What a weekend!  Since we live in Lexington and didn’t want to pay another $200 a night at the Seelbach, Gary and I decided to drive up on Friday to check in, and drive back Friday night.  We saved money, but it led to a stressful Saturday morning for me. I didn’t get to the Gatorade swim like I wanted to.  After a little bit of an emotional meltdown Gary and I got on our bikes to spin out the legs a bit.  I’m pretty lucky to have such a forgiving and patient husband.  After a little ride and a little run I was feeling much better.  We got our bikes checked in, grabbed some food and headed to the hotel to pack our special needs bags and put our feet up for the rest of the evening.

I woke up Sunday morning feeling well rested but really nervous.  We had decided that with the time trial start being first come first serve we would not worry about where in the line we ended up.  As we were walking to the end of the line we ran into Ron Shashy who I had swam with a few weeks prior at the YMCA open water swim at Cave Run Lake.  He promptly placed me in line in front of him in hopes of catching a ride on my draft for the swim, not that he needed it one bit. It didn’t seem like the others in line minded that we jumped in (at least I hope they didn’t).  The race started and I was surprised at how quickly we made our way down to the water and started.  I jumped in and lost Ron immediately.  So much for our master plan.  The swim course is 1/3 out against the current and 2/3 back in with the current.  I took it easy going out, and felt really good.  I checked my watch after the turn around and it read under 22 min which I was happy with since my effort low and it was supposed to be against the current.  As soon as I turned around I swam a little wide towards the middle of the river to try to catch the current some.  After a few minutes I started feeling really nauseous.  The more I swam the more nauseous I felt.  The more nauseous I felt the angrier I got.  I could not believe I was getting sick in the swim!  I had never DNF’d a race and it was going to happen after the swim, are you kidding me?!? Nine months of training and I’m not even going to get on my bike?!? I went through hot and cold spells, tried not to throw up in the water, and what seemed like forever, floated back in to the shore.  I made it up the stairs out of the water and walked to transition.  I saw Jeff and Neeley and told them I wasn’t feeling well.  Jeff said “you’ll be fine!” which is maybe what I needed to hear.  I decided to keep walking and see how I felt.  Surprisingly the more I walked the better I felt.  I got my transition bag, sat down and started to put my shoes and helmet on.  I was feeling so much better – I couldn’t believe it!  The river had been a little choppy and since the nausea disappeared almost immediately once I hit land I am assuming it was just motion sickness.  I’ve never had that happen before, but it sure felt good to be sitting on my bike.  I swam about 5-8 min slower than I thought I was going to, but at this point I was just glad the nausea was gone.

The crowd at transition was incredible and I was starting to feel a lot better about my race.  I turned my Garmin on before I got on my bike and I was happy to see my heart rate below 150.  Gary and I had decided a few days before on a HR cap of 150 for at least the first 87 miles.  I thought this was going to be a lot harder than it actually was.  The first part of the bike is the most challenging and the biggest hill is in the first 20 miles or so.  However, so is the longest descent.  I kept my cadence high up the hills, and tried to take full advantage of the down hills.  I knew the first part of the ride would be the slowest, and the mph read around 17 for a long time.  I had been hoping for 17.5 overall for the day.  I stayed with my plan of a 150 HR cap and convinced myself that feeling good was much more important than going fast.  Gary passed me on the out and back part of the course.  It was really nice to see be able to see him for a little bit.  After some exchanged words of encouragement, he was off.  The course was beautiful once we got out of town.  The gorgeous rolling landscape almost made me forget that I was racing.  I was really enjoying the ride.  Lagrange was so awesome.  The crowd was so uplifting and loud!  We went through the town twice and both times I felt like someone in the crowd handed me a new pair of legs.  Throughout the ride I saw my average increase to 17.5.  This made me happy, especially because I felt so great.  I got to mile 87 and since I was on pace and feeling great, I decided to continue at the same effort.  I had thought about pushing a little harder, but I kept thinking that the more I save now the more I will have for the run.  The last 25 miles or so of the course are pretty flat, and downhill.  All I wanted to do was keep my 17.5mph average and finish feeling good.  Then something happened that I did not anticipate.  I had feared a headwind for the last 25 miles like we had when we rode the course a few months earlier.  So even with the fast road, the wind made it so my effort had to increase to keep pace.  However, we had no headwind!  I kept my effort the same, and watched as the numbers crept up to 17.6, 17.7…all the way to 18.0.  I got off the bike in 6:13.  I couldn’t have been happier.

I took my time through transition, and figured out what I needed to do on the run to do a sub 12 hour Ironman.  All I needed to do was a 4:28 marathon!  I could do that!  I had planned on trying for a 9:30-9:45 min/mile pace, but since I had so much of a buffer from the bike I decided to go for 10 min/mile pace for the first half and really enjoy the race.  I came out of transition and saw my girls, Kirstin and Jill.  They were so motivating!  It was really hard to slow myself down to a 10 min mile for the first 4-5 miles. I kept falling into a 9:15-9:30 pace.  I felt so good, but I knew I needed to conserve.  The run course was a blast, especially around town.  Once you got farther out on the out and back it was pretty quiet and a little tough to stay motivated.  Coming back in to town on the first loop was great.  Seeing the girls gave me just the spark I needed.  The turn around on the first loop is right by the finish line which is kind of tough, but I was feeling so good I honestly didn’t care too much.  I worked on keeping my heart rate in the 140s and at a 9:45-10 min mile I was right around 139-141 the whole time.  I enjoyed seeing everyone on the run course.  I saw Royden first, then eventually saw almost everyone, Gary, Tyson, Rodney, Paula, Saori, Alan.  It was great, and everyone looked so good.  On my way back to town just after mile 20 I got to see Beth for a bit and she gave me some great motivation.  I was pretty sure I was going to make it, but I know that in a marathon, especially an Ironman, it’s not over until it’s over.  I kept on pace, allowing myself to walk a little extra at each aid station.  I felt really good that I never had to walk except at the aid stations.  It was probably the best I have ever felt during a marathon.  It actually went by pretty fast.  Once I got to mile 23 I started to hurt.  I was grateful the hurt/fatigue held off until then.  By that time I didn’t even care, I was almost done!  As I came back into town it was hard to hold my excitement in.  The crowd, the girls, 4^th Street…it was extraordinary.  The only thing I regret about my finish is how quickly it was over.  I sort of wish I had taken my time coming down the finish line.  I still can’t believe I broke 12 hours!  To top it all off, Mike Reilly, the ‘voice of Ironman’ was there, and as I came down the finish line I heard his voice, “Nikki Ditsch from Lexington, Kentucky…YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!” I just love hearing those words.

All week I had played around with the numbers and I figured that everything had to be perfect for me to go under 12 hours.  Going 11:55 feels that much sweeter especially considering it wasn’t the perfect day (swim).  I have to admit, I still can’t help but smile when I think about that race.  What an amazing day!

Results:

Time: 11:55:24, Overall Place: 716, Division Place: 25

Swim time: 1:09:44, Overall Place: 323, Division Place: 17
T1: 5:58
Bike time: 6:13:43, Overall Place: 1102, Division Place: 24
T2 3:44
Run time: 4:22:14, Overall Place: 803, Division Place: 30

Here are the basic stats:

Overall Place: 204 / 2353
Age Group Place: 36 / 266
Overall Time: 10:42:15
Swim Overall Place: 579
Swim Time: 1:15:17
Swim Pace / 100 Meter: 1:57
Bike Overall Place: 592
Bike Time: 5:51:27
Bike Pace mph: 19.1
Run Overall Place: 84
Run Time: 3:27:10
Run Pace min/mile: 7:55

Pre Race

Nikki and I woke up early to get our nutrition in a few hours prior to the race start.  So we were up and I was drinking my bottles of Fortify at 4:15am.  I had a little coffee and my usual 3 trips to the bathroom.  I tried to lay in bed as much as I could, but I wasn’t resting well, so I decided to get up and moving a little earlier than I wanted.  We ended up leaving our hotel to make the walk down 4th street and to the Great Lawn around 5:30am.

