holy cow! 

My swimming hasn’t been the best lately.  I have done a couple of open water swims at the local pond and felt like I just flailed around in the water.  No rhythm, no gliding stroke, poor breathing, etc.  But I just tried to focus on keeping it smooth as I could and draft off as many feet as I could.

Before I get to that part, I have to tell you about the start.  Since I was going to be taking it easy this time, I started way in the back.  It was a beach start and after the gun went off I leisurely entered the water with the masses.  Well, this made for some difficult swimming because of all of the arms and feet and bodies everywhere.  I had to breaststroke/doggie paddle for the first 40 yards to get to some clear water.  Mental note to not do this again.  Whether I am going for it or just taking it easy, I need to line up in the spot where I always do and that is the 2nd row.

The swim went pretty well.  I was able to bilateral breathe for most of the distance.  I took it easy and tried to focus on form.  What is silly is that on the way back, about 300 yards from the finish, there was a dock that came out into the lake and for some reason I stopped and looked up and there I saw my mom standing on the dock about 30 yards away from me.  I waved and she saw me!  It was so funny because I don’t normally just stop in the middle of the swim to look around, but I did this time and there she was.

As I approached the finish, instead of standing up when my hand touches the bottom, I started standing and walking when the water was about waist deep.  I have been having difficulty with dizziness after standing up and I read that this would help.

I ran up the beach and to the ‘bag rack.’  Well, we had to run 4/10s of a mile to the transition area so they had a bag rack where we could put on our runners for this long jaunt.  I saw Erik and Wendy and it was so cool to see their smiling faces.

I got into the transition area, got my bike and headed out.

Bike  56 miles 2:58:21 (18.8 mph)

Okay so onto the bike.  The bike portion of a long distance triathlon is where execution and nutrition really come into play.  A person must properly pace themselves on the bike so they don’t blow up during the run.  And as for nutrition, a person needs to properly hydrate and fuel for not only the bike, but also for the run because it is so hard to process stuff while running.  Remember I don’t have my special nutrition bottles with me.  In fact, the only bottle I had on my bike was the aero jug between my aero bars and I had a little bit of water in there.

I have done 2 triathlons at Blue Lake (a sprint and an Olympic).  Both times my bike splits were about 18-19 mph.  After the first 5 miles or so, I could see that my bike pace was on fire, I was at 18+ already and feeling great.  I decided to keep chugging along for the first lap and then see how I felt.

My pace for the first 28 miles was about 19 mph!  Woohoo!  Very nice.  I was feeling pretty good and decided to keep up that pace for the 2nd loop.  Except we started getting a bit of a wind coming from the west.  That’s okay because it meant I would have a tail wind on the way back after the turnaround with 12 miles to go.

Everything went well on the bike, I got to see Wendy and my mom a few times and that was great.  Wendy made me an awesome sign.  I loved it.  As I got closer to the finish I wanted to come in under 3 hours.  I kept mashing and pushing and crossed at 2:58:21.  Sweet!  Now time for the run…. Oh brother.

Run  13.1 miles 2:40:25  12:15/mi pace

Okay, just 13.1 miles to go.  I remember when I did Ironman Coeur d’Alene I was cursing outloud as I headed out on the run thinking this was so stupid, to be starting a marathon after swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112 miles.  Well, I wasn’t cursing, but I was really worried what kind of shape my body was in.

There was an aid station right outside of transition and I stopped and grabbed some Gatorade and water and chewed on a piece of banana.  As soon as the banana hit my mouth, my stomach started cramping.  Ugh.  Spit, spit, spit that banana out.  Not a good sign.  I took off running.

Remember pacing is important?  Yeah, well, I didn’t pay much attention to that because I neaded out WAAAAY too fast.  The first 2.6 miles I was at a 9:28 pace.  But I was in so much pain.  My stomach hurt, my legs hurt and I developed an awful side stitch that lasted til mile 3.  I usually don’t get those (side aches) but this was a bugger.  I tried to push through the pain. 

At mile 3 I was in trouble and knew I had to get a grip on my strategy for the remaining 10 miles if I was going to avoid the medical tent.  I stopped at the aid station and chugged some water and Gatorade and ate pretzels and also a gel.  I must have stood there for 5 minutes or so just chilling.  I made a deal with myself, that I was going to run from aid station to aid station and I could walk/stand when I got to one and take my time.

