In my last two posts I gave you all the details about my experience at the Ford Ironman World Championships on the swim and the bike. In this post I will detail my run .
The run is where the race begins in my opinion and really only in the last 10 miles or so. Prior to that point it is all about steady state racing. Those who have stayed calm and steady during all that time can treat the last hour of the event as a race. Those that decide to race hard prior to the last hours usually turn the last hour into a death march. I have been there and done that. So my primary goal was to be able to go hard at the end of this marathon.
Training runs usually are a good way to determine how your run will go on race day. Of course that assumes that on race day you can arrive to the marathon start with a full tank and feeling good. I think I took care of that. I rode the bike within myself and did not get caught up in races. But my long run training was not all the great. I never came home and said “that was a great 2:30 run, I felt great. In all my runs past 2:30 I was really beat up. My quads will get sore and I would lose any spring in them. My 3 hour run (I only did one) was really tough. I did it but it was an exercise in pounding. So as a result I started the marathon mentally intimidated. I remember running and thinking. “I am not even at mile one, there are 26 these.” But I just kept on moving. I looked at my heart rate monitor early and it was hovering in the low 140’s. That was not ideal; it would be great if it was a little lower so I concentrated on measuring my effort and becoming more efficient. At around mile 5, my heart rate started to drop a little and I felt better but most importantly I had a rhythm. A mile or so later my heart rate was in the 130’s. That was great. I felt good about that situation. My only worry was my quads. My right quad started to hurt a little. Oh no, I am not even half way and the quad is acting up. But the pain was very manageable and it was not affecting my rhythm. So I kept on moving. In the first 5 miles my hydration was not ideal; I was in too much of a hurry at the aid stations to get all that I needed. I was supposed to drink a good 2 cups of my drink mix. I had a fuel belt with a highly concentrated version of my drink, so the plan was to get the two cups, pour a little of my drink and drink it. This was very hard to do while I was moving. So I had to stop briefly at every aid station. That cost time for sure, but I had no alternative. At Vineman 70.3 earlier in the year I did not drink enough on the run and paid for it. So since this run was twice as far, I decided to stop at the aid stations and take care of my hydration properly. At about mile 10 I saw my friend Rick who took some photos and asked me how I felt. I said “fine, how do I look?” Lower your arms a little. Good advice Rick, I always get to uptight on top.
Right after mile ten there is a very distinct feature of this race. It is what has always been known as “Pay and Save” hill. It is a steep and long hill that usually tells you how you are doing in your marathon. I just listened to an Interview from Chris McCormack (2nd place pro this year) and this was the point in the race where he picked up his pace and tried to go for the win. He called it “Palani Hill”. Palani is the actual name of the road. I have to give Chris a lesson in Ironman history. For many years there was a supermarket called “Pay and Save” on Palani road and all Hawaii Ironman folks called the hill that way. Either you pay on this hill or you save. I decided to save.
This was my sixth Hawaii Ironman and in the years that I have ran up the entire hill I have suffered later, and in the years that I did a little walking up it, I have felt great later. With this in mind I started to run up the hill. As I ran up the hill and observed my heart rate climb over 140, I started to feel my quads. Do I run or do I walk this thing? Palani road is a very busy street. There are a lot of fans there. People are cheering you and encouraging you so it feels like you will let them down if you start walking. But it was not a quarter second later after I looked up that I saw the people ahead of me walking that I also started to walk. Amazing how that works eh? I felt fine but I wanted to save my quads a little for later. Then I looked at my heart rate and it was in the lower 140’s walking. But a few seconds later it was 130’s and then 120’s. So I began to run again and the crowed cheered. I smiled and waved. Is not like I just came back from the dead.
At the top of “pay and save” hill you begin to run on the infamous Queen K highway. This is where you get the feel for this race. There is no crowd and it is a long out and back. I felt fine now, my heart rate was once again in the 130’s and it felt rather cool out there by Hawaii standards. This is great. I feel good. However, a couple of miles later I had to go to the bathroom and I could not do this behind a tree. Not that there are a lot of tree out here. So at the next aid station I headed for the port-a-john. Not more that 5 yards before I got there this guy jumps out in front and beats me to it. Great! Now I have to wait for him to get done. I thought about going to the next one a mile away, but there was no way I could hold this that long. I may have waited there for a minute as this guy did his thing but it seemed like an eternity. So I finally went and there is a funny story to this. At first I was sitting there sort of upset about the wasted time but then started thinking that this was a good thing. My body and digestive system was working properly in the middle of an Ironman marathon. That is great. Let me tell you why.
