Ironman St. George

Signing up for Ironman St. George probably wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done, but in retrospect, I'm glad I did it!  I've had my eye on this race since its first year (2010) when the cold water and brutal bike and run courses resulted in a very high attrition rate.  Since then, it's been considered one of the toughest races on the Ironman circuit - certainly the toughest in North America.  If I'm not mistaken, IMSG sold out in that first year - mostly due to the fact that the actual race course had not been released by the time registration opened.  Most people, I assume, associated St. George with the net-downhill, notoriously fast marathon that is one of the more popular qualifiers for the Boston Marathon.  Last year, it was the heat late in the day that caused a lot of the participants to drop out on the run course.  So, the swim can be cold, the bike is very hilly with the potential for wind, and the run can be hot and hilly.  Great.  Actually, we caught a "break" this year and the run course had to be changed due to road construction on Red Hills Parkway, the tough, exposed section from the run course of the previous two years.  Given that this race has been scheduled for the first weekend in May - just three weeks after the Boston Marathon - I've never really felt that I could successfully race both events.  After participating in both races this year, I think I confirmed that.

I signed up this year for two reasons.  The first reason was that I knew 3 or 4 people from San Diego that were racing, but the main reason was the new "Legacy" program introduced by World Triathlon Corporation, the owner of the Ironman brand.  Basically, athletes who have completed 12 full-Iron-distance, "M-Dot"-branded events will get a chance to race Kona.  I've always felt that it's conceivable that I could qualify for the race in Hawaii, given enough chances and experience in the sport, but this is kind of an insurance policy.  If I keep entering races in the hopes of qualifying for Kona and keep missing, at least I'm working towards the goal along the way.  So, long story short:  I finished.  3 down, 9 to go.  The End.  Okay, well maybe there's a bit more to the story.

Ended up with a pretty sweet place for the weekend!

After signing up for the race, I did a bit of research on local vacation rentals and ended up renting a condo to share with my friends Conrad and Eric.  It turned out to be a pretty nice place - perfect location, close to the expo and T2/finish area and plenty of space for us to spread out, considering all of our bikes and gear.  Conrad and I drove up together on Wednesday and made it to town with just enough time to unload our bikes and gear and cruise through registration / packet-pickup at the Dixie Center.

Nice swag - event backpacks!

 After registration - and a quick trip through the Ironman store for the standard visor and water bottle purchase ($40), we headed out to Sand Hollow to check out the water.  I was a little worried about the water temp - not to mention the fact that I had done exactly one 2-mile swim this year - but it wasn't bad at all.  The water was calm and warmer than the ocean we'd been swimming in - definitely warmer than it was in Oceanside for the 70.3 at the end of March.  We paddled around for a bit, swam from buoy to buoy for a while and then called it a day.  We grabbed a bite at a local Mexican restaurant before heading back to the condo. Jen and Eric arrived sometime late at night.

Not much going on at Sand Hollow at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday

We went back out to Sand Hollow on Thurs for another swim.  I finally started to feel competent in the water and we went out and around the small island in the middle of the swim course.  On the way back, I decided to finish with a continuous effort at race pace to get a feel for what I was in for.  I probably pushed a little harder than IM pace for me, but it was a good confidence builder.  When I hit the shore, I took of my wetsuit and went back in with just tri shorts.  Brr.  Cold, but not horrible.  I lasted about 5-10 minutes and that was it.

After the swim, we drove the bike course, stopping in Veyo for lunch and to ride some of the more notorious hills out on the "loop".  It was windy!  So much so, that I decided to swap out the front wheel from a 9.0 to a 5.0 - until we later saw a forecast that called for much milder winds on race day (hah!).  Thankfully, I had left the disc (and the 11-23 rear cassette) at home, so I settled on the 9.0 front and rear. 53/39 and 11-28.

The view from our condo - out towards the "loop" portion of the bike course.

Back out to Sand Hollow for a third time on Friday for a quick 20/20/20 workout before bike check. I ended up skipping the swim since I had just swam 3 of the last 4 days and put in a pretty good effort on Thurs.  I figured the rest would do me good and I liked where I was at, mentally, after feeling fast in the water in the last swim.  The wind was picking up I just didn't like the idea of jumping in the cold, choppy water and having to deal with the whole wetsuit thing again.  So I just rode out-and-back and then ran along the reservoir.  The wind was blowing pretty hard on the way out, which would be the direction of the first, shorter leg of the swim course.  If the wind picked up, at least it seemed like we would have it at our backs for the long leg.

Me and Eric heading to bike check.

After shoveling the last of the hay into the barn (which made a grand total of not much hay), we checked our bikes and gear, drove back to town to check run gear and then hunkered down at the condo for the eve, munching on chips and salsa before an early pasta dinner.  Tried to get to sleep as early as possible, but there wasn't much sleep to be had.

