Ironman Lake Tahoe Race Report – The Run

Ironman Lake Tahoe Race Report – The Run
In case you missed it you can read about Race Prep here the Swim here and the Bike here.

Once I got off the bike I was greeted with very helpful encouraging volunteers. I was very shaky and could barely walk at first, luckily I had support from a very bossy volunteer that rushed me thought T2 like the tent was on fire, she didn’t give me time to consider what I was about to go attempt to do. She helped me get out of all my gear and get back into run clothes. I couldn’t think about what I might want to wear on the run so I just ended up putting everything on, this ended up being another thing that turned out well for me. It feels a bit like there were a lot of happy accidents that helped get me out running the marathon before I had time to think about what I was doing.

I was still feeling pretty horrible and run down the first mile. I hadn’t had a chance to grab anything to eat in transition while being rushed so I was still bonking pretty badly. I told myself to just jog to the first aid station and figure it out from there. My legs started to loosen up a little I couldn’t be believe how tight they were from being so cold and riding for so long (that is the longest I have EVER been on my bike!). I made it to the first aid station and grabbed chicken broth, coke and a cup of chips. They all tasted SO good, I was obviously craving salt and very calorie deficient. After eating everything I started to feel a little better and was motivated to run to the next station, so I could eat more. I did the same thing at the next aid station. And started to feel like I was getting a little full so even though I wanted to keep eating a bunch I figured I would have different issues if I didn’t slow down my consumption. At this point a couple miles in and some food in my stomach I was feeling ok again. At that point I knew that if nothing else went wrong I could finish the race. I also started talking to people again, thanking volunteers and staying in the moment and enjoying the experience of doing an ironman.

Cory was great support on the run, he brought his bike and leap frogged me often to check in on me and see if I needed anything. He also had a few items in his backpack in case I needed them on the run (gloves, ear covers, gels, head lamp, etc) you aren’t supposed to get outside support during the race but they made it very clear to us that we weren’t getting our special needs bag back and I didn’t want to lose gear that I like. So I broke the rules a bit, sorry Ironman, hope I don’t have to give my shirt back! (lots of people were getting warm gear from family and friends at this race and the officials didn’t say anything, I think they were more worried about people going hypothermic)

The course is pretty scenic for the first few miles as you make your way from Squaw Valley to HW 89 and there is a lot of spectator support so that was nice. I knew I had dug myself a hole on the bike so I was conservative and methodical about the run. I walked every aid station and any hill that was “steep” I made sure to run all downhills, flats and shallow up hills. By the third mile I had settled in for the long-haul. It was nice to see Cory periodically so I could look forward to seeing him and that really broke up the run.

The run is made up of two out and backs with the first significantly longer than the second you run about 17 miles in the first loop and 9 in the second . The most scenic part of the run was the portion that you run on the Truckee River Bike Trail right next to the Truckee River. It was beautiful in this section but also very hard for spectators to get to, so it was pretty quite along there. I did get to see a lot of friends due to the out and backs so it was fun to see how great they were doing and cheer them on a bit.

When I got to the first turn around it was starting to get dark, they had been handing out headlights but had ran out so some runners were out in the complete dark. Cory was able to get down to the trail fairly close after the turn around so I was able to pick up my head lamp, ear warmers and gloves from him. I was still feeling pretty good but the temperatures were starting to drop and I was getting cold again. As I started to get colder my stomach started to feel off again. I tried hard to take in coke and broth every station but that was a challenge, I did take one gel during the race because I wanted the caffeine, I should have taken more.

The volunteers were handing out mylar blankets to runners and people were wearing them as capes and even wrapped around their legs. I was warm enough to go without but I felt so bad for the runners who looked miserable and cold. The volunteers were great, making sure people were ok and handing out steaming cups of chicken broth. It was scary to see people laid out on stretchers being taken off the course because of hypothermia. Around this time I passed a friend of mine who was just wearing a tri-kit she was shivering and looked miserable. I knew Cory had another jacket of mine and some hand warmers so I told her to keep an eye out for him and I would send him back for her. It made me feel good that we might be able to help a little and not just leave her miserable. The rest of loop one trudged on, it was dark so I couldn’t enjoy the view anymore but I did talk a lot to other athletes and everyone was very encouraging. As I got back into the village at Squaw Valley I spotted my parents in the crowd, I knew they had been worried about me so I took a minute to give them hugs and let them know I was alright and would see them at the finish line.

It was a little painful to have to run right by the finish line but turn the other way and head back out into the darkness. I was feeling good that the long loop was done and I knew what I had to do. I stuck to my walk/run plan although my definition of “steep” hill was a little looser at this point. By the time I was heading back for the last time I knew that I was going to make it and was ready to be done, it was getting colder and a mist was coming off the lake that hurt my lungs at every breath. Ironman projected a giant M-dot shaped light on the mountain, I could see it from a couple miles out, it was a great reminder that I just needed to get it done.



