›Grand Columbian Iron-Distance 2006
September 16, 2006
Grand Coulee, Washington
By: Jeff Patterson
What a nice end to my 2006 racing season. The Grand Columbian courses are centered near the Grand Coulee Dam in Northeast Washington. In its third year, this race has the potential to become one of those cult classics. The swim is in a pristine lake. The bike is on almost all rural roads (the Half-IM distance is on completely rural roads, while the ITU LC and Iron-distance have about a 50 mile stretch on lightly traveled highways). The run is virtually all trail along the river. Grand Coulee and Electric City are very small towns that really supported the race. Jonathan Hoskins and his wife did an incredible job of assembling a team of workers and an army of volunteers from the community.
So here’s how it went: The horn blew at 7am and I swam for about 50m with a guy on my left and a lady on my right. We were swimming stroke for stroke, then I decided to pull in behind the guy, and the lady pulled in behind me. Well, about 100m later, apparently the guy started to REALLY swim…he dropped me like a cheap prom dress! When I sighted for the second time he was GONE. So the vast majority of the swim was completely uneventful that resulted in a 2min PR, with no draft. Out of the water in 1:01. The air temp at race start was in the low 40’s. So, I took my time in T1 to completely dry off and put on arm and knee warmers, and a cycling jersey over my race top.
I froze for the first two miles, then the bike course went UP and so did my body temp!
Two miles into the course we started a three mile climb that has an extended section with three switch backs that top out at 13%. For you Bend-ites, take the bottom switch back of Archie Briggs, multiply it by three and put it in the middle of the climb from Sparks to Todd Lake….yeah, something like that. That’ll getcha warm! The next 50+ miles of the bike are these massive rollers. By “massive” I mean, you get to the top of one hill and you see the top of the next one about 7 miles away.
Typical Northeastern Washington/Northeastern Oregon terrain. But, do that for the better part of 60 miles, and it’ll suck the life out of your legs. Throw in some winds on top of those mesas and the ole legs get a little worked. So, I made it to bike special needs in 3:37. From there (the town of Almira…that’s Almira at the end of that rode in the pic.) back to T2 took 2:15. I was really ready to get off the bike and run…kinda like turning a horse for home.
The weird thing about this IM was that two other races started hours after we started, so I was hitting the run course with tons of other folks. That was quite disorienting. I had been riding solo for hours. Then, I rolled back into town with a couple of guys, then get off the bike and run on a full run course.
I started the run with 4 fuel-belt bottles with 100 cals in each and a bottle with about 400 cals. I ran out of T2 (uphill, then a steep 1k downhill) running very easy trying to get the bottle down. That was finished by the second aid station (about 3 miles in). The run course is on a gravel trail/road, except for the road up to T2/Finish and the 1k downhill.
I rolled along comfortable for the first lap at an easy to steady effort. First lap in 1:55. Not bad, considering the hills and wind on the bike course. Hit T2 and swapped out fuelbelt bottles and headed out for lap two. My goal was to run out to the turn around, gradually increasing effort to a solid steady effort, then, let’er rip (relatively speaking) for the return leg to the finish. Up until this point in the day, I had been throwing down 5 endurolytes per on the bike and run. Legs felt ok. Stomach felt ok. And, I had been down Gatorade every aid station and a gel between aid stations, plus the cals in my bottles. Around mile 21 or 22, I went to throw back my last 5 endurolytes, grabbed a cup of water (that was barely 1/3 full) and tried down the e-lytes. BIG TIME gag reflex because I didn’t have enough water. I proceeded to empty my stomach right there in the middle of the run course. Granted, there wasn’t much in there other than a bit of liquid. Regrouped. Finished off a couple of fuel belt bottles and headed for dinner! Finished the marathon in 3:50 and change. Very satisfying run. Almost perfectly even splits – efforts were easy to steady first ½ marathon, steady to mod-hard for the second half. That’s the nature of IM – 20 miles of hope; 6.2 miles of reality.
This was a very fun race. I’ve now finished 3 non-Mdot iron-distance races and four Ironman races. Each was very very different and very fun. If you don’t like the 2400+ swim start/washing machine, try a non-Mdot. If you want to always have someone around you on the swim, bike and run, do an Mdot. There were many many athletes running well after dark. We went back to the finish line to see if we could catch Ingrid’s finish. The runners were spaced way apart. Some folks like that (i.e., me); other don’t.
A word on Ingrid. I started working with Ingrid back in May. This is one….tough…chick. This was her first IM, who, by the way, beat her projected swim finish by 10 minutes, rode a very solid bike split on an incredibly difficult course, and ran very well to finish well within all time limits. We went through a solid period of training through the early summer, then we stretched things a bit through late July and August. She is one of the very few athletes that did every….single…..thing I recommended. When work/life/family took priority over training, she rescheduled the sessions I had put in the training plan, made the week even HARDER, and kept coming back for more. I was very very honored to be part of her first IM. Nice work, Ingrid.
Now, it’s time for some fall mountain biking, trail running and some swim focus.
See ya out there,
Jeff
PS – While we’re lookin’ at pictures, here’s recent pics of Bofus and Bella:
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