Was up before the 3:30 alarm and had a quick cup of coffee.  Made a big bowl of oatmeal, but didn't have much appetite (still full from night before, I guess).  Headed out at 4 to drop special needs bags and catch the shuttle.  We were loaded up and on our way to Sand Hollow a little after 4:30.  Pumped up tires, stocked bike and made multiple trips to the porta-potty.  Around 6:15 we got suited up, dropped Morning Clothes and headed to the swim start.

Waiting for the swim start.

The swim started out fine.  With "only" 1,400 starters, I think it made for less contact than most IM swims.  We had a pretty good current helping us (and a good pack draft) for the first short leg out to the first turn buoy and I felt pretty good.  It started getting choppier near the turn and, like many others, I thought it was the water safety crafts churning up the water.  I hit the red turn buoy and it became apparent that the chop was not due to boat traffic.  I breathe every stroke left and I had to time my breathing so as not to swallow water.  I just really tried to focus on swimming straight and sighting at crests to spot the next buoy - no way did I want to start swimming off course!

The water looked a little different on race day

Plan on 3 things to go wrong in Ironman, right? Well, here was the first. Unexpected wind chop. When discussing the possibility for wind with locals prior to the race, it seemed we might have to fight wind on the first short leg and then it would be helping us for the entire long leg back towards the finish.  Of course, here on race day, the winds picked up from the opposite direction and we would have to fight the chop for the bulk of the swim.  Fortunately for me, this played right into my swimming "strengths".  While by no means am I a fast swimmer, I do most (if not all) of my swimming in the open ocean and actually enjoy rough water.  For me, swimming is pretty boring, mostly, and find it much more interesting when the water has some texture.  Couple that with my short, choppy stroke and, while I'm still slow, I'm not penalized as much as "gliders" when the waves pick up.

I just focused on punching through the waves and figured I should try to power through the swim with as much energy as possible or it could be a long day out there.

Even though I was enjoying the swim, I was a bit worried about missing the cutoff.  I had a stopwatch, but I never stopped to check.  I just figured that any time I spent NOT swimming would be time going backwards.  Checking the time wasn't going to get me there any faster anyway.  I just tried to stay as streamlined as possible, crest, breath, sight, repeat.  The buoys were getting blown all over the place, so I kept an eye on the island, knowing we had to go around it.  I hit some buoys right on with my left shoulder, while some were way over to the right - it didn't make sense.  When I rounded the last turn buoy I could see why, the line to the anchor was angling off to the right.  The buoys were definitely on the move.  Fortunately, there were still a few water safety kayakers and paddlers lining the course on the left, directing traffic, so I just picked out a line to the finish.  The current was now almost helping with a cross-tailwind.  It wasn't long before I could hear the announcer and see the bottom.  I kept swimming until I touched the bottom with my stroke.



Out of the water and checked the watch - 1:18!  I'll take it.  Had no idea where the swim finish timing mat was, so I just hit my split running up the boat ramp.  There were wetsuit strippers right around the corner.  I made eye contact with one of them and he helped me get my suit off and around my waist.  I dropped down to the ground and a couple other volunteers joined in and the three of them got my suit off, helped me up and sent me on my way.  Running through T1 to pick up my bike gear bag, I realized how hard the wind was blowing.  It was howling!  And it was cold.  Grabbed my bag (good thing about my 1150 number was I was at the end of a section of bags - very easy to find) and into the change tent.

Swim - 1:19:06

Pretty quick change in the tent.  Not much to do. Empty out gear bag and stuff it with wetsuit, cap and goggles.  Bike shoes (couldn't leave them on the pedals at this race) and helmet on - run out with sunglasses and race belt.  Got them on by the time I got to my rack.  Skipped sunscreen on the way out (bad call), grabbed my bike and ran out.

T1 - 3:45

The bike.  Oh man.  By far, the most difficult ride I have ever done.  Mostly due to the wind.  So much for the forecast of 9 mph with gusts to 15.  Rumor has it we had 25-30 mile winds with gusts up to 40.  It was brutal.  Riding out of Sand Hollow, I quickly spun through my gears and I thought something was wrong.  I was going down a moderate hill, sure, but no way I should be out of gears.  I thought I had thrown my chain.  I checked my Garmin and I saw I was going 38 mph.  Okay - the wind is at our back.  Right turn out of the park and bam!  Crosswind.  Downhill, going 18 mph, leaning into the wind.  It was about here, a mile into the ride that I realized it was going to be a long day.
I stuck with my plan to ride with power and tried to keep it between 190-200 watts.  I ended up with 196 - probably a little over 200 through the first loop and then somewhat under 190 for the second.  The wind was actually pretty ridiculous - especially on the first loop (2nd thing that went wrong?).  My mantra for the first loop was supposed to be "patience", but after a while it became "hang on!"  Just before climbing the Veyo "wall" for the first time, I threw my chain (for the second time).  This time, it wedged between the frame and the small ring and I couldn't get it back without getting off the bike.  Grrr.  Messed around with that for a while - it was pretty jammed up.  Finally got it out and had a few fingers completely black. That's what I get for making changes right before checking the bike.  Anyway, back on the bike and up the hill.  3rd thing that can go wrong?  Hopefully, that would be all.

