Ironman St George – A final chapter

Swim – I decided to slot myself slightly towards the back of the main group near the left buoy, and was able to start swimming just before the gun went off, making a good start.  It quickly got congested and some of the normal chaos ensued, but I felt pretty strong and soon found some open water and occasionally feet to follow.  I was able to swim right along the buoys about 20-30m to the right of them (to keep out of the fighting) and got ot the first turn quickly with no issues.

Upon turning, I was promptly hit in the face with a wave and lots of spray that totally surprised me.  I quickly realized that the weather had changed somehow and that water was much more violent that I ever expected.  I stayed with a group as we fought our way to the next turn (about 500m), then once I made that turn (directly into the waves and wind), all hell broke loose and I lost sight of nearly everyone around me and began to swim for my life.  I was never panicked, but I was quite concerned and often thrown out of my rhythm as I found the my strokes occasional got all air or never came out of the water.  The waves came fast and were ranging from 2-5 feet that made for a real up and down sensation.  I noticed that the buoys were blown all off course (after I swam the wrong way to get the first one) and then I tried to get back on course by aiming the island that was on the other end of the rectangle course.  That damn island seemed like it was miles away and it took forever to get to it.  As I made my way towards, a few bad things occurred that were not appreciated.  The first was that I kept taking in water and knowing how bad my stomach reacts to lake water; it angered me (despite the fact that waves were hitting me from all angles) badly.

The second was the dreaded calf cramp that hits me in nearly every IM swim.  It was both calves at the same time and I came to a stop for about 30-45sec as I tried to flex my ankles and release the cramping.  Nothing worked and I decide to just try and swim with no kick and let my legs totally relax.  That seemed to work, and I was soon swimming hard again.  As I passed the island, I noticed the last turn buoy was blown far off course and was almost to the island on the left (rather than 500m further onwards from the island). There were lots of swimmers taking the straight line in to the swim exit from there, but for some reason I was determined to swim the full course and I proceed to swim past the farthest yellow buoy where it seemed the course was meant to go.  From there is was a slog to the boat ramp and I came out of the water feeling super happy, yet quite upside down and tried to put the crazy water fun behind me.

T1 – I struggled to get my wetsuit off and made a hash of the help from the strippers, but once I got off my wetsuit (it seems to be really wearing out and getting stiff in places, not to mention really rough on my neck, despite tons of body glide.) I made it into the change tent and quickly got my socks, shoes, helmet and number on.  From there my bike was right outside the tent, where I struggled to get my new Oakley sunglasses to squeeze into my aero helmet. After that little speed bump, I ran to the mount line and made a good flying mount and hit the gas.

Bike – The wind the made the swim carnage was quickly noticeable on the bike and I was pushed all over the road as I made my way out of the reservoir area.  My legs felt pretty heavy and the term pedalling squares came into my mind.  Once out onto Telegraphe Road,  I found that I had to pee which was not a brilliant sensation.  I didn’t want to stop, so I had to find my old cycling skills and get it done on one the descents on the course.  That being a success (yay!), I then got back in the aero bars and tried to find some rhythm.  It was quickly apparent that wasn’t going to happen and I was passed by loads of guys in the first 50km, and by the time I made my way to the beginning of the climb up Snow Canyon (on the first lap), I had some cramping in my quads and hamstrings and was feeling so horrible that mentally quite racing and decided that my training the prior 5 months was what it was: inadequate.  The wind was so harsh and unrelenting that getting to the Wall seemed like an eternity and I noticed that my speed was putting me on 6.5-7 hour bike split pace. WTF!

Once I finally made to the Wall, and the tailwind that made the climb much easier, I seemed to feel better.  In fact, one of the spectators commented, as I went by just at the top of the climb that he could not believe someone was smiling!  That light moment was short lived as the course turned right back into the wind as it made its way over the false flat to the turn back south.  Getting to the southerly direction road was so nice, that I nearly cried out in joy.  From there I continued to feel better and drilled on the descent, trying to eek every bit of speed out of my machine.  Considering the improvement in my sensations and motivation, I decided to do the second lap and promptly missed the last aid station prior to the long climb up Snow Canyon.  I was quite concerned as I was certainly not ahead in kcal intake and had only one gel and half a bottle of water as I started the climb.  I really began to think that tactical mistake might be a big, big problem.  I put that worry aside (as best that I could) and then went to work, reversing the trend from the first loop, where I was being to passed to the point I pulled back lots and lots of the guys who went by me.  There were also lots of people on their first loop and I really worried about them making the cut-off.  At this point I thought that I might be able to come under 6 hours for the bike split (the tailwind was very helpful) and made a goal of 5:45 as an arbitrary target.  The climb up the way seemed much shorter (not sure if the wind lessened or if it was just mental) and I made it to the blessed aid station without problem.  Once quickly topping up on gels, a banana, Perform and water, I attacked the two big hills to finish that part of the course.

Once back on the fast road headed south, I began to think about the implications of the run ahead.  Those thoughts didn’t last long as I had a couple of guys try to go by me and I was having none of that.  From there I drilled it to the hard right turn that lead to the funky bike path loop.  Coming out of that I was hit with the final hill (and headwind) and it really hurt. Really.  The last descent down Diagonal was magical as my fried legs could recover and the speed was high.  Turning onto Main Street and then onto the last stretch before transition came super quick, but I had the time to get my feet out of my shoes with no issue, but did forget to grab my 310xt and left it in my bento box…

T2 – Went very smoothly and I was out very quickly.

Run –   Getting the news that I was in 10/11^th place off the bike, I knew that chasing down 5-6 guys was a tall order, and I felt enough fatigue and cramping to really put doubts into my mind.  The course design was a very spectator friendly one, but not very enjoyable from a runners perspective. It did provide an alarming amount of opportunities to see who was just ahead or just behind.  I ran ok for the first lap, and found that Tim was behind me (kind of surprising for sure), but knew that would not last as my speed was slowing rapidly.  Coming back past my family, I got another split and I was still in about the same place, which cemented in my mind that it was going to be a short day.  I began to communicate to my family that I was going to pull out, so they would not be shocked when it happened.  From there, I just focused on getting to the 13 mile marker where I could call it a day.  Just before I got to that point, I was passed by Laura Trimble (on her first lap), and just watched her go by…

After Race – The first thing I did after I stopped racing was look for Angie, and we had a moment to release our emotions some.  From there it was time for a shaved ice, which sounded so good!  Next up, it was decided was Ironman Texas in two weeks!