Okay, Day 3 is here.
52.4 mile run. I guess you can
look at Day 3 in a multitude of ways.
Just a plain 52.4 miles or 2 marathons or 4 half marathons, or what it’s
not, say 100k or some crazy distance past that.
Back in May, coach had me enter a 50k, or 30 miler for you metric
challenged folks, down in Laguna Niguel called the Whoos in El Morro 50k. I loved the race, the distance, the ultra
vibe, the terrain, everything. It was a
huge confidence builder for me, as well as the long run days and run camps we
did over the course of training.
The start of the run is about 4 miles from Princeton, and we
will basically take back roads with approximately 20+ miles of the run on a
dirt road to take us back to Summerland, which is right across the lake from
the historic Ironman Canada swim start.
We went point to point yesterday on the bike to Princeton, and now point
to point on our feet back to Penticton/Summerland.
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| Chilling out at the run start |
I woke up at 5:30 and I felt tired and not very hungry. Not super tired, just that kind of wake up
where you say to yourself, “can I just have 2 hours more sleep?”. I did sleep well after Day 2 whereas the
prior night was pretty restless. I ate a
bagel with some honey, some applesauce, sports drink, a little coffee, and I
think a yogurt. I could have used a
sausage mcmuffin. We got to the start
around 6:30am, and I weighed in. I think
I gained back 5 or 6 of the 8 I lost the prior day, so things were okay
there. It was cool out at the start,
probably upper 60s, so I opted to wear my arm coolers from the start. We took a few pics, they announced someone
had forgotten their shoes, and they needed a 7.5 men’s. Total bummer as he forgot his run kit
too. Someone loaned him some shoes, so
disaster avoided.
We got lined up at the start and since everyone was there,
they said let’s start this thing—it was 6:52; shoot, I wanted those 8 minutes
to get more nervous, and now we are offfffff.
WTF, man.
So, what were my expectations for this nice long run? Our plan was to run at all day run pace—just
how that would feel after Day 1 and Day 2 was a little unknown to me. I was going to target 11-11:30 for the first
marathon, and then 11:30-12:30 and hold onto dear life pace in the second
marathon. So, around 5hr first marathon
and 530 second marathon. I figured a runner
like me could be in the 10h30m to 11hr hour zone. The quicker the better. I got through the first 20 miles right on
target, taking in Gatorade and water every mile and a gel every 30 minutes or
so. I was running with Chad, and we were
going back and forth at a consistent pace.
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| TW Ready and Waiting |
One cool thing about this race is that you can have a run
pacer – thus the reason for future Ultraman racer Mary Knott from AZ and Team
HPB to be on my crew. During mile 20, I
asked as I passed her at the car whether she wanted the 32 mile option, the 30
mile option or the 20 mile option.
Without question, I knew she would take door number one, the 32 mile
option, and she jumped in with me at the next feeding zone. Mary was running perfect pace and we right on
11:30 pace. It was heating up,
though. I would never realize just how
hot it got during the race because my crew kept me cooled down like a rogue nuclear
power plant. Not that I was putting off
any stunning radiation or speed, but yes, I was generating some heat out there. Hey, don’t act surprised.
I don’t remember when, but the crew gave me my endura cool
towel (you’ve seen the tv ads—all the cool people and rockstars use these
during working out to keep cool)—it was an impulse buy the week before at
OSH. That thing worked great. I had it wrapped around my neck which not
only kept the sun off my wetsuit neck abrasion (it was very deep), it greatly
reduced my temp and the perception of how hot it was – 105 degrees by the way,
during that long afternoon.
Mary and I are just cruising along, and I could hear Steve
King’s voice as he had set up at the marathon point to announce where everyone
was in the race. We were probably about
300m away from the marathon point, when Rich handed me a gel, I took a portion
in, ran to the side of the road and tossed everything in my stomach onto the
ground. I heaved up a few times, and
Mary said, “that’s good, your stomach is all reset now, let’s go.” I turned and just started running again. We ran past Steve and he said my marathon
split was 5:09, just 2 minutes behind Chad.
Please note, Chad made his move when he saw me puking on the side of the
road. Cheeky bastard. My mile 26 split was a 15:06, which isn’t
that bad considering I was “resetting my internal systems.” I’d lost about 3 minutes there on the side
of the road, which meant I was very close to my 5hr first marathon split.
From here on out the crew bunny hopped us every six-tenths
of a mile. And each time we came upon
the car, I took a little walk break to drink and let them pour freezing cold
water on my arm coolers, head and endura towel.