I stuck with my nutrition plan - Carbo-Pro mix in rear bottles, water from aid stations in a downtube bottle.  Shot Blocks and salt in my bento.  Two more Carbo-Pro bottles and a coke at Special Needs.

The smooth pavement and tailwind on the way back from the first loop were very much welcomed.  I stopped at special needs to replace bottles.  Also made a brief stop in the porta-potty.  I started to push on the downhill and noticed when one (5-mile) lap clicked through at 7:55 - almost 38 mph!  I think this is where I finally blew myself up.  The first loop was tough, and we all had to expend more energy than normal just to keep the bikes upright.  I was dreading the second loop through the canyon, but by the time I got back out through Santa Clara, the winds had eased.  Who knows how slow I would have been if it would have been blowing as hard on the second loop.

Despite the lack of wind, the second loop was noticeably tougher and I started to become concerned a bit about my heart rate.  Normally, I'm in the 135-145 beats-per-minute range for an Iron-distance effort, with some efforts pushing me up into the 150s.  I used to stand a lot on hills and sometimes the additional effort would result in a spike to up around 160.  For this race, I really tried to limit those efforts (patience, right?), and sat on every hill through the first loop.  My HR came down considerably after stopping at special needs and the long tailwind descent, and after that, I couldn't get it back up again.  I thought my legs might just be too tired to push the heart, but my power was still pretty much in line with the first loop.  I kept an eye on it and there was definitely something wrong - either with my equipment or my body.

My first thought was that maybe I had done a good job of tempering the effort so my HR never spiked and it was easy to maintain an steady effort.  But I had to stand on the 2nd loop climbs and I really felt like I do when I'm at 160, and I wasn't even at 140, I thought something must be wrong with the HR strap.  Battery, maybe?

All I know is that from the bottom of the first descent, all of the way through the second loop, my average HR was under 120 and maxed out a few times around 140.  This is about 20 beats low.  Then on the descent, I was under 100 beats and there was one 5-mile stretch where I averaged 89 bpm.  By this point, my neck was really sore, I was sick of sweet, syrupy, chewy stuff and I couldn't wait to get off my bike.  I did a lot of coasting on the downhill and I couldn't stay down on the bars for more than a few minutes at a time, so it's conceivable I was just resting.  Didn't feel all that great, though.

Since the HR numbers were so out-of-line, I just figured something was wrong with the battery in the strap and I just focused on getting down the hill.

I was surprised when someone said "just one more hill" after completing the second loop, but it wasn't all that bad.  Up, out of the saddle.  Where my HR would normally be up in the 150-160 range, it was 118.  Riding down Diagonal Street towards town, seeing other runners on the course was a wake-up call.  Still a marathon left to run.


Bike - 6:51:45

Garmin Connect - Bike Course

I got out of my shoes a little too early, but it didn't really matter.  I hopped off the bike and handed it off to a volunteer.  My feet hurt on the run through the T2 parking lot to pick up my gear bag and I had to hop over a few rows of bags before getting to mine.  I was definitely not looking forward to running.  Into the tent and sat down.  Socks, shoes.  Garmin on.  A volunteer came up and said "let's get you out of here."  He helped me pack up my stuff and pointed me towards the exit.  I stopped quickly for some sunscreen (too late), and trotted out of T2, not feeling particularly spry.


T2 - 2:55

The "run" - ugh.  Running out of T2, my left shoe came untied.  I felt like crap.  I stopped to tie my shoe and walked while I used the excuse of making sure my Garmin was on correctly.  Soon, I came up on the first aid station and I stopped to walk, not that I needed anything, but just because I wanted to walk.  I took sponges, some water and some Coke (first race I have ever used Coke - was hoping it would be the magic elixir I've heard about).  Started running again, but gave up after less than a mile.  Just then, a friend, Ryan, ran up on me and stopped to walk with me a bit.  I was surprised that I was ahead of him at this point in the race.  He had been training pretty consistently and I knew that he had ridden the bike course in 6 hours about a month prior.  He's also a better swimmer and I expected him to be way up the road.  Maybe he was on his second loop?  Nope.  It was just a tough day for everyone.  He said he had a miserable swim.  At least he still felt good, though, so he said he would keep running while he did.  We wished each other luck and he went on his way.  The run for me was more like a long march through St. George - very similar to the last 12 miles of Boston, just without the heat.  And my HR was about 40 beats lower.  I'd "max out" at around 130, then walk.