It was interesting walking right by the finish line on 4th street on our way to the start.  Knowing that at some point during the day I would be running (hopefully) through the finish line that was so abandoned and empty was a little poetic.  I prayed that this feeling was a foreshadow to being a part of something great.  Not only for myself but for thousands of other athletes and family members that were on their own Ironman journey.  I had a little visualization of finishing strong.

We made it to the transition area at 6:00am and as soon as we walked into the area we heard them start calling out that the transition area would be closing in 15mins.  It was very comforting to see so many friends in the transition area that morning.  Jeff, Neely and Casey were all there to help us.  Tyson was there to prep his stuff too.

The amazing thing for me was that I never had too much anxiety the couple days prior to the race or on race morning.  I attribute a lot of that to taking the time to write out my last post: Perspective, Priorities and Racing Ironman Louisville.  When you are willing to take a step back, it can really change your approach to something as simple as a race.  I also think that seeing other people completely freaking out made it easier on me to realize that I didn’t want to spend my emotional energy in that way.

Swim

We ended up getting in the start line next to Ron Shashy.  He and Nikki swam the 2.0 mile open water swim at Cave Run together, so they were a pretty good match to try and stay together during the swim.  Once the race got started, it was amazing how fast people started moving.  I got my goggles on just in time to run on the deck to try and stay in line and jump off the dock. I thought that a time trial start would create less of a crowd in the water, but I had a lot more issues swimming around-into-over people during this swim than I did at Ironman Wisconsin in 2007.

The first segment of the swim is done against the current, but I’m not sure how much it slowed us down?  It didn’t feel like the current was too strong, but I was struggling to find a straight line to swim more than I was worried about the current.  Directions I was given by Gordo after the Cardinal Harbour Race in July were:

A – increase my Monday and Friday swims so that I was swimming 4400 meters during each workout

B – Float the swim at Ironman Louisville

I continued to think about that as I was headed out to the turn around.  Not too far from the turn around I saw other athletes walking in the water.  It seemed a little odd because the Ohio River is not a small river and it should be pretty deep where there where at.  Not too many seconds after that I hit a log in mid stroke that stopped me cold.  I guess they must have been walking across the log.

After the turn around I put myself as far out into the river as I felt comfortable and could maintain my bearings.  The swim back in was fairly uneventful.  I tried to catch a few people’s feet but that wasn’t working out too well, so I used random feet from time to time, as long as I felt like I wasn’t working too hard to stay there.

T1

As I exited the water, I saw that my swim time was 1:15.  Not exactly the start to the race that I was hoping.  I thought that 1:10 to 1:15 was reasonable depending on the water conditions, so at least I was within range of what I thought was acceptable.

Jeff and Neely were again in the transition area.  As I ran my bike out to the mount line, Jeff yelled “Nikki’s about 3mins ahead of you.  She needs some encouragement!”  This was a piece of good/bad news for me to know.  The fact that I was within 3mins of Nikki coming out of T1 was either really good news for me, or fairly bad news for Nikki.  I chose to make it good news for me… thinking that it must have been a tough swim for everyone.  (BTW, Nikki swam 1:09. I’ll let her tell her story).

Bike

The bike starts out on a very flat section of the course.  Nikki and I talked on Saturday about using the terrain as a way to get our effort levels where we needed them to be, opposed to getting caught up in the race and start thinking about riding “fast”.  One sign that I knew things were going my way was when I looked at my heart rate and saw that it was below 150bpm.  This was such a good sign to see because at Cardinal Harbour I spent a lot of time on the bike trying to get my effort levels under control.

Knowing that my efforts were in order, I worked on getting comfortable and drank some water to clear out the Ohio River’s deisel fuel taste.  I also started paying attention to the power meter (that I had thanks to Alan Hawse) to cross check if my heart rates were providing the same feedback that the wattage was saying, it did.

After you get out of Louisville and onto Hwy 42 the terrain starts to become more rolling.  You are also very early in the ride when you start to encounter these hills, which can bring about bad things if you don’t have discipline and stay under control during this segment.  One of the advantages that I had was that I had been in many discussions about how to approach the race day with my athletes and Nikki prior to the race.  It was interesting to see how all the things we talked about not doing, I saw hundreds of athletes doing.

I’ll admit that it is very difficult to slow myself down climbing hills so much all the time.  Being such a light weight guy (136 pounds 2 days prior to race day), it’s pretty easy to climb some hills.  But I continued to cross-check my heart rate monitor and the power meter to keep things under a “lid”.  What was the lid?

Heart Rate – 155bpm.  I did a great job all day of not getting over this cap.  I don’t ever remember a time that I saw it over this level.  I rode between 144 and 148bpm pretty much all day.  There were brief periods that my heart rate dropped below this while I descended but it bounced back.

Watts – 210 to 220.  I was told that I should consider having a “FIRM” cap of 210 on the bike.  So when I saw the watts go over 200 I took notice, when I saw it go over 210 I would back off a little, if I saw it over 220 I did everything I could to get it back down.  Here’s the link to my trainingpeaks account the powertap file from the bike ride: Gary’s IMLou Bike

After riding about 75 miles I decided to look at my average pace to see how things were going.  It said, 18.7mph.  Bummer!  But I knew that I was riding my race and the speed was what it was.  The one thing I also knew was that I felt really good still and felt much better than I did last year at the Great Illini and at Ironman Wisconsin.  The boost to my bike came after the last turn onto Hwy 42.  There must of been a good tailwind because at the same heart rates and watt output I was flying.  It also felt nice to actually pass a few cyclists, opposed to the normal routine of watching people come by and dissappear into the distance.

Power Summary:

First Half – 158watts
Second Half – 156watts
VI – 1.08

I really like this bike course.  I also really appreciate the effort and time I have spent to learn how to descend more comfortably.  If we could find a course that was all uphill, I might enjoy Ironman even more.  The only thing about the loops that were not appealing was the big Ironman painted in the road with a large “don’t” sign painted over it.  Apparently someone doesn’t appreciate the bike traffic.

The other thing that made me nervous on the bike were all the flats.  Just after the second turn onto Hwy 42 that leads you back to Louisville (about 33 miles left), there were a ton of flats.  It made me nervous because I had a hell of a time getting the tires on the Zipps earlier in the week and I knew if I had to do it on the road, already fatigued, I might not get it done.  I have heard people say there were tacks on the road, but I can not confirm or deny that information.  If there were tacks, I guess I was just a lucky guy.

T2

Again a pretty quick and uneventful transition.  The only difference this year was that I changed out of my tri shorts and put on my RaceReady running shorts so that I could carry gels in the pockets.

Run

The great thing about being able to run well and using a conservative race strategy is that you get to the run and feel excited about what lies ahead.  As I started running, I was pretty confident that it was going to be a good day.  The weather was perfect and my legs had no sign of fatigue.