I got to mile 4 and used the bathroom.  While in the porta-loo I got dizzy and thought I was going to fall over.  Oh goodness.  The heat was taking its toll and out on Marine Drive there is no shade.  I had a hand towel with me that I doused with water and tied it around my neck.  This helped cool me down a lot and I kept it there for the remainder of the run.

I kept the pace going, keeping it nice and steady until about mile 7 and then I had to walk between aid stations.  I walked about 2 times in between, but still maintained a 12 minute pace.  After mile 9 though I was really hurting and it was very difficult to run.  I had to dig into the bag of tricks to keep my min off of the pain.  I decided to count my steps, I walked 30 right foot strikes and then ran 30 right foot strikes.  This progressed to 50 and 50.  While running, I could easily do a 9 minute pace, but I just couldn’t keep it for very long.  And if I tried running slower I still couldn’t make it much past the 50 steps.  At a aid station I found a bag of Lay's potato chips that was part of some volunteer's lunch.  Well I didn't care and scarfed down the salty goodness slices.  Mmmmmm, I felt much better.

Finish

Yay!  Finally the finish!  A cool thing about this race is that they allow family members to finish with you.  So Erik was there waiting for me and we ran through the finish chute together.  It was really cool and Erik loved it; so did I. 

Wow!  I finished a half-ironman distance triathlon beating my old time by more than 20 minutes!  Incredible.  But I was really tired and depleted after this event.  It took me about 5 days afterwards before I started feeling ‘normal’ again.  Lesson learned---DON’T FORGET YOUR NUTRITION!!!

Thanks for your support everyone!

Mike

Vancouver USA Marathon Race Report

Vancouver USA Marathon (26.2 miles)

June 19, 2011

Vancouver, WA

Time:  4:23:44 (10:01 pace)

Sometimes your well laid plans don’t go as planned.  You can spend half a year training and preparing for something and things just aren’t in the cards on that specific day.  That is what happened to me on June 19.  Ever since finishing the Portland Marathon last October, I decided that I was going to train to finish a marathon in less than 4 hours.  Just something about a marathon finishing time in the “3’s” sounds more appealing than 4-something. 

So beginning in January I teamed up with my Ironman coach from last year, got a new marathon training plan and dug in for 26 weeks of hard training.  In the beginning, I was pleased with the results.  I had crushed my 5K personal best time by a few minutes and less than 24 mins.  My heart rate threshold increased (max HR I can sustain for a period of time) and everything was going super.  I even had a phenomenal half-marathon race finishing way less than 2 hours in May.  Everything was looking good.

Race Day

Everything comes down to race day and I have to say I wasn’t completely prepared.  I had done the training, but in the last week or so, I was not well rested, nor had I stuck to my nutrition plan.  Above all, my dear grandmother had a stroke in the middle of the week and passed away on Saturday.  My thoughts and energies were elsewhere, that is for certain.

But no excuses, I still had a race to run and I was going to stick to my plan and take it one section at a time.

This was the first year for the Vancouver USA Marathon and I was totally impressed with the energy, organization and whole experience.  They did a fantastic job and I sure hope this event grows in popularity because it really does showcase the beauty of Vancouver and its people.  There were about 3,000 participants entered in both the full and half marathons.

We started out from Ester Short Park in downtown and started making our way out to Vancouver Lake.  This 14 mile out and back was going to be the most difficult in my mind because it is rather sparse out there.  Not much in the way of spectators or things to look at.  But thankfully, there were lots of people out there cheering and I even got to see Wendy at mile 10!  Yay!!!

The plan for the first 5 miles was to run a 9:22 pace (my overall goal was 9:07 to finish in 3:59).  I have a tendency to start out way too fast so if I am going to err in this first section, then I’d like to err on the side of too slow because I will need that energy later.  Although starting out much slower the first 2 miles, at Mile 5 I was right on time.

The next section (mile 5-20) I would boost my pace to 9:02.  In my training runs I noticed that after 3 miles or so I started feeling great and could tick off some amazing paces once I got going.  So I wasn’t worried about having to bump it up at this point.

All was going fine until after mile 13.  We had to climb a train overpass and here was where I had to walk for the first time.  I used this opportunity to chew on some pretzel sticks I had brought along.  I was feeling just kind of flat at this point.  I was slugging down my EnduroMax (protein/carb/electrolyte) drink and some Gatorade G2.  Plus I had taken in 2 PowerGels by now.  I was just feeling depleted already and this was way too early to feel that.