I spent the next few miles / laps / hours run-walking, but mostly walking.  I was cooked, but cool.  My HR was still suspiciously low and I was wondering if I should stop and ask someone about it.  I figured they would just pull me off the course, and while I didn't feel great, I thought that as long as I kept moving forward I would get through it.  I'm surprised that I'm actually running in all of my race photos.  I kept eating and drinking from my handheld.  I swapped out my bottle at Special Needs on the 2nd loop.  Everything was going to plan - except for that whole running thing.  It was a bit disconcerting that I was feeling cold and avoiding all of the misters and sponges - especially when the sun was still shining and everyone else was looking for anything to cool them off.  I tried to do a few reality checks on HR by taking my pulse for 30 seconds and multiplying by 2.  That math was too difficult, so I gave up.  I thought something must be wrong with the device (4th thing going wrong?), so I switched back to my normal display and gave up on worrying about it.

I caught up to Conrad when I was on my last loop.  I had about 6 miles to go and we walked together for a while, running in spurts.  At some point, I started to feel better and was running for longer periods of time, albeit slowly.  Back up through town and the roundabouts I was running consistently.  For some reason, the uphills felt better than the downhills and I actually ran most of the last 3 or 4 miles (go figure).  Looking back at my HR data, my bpm started to pick up with the effort.  From the last turnaround back to the finish I was "racing" at an 8-minute clip.  The last mile (mostly downhill) felt manageable and the finishing chute was awesome as always.  As others have said, it's great to be able to finally make that right turn to the finish after passing straight past it 3 times.


Run - 4:59:26

I was cold at the end and was thankful for the space blanket.  My finish line catcher was nice.  Held my finisher hat and tee while I took a picture and walked me towards the Athlete recovery area.  I found Ryan who had finished about 20 minutes before me.  We were both a little shell-shocked, I think.  I don't think we expected to be out on the course for 13 hours.  After a while, Ryan left with his girlfriend, Mel, and I wandered over to pick up my gear.  I bundled up and waited around for my friends to finish.  Conrad and I had traded bike claim checks, so I loaded up both of our bikes and went to go hang out at the finish line and eat some food.

I really liked St. George.  The volunteers were great and the race was very well organized.  It's a bummer that they have to cancel the IM (due to low participation), but I'm seriously considering coming back for the 70.3.  It's drivable from San Diego, so you don't have to worry about shipping or flying with your bike and it should make for a fun, but challenging half-Iron course.

Finish - 13:16:57

When I got back to San Diego, I tested out the HRM to see if anything was wrong with the battery.  Nope.  Whatever happened out there was probably a result of leg fatigue.  At some point - probably around mile 70 of the bike, I was no longer strong enough to provide enough power to push the heart.  Thankfully, the winds eased up out there on that second loop.  It was probably a good thing that the run course was easier this year - having to tackle that hilly out-and-back twice up Red Hills Parkway would have been a nightmare.  Fortunately, that part of the race will be back next year.  It will be a much easier bike ride, but that run will be a killer - at least for the first 10 miles or so.  Where do I sign up?

Oh yeah, and as for Kona.  Hah!  Not this time.  In my last two Ironman races, I've been a little more than an hour (Coeur d'Alene) and a little less than an hour (Louisville) away from a spot.  This time?  Well, I know the winner of my age group was 3 hours up the road.  I'd guess the last spot went at about 10:45, so I was about 2-1/2 hours back.  In the previous two races, I felt like I came off the bike with an outside shot at qualifying.  Realistically, I can only really hope to run a 3:25-3:30 on a flat course (like Ironman Arizona, where I'll be racing in November).  I'll need to go under 10 hours at IMAZ, so I'll need to be off the bike before 6:30 has ticked off the clock.  With my typical 1:15 swim, that means I'll need a 5:15 bike.  On a course like Arizona, that's definitely possible, considering I was 5:28 on a hillier course in Louisville.  I just have to run well which means I can't use everything up on the bike to get the time I need.  At least I won't be out on the bike for 7 hours like I was in St. George.  And I won't be running a marathon 3 weeks prior, either.  Like I said, not the smartest thing I've ever done.

This is a pretty good recap of the event from the awards banquet:


Ans an indication of how quickly the swim conditions deteriorated:

2011 Season Recap

I had two goals for this season, the first being to qualify for Kona and the second was to win my age group in the local points series.

My best shot at Kona, I figured, was at the Ironman 70.3 Hawaii (Honu), but I also raced Oceanside, which is another one of the rare half-Ironman races to offer a few Kona spots, and was registered for Ironman Louisville.

I realized that I would be able to participate in all of the local "KOZ" events that make up the San Diego Triathlon Series.  In past years, I've raced the duathlon when available (not eligible for series points) or I've had conflicting events and missed a few of the events.  This seemed like a good year to go for a series AG win.

I also had 3 marathons on the schedule, Carlsbad in Jan, Boston (my favorite) in April and my first NYC in November.

Already suffering at mile 17

Carlsbad Marathon, Jan 23 (3:12 ~ 2nd AG)
My longest training run was 15 miles, so I knew I was going to struggle in the last 10k.  Well, the pain started earlier than that.  For the second year in a row, I started to suffer around mile 15.  Moving up in age helped my AG placing and I wound up with a nice little award for finishing in 2nd.