But this good feeling also made me think back to the Great Illini last year and Cardinal Harbour six weeks prior.  In both situations I had some pretty serious break downs on the run.  So even though I felt great and was moving past some athletes pretty quickly, I kept a constant look at my heart rate monitor.

I had an early cap of 160bpm on the run.  Even with this cap, I went through the first mile in 6:58.  “Yikes, that’s too fast!”  So for the next couple miles I really backed off the effort and my heart rate was sitting in the 150 to 155bpm range.  The second mile was even faster – Huh?  I’m pretty sure that the mile markers early on were not properly placed?

By now, many people know that I’m a big believer in the run:walk method (Episode 172).  And I had a plan to run:walk this marathon – so I did.  Here was the final plan:

first 10k : walk 30sec every other aid station
second 10k : walk 30sec every aid station
third 10k : walk 40sec every aid station
fourth 10k : walk 40sec every aid station or until I felt confident to rip to the finish

That’s also what I did.  I’m pretty proud of how well I stuck to the plan early on in the run because everything felt so easy.  I did allow my heart rate cap move up to 165bpm once I started walking every aid station.  What I noticed was this:

1. The longer the run went on the less my heart rate dropped during the walk portion

2. The middle of the run my heart rate would get back up to the cap pretty quick

3. The last 10k I didn’t have to worry about the heart rate cap, because I needed to work pretty hard to push it up to 160bpm… but it was possible, which wasn’t the case at Ironman Wisconsin.

4.  I walked only at the aid stations.  At Ironman Wisconsin and Great Illini, I used a run:walk method, but by the end of the run I was fatigued enough that I either had to walk longer during the aid stations (GI) or take more walk breaks (IMMoo).

Here are my run splits:
FIRST RUN SEGMENT -  3.38 mi. (22:47),  6:44/mile  (again, there’s no way this is right)
SECOND RUN SEGMENT - 8.25 mi. (37:10),  7:37/mile
THIRD RUN SEGMENT - 13.1 mi. (38:38) 7:57/mile
FOURTH RUN SEGMENT -  15.33 mi. (18:17) 8:11/mile
FIFTH RUN SEGMENT - 20.19 mi. (40:17) 8:17/mile
SIXTH RUN SEGMENT - 25.04 mi. (40:32) 8:21/mile
FINAL RUN SEGMENT - 26.2 mi. (9:29) 8:10/mile

Again the run was where I gained on a lot of people.  I came off the bike in 500th place and finished in 204th place.  Being able to run well at the end of the Ironman is a good feeling, but I still believe that there’s more in my run.  Doing the Ironman Run under 3:15 is something I feel is very doable.

Final analysis:

I love the Ironman distance.  Triathlon is a lot of fun, but Ironman is what I really enjoy.  Maybe because it allows me to never really get good at the swim/bike portions and still do ok.  I have no idea when I’ll be able to do another Ironman, but I found myself looking at the 2010 schedule the other day.  Maybe 2011 or 2012?

What do I need to do in order to continue improve my ability to race with people faster than me?  I have been told:

My hunch is that in terms of your development from here you could benefit from a run focus. For a smaller athlete there is even more upside to devoting energy to the run. However, at the paces you’re running now, you’re probably getting to that point that pure running fitness may be limiting your ability to ‘hold back’ for the marathon. While it is tempting to assess your splits in relation to the rest of your AG, it makes more sense to assess relative to others with similar body type. Generally it pays to play to your strengths.

And

The swim will be a key part of getting you up into the Top 20 in the AG.

The interesting thing as I look at people in front of me (203 of them), only 4 of those 203 people had a bike split that was slower than mine and even those times were close to mine.  I guess this just means I need to continue to improve across the board – swim, bike and run.

Good thing I love to do all three (well… swimming is a part time love).

One thing that is good about writing a race report is that you can go back and review what your thoughts were and how things turned out in the end. In 2007, I did the MedExpress Mountaineer Triathlon to check  my fitness as I got into my final days of Ironman Wisconsin training. A very similar situation to what I did this past weekend with the Cardinal Harbour Triathlon. Here’s a quote from my Mountaineer report:

The race went as well as I could have expected. After all, I did have a personal best at the half iron-distance (4:58:56). I also knew that the bulk of my training over the past 18 months has not been focused on having half-iron speed, it has been focused on having Ironman endurance.

I’ll be honest and say that I walked away Saturday morning with a little concern about how my cycling is coming around. My expectations this year were to finally focus on becoming a more capable cyclist and have dramatic improvements. After the race Saturday I was questioning what needs to happen to finally get that improvement?  I see some improvements in my training but I still seem to lose a lot of race time out on the bike leg.

Looking at my after race thoughts from the Mountaineer allows me feel a lot better. Why? Because I understood back then that half iron speed doesn’t always push out to Ironman performance. (That’s a whole topic itself.) I also know that by using the knowledge I gained from the Mountaineer, I trained appropriately the final period going into IMMoo and had a great race.

So let’s get to all the race details this Saturday:

Pre – Race: The race was in Louisville, so I decided to just wake up early and drive over.  The transition and check in didn’t start until 6:30am and the race didn’t start until 8:00am, so I didn’t have to wake up much earlier than normal.  I had all my gear ready to go and was up at 4:00am and out the door by 4:30.

Once at the race, I was pretty relaxed.  The nice thing about these races is that they don’t have an incredible sense of pressure and feel more like a fun event (which isn’t that what they are all suppose to feel like? Ton of very serious folks in our sport!).  I think that feeling probably comes from Todd and Cynthia Heady (the race directors) and their approach to hosting an event.  They are actually the people who put on the first Iron Distance triathlon I ever did back in 2006, the Runovia Triathlon.

One thing that I did notice quickly though was that the race brought in a lot more people this year than it did last year (it sold out with 300 triathletes).  And there were some fast folks lining up to start, including Max Longree, last year’s Ironman Louisville winner.

The swim: I had borrowed a skin suit to wear and practice with in preparation for the IMLou swim, but the water temperature was 77 degrees on race morning.  While I wanted to practice wearing the skin suit, I decided that the wetsuit was a better choice because I already give up enough in the water.  The swim was in the Ohio River, so it was nice to get a feel for how the current might impact the swim.  It was pretty amazing to feel the difference.  Swimming out (which I was later told was against the current) felt like a tremendous struggle.  Luckily I didn’t completely freak out or kill myself trying to “make up” what seemed to be a lot of lost time.

Once we turned around and headed back to the dock, it was not nearly the struggle and it felt like I flew back in.  I think this is a good sign looking towards Louisville as the swim is mostly downstream, with only a portion against the current to begin.

My average heart rate for the swim was 160bpm.  That’s pretty high as I normally like to swim around the 140 to 145bpm range to remain comfortable.  I was a little anxious and excited to get the race started according to my heart rate too.  When I looked at it just before we took off, it read 142bpm (and I was treading water).

Lesson for Ironman Louisville:  Easy is probably a little above steady effort at the beginning of the swim when I’m all jacked up about the race.  Anything that feels at or just above steady effort, is likely a huge mistake and may come back to haunt me, because if it feels a little above steady – it is probably closer to lactate threshold with all the other hormones mixed in.

swim time: 36:08

The bike: I knew coming out of T1 that I would need to settle things down on the bike.  So I started out fairly easy, got my feet into my shoes and just rode for a few miles.  Even riding easy I was passing a few people here and there.  As I turned off Rose Island Road and onto Hwy 42, I looked at my heart rate and saw it was around 170bpm.