Running into the village the last time I started to get the elated, happy, energized feeling, I knew I was almost there and I couldn’t believe I had stuck with it all day. I saw Mike Riley even gave him a high five but just like at Coeur d'Alene I couldn't hear him call me an ironman. Guess I will just have to keep doing these things until I actually hear it! There really is nothing else in the world like the finish line of an Ironman.

This post is already really long so I will save post race and reflections for later. 

Turkey Day 10k

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I enjoyed a full day with my family but I think my favorite part of the day was the start, a family race. My brother and dad raced the 5k together

While Mom, Cory and I ran the 10k

Cory and I have done this race the last tree years and mom joined us last year. This year the temperature was perfect for running in the upper 50s. Mom and I both decided to wear last years' race shirt so we ended up as twins.

While the temps were great there was a wicked headwind on the second half of the race which was also the uphill section. This made it practically impossible to negative split. Mom said that's not her style anyway.This year was a new course which we didn't like as well but the first part through the park was nice. Cory, mom and I all ran together. My mom is coming back from a few injuries and is doing awesome. Her big goal is a half marathon in June and she is going to KILL IT! Even with the difficult conditions she as able to get a PR of 1:00:28 to win her age group. Cory and I had a great time running with mom and were happy to see her do sowell. We hung around to watch Dad and Erik (big brother) finish up the 5k The race wasn't doing awards that day so we grabbed some water and our race t's before heading out

Normally I really like readline runnings shirts but there was a mix up with the shirts and there is no graphic on the t-shirts. Also our arm-warmers did not come in. I feel a bit bad for the race director as it seems a lot of things went wrong but I wasn't stoked about all the changes from last year. Next we we all decided we want to race the family 5k together.

Ironman Coeur d’Alene Race Report – The Swim

I did NOT get a good night sleep before the race, luckily the night before that was good so I wasn’t too worried about it, but I was a ball of nerves. Our wakeup call came at 3:30 am, I downed some coffee, ate a bagel with Nutella and started hydrating even though I wasn’t hungry at all. We grabbed our special needs bags and headed down to city park. Transition opened at 5:30so we got there with plenty of time to park and walk over. I took the garbage bags off my bike and turned in the special needs bags. Next on the list was body marking, normally at triathlons there is a long line but at Ironman there were so many volunteers that there was no wait. I felt fine and nerves were low while I was busy doing tasks. Soon it was time for the pro start, I wanted to watch but couldn’t make my way from transition to the beach there were so many people there to cheer on the athletes. Instead I put on my wetsuit and thought about heading  to the beach to acclimate to the water.

Unfortunately they weren’t letting the age group athletes on the beach so we stood in a group of athletes standing and waiting for about 20 minutes, that didn’t do good things for my nerves BUT I tried to breath slowly and calm down, I didn’t want to waste precious energy on being nervous.  I was happy that the swim was a two loop course, it really felt like that broke things up and gave me a break in the middle.

Soon enough we were funneled unto the beach, heard Mike Reilly tell us to have a “perfect” day and that he couldn’t wait to call us all ironmen. The gun went off and I made my way down the beach to the water I wasn’t in a hurry because I wanted to avoid the more aggressive swimmers and to give myself a chance to get used to the water. I waded in to my waist and wasn’t too cold so I decided to go for it and start swimming. Thanks to adrenaline I wasn’t feeling too bad and didn’t get too much body contact until I rounded the first turn buoy.

 I expected this area to be slow and congested so I took my time and made my way around slowly until I was headed back to shore. For some reason this was the worst part of the swim for me. I had a lot of contact during this part. One particular participant kept swimming over me and once punched me in the temple really hard, I saw stars for a few seconds and had to shake it off before really moving forward again.

 Also at this point I was getting some pretty intense cramps in both legs, it made me nervous to be cramping SO badly so early in the race but I kept moving forward and soon enough I am standing up out of the water to run across the mat and start my second loop. 

I glance at the clock and see 1 hr 20 something minutes and panic a little. The swim cut off is 2 hrs and 20 minutes if it took me  and hour and twenty minutes to do one loop I was screwed! I didn’t think it had taken me that long but I wasn’t sure, A volunteer standing on the beach yelled that the time on the clock was the Pro’s time and we were at 40 something minutes. I felt good about that number and headed back out for my second loop. The swim out wasn’t too bad at first but then a storm rolled in, it got really windy and cold, there seemed to be huge waves to battle against and I couldn’t see the buoys easily. I made it to the turn where I really struggled to get around the first buoy because of a bad calf cramp, I pushed through and started my way back to shore. I was happy to be headed back to finish up the swim leg, I was cold and ready to be out of the water. I came out of the water at 1:39:25, it took me almost an hour to do the second loop, but I didn’t care I was happy to be out of the water before the cut off!