I decided to try something different for this race and carry my nutrition / hydration, so I ran with two handheld bottles of my Powerade Zero / Carbo-Pro mix.  One thing I didn't count on carrying was my heart rate monitor.  It was a little loose and started to fall down around my stomach during the first 5 miles of the run.  I took it off and carried it the whole way.

I also forgot sunglasses, but my friend, Karen, who I was picking up on the way to the race, had an extra pair and loaned them to me.  Came in handy when the sun came out.

XTERRA 15k medal

XTERRA Black Mountain 15k (1:16 ~ 3rd AG)
Hooray for suffering!  A tough course in Mission Trails: up and over the saddle between North and South Fortuna Mountains, then it meanders around before heading up the "Stairway to Heaven" to the top of South Fortuna.  Bomb back down the saddle and wind along the riverbed and back to the start/finish area.  There was some walking on the first climb, three miles into the race - and then again, of course, on the staircase.  Took a while to regroup and feel like I was racing again.  Took it very easy on the descent back down the saddle and suffered on in to the finish.

Desert duathlon podium

Desert Duathlon & Triathlon (1st & 15th AG)
After racing the international distance triathlon last season, I decided to head out again this year and race the duathlon.  When I found out that the the du and the sprint tri were going to be on Saturday with the longer international tri on Sunday (all events were on the same day last year), I decided to do the double.

Unfortunately, I came down with something on the Wednesday of race week and I was feeling pretty bad when we headed out to Palm Springs at 4:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.  The duathlon had a pretty small field and I ended up finishing 2nd overall  (I think a chase pack just in front of me ran off-course).  The first finisher was in my AG, but he was pulled out of the division to accept the award for 1st overall and I got to take the top step of the podium.  I certainly didn't feel any better after the race (or the next morning)
and was dreading the more competitive event to come.  The swim was tough as I was struggling to breathe and I was pretty slow on the bike.  When I got to the run, I was pretty miserable and slogged to a 15th place in my AG - about 10 minutes slower than the previous year.

 
SuperSeal Triathlon (2:15 ~ 4th AG)
The first event in the San Diego Triathlon Series.  Felt okay heading into the race, but knew that I would give back a lot of time in the water.  Swimming is definitely my worst discipline and in an Olympic-distance event it carries the most weight.  I was around 20th coming out of the water, but climbed back into the top-10 on the bike.  I picked off a few more people on the run, but finished just short of the podium in 4th.

Ironman 70.3 California "Oceanside" (5:02 ~ 52nd AG)
Still not feeling great about my swimming, I took it easy in the water.  At least my goggles didn't fog up too bad and sighting wasn't ever an issue.  Headed out on the bike feeling pretty good and with the tailwind, averaged 23/24 mph on the way up the coast.  Once we headed inland and then south through Camp Pendleton, the cross/headwind cut into the speed and sapped my legs.  I didn't feel great on the run and stuggled to a 1:39, my worst in 3 races at Oceanside.  I stuck around for rolldown, thinking I might have an outside shot at the 70.3 Worlds in Vegas, but just missed out on the last rollover spot from another AG.  Oh well, I definitely didn't deserve it.

Boston Marathon (3:08 ~ BQ-11)
Flew into Hartford on Friday night and drove to my hotel on Saturday after staying with family in Whately, MA.  Checked out Hopkinton and drove the course into Boston to register.  For the first time, I was staying in a hosted house one block from the start.  It was really nice to be able to hang out around the fire with other Tri Club members and head out to the start about 15 minute before the gun.

I had been concerned about covering the distance as, again, my long runs were limited.  I only ran one 15 miler (technically only a medium-long run).  I felt pretty good through the first half, but as expected, I started to struggle around the 15-mile mark.  I maintained effort and slowed through the hills of Newton, but wasn't able to pick up the pace in the last 10k.  Once again, I suffered on in to the end.  The last two turns (right on Hereford, left on Boylston) are the sweetest in the sport.  I saw my aunt Jackie and uncle Russ along Boylston and met up with them afterwards for a ride back to my hotel.  I love the Boston Marathon!



Spring Sprint Triathlon
The next race in the series.  Last year, I raced the duathlon and finished 5th overall, 2nd AG.  This year, I fell off on the swim, but came out of the water in the top 10 of my wave, which consisted of two age groups.  I caught a few people on the bike and thought I passed everyone else on the run.  I was a bit surprised to see that there was someone else who had been way off the front.




Ironman 70.3 Hawaii "Honu" (5:05 ~ 33rd AG)
When planning out the season, this was to be my "A" race.  Not sure exactly what happened, but I came into this race feeling unfit and afraid of the run.  I had focused so much on swimming that I was looking forward to what I had heard is one of the most enjoyable race swims in the world.  I stayed with family in a condo and several friends were also staying in Waikoloa Village.  It was a short trip up to the T2 / finish area, but the swim start and T1 were farther up the road at Hapuna Beach.