That first little bit of Hwy 42 had a decent little climb, so I really backed off my perceived effort and just tried to be steady.  My heart rate obviously didn’t come down much as I rode up the climb, so I decided to make an attempt to get into a “comfort zone” that would allow me to ride better the second half of the bike.

That comfort zone turned out to be around 160 to 163bpm.  On the climbs it would creep up to 165bpm and it would drop pretty quick on the downhills.  The course was on some of the same roads that Ironman Louisville is on, so it was nice to be on them in a race situation.  While there is nothing significant to the climbs, there are very few completely flat sections.  A lot of rolling hills, but unlike Ironman Wisconsin, the rolling hills allow you to maintain your momentum and there is little technical aspects to the riding. It took me around 15 miles to completely get into that comfort zone, which is a lesson I think I’ll carry forward.

The middle 25 miles of the bike was pretty uneventful.  The one thing that I’m very proud of myself for is my descending ability.  I mentioned after the American Triple T that my descending ability really cost me a lot of time on the bike.  It came up again during our training camp the last weekend of June, so I’ve made a significant attempt to improve that ability.  Interestingly enough, those improvements have not come from spending time descending on my bike, but from my effort to re-frame my mental imagery related to descending on my bike.  This work has paid off!  I won’t go into details about that right now because I’m almost finished with another blog post to share those ideas.

The last section of the bike (once we tuned back onto Hwy 42 and headed home) I decided to give myself permission to ride a little “uncomfortable”.  What I found was that by riding just a little uncomfortable, I was able ride quite a bit faster (and I believe we had a little head wind heading home?).  I also realized that what felt “uncomfortable” the last 16 miles was just about what felt easy/comfortable those first 5 miles on the bike.  Another lesson noted.

Lessons for Ironman Louisville:  15 miles is too long to mess around getting under control.  That is approximately 45mins of time that could be used to hydrate, fuel and just be smart.  Digging a deficit that early in the bike could make miles 80 to 112 feel really rough, not to mention the run.

Fuel on bike: 3 bottles of Infinite (275 kcals/bottle, 500mg sodium/bottle)

bike time: 2:47:54, 20.0 mph / average heart rate 161bpm, max heart rate 176bpm

The run: I’m often confident in my run, so I decided to just get settled into the run early and run the loops.  I knew that I would run:walk, but decided to be agressive in my approach and only walk 20seconds per loop.

I started out wanting to get my cadence and turnover established, so I paid a lot of attention to the sound of my feet.  I also did a few rounds of footstep counting to help me get things established.  I basically just count each footstep for 15 strides and then repeat that for 3 or 4 rounds.  How do I know the number of beats per minute?  I don’t know exactly, but I have a “feel” for what is right.  I guess it is one thing I’ve carried over from all those years of percussion and marching band.

Once I got things established and I made it to the first loop, I checked in on my heart rate – 177bpm!  Yikes.  What should I do?  I never train at these intensities and I still had 11 to 12 miles to go.  “Just go” is what came out.  It was nice to feel so strong and despite the high heart rate, I felt really comfortable.  I had carried a bottle of coke with me to the first aid station (b/c they didn’t have any on the course) so I drank a little more and dropped it off at the water stop.

Out on the loops (we did 3 loops) you really got to see a lot of people so that was nice.  I tried to pick out some of the guys that I knew where up a lap on me and tried to either: A – make up a little ground on them or B – hang even with them.  The one person that I really paid attention to that first lap was Max Longree, I lost some ground to him. (ok, more than some ground).

As I turned off the last loop and headed back to the finish, I was pretty excited to see that there wasn’t a train of folks up the road.  But it also left no one for me to try and catch.  That was a good thing because I felt like the wheels were slowing down.  Around 11.5 to 12 miles the wheels just about stopped!  There were only 2 guys that passed me on the entire run and they both happened in this section of the race.  I assumed that they were both in my age group, but it didn’t matter because I couldn’t lift my effort at all to hang.  It was over as far as my output was considered.  The nice thing about my running is that I’ve been in enough situations where it’s been over and still been able to manage something.  In fact, a lot of my racing in 2008 was done to purposefully make mistakes on the run.  (Which left me dry heaving my soul out at the Great Illini where I still managed a 3:38 and second best run of the day.)

The really tough part about this run was the last 3/4 of a mile was on some pretty thick grass.  As hard as I would try, I couldn’t lift my feet high enough to clear my feet.  It was miserable!  I ended up giving 2 minutes of time back to the age grouper who pasted me at 11.5 (Brian Teller, nice guy from WV).

Lessons for Ironman Louisville:  I am really excited to see how well I ran for 11.5 miles.  There weren’t any mile markers so I couldn’t fully tell you what my paces were at the beginning versus the end, but I’m guessing I went out not much over 6min/mile pace.  And that last mile was probably 8:30 to 9:00.  Multiply that mistake by 14.7 miles and you get 40mins to 1.5 hours of run time problems.  IF you’re lucky that equals 40mins to 1.5 hours added to your run, if you are not lucky and the heat is there you might be looking at 2 to 4 hours of humility.

run time: 1:26:52,  6:38/mile, 175bpm ave heart rate, 187bpm max heart rate (to be fair, I think the course was a little short?)

Final Thoughts: So this weekend I found out what my “top end” is for long distance triathlon.  One way to use the numbers I obtained was to use my average heart rates from the disciplines as caps for my effort at Ironman.  This would put my cap for the bike at 161bpm and my cap for the run at 175bpm.  Looking at those numbers as objectively as I can, I think they are a bit high.  I know that trying to run over 170bpm at any point during the marathon outside the last quarter mile (or closer) might be playing with fire.

From training, I would think that my bike effort should be sitting in the mid 140’s with a cap of 155bpm, hitting >160bpm should be a sign to really watch my motivations and thought process.  I feel like the run should be around 150 to 160bpm, with the first half of the marathon close to 150 and pushing it up near 160 for the 3rd 10k.

So how much time / pacing / speed do I lose by going from my top end to my bottom end?  Well, the great news is I’m not “losing” all that much.  I did an 80 mile ride on the IMLou course the week prior to this race and with an average heart rate of 145bpm I was about 1.5 mph slower than this race.  There were some factors that influenced that ride some, including a riding partner that I rode with, traffic lights and 2 short water stops.

On the run, I don’t fall much either.  I’ve been bench marking my 145bpm and 160bpm paces over my last several run tests.  I had a run test on Tuesday (July, 14th) and in the 85 degree heat I ran approximately 7:20/mile on the UK track.

Granted my training ride and my run test were not done in a race setting and neither of them were done after a swim, but they are benchmarks that I can begin to use as I set up my Ironman Louisville race strategy.

We are 6 weeks out.  Feels good to feel this good!

[note: if you want to see our pictures of the event, you'll have to come on over to my facebook page - Gary's Facebook]

It would probably be a good idea to begin by describing what events make up the American Triple T weekend.

1. Friday Evening Prologue: 250m swim, 5mile bike, 1mile run
2. Saturday Morning Individual Time Trial: 1500m swim, 40k bike, 6.55mile run
3. Saturday Afternoon Team Triathlon: 40k bike, 1500m swim, 6.55mile run
4. Sunday Team Time Trial (Half Iron): 1.2mile swim, 55.5mile bike, 13.1mile run

Looking at the different races and the distances over the entire weekend it can be a little intimidating, but in all honesty it isn’t the distances that you soon find out is the challenging part of this event. The two biggest challenges that were faced over the weekend were:

A – The terrain.
B – The intensity of the early races and the impact upon the Sunday race.