Once down the overpass I was able to get back on pace as we made our way into downtown Vancouver.  But I was hurting.  Not physically so much, such as muscles for example, but just little energy.  The weather was very humid and muggy.  I noticed I was sweating a lot and could feel the salt on my face, arms and legs.

The Wheels Come Off

Miles 15-18 my pace was getting slower and slower.  I wasn’t able to keep the 9:02 pace but slipped to 9:18, then 9:29 and 9:38.  I looked at my pace sheet and I was just 1 minute 30 seconds behind at mile 18 and knew I could still make my time if I could dig just a little deeper.  But there wasn’t any gas left in the tank.  I had sucked down the last of my 4 bottles of nutrition, I had 1 gel left that I was saving for mile 21 and I just wasn’t feeling right.

As we rounded a corner on the north side of Hwy 14 there was a hill that I hadn’t planned on.  Mentally, I think I cracked.  It wasn’t Mt. Everest, but it was still big enough that I was wondering how in the world would I get over this hill and still have enough energy to get me the last 7 miles?  In reality the hill wasn’t anything spectacular, but when you are extremely fatigued, just lifting your foot onto a curb can be challenging enough.

I was forced to walk and here’s where I pulled out my phone and text-walked that I was at Mile 19 and was in pain.  I came to the realization that I wasn’t going to make 4 hours, but I still had this personal record time of 4:27 that I wanted to beat and I wasn’t about to let that slip away.

The remaining 7 miles were really tough.  Luckily the event had an aid station every 2 miles.  I grabbed some Gatorade and filled my bottle with water.  I was able to find a gel and slugged that down.  But what I really wanted was bananas, licorice and potato chips.  I find that in these long distance events I crave solid food quite often.  The marathon course to an Ironman triathlon is well stocked with all sorts of goodies and there’s an aid station every mile.  Some Ironman triathletes declare that they won’t do a marathon outside of an Ironman, I am begging to see why.

My pace continued to slow as I had to run/walk even on the flats at times.  I tried to remember some of the strategies of my coach like focusing on your “box” of things that you can control and take things at one section at a time, or count my steps, or find a mantra or whatever.  But this wasn’t working.  My thoughts were with my Grandma and the family, my kids that were at home, with Wendy and her being up with her mom all night, and a bunch of other stuff that just kept me from focusing on the event.   

Finish

One minor complaint I have about the event and at first I didn’t think much about it until just before the finish.  The mile markers were off.  The mile marker signs they had posted on the course came up about a tenth sooner than what my GPS read.  I didn’t think much about it because it isn’t uncommon to have some variations in the distance.  But when I got to the mile marker 26, I was happy that I had just 2 tenths to go!  My GPS read that I had over 3 tenths.  Well, my GPS was right and I don’t know where I got the energy for that ‘extra’ 528 feet.

My finish time was 4:23:44 and beat my previous PR by 4 minutes.  One would say, “yay, congratulations!”  But if I was shooting to simply beat my PR by 4 minutes I would have executed an entirely different race plan and I would probably feel a 100 times better at the finish.  I can’t recall what hurt more, the finish of the Ironman last year or the finish of this marathon.

It was such a relief, though, to see Wendy at the finish.  She made me this awesome sign and greeted me with her beaming smile and warm embrace.

So….What Now?

This was my “A” race for 2011.  The rest of the year I am going to do what my coach says, “have fun with your fitness.”  Which means to go out and do whatever you like to do… hiking, biking, triathlons, climbing, etc.  I have to stay active because I just love to eat.  But more than that, I love the feeling I get from having an active lifestyle.  I don’t ever want to go back to lazy Mike.  So this summer I plan to do a half-ironman triathlon in a few weeks “just for fun” with no time expectations, but just to have fun and enjoy the moment.  There are a few shorter triathlons that I’d like to do in the local area.  I would love to do some long hikes this summer to places that I have never been.

This weekend is Ironman Coeur d’Alene which I am volunteering for.  My plan is to sign up for the event in 2012!!  I have a 40 week training plan I am going to do that will hopefully shorten my time by almost 2 hours.  This October my sister and I and her fiancée are going to Kona, Hawaii to volunteer for the Ironman World Championships!  That will be incredible and is a chance of a lifetime.  I can’t wait for that.

Thank you everyone for your support and for your prayers and warm wishes with the passing of my Grandma.

Mike