Well, things took a turn for the worse as soon as I arrived on the Big Island.  After passing a few of my friends who were out for an easy run (and completely soaked from the humidity - great), I headed up to the Fairmont Orchid to see if I could check-in and claim my gear bag (I had shipped my bike through Tri Bike Transport and paid an additional $35 for the bag).  Unfortunately, my helmet did not make the trip, but, fortunately, I had decided to bring my road helmet along with me, just in case.

This was my first non-wetsuit swim and I wore a TYR swimskin.  There was a lot of contact - I was dunked twice intentionally (and then cursed) by another athlete about 200 meters into the race.  My goggles were fogged up the whole swim and we all battled chop and crowded conditions.  I still think I ended up swimming pretty straight and I felt good coming out of the water.  The bike was great!

Riding on the Queen K and then up to Hawi was awesome.  There was a nasty crosswind coming on the last stretch up to Hawi, but it was mostly a tailwind all of the way back down to Kawaihae.  I remember seeing the 40 mile marker and thinking, "Only 16 miles to go?  Cool!"  It did feel pretty hot on the bike at times and I made an effort to get as much water in me and on me as I could.  I also took in extra salt to help in humid conditions.  Still, coming off the bike, I felt pretty hot and my legs were cooked.  I shuffled along for a few miles, but before the aid station at mile 3, I could tell that this was going to be the end of anything that resembled racing.  The goal was now survival.  The miles miserably passed and before long I had made it to the long out-and-back stretch and on to the finish.

A disappointing race, when I had hoped to go faster than ever before, but I had gotten a bit burnt out from all of the early season racing and let the run fall off.  I came into the race a bit heavy and undertrained on the run.  The 1:48 was the worst half-marathon I have ever run off the bike.  I also missed the Vegas rolldown spot by one again.  And the rollover spot went to the wrong AG.  Again, probably a blessing as I didn't deserve to be racing at Worlds.




 
San Diego International Triathlon (1:47 ~ 8th AG)
Probably one of the most miserable swims I've ever experienced.  Fortunately, it wasn't all that long.  I think I was hurried in getting my wetsuit on and didn't get it up and over my shoulders enough and I was struggling the whole time.  I felt gassed before the turn and the last 500 meters were not good.  The bike was fun and I suffered on the run.  Having such a poor swim put me in a bad position.  I had hoped to finish in the top 5, but fell to 8th in the most competitive event of the series.

Solana Beach Triathlon (56 min ~ 6th AG)

On the bike in Solana Beach

Another competitive event.  After racing the duathon for the past three years, this was the first time racing the tri (although I did do the swim portion of the relay last year after finishing the du).  The swim was fine and I pushed the pace on the bike.  I didn't feel great on the run and for the first time that I can recall, I was passed on the run in a local sprint.  Not a great race,  but I picked up more points in the series.


Surf Town (Imperial Beach) Triathlon (58 min ~ 2nd AG)
A good swim, a bit of a struggle on the bike (following a pretty hard training session the day before) and a solid run put me in 2nd place in the AG.  The leader was well up the road.


Ironman Louisville (11:01 ~ 50th AG)
See race report on this blog.

Noble Canyon 50k (5:22 ~ 6th AG)
See race report on this blog.

Mission Bay Finish

Mission Bay Triathlon (58 min ~ 2nd AG)
Needed a 5th place to wrap up the series.  Turns out my closest competitor didn't even enter, so I had clinched before even showing up.  Still it was a fun local event and a good way to wrap up the tri season.

I may still enter some local running events, but I'm keeping an eye on the NYC Marathon and Carlsbad again in January.  More to come...

Race Report - Noble Canyon 50k

This was the second year I've run the Noble Canyon 50k.  My first was last year, when the course was closer to a 55k, and I finished in just under 6 hours (5:57:35).  The race takes place on the trails between Mount Laguna and Pine Valley in the Cuyamaca mountains east of San Diego.   This year, the start / finish area was moved up to Mount Laguna (last year, the start & finish were at the bottom of the Noble Canyon trail, at the Pine Valley Bible Camp).  I train out on the course periodically and I just figured it made sense to sign up for the race again.  It's put on by the San Diego Bad Rats, a group of Southern California ultramarathon runners.  Several of my running friends were signed up for the race as well.

 The Bad Rats do a good job with the event and the race is relatively inexpensive - good suffering-per-dollar quotient!  The elevation ranges from about 3,700' in Pine Valley to 6,000' at the highest point on the trail in Mount Laguna.