The Terrain:
It says on the website to be prepared for a tough weekend of cycling. I knew others that had completed the weekend or had just done the Sunday half iron distance race and they said to be prepared for the climbing on the bike. While respectful, it didn’t worry me too much because I have always felt steady through hills. In fact, I often feel better at climbing than I do at descending (fear factor?).

What seems to be under appreciated was the difficulty of the run course. The run course was challenging due to the terrain change, but also because it was on trail. The trail was also not exactly what I expected. I guess I anticipated a more groomed trail that allowed for better footing (more on this later).

The Intensity:
One thing that I feel is my strength in Ironman racing is my ability to work within my ability early in the race, which allows me to use my potential at the end of the marathon. A skill that can be difficult to learn, but the one triathlon skill I feel I’ve developed. This weekend presented two situations that don’t allow this “go easy and build” strategy to be implemented well.

1. Teammates. I signed up to race the Triple T as a team. This meant that each race I was counted on to do well so that my teammate could also do well. This is a very different concept for many triathletes. I was also signed up with Jeff Buhr who is a better triathlete, better swimmer, better cyclist and better runner than I am. So not only did I have to hold up my end of the partnership, but during the team events, I knew I was going to have to push as hard (and smart) as I could while he could race a little below normal.

2. Race Design. As shown above the fast / quick races start the weekend and build into the half iron distance race. The interesting thing is that for the prologue I had an average heart rate of 181bpm which actually felt comfortable. By the time Sunday rolled around, I was lucky to be able to pick up my heart rate into the 160’s on the bike (I did hit 170bpm on the run). What feels easy early is often not easy, it’s just a function of being prepared to race and knowing that the race is going to be over soon. Even with the knowledge of 3 or 2 more races ahead, it’s difficult to control the urge to go fast.

My Races

Day 1 Prologue:
This race is a blast. It is very quick which makes me very nervous. This was actually my first triathlon shorter than a half iron distance race since July of 2003 (Tri America in Louisville). Despite the short swim, I still decided to wear my wetsuit, most did not.

Data: swim – 6:12, bike – 12:21, run – 5:54, total – 24:26
Heart Rates: hrave – 181bpm, hrmax – 195bpm (no splits)

Day 2 (Saturday) Race 1:
This was not a great race for our team. I got a flat about 17 or 18 miles into the bike which was frustrating for an Olympic distance race, especially because I had put a lot of effort into the bike already hoping to have a great race. It’s interesting what thoughts go through your head when you are faced with a situation like this. I thought about riding to ride and hope it wouldn’t go completely flat (it did, quickly). Then when I stopped I thought about putting a little air in and seeing if it was slow enough to get me back (I tried and it was way too fast). In the end, I found something that allowed me to keep my cool and remember that the weekend was a long event and that I just needed to finish this race. I found a little saying that really helped me get through this situation while I was changing the tire and after I got back on the bike (and was extremely worried it would flat again).

I kept saying to myself “Be Chrissie, not Norman!” , “Be Chrissie, not Norman!”

I also remembered back to Ironman Canada (2004?) when Gordo Byrn flatted towards the end of the bike and his response during that race and post race. It probably cost me 6 to 7 mins? I mistakenly dumped my bag on the ground costing me another minute or so picking up my co2’s, second spare and allen wrenches.

My teammate crashed during this race… it didn’t cause a lot of road rash but a lot of soreness.

The biggest mistake that I made during this race was not respecting the type of trail we had to run on. Disappointed with my bike, I went through T2 pretty quickly and chose to skip the socks. MISTAKE! The trail tore my feet up. It was a pretty rookie mistake.

Data: swim – 27:00, bike – 1:25:14 / 17.2mph, run – 43:55 / 6:43min/mile, total – 2:37:55
Heart Rates:
swim hrave – 152bpm, hrmax – 172bpm
bike hrave – 159bpm, hrmax – 179bpm (stopped for approx 6/7 mins with flat)
run hrave – 173bpm, hrmax – 184bpm

Day 2 (Saturday) Race 2:
I really need to learn to descend well on the bike. While it may not be wise to cannonball downhill some places on the course, I give up loads of momentum, time and speed because I am unable to descend at even an average level. It was really apparent during this race. My teammate was able to do this race after the morning crash, he ended up being a good motivator for me.

Data: bike – 1:14:32 / 20.0mph, swim – 29:09, run – 45:20 / 6:56mile/min, total – 2:32:18
Heart Rates:
bike hrave – 157bpm, hrmax – 177bpm
that’s all I got… didn’t get a lap after swim and didn’t stop watch after race?

Day 3 Half Iron Distance Race:
I did this race solo because my teammate decided that healing and being ready for Kansas70.3 was wiser. It took quite a bit of pressure off me. My race was an exemplar of what my racing strategy has always been. Steady swim (sadly this swim was pretty poor, not sure what happened because I didn’t feel terrible in the water?)

Bike steady – by this time of the weekend my body had definate limits. Pushing on the bike was limited and even when I would “work hard” my body wasn’t responding and heart rates weren’t climbing (fatigue). Needless to say I think I left all the “speed” in had in me for cycling on the course on Saturday. My climbing gears still allowed me to pass people (until they flew by me on the descents).

Run – My goal was to run under 1:40 for this half. I ran steady throughout the day and went 1:39:11. Very happy with that which gives me confidence. Surprisingly I have not been running as much as in the past .. I just feel confident running, which helps.

Data: swim – 36:30, bike – 3:17:27 / 16.9mph, 1:39:11 / 7:35min/mile, total – 5:35:24
Heart Rates:
total race – hrave – 147bpm, hrmax – 183bpm

I only got the total race and the time on my watch says 5:50, when my time was 5:35 – so it includes about 15mins of post race resting? I don’t remember when I stopped the heart rate monitor b/c I was so focused on running a specific pace on the run with my Timex watch taking laps at the loop.

Lessons to take to IMLOU:
1. swim, swim, swim (open water when possible)

2. bike (my longest ride this year was 4 hours with 2 at very easy, so I’m hoping this will come around these last 14 weeks.)

3. even when things seem like they are not going my way, the run rarely fails on me. that gives me a lot of confidence heading into a traditionally very hot/humid and slow marathon in Louisville.

Final Thoughts:
A great weekend that was probably more difficult than any Ironman I’ve done so far. It would compare mentally to the EndureChallenge that I created and finished last year, just do to the shear speed required to do the events. I can go all day… getting fast is the trick!

Following my typical operating procedures for this year, I’ve been exercising as much as I feel I can without becoming overtrained, yet enough to allow me to feel fit.  The truth is that since my EndureChallenge back in September I have been a little on the lower side of where I would like to be.  After that challenge I took a full week off and then slowly started to integrate some swimming, then running, then biking back into my schedule.  It has been really helpful to have the Ironman Louisville group up and training because they have really motivated me to take care of myself so I could get back up to full speed quicker than normal (Thanks Paula and Lauren!)

I don’t remember exactly when the topic of doing the Rocket City Marathon came up, but I remember talking about it a few weeks after the EndureChallenge.

I wanted to sign up for Rocket City for a few reasons:

1. I don’t want to have a period where I get too distant from a race.  Race consistently to race better!
2. Jeff Buhr had mentioned the marathon, which meant I would have someone to travel with (and run with for a little while).
3. Brad Feld is someone I have been helping train for marathons, but I have never met him face-to-face, so this would be a fairly close race to have that opportunity.