When one stresses the body too much in long hot endurance racing your digestive system shuts down. The body reacts to feedback on certain conditions in order to maintain healthy overall functioning. When you are going too hard and the body temperature rises there may not enough blood and oxygen to go around. Since your digestive system is not so important for survival your body shuts any blood from going to it. This makes it very difficult to digest anything. This is a process called homeostasis. If you get out there and start racing hard and your core temperature goes up the end result will be no proper digestive system functioning. But mine was functioning properly. Now I am thinking that I am doing great. I can run, cool off and digest. What else does can an Ironman triathlete want at mile twelve of the marathon. When I got out of that port-a-john I started running with a much more confident attitude. Crazy, that I can go to the bathroom and come out a different guy.
Now is when the men are separated from the boys I think. Well, not really but this is where the real Ironman begins. In Kona it is called the energy lab. It is a 2 mile run in and a 2 mile run back with a little uphill just to make it more fun. I tried to stay calm but I could not wait to get out of the energy lab. My plan was to ditch my fuel belt and switch my nutrition to Coke. If you feel good and are hydrated, you can switch to Coke with 6 miles to go. The Coke will give you a little boost. The energy lab is also were I saw some of our elite team members. Some of them were up ahead and some behind. I also decided to skip my special needs bag which is given to you at the turnaround of the energy lab. This bag had more of my concentrated drink mix. Nope, I did not need it for such a short distance before I switch to coke. I just ran by the special needs section.
Once I was out on the highway I spotted my friend Rick. He went and got his bike and rode out to the highway to see how I was doing. Since I was ditching my fuel belt I asked him to pick it up for me. I made sure I did this at an aid station to make sure I did not get some penalty for littering or anything like that. It felt good to ditch the belt. I was free!
The run from the energy lab to the finish line is about 6 miles. In one of my training runs earlier in the week Rick drop me off at the energy lab and I ran back. This made me very familiar with all the hills on it. So I started my 10K to the finish line. I picked up the pace and started passing many. Among them were small Japanese men that ran by me earlier. This was really fun. Mark Allen called my friend Rick to find out where I was. I told Rick to tell him I was going as fast as I could. I was looking at the sun and it looked like I was not going to be able to finish with daylight. The sun goes down a bit after six and I was going to be a couple of miles out. Oh well.
The last six miles were fun by they sure went by fast. I ran down “pay and save” hard I could not even look around. Right before Alii Drive, Mindy Houser from the team passed me. I wrote that story on my blog after the race. So I ran down Alii drive and crossed the finish line. My journey had a happy ending.
Mark Allen was waiting for me at the finish line. That was nice. We walked to the medical tent, my legs were really sore but I felt fine. However, I wanted to get an IV to help me with recovery. The medical folks do not like to do that. So after a short wait for something to drink I managed to coerce a few people and I got one. While getting my IV it started to rain very hard. The whole ground under the tent had about three inches of rain. I finally got out of there with some help, collected my finishing t-shirt and medal and posed for some photos. My friend Cary was a volunteer at the medal and shirt tent. It was nice to see her there. She helped me pick up my transition bags. Apparently I was having trouble spotting bag 691. Counting must be hard to do after an Ironman. My friend Rick had already picked up my bike from the transition. The race organizers give each participant a bike ticket that they can give to someone in case you do not want to pick up your own bike. I gave mine to Rick just in case. I wanted to hang out and wait for some of the athletes I coach but with all the rain I was getting way to cold and I had no clothes to change into. We decided to go back to the condo and get something to eat. Later on we went back to the finish line and watched the last finisher. That was none other than Sister Madonna Buder. A celebrity on her own right.
On my next post I will write about recovery. Let me just give you a small recap and an update on the 70.3 Champioships. My Ironman recovery went well and I planned to do the Ironman 70.3 Championships, I had my bike packed and all I needed to do was get there and race. The problem was my son’s 3 year old birthday was Thursday and I wanted to spend the day with him. But as the time to head for the airport approached I realized that there was no way to do all the things that I wanted to do on Friday. I had to do the team breakfast, work the booth, put my bike together, do some small workouts, register, get my gear ready and check the bike at the transition area. There is just no way, besides my son’s birthday party was Saturday, it would be nice to be here for that too. I called the airline and changed my reservation to fly back after the expo and breakfast.
Thanks to all of you that emailed or called with concern as there was no splits for me on Ironman.com. I told my wife that things happen for a reason. After hearing all the stories of crashes on a very crowded, flat and tight bike course down there. I was happy since with my usual fast swim I would have just been in the way of all these speedsters and more than likely involved in a crash. I hope the race organizer do something about this.
I have some great blog posts that I have been waiting to write. Next is a recovery blog post but do not miss my Kona gossip blog post after that. You want to hear some of these. I wrote one last year and it was my most popular. People like gossip.