Last year, the heat was definitely a factor.  We did catch a bit of a break as the brutal heatwave somehow spared us on race day, but even with highs "only" in the upper 90s, it was still a hot day.  This year, we were all keeping an eye on the forecast and were pleasantly surprised to see the race day high posted at 71°.  At least it didn't seem like the heat would be a factor this year.  Still, there's distance, terrain, elevation gain and altitude to overcome - it would still be a challenge.  Add in the fact that I had just finished Ironman Louisville three weeks prior and I knew it wasn't going to be the most pleasurable experience ever.  But I wasn't necessarily looking for a walk in the park - that's not why I signed up.  I've found that long trail races are a good test of mental toughness and a great way to get in a very hard workout.  It's tough to simulate the experience in training.  It's just too easy to quit.  There were several times during the Louisville run that I called on some of my trail running training (from these very trails) to get though the tough patches.  Those long days on your feet really help me keep moving forward when things start to go south.  I've learned that I really can suffer on through to the end.

Anyway...I rented a room in the Laguna Mountain Lodge for the night before the race.  I opted to extend the stay for a second night.  It's only $80 a night in the "motel", although, I would have prefered one of the "cabins" that line the property - more privacy.  The accommodations are sparse, but they do offer a small refrigerator and a microwave.  I took Friday off of work (the race is on Saturday) and spent the morning packing up and making some pasta and salad for pre-race dinner.  I finally loaded up and drove out to Mount Laguna, arriving just after 3:00 p.m. for check-in.

The view out the back door of the motel room.  All of the cabins were booked.

Coming off of the Ironman, my endurance training was a bit limited - considering taper / recovery and then taper for Noble.  Through the summer, I made several trips out to run on the course, but the last 3 times, I had only run the 10-mile upper loop.  I did do a couple of down-and-back 20-milers (6 and 7 weeks out), to get used to the new course, but there was A LOT of walking going on up the steepest parts of the Noble Canyon trail on both of those "runs."  I figured that, at worst, this race would be a good training day, but I still wanted to give it my best shot and try to cover the distance as quickly as possible.

I ate an early dinner of tofu spaghetti and salad and got to bed as early as possible.  I set the coffee maker for 4 o'clock and my alarm for 4:30.

Trying to keep warm at the start.

Staying at the Lodge made for an easy drive to the start.  After a banana, coffee and a bowl of oatmeal, I headed out around 5:45 and was parked and registering by 6.  It was cold!  42° at the Al Bahr Shrine Camp, the new start/finish of the race.  After picking up my bib, t-shirt and goodie bag, I sat in the truck with the heat on and waited for the race briefing to start.

 The first part of the race meanders out of Al Bahr, through the El Prado and Mount Laguna campsites, and then across the meadow along Big Laguna Lake before dropping into Penny Pines and the top of the Noble Canyon trail.  I followed a friend, Brian, through this first part of the race.  He had also run the race last year and we had met up for one of the down-and-back training runs.  The pace seemed easy, but we were running right around 8-minute miles and I didn't really think I should be going any faster in the early stage of such a long race.  It should feel easy.  I had told myself that I would treat this race like an iron distance triathlon.  The first 4 miles would be the swim, the down-and-back along the Noble Canyon trail would be the bike (2 loops, 2nd much harder than the first), and then the last upper loop would be the "run."  The swim went just about as well as it could go.  I still felt great and I was running somewhere around 15th place.

This course offers some pretty amazing sweeping vistas of the Anza Borrego desert below.

After hanging a left on the Noble Canyon trail, starting the first loop of the bike, I slowed down a bit.  There are two climbs in the first two miles out of Penny Pines, and there are rolling hills to the Big Tree aid station at mile 3, but mostly, it's down, down, down to the canyon floor and Pine Valley.  My bottles were still pretty full when I got to Big Tree, so I didn't stop, but I knew a friend from our running group, Rachel, would be there volunteering, so I was looking for her.  She was the first person I saw and we exchanged a quick high-five as I passed through.  I really wanted to take the steep downhill section easy.  I knew there was going to be a lot of climbing coming up - most of it from mile 13 to mile 26 - and I wanted to save something for that.  I tried to keep Brian in sight, but he was moving much faster than I wanted to, so I let him go.  I was worried about what the pounding was going to do to my quads so I backed off as much as I could.  I met a few people on the way down (all of them were passing me).  There was Dan, who was going to be riding his single-speed mountain bike through the canyon the next day, Dave, who seemed to be keeping pace with Brian, and Jeff, who was also on Team Odwalla (and with whom I had traded wetsuit zips while in swim staging at the Oceanside 70.3 in March).  Another bigger runner came barreling down the hill and said he needed to make up time on the downhills and that I would see him again when the trail started going up.

The view from the turnaround in Pine Valley.

Sure enough, I made up ground and passed the one runner on the uphill to the old Pine Creek aid station (not in service with the new course layout) and started to make up ground on Brian and Dave through the rolling section into the turnaround.  I was keeping an eye out for the leaders as I figured they should be coming my way anytime soon.  This was the start of the part of the race that I had been dreading - passing 200 runners on tight singletrack.  Before long, the first runner passed me and I checked my watch so I could give my friend, Chris, a split on the leader.  Chris came past in 5th and I told him he was 4½ minutes back. Chris finished 4th last year, despite getting offtrack - ironically, on the same section of trail where we passed each other this year.  I started passing more runners coming the other direction and before long, I cruised on into the aid station at the turnaround, by my count, in 22nd place.