My own expectations:

This is my 6th marathon in 2008 (counting Great Illini IronDistance Race) so I know that I’m on the edge of doing too many long races without being forced to take a long period of rest – or having a period of serious stagnation in performance.  I have tried to manage my expectations all year, knowing that my main training goal was:

“to be consistent”  and “race when healthy and able”

This has meant that my longest training run in 2008 was 19 miles, back in February, when I ran with Allisa as she prepared for the Boston Marathon.  Since that run the longest training run that I’ve done has been 15 miles.  Leading up to this marathon, I had only done consistent runs of 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Two weekends before Rocket City Jeff and I went out on a 15 mile run (Pit Bull @ Todd’s Road) and I told Jeff that I expected to squeeze out 15ish miles.  At that point I was going to walk/jog in order to protect my legs and allow my training to continue as normal (12 runs in 14 days for the IMLou group right now).

What you want to do and what happens on race day is often very different because a race (and ego) can do many things to influence your behavior!

My Race Day Experience:

Jeff and I started running the first few miles at a pace that felt really comfortable, but we had no clue how hard we were running.  My Garmin 305 had not been charged so the battery was already dead before I started the race and Jeff doesn’t run with a Garmin (smart!).  As we crossed the 1 mile mark, the time keeper shouted “6:21, 6:22, 6:23″… oh boy!

Over the next couple miles we backed off a little, but only a little.  We went through miles 2 and 3 around 6:30 – 6:35 pace.  I was feeling really good running at this pace, but in my mind I felt like I was in over my head.  “Hold on to this feeling” is all I kept telling myself.

A group of runners joined us around the 4 mile mark.  It was nice because the group was rather large.  They all seemed nice enough and were running exactly where we wanted to be.  As the group dynamic built I continued to feel really good and just sat in the pack and participated in marathoner’s chit-chat.

The hard part for me was that I felt like the group was running well and I wasn’t sure I still wanted to drop out at 13.1 to 15?  I began to tell Jeff that I would be done at 15 as a way to reinforce my decision.  That discussion is something you have to be careful with as you are running a marathon.  You don’t want to say it so many times that you discourage the runners who are planning to take on the whole 26.2, but I still needed to confirm to myself that I was doing the right thing.

The group went through the 13.1 marker just under 1:27, which was what I told Jeff I would help pace him to.  Luckily for me the group dynamic began to change as we went through mile 14.  One of the female runners in the group made a surge (at least it seemed that way) as we went through the aid station at mile marker 14.  It broke the pack up, so I worked pretty hard to get about 3 feet off the back of those in front again, then it appeared that another surge happened.  “Good enough” I thought and continued to run where I was and stopped at mile 15 for my first walking break.

Miles 15 to 25 were actually very little fun.  I walked an awful lot over that period of time, probably 2.5 to 3 of those miles were done walking, the other pieces were done at a jogging effort.

I am always preaching about the benefits of using a run / walk race strategy.  In fact, I think that anyone running over a 3:30 must do it, over a 3:15 should consider it and anyone over a 3:00 marathon should do a serious pro/con analysis.  But there is one thing about the run/walk strategy that must be known:  It must be done from mile one, before you have reached the point of fatigue.  If you wait until you are forced to walk – It’s Too Late!

This race was a good reminder of that principle.  The walking I did in this marathon was by no means a way to improve my race result, it merely was an attempt to decrease the damage that a marathon does to your legs.

Mile 25.  Just after passing the 25 mile mark, Bryan Mullins passed me and I began running with him.  It was nice to finally have someone to run with again.  We finished the race together in 3:17.

Final Thoughts:

Rocket City is a great race.  The expo is small enough that you can walk in and just grab your items.  The hotels are about 100 yards from the start and finish line.  I would suggest that you stay in the Embassy Suites at the start line.

Maybe the most important factor for some runners it the course layout.  This course is a perfect course to try and set a new marathon personal best – it is speedy friendly.

It was a great way to end my 2008 year.  I have also recovered well from the race.  I got a bike ride in the next day, took Monday off and back to running on Tuesday.  2008 was a year to take things as they come, 2009 is a very focused year:  One Day, One Race, One Goal.

Jeff Buhr, by the way, ended up running a 2:57!  Nice job Jeff and what a great year 2008 was for you!  And Brad (with Matt Shobe) ran 4:39, about 20 to 25 minutes faster than he told me he might run the night before – great job Brad, 36 to go.

Where to begin?  I guess I’ll start with last week.  After my last longish run on Saturday the 4th, I decided to take several days off of running and focus on healing my hip.  I think I did everything I could think of to get relief.  I stopped running, I iced like mad, sometimes I used a heating pad, stretched, foam rolled, epson salt baths, meditation, NSAIDS, doctor visits, 3 massages, chiropractic care, e-stim, ultrasound, iontophoresis.  I think that about covers it.  I had little to no relief at all.  I kept telling myself that it was getting better, and come race day it would be just fine.  Positive thinking or just fooling myself?  I did break down about 7 times (maybe more) last week.  I am emotional enough the last week of taper.  Adding injury to the flame just made it burn even hotter.

Saturday I was a nervous wreck. I think it was the most nervous I have ever been before a race.  I had a really hard time settling down, but come race morning I felt a lot better.  Gary and I met the girls at their hotel and we walked together to the race start.  It was about a mile and a half, and and it helped to warm up my already sore and stiff hip.  We met Jeannie at the gear check, and headed off to our corral.  I have to admit, the seeded corral was really nice.  The one and only complaint I have ever heard about Chicago is that it is too crowded, but although there were 45,000 people signed up for the race I never felt like I was being held back, and couldn’t run.  I was grateful for that.

Jill, Amy, Kristin, Jeannie and I all started the race together.  Amy and Kristin were off together from the start and I never saw them again.  Jill found her stride around mile 3 and I kept seeing her look back for me, but I knew she was going to have the race of her life and I didn’t want to be the one to hold her back.  That was the last I saw of Jill.  It was a little difficult to see her go because we honestly did probably 95% of our quality runs side by side.  We even finished the Lake City Half Marathon side by side!  I wasn’t at all upset that she was beating me, but weeks ago before this injury, I had always had this rose colored image of us running together laughing and or complaining as we always did.  Then of course. crossing the finish line both having qualified for Boston.  Doesn’t that sound nice?

Jeannie and I ran together through around mile 7.  We were exactly on pace as we crossed the 10k mark, but I was thinking that it didn’t feel as easy as I thought it should have.  In an instant Jeannie was gone.  I tried to keep positive and told myself that I was running the Chicago Marathon!  Have fun!  So for one mile I took it all in. The crowd, the runners, the town, everything.  It really is an amazing race.  Too bad my enjoyment only lasted one mile…My hip was hurting.  I’d felt it starting around mile 2.  I just wasn’t happy.  I scanned the crowds so hard looking for Gary, but I never saw him.  I told myself as soon as I see Gary or my dad I will just stop.  I wasn’t going to make 3:40, and I really didn’t care to have another 4:00 marathon under my belt.  I never did see Gary and when I got past halfway I was too nervous to stop because I didn’t really know where I was.  I did however see my friend Chris twice!  It was so unbelievably great to see him and his awesome homemade sign.  I was so grateful the second time I saw him that I stopped to give him a hug.  Thanks, Chris!

I tried to stay positive throughout the race, but it was hard to do.  I kept telling myself that if I ran faster the pain would be over sooner.  I got swept up by the 3:45 pace group, then the 3:50 pace group.  It’s not really a good feeling.  It got hot, I found out later it reached 84 degrees at 11am.  I really don’t think much compares to the pain of a marathon.  I kept asking myself why do I put myself through this?  It hurts so freakin bad!  I’m not just talking the hip either.  Maybe I am just doing it wrong.

