BarryMan: UltraMan Canada 2014 Day 3 Race Report

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.


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.

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.

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.

"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.

"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.

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

10^th Place Overall (2^nd 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.