The trail makes it's way up the canyon.

Monica was there with my supplies and she helped me fill my bottles.  I was still good on Shot Bloks, so I was soon off and running back from where I had come, starting the second loop of the bike.

I ran out of the aid station right behind Brian and Dave.  The trail was starting to get pretty crowded coming the other direction and it was tough to get past people at times.  Both Brian and Dave let me go past and we started the climb up the canyon.

I missed the turn to the first creek crossing (not the first time I had done this), but there were mountain bikers coming down the trail and they let me know where I should cross.  I backtracked a bit and let Brian and Dave cross first.  I tucked in behind them, but I started struggling just then - not coincidentally, right where the trail starts the steepest sustained climb.  About 3 miles up to the Big Tree aid station.  I walked most of it.

Like a panting dog, I reached the road crossing just below the aid station and ran in to Big Tree, happy to see Rachel and the wonderful volunteers.  I had long lost sight of Brian and Dave, but there were two new runners here - one just leaving and the other looking for pain killers.  They both beat me out of the aid station, but none of us were moving too swiftly.  I caught the first gentleman within the first half mile, but it took quite a while to reach the second.  I only caught him because he stopped to work out what looked to be cramps.  The three of us played our little game of suffering leapfrog all of the way into Penny Pines.

Heading into the Penny Pines aid station at mile 22 - Photo by Dax Ross.

There, I was again greeted by Monica and my bag of treats.  Chris' girlfriend, Kathleen, was there, too and she said that Chris had come through about a half an hour sooner.  Sounded about right.  I stocked up on my Powerade Zero / Carbo-Pro drink mix and Shot Bloks and was off and running again shortly.  The "bike" was over and it was now time to slog through my Ironman run.  Fortunately, this "marathon" would be only 9 miles!

The view from Penny Pines towards Monument Peak (miles 22-26).

 The first mile out of Penny Pines is mostly downhill, but you have to climb right back up to the same elevation - and then start the long ascent up towards Monument Peak.  You never reach the actual peak, but the trail still tops out right at about 6,000' before dropping into the last aid station, Rat Hole.  I did quite a bit more walking through this stretch.  The first female passed me about halfway up the climb and there were a couple of others that went past, moving well.  Well, better than me.

I recognized the cramping runner as a veteran ultramarathoner that has finished some of the most brutal events on the planet, including Badwater.  His name is Iso and I had the pleasure of running with him for most of the last 9 miles of the race.  He reached the crest of the PCT trail before I did, so I followed him down into Rat Hole.  this was a no-crew aid station, so we just stocked up on what was available and headed out together.  The first 3/4 of a mile or so out of Rat Hole climb up to a flat fire road section.  Iso stopped on the uphill and I went on past.  I had something in my shoe that started bothering me so I stopped at the top where the trail spills out onto the road.  I emptied my shoe (found a nice sized rock and a ridiculously large twig) and waited for Iso.  The last 3 miles were pretty uneventful.  I got away on the fire road, but he caught me as I was basically walking the technical descent down to the meadows.  We didn't say much, as we were both obviously struggling, but at one point he did ask me what was wrong with my leg.  I told him "nothing, I'm okay.  Just tired."  And then I remembered that I was stopped just as he had made it up onto the fire road.  He must have thought I had stopped to work something out.  He said he had been battling cramps since mile 15.  I told him that I had salt, but figured he had picked some up at Rat Hole.  He had.  We ran together, jockeying back and forth and I followed him across the meadow, alongside the fence and over the wooden bridge to the right hand turn to go back the way we had come 5 hours earlier.

Heading for home!

The last 9 miles of the course, from Penny Pines to Al Bahr, is basically the same finish as the San Diego 100 Endurance Run.  I had run this section as a pacer the last two years, but this was the first time I was going to be able to run it for myself.  From the turn at the bridge to the finish was about a mile and a half (1.62 is what I had on the Garmin on the way out in the morning).  Iso stopped again and I went past.  There were random people along the course at this point, cheering and offering encouragement.  I ran until I tuckered out again and checked my watch.  5:14 and change.  Probably just a little under a mile to go.  I told myself I could walk until it hit 5:15 and then I would run to the finish.  The last stretch was familiar, but still a little confusing.  I concentrated on the orange flags used to mark the course and ran through the campgrounds, both on paved and gravel roads.  I finally made into Al Bahr and followed the flags to the finishing chute.  I crossed the line in 5:22:13, kissed the rat and got my medal.

Looking a little...different, right after finishing.

Chris powering to the finish - Sub 4:30 50k! And 4th place overall! - Photo by Dax Ross

I think I'll just lie down here for a minute.

Obligatory finisher's photo.

That nasty Bad Rat.