I somehow got to mile 26 and at last saw Gary and my dad at the finish line.  I squeaked in just under 4:00.  I made it through half of the finishers area when I heard, “Nikki!”  It was the girls.  I was so anxious to hear how they did.  Jill was beaming, and for good reason.  She ran an incredible 3:38!  What a rock star, she did have the race of her life…so far!  Amy went 3:41 just above BQ, but no worries since she already qualified at Louisville.  That girl has oodles of potential.  Kristin went 3:45, but, was battling some pretty rotten patellar tendinitis for the past few weeks.  She hadn’t run all week either, and under the circumstances did an exceptional job.  K, our day will come.  I promise!  Or maybe we can just be half marathoners…   AND Jeannie went 3:40!  I always knew she had it in her.  I’m so proud of those girls!

After a few pictures, Gary, Dad and I started the long walk back to the car.  The girls were going for pizza.  What?!?  I think I’m going to vomit, no thanks on the pizza.  What is with me and nausea after races?  I spent 15 minutes parked over a trash can on Michigan Ave. on our way back to the car.  At least it wasn’t like Phoenix this time, just some dry heaves.

So I was 20 minutes over my goal time.  Am I disappointed? I think I may have gotten out all of my disappointment last week.  I think all of my overactive emotions were due to the fact that in the back of my mind I knew the race was not going to be what I knew it could be.  20 weeks of long runs and incredibly tough speedwork in the hottest months of summer for what?  For nothing?  I’m choosing not to think so.  The marathon isn’t just about running 26.2 miles.  Most of it is how you get there.  Yes, it is a great feeling to cross the finish line and it is incredibly satisfying to reach a time goal, but there is so much more to it than that.  It’s running with friends, pushing each other to places we never thought we could go, having someone to complain about the pain to, and that great feeling of running 40 minutes at a 7:30 pace in 70 degree weather with 95% humidity.  I am not going to let October 12th, 2008 get me down because I didn’t make 3:40, when I made 100% of my training runs starting on May 27th.  (well besides the last week!)  That’s 108 workouts and we ran each of them with purpose and precision.  Sure I’m still a little disappointed, but I know I’ve put in the hard work and someday I will reap the benefits.

So how was I going to approach the marathon at the end of my EndureChallenge journey?  It would have been easy to go into the race thinking that all I wanted to do was finish the race, but other than celebrating the transition from my 20’s to my 30’s, I wanted to try and break through some psychological barriers that I’ve developed around racing over the years.  (I’ll write more on that in some upcoming posts).

So here is how I approached the race:

1.  Even though I wore my Garmin 305 and the heart rate monitor (thanks Saori and Paul), I told myself that I would not look at the heart rate data at all during the race.  I also decided that I would only look at the watch at mile 10, 13.1, 20 and the finish.

2.  Without the feedback from the Garmin, stopwatch or race clocks (this race didn’t have clocks or timers along the course), I decided to run a pace/effort that felt doable – But an effort that was “hard”.

3.  I also told myself before the race that I didn’t want any excuses for not “meeting expectations”.  I knew that there would be periods where I would try and use the Great Illini race the week before or the bike touring during the week as reasons that I wasn’t running well – I decided before hand that those excuses wouldn’t be acceptable.  (Easier said than done.)

Race Start:

There were tornado warnings in the area and it was raining pretty hard on and off during the night, so the race was pushed back a half hour.  At one point I was nervous that they would decide to cancel the race, which would have meant that my week would have come to an anticlimatic ending.  But after some sitting around and with the race director trying to get the course remarked with chalk, the race got started.

First 10 miles:

Before the race, I heard two girls discussing how they had planned on running just under 3 hours.  I thought that if I was going to see what was possible, why not latch onto them and keep them in sight as long as possible.  And hope that they don’t go out in 2:50 pace, because I wouldn’t have any way of knowing.

As we took off, it felt pretty comfortable to run with the small group of 4 or 5 that chose to run that pace.  I knew it was harder than I’d run in some time, but not unthinkable.  The race consisted of 3 loops (1,2,3) then you ran over a bike path to another division around a lake and ran 5 more loops (a,b,c,d,e).  I ended up running just behind one of the girls through loop d (when she started to pull away a little).

I crossed the 10 mile marker at 69:xx minutes.  “Holy Crap,” I thought, “I can’t believe that I’m actually running this fast still.”  It felt good at that point and around mile 12 the second girl started to run next to me.  As we ran back through the bike trail towards the half way point she said that she’d hurt her knee and that she was going to fall out at the half.  I was a little bummed that I wouldn’t have anyone to run around, but also knew that with all the loops there would be ways to see others and pace myself.

As we ran through the half, my watch said 1:31:xx.  Still going pretty well, I thought, but wondered how long it would last.

After running loop 1 and 2 of the second half, I knew that I was going to be in trouble – so I decided to take a conservative approach to my walking breaks.  I decided to walk 30 seconds at every other aid station,  I had been doing 30 seconds every 3 to 4 miles.

It seemed to help as I was able to run strong during the run portions of my race.  The a and b loops went pretty well, even the c and d loops were steady (although I could feel the pace slowing quite a bit).  I ran through the 20 mile marker at 2:24:xx, pretty good I thought.  10k to go.

I could feel the pace slowing more and more, along with my legs beginning to hurt significantly.  Many times during a run/race when I feel the pain and hurt begin to set in, I have confidence that my legs won’t give out (like on the run during the Great Illini last week).  This week it didn’t happen.  The last 10k was pretty rough.  I never stopped moving, but at times I really, really wanted to.

Finish: 3:17:xx (results not up yet)

Final Conclusions and Thoughts:

Most people say that I should be incredibly happy with how the marathon turned out.  To be honest, I don’t think that I’m ever fully excited about a race result.  Even at the Great Illini I wasn’t too happy and I set an Iron Distance Triathlon personal best by 12 minutes.  There is always something to improve when I look back.

But, that wasn’t the point of the week or the marathon.  It was to celebrate and I feel like that is exactly what I did for a week.  How lucky am I that I have the ability to get out there every day and push my body to the limit, without my body caving in?  How lucky am I that I have the health that allows me to be active and mobile everyday?  How lucky am I that I have so many friends and family that were supportive and interested in my crazy-little-mess-of-a-week?  How lucky am I that I have a wife that loves me, puts up with this craziness and supports me and even encourages me?

At one point early in my collegiate career I sat down and wrote out a sketch of goals in most of the major areas of my life.  The areas included:  education, financial, career, athletic and personal development/spiritual.  As I look back, many of those goals are starting to become a reality or have already been realized.  I remember after running my second marathon in 4:00, I thought that qualifying for the Boston Marathon may never be possible.  I sit here today a little dissappointed that I didn’t run under 3:10 a week after an iron-distance triathlon and 323 miles of bike touring – YES, I am a very lucky guy.

Athletic Conclusion to Marathon:

I am almost always very conservative when I develop a race strategy for triathlons and marathons.  I rather be conservative and finish well then go out and limp my way home – is my normal line of thinking.  While this often proves itself well in triathlons and marathons, I also realize that by always being too conservative we may never realize our full potential.

Fear of Failure is often the biggest limiter we face in endurance athletics

As I mentioned above, I did not want any excuses or reasons for not giving this marathon everything I had.  This meant I had to be ok with walking, stumbling or crawling across the finish line.  So I gave it a shot during this marathon and I feel very good about the opportunity my mind allowed my body have.