I  ran up the beach and made my way to a wetsuit stripper, I almost always get calf cramps taking off my wetsuit so I was glad for the help. 

Then a volunteer handed me my transition bag and I headed into the tent. At this point the tent was crowded and there weren’t any volunteers to help but I didn’t mind I grabbed my arm warmers and put them on as well as my helmet, socks, bike shoes and sunglasses. I wish I had grabbed my meds bag and put it in jersey pocket but that is a story for the next post. At the last minute I decided to throw on my rain jacket since I was cold and there were heavy clouds, this was one of my best decisions of the day. I asked a volunteer near my to pack up my bag, left my crap and headed out to find my bike.

Next up the Bike!

You can read about race prep Here

Boco Loco "Race" Recap

On Sunday Cory and we had 60-100 mile ride on our schedule and coach suggested participating in Boco Loco. We decided to go for our first century and that having support sounded like a great idea. Because this was an event not a race you could start your ride any time between 6:30am and 11:00am. We wanted to get out as early as possible since we knew it would be a long day but didn't start until around 8am. We grabbed a print out of the directions, hopped on our bikes and got on the road.

The ride started out really fun, it was rolling, there were lots of riders and it was well supported

At the beginning the 8, 32, 60 and 100 mile courses ride together. High school students were manning the aid station around mile 15, they were cheering like mad and really great support!

 It was a beautiful, clear, cool morning, I heard last year was rainy and crappy, so I guess we lucked out.

 My favorite part of the ride was a short out and back to Rabbit Mountain, we turned around at the trail head, I made a mental note that it would be a great place to go for a trail run!

As each distance peeled off the there were less and less riders to share the road with. By the time we separated from to 60 mile riders it was pretty lonely. Luckily I had Cory to keep me company.

I was feeling pretty good until about mile 60 even though my legs were a little fatigued from running 30k on Saturday I took some pictures while riding (that's totally safe right?)

Miles 60-70 is where the wheels fell off (not literally). My legs really hurt and I was getting really tired. I started to get really worried, if I couldn't make it 60 miles how would I ever make it 112 for Ironman!?! There was an aid station at mile 70 where jumped off my bike did a few quick stretches, inhaled some PB&J sandwiches but failed to top off my water bottles. After the pit stop my legs felt much better, but I was worried they would start hurting again during the last 30 miles. Surprisingly they didn't, in fact they felt better and better! I finished feeling pretty good, I was happy to get off my bike after six and a half hours but felt that I could have ridden another 12 miles and I could have run if I needed to, but I was glad that I didn't need to!

Overall, this was a great way to get some miles in and there was some great swag. We got a nice tech-t

a great water bottle

and some great samples and a ice pack, I always need more of those.

Snowman Stampede 10 mile Race Recap

On Saturday Cory and I ran the Snowman Stampede 10 mile race. This is the third and final race of the winter distance series, you can read about the first two here: Frostey's Frozen 5 miler and Rudolph's Revenge 5k 2010 I did race Rudolph's in 2011 but failed to write a recap.

Source

These races are well run but getting a bit boring for me. I train a lot along the Platte River Trail and have raced this course six times now. Next year may need a different off season focus. But this years 10 miler went ok, I made a few mistakes in the race that I hope to learn from for more important future races. I am happy that all these little races are over and that I have nothing shorter than a half marathon (or sprint tri) on the schedule until the off season!

I was still a little sick but wanted to beat my only other 10 mile time of 1:35:56 for a PR, I really wanted to run it with 9:15 mm or less, I would have loved to come in under 1:30 but wasn't sure that could happen since I am still a little sick and didn't taper at all for this race. I came in at 1:32:57, according to my garmin the course was a little long, 10.23 miles, leaving me at 9:05 mm. Not quite my A goal but still a PR.

My big mistake was not taking a gel, I had some with me but left them at the start in my jacket. I didn't have any pockets so decided not to take one because, 10 miles isn't that far, right? Lesson learned, 10 miles isn't that far, but I still bonked in that last 3 miles. I had to argue with myself not to stop and walk, I was tired and empty. I think a gel would have solved this issue at mile 7. So next time, I will take gels, more than I think I need, just in case.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the event. Cory and I were both racing solo and neither wanted to carry the camera. To be honest I didn't even think about bringing it with us, these races are tune ups and just really don't seem like that big of a deal, but I do wish we had some photos. Cory got a PR as well with 1:12:27 almost 2 minutes off last years race. It must be all those long slow runs he does with me that is making him so fast ;)

This week is a focus on recovery so happily no crazy two-a-day work outs. I will be back later to report the weeks workouts but something that I have finally figured out is that when coach gives us "recovery weeks" he only means the work week is recovery, the weekend is still smashfest fun.....

What is your favorite distance to race?
Mine has to be the half marathon, feels like a big event without totally wiping you out. I also really like the half ironman.

Hope you are enjoying your Presidents Day!