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| Steve King at the Marathon One |
From there, when I look at my splits I was right on 11:30 to
12:00 miles except when I stopped to “reset” again at mile 30, 35 and 39. I was trying everything, first there was the
coke zone, then a reset. Then there was
the Red Bull zone, reset again. Then at
mile 39 I think I switched to the Mountain Dew Zone, a favorite of the darling
Hailey Chura. It tasted so good, and I
was sooooo thirsty. We had some good
miles from 39 to 47 with some run walk miles in the 14 minute to 15 minute
zone. Mile 46 was my fastest mile at
10:43—Mary made me work that downhill. I
kept hearing her say “don’t fight gravity, float down this hill”. Then, we hit the dreaded Mile 48—Johnna and
Rich had just left us to go up another six-tenths of a mile, and I really
started the “reset” process, but this time there was little to nothing that
came up.
That mile was about 18:02, and I felt so bad for Mary who gently
held me up each time while I was losing it.
I am really bummed that no one took pics of me puking—that’s something
to show the grandkids one day. Next
time, maybe. After mile 30 I was in
completely new territory. I’d never run
farther and in all the races I’ve done, I’ve never thrown up. Another first in this race was a flat tire on
the bike—so this race was full of all new awesome milestones.
Only 4 miles to go, and we could still hit 11hrs, but I
thought to myself, it’s now about survival.
If I get really sick or fall down, I could miss the 12 hour mark. At that point, I decreed that I would walk it
in. Mary reluctantly acquiesced. Very reluctantly.
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| "Towelie", Rich and Mary "Pour some water on me" |
Somewhere in the 40 – 50 mile zone, Richie ran with me, and
he had to tip a cow for fun in the process.
He didn’t have run shoes, and we gave Mary a little break to get those
images of me out of her mind J
That last 4 miles took forever. I got passed by a few people, and I didn’t
care or was too out of it to care, and I feel bad about that, but they were
shuffling faster than I could. In the
last mile, you make a few turns, so you can’t see where the finish line is, and
then it’s there and I managed to run the last 200m into the finish across the
grass. 11:29. Never been so close to a cut off in a race.
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| "We'll cross this bridge when we get to it" |
I remember taking a lot of pictures with people and race
director Steve Brown. Then I got weighed
in and vitals were checked. Blood
pressure good, heart rate good, blood sugar good (surprisingly), weight loss
bad – 12 pounds. Well, it was friggin’
hot out there and I couldn’t drink a thing.
I was now dying of thirst, but even a few drops made me nauseous. I was forced onto the massage table, and
while getting my post race massage, Darwin came by—I told him I was totally
nauseated. He said hold on, and came
back with a bottle of gingerale and said I needed to get some ginger pills in
me. What a guy. That’s what I love about this race. Everyone helps everyone. Richie was everyone’s favorite, helping Andre
with his tires, helping Rick cross the line after the run and getting the
medical team on him, offering sandwiches to runners and saying “ummmmm this is
good”, and helping other newbie crews with what they should do and when.
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| Cow Tipping in Canada is bigger than Curling |
I laid down on the grass after my massage, and I still
couldn’t drink anything. I asked Trophy
Wife Johnna to see if they could get me an IV with some fluids. Richie got them to come over and check me out
after they stabilized Rick, and I got two bags.
They told me to get some graval, a ginger pill that would settle my
stomach. I felt a ton better, and after Johnna
got me some graval, I slowly sipped seven up that night, but didn’t dare eat
anything. When morning rolled around we
hit my favorite breakfast spot in Penticton, and I ate pretty well.
Day 3
52.4 miles
11hr29m41s
2,700 ft of elevation gain
6,300kj
Day 3 weight loss 12 lbs
10th Place Overall (2nd AG)
Recap:
Swim 2:31:23
Bike 1 5:10:41
Bike 2 9:35:32
Run 11:29:41
Total 28:47:17
320 miles of fun.
Day 4 was the awards banquet. All the athletes gave little speeches, and
some crew and family members also got up and told some good stories. Things like losing their athletes for 1 or 2
hours, filling the water cooler with a garden hose, forgetting to put the car
in park before jumping out, and on and on.
Awesome race. Perfect
location. Too early to say if I’d tackle
that one again. Huge sacrifice in terms
of training time, family time, tired time, and the toll it takes on your
body.
My crew was awesome, and I couldn’t have made it through as
well as I did without you. Thanks Mary,
Thanks Rich, and Thanks Johnna.
Scroll down for more pics.
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| "Why does this guy insist on walking, it's a RACE!" |
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| I kept my cool the whole way. |
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| Less than 10 meters to go. I can do it. |
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| Not the Underpants Run. |
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| Dude, that is good stuff. Nice Ribs. |
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| Barney, one of Paul Nelson's crew, and a crowd favorite. |
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| No one said anything about public speaking. |
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| Steve King Bobblehead and Ultraman Trophy |