So was it realistic to run under 3 hours or even 3:10 at this race, with this training or in this situation?  Probably not, but it sure felt good to at least try!

If you follow my twitter page (twitter.com/ditschfitness) then you’ll know the basics as Nikki sent some out during the race. This report will fill in my emotions and feelings for the race, but first the basic stats:

Great Illini Results -

swim: 1:17:48
t1: 2:00
bike: 6:00:40 (18.6mph)
t2: 1:14
run: 3:38:51 (8:21/mile)

total: 11:00:34

Swim – as the horn sounded things were a little rough in the beginning. I’m not sure if I was not anxious enough; therefore unprepared to get moving or if I just needed a little time to get into a rhythm? It didn’t take long though as I felt incredibly efficient in the water. I had zero kicking going on and felt like every pull was really getting some work done. I kept thinking to myself, “pull yourself through the tube.” Which is a visualization that my coach/professor at UNL shared with me when I was learning to swim.

My time ended up being around 5 minutes slower than last year at IMMOO, but that is what I expected. I didn’t swim one time from Sept 9, 2007 to June 9, 2008. And once I started swimming in June I made it to the pool only a couple times a week (a few weeks I got three swims in). The one thing I did do this year that gave me a little confidence that I could get out there was the Cave Run 1.5 mile swim that the YMCA put on at Cave Run Lake.

Bike – the bike training this past year was also not specific to Ironman. If you have been following my blog for awhile, then you’ll know that I just wanted to take a different approach this year. I didn’t want to train for any specific event, but try some races out, if I felt they were possible. (And you’ve seen what kind of brainstorming occurs when I don’t have events picked out!). That philosophy of training for this year left me with few specific race rides. In fact, I did zero race simulation rides this past year and only had one brick (bike/run) workout this year at all (last weekend with Jeff).

All that being said, you can imagine how pleased I felt to see that I rode 13 minutes faster this year than I did at IMMOO. I realize that you can’t compare different races and courses, but that is a positive that I’m going to take away from this race.

I actually felt really good most of the bike. There were periods that the wind had me moving at what felt like a turtle’s pace, but I just tried to push on. The biggest issue I had on the bike was my back. I did most of my rides on my road bike this year, in fact, I think the longest ride I did on my triathlon bike was 50 miles (again last weekend with Jeff). My gluts and lower back were in pain pretty much the whole time, but with the wind I didn’t want to stand too much. Occasionally I would stand and just spend a couple minutes in my big chain ring and ride hard standing up to relieve some tension.

The other positive that I’m taking away from this ride is that I even split the 2 loops. I rode 3:00 on the first loop and 3:00 on the second loop. Can’t be bummed about that.

The one lesson that I’ll take away from this is that I need to learn to ride the bike faster. I was the only athlete in the top 10 that rode under 19mph. (The top two rode 22mph or over!) Training to ride faster and learning how to race that way would leave a lot less work to do on the run for me.

Run – The run training was very similar to my bike training. I did nothing specific, but I also never stopped running through out the year. The one thing that I always feel is true, if I run consistently, is that my run will not abandon me.

When I got to the run, I felt really good and started out pretty quick. My leg turnover was good and my pace was too fast but at a comfortable effort (6:40ish). As I approached the first aid station I asked for coke or gatorade. They said they had, “water and ecaps”. SH*T. That was my first thought. I had some egel’s with me, but my stomach was not willing to take any more of those. So I took some water and used a couple of my Succeed Salt Tabs.

As my usual plan of action, I walked 30 seconds at every mile.

As I approached the second aid station, I asked the same question. Again they had nothing but water and ecaps. I saw a pattern here and was getting nervous. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to run the marathon if all I had to use for aid was ice water and salt tabs.

On the return section of the first lap (we ran 4 laps) they finally had some coke available at mile 5. I took a can of coke and was able to drink a couple drinks. My stomach was pretty messed up at this point, but even more scary was that I was starting to feel really dizzy, my fingers tingled and I felt light-headed. If you listened to my last podcast (hydration and the role of sodium) then you’ll understand where my thoughts were going. I started to say some multiplication tables to myself, hoping that the answers wouldn’t allude me: “1 + 1 = 2, 2 + 2 = 4, 4 + 4 = 8″ … ok, you’re not there yet.

Around mile 7, I thought it was over. I stopped at the aid station and began to sweat heavily. I started to dry heave pretty heavily but couldn’t get anything to come up. My head was spinning and my legs felt like jello. To be honest, it felt like I had been at the bar a little to long on a Nebraska Football Game day. The aid station workers were standing there not sure what to do, they asked if I as alright, when I said “no”. He turned around and walked away like “oh boy… that isn’t good”. They offered me some bananas, but that wasn’t going to happen, so I asked for some coke again. At this point all I really wanted was a ride back to the start. Without different aid on the course I was worried that I couldn’t get what I needed to recover at any point. I also wasn’t excited about putting myself in a place to risk my health and ruin my chance of riding my bike this week and doing the marathon next weekend.  I guess the one positive about the several minutes that I stood there (I’m guess 5 to 6 minutes), was that despite the violent dry heaving, I didn’t actually puke fluids up.  Had I began to lose fluids with every attempt (which I saw happen to one guy), I’m not sure I would have been able to get moving again.

After I took the coke I started walking again. In the end, I think my ego and anger pushed me forward. Looking back, I am happy that I didn’t DNF at that point, but I’m not sure that being propelled by ego and anger is the place I want to be in life, even during a race.

After I got my mind settled down, I began running again. I’m not sure how it happened, but I actually ran ok once I was running. My body was still chilled (in the sun). I craved water, but everytime I tried to drink any I felt like I would throw it up.

Around mile 18, I finally got a bottle of Gatorade Endurance. Magic. While my pace was decreasing to 8:30/mile pace, my thoughts finally cleared up. I didn’t have the “lost in space” feeling as bad and that gave me confidence to try and push home and at least try and break the 11 hour mark.

It didn’t happen. As you can see above, I missed it by 34 seconds. 34 seconds is a tough pill to swallow after 11 hours.

Final Thougts:

I feel pretty darn happy as I come away from this race. It is 12 minutes faster than I went at IMMOO last year and while it’s difficult to compare courses, I’m happy with the way things turned out. While I am a little bummed about how my run ended up, it was still the 2nd or 3rd fastest of the day (I think the 2nd fastest on the results page is a relay team?). And I guess when I am at the point that running 3:38:51 for the marathon in a Iron-distance race is a bummer, I have more to be thankful for than I have reason to complain.

Now — learn how to swim and bike!

I also learned that you need to be very aware of the race course nutrition. The Great Illini website said this:

“The 26.2 mile run course will be divided into 4 6.55 mile loops. Competitors will have the opportunity to access their run course special needs bags every 6.55 miles. There will be aide stations and porta-johns every mile of the run course. The aide stations will be stocked with fruit, Hammer Gels, E-Caps, water, Heed energy drink and much more.”

I knew that I would need Gatorade Endurance and Coke to get me through the run.  I should have had Nikki’s Fuel Belt full of Endurance and used it, with some extra bottles for the fuel belt at the special needs bag.

That is why we do races like this, to practice and learn.  The great thing about this race is that usually I have a year to sit around and think about what happened before I get another shot.  This time I get to ride my bike around Illinois and Indiana for a week and then give the marathon another go around at the Lake City Marathon!

I can’t wait for Ironman Louisville next year though!