›Ironman Canada (Penticton, Canada)
Ironman Canada
By: Jeff Patterson
August 28, 2005
Tough day at the IM-Office. Short story: bad swim, worse bike, solid run….go figure. This has got to be one of my most relaxed race weeks. It was simply enjoyable. We weren’t really around the IM-Village that much. And, we pretty much swam in the mornings, and then got the heck out of there.
Race morning dawned pretty dang early: 3:30am. I started eating and managed to down about 1000 calories before we left at 4:45. After dropping off all the bags, nutrition and stuff, I was really mellow and just hung with G.
About 6:30, I got in the water and warmed up until the cleared the waters of AG’ers for the pro start at 6:45. After their start, we had a few more minutes to swim before they lined us up. I had a tough time getting going in the swim. I started about the third person back from the start banners, but it was still really clogged for the vast majority of the swim. When we turned at the Sicamous, we were swimming straight into the sun. I couldn’t see a thing. I’m pretty sure in the long stretch over to the second and last turn, I swam way off course and lost quite a bit of time. I simply couldn’t see and no one else could, either. I had a pretty good set of feet for the first leg to the Sicamous, but kept getting side-swiped. Then swimming into the sun, it was like a bad case of bumper cars all the way to the turn. I guess that’s what happens when 2300 people swim together…that’s friggin’ ridiculous.
Anyway, out of the water in just over an hour. I had hoped to be on the bike by one hour. Oh well. The bike for me was a major case of swallowing the pride and just trying ride comfortably to Richter. But, it was simply a mess. Packs of folks everywhere. The race officials had their hands full dolling out drafting penalties. And there were folks with flats everywhere. Now, the Penticton Herald posted a news article on sabotage on the course. Evidently there were carpet tacks and carpentry nails everywhere. Some folks had up to 7…yep, SEVEN flats. The Bike Barn SAG folks reportedly handed out over $5000 in tubes. Anyway, back to the race. Up and over Richter and into the Rollers. Roller number 5 (I think) was wicked fast. I knew one of them was ridiculous, but I couldn’t remember which one. I hit just over 52mph on that bad boy! J The flat section to Cawston was fairly uneventful. Folks were starting to blow BIG TIME in there. I knew it would happen, but it’s awfully hard to keep that perspective in the first 40 miles of this course. The winds were starting to build as I hit the out-n-back section and it was getting quite toasty. Half way to Special Needs the wind was downright blasting through the valley. Hitting the climb to Yellow Lake was fairly uneventful, too, except for the thousands of folks lining the roads and the traffic jam created by the race. Things got rather….um… "interesting" as I crested the climb to the golf course. The winds were simply howling across the descent. I hadn’t rolled down too far (and hadn’t really hit full acceleration, yet) when I got a wicked front end speed/wind wobble. I barely pulled it out. I’ve experienced bad speed wobbles before but this was simply frightening. I was going about 40mph. If I had lost control, I’m pretty sure I would have been a goner or in the ER for a really long time. I ended up stopping about half way down that descent and got off my friggin’ bike. I kept thinking… "This is an friggin’ race and I’m friggin’ standing next to my friggin’ bike!" I thought my headset had blown, the front tire had blown or the hub had cracked. I didn’t know WTF was going on. Checked the bike and it was all ok. Then, I stood their, nearly getting blown over by the wind wondering how in the hell I was going to get off the mountain in one piece. As slow as I was going fighting the wind wobble (aaallll the way down to the Hwy 97 intersection), I think I probably gave away 10-15 mins on the bike. It was a mess. Riding across the canal by the beaches down by the airport was simply ridiculous. We were all leaning WAY into the wind. But, that stretch down Main Street was sure nice with that tail wind!
On to the run. It was carnage for the first few miles. I couldn’t believe how many guys were already walking. There’s no telling how many people I ran past. Cruised through town and down Main Street. Somewhere around the Mohawk I spotted Justin Maguire in his Front Runner gear. I yelled over at him and he was like "DUDE!!!!! ALLLRIGHT!!! YOU LOOK GREAT!!!!!" He gave me five, and as I ran on I remembered his race report from IM-LP last year – one of the funniest friggin’ race reports ever. It’s probably still on xtri.com. He had his family tell him how bad he looked (as opposed to the BS he had just laid on me) every time they saw him on the course, like, "Dude, you look horrible.", "Sure you don't want to walk a bit...?", "Think you can finish in time for dinner?" About two miles down the road, I started cracking up thinking that when he yelled that at me I should have yelled back "LLLLLLIAR!!!!!!" Anyway, back to the race. Gina was by the aid station down by the park at Skaha (down past the turn at the Mohawk). She noticed some dude in a Desoto top like mine that she thought was probably 30 mins head of me on the way out on the run. She said he was an hour behind me on the return leg, and that’s exactly what it seemed like to me on the run. My legs actually felt great. After pushing into the headwinds and climbing quite steady for the last few hours, I thought I might have blow my chance at a respectable run. It was so dang hot and the head winds by Skaha were so unbelievably strong, that I couldn’t get back on my hydration and nutrition, and I knew I might be in some serious trouble. At some point I started running well into the WPRO field. I can’t even begin to describe the suffering going on at the front of the field. At some point (I have no idea where…seriously), the MPRO field started coming back towards town. I have never seen so much visible suffering in my life. I met up with the Macca Twins on Monday. They were both just shaking their heads. I knew they had already talked to Molina. Marilyn won IM-Malaysia last year, and Chris has run sub-2:50 several times (at least once at IMNZ, not sure where the other one was). They both said they had never suffered like that on the run before. The heat and headwinds were unreal. Anway, back to the show….
The plan was to hit a gel every hour, 1 salt and 2 endurolytes every hour, and water and Gatorade at every aid station until 2.5hrs into the run. After that, cola, water and Gatorade. Cramps twinges started hitting me at the climb up above OK Falls. I had to walk them out just a bit before the turn around. I hit the turn around at about 1:50. I downed a bunch of stuff at special needs, then started refilling my fuel belt bottles at every aid station. Somewhere in there I started downing a salt and an endurolyte every 30 mins. And, I was averaging 2 cups of water, 2 cups of coke and 2 cups of Gatorade at every aid station, plus two complete fuel belt bottles between aid stations. That seemed to be keeping the hamstring cramps at bay. There were a few spots where I had to walk the first part of the hills (coming back into town) then I hooked up with a dude running pretty well and we worked our way up the rest of hills pulling each other back into town. Somewhere before the Mohawk, everything came back together and I managed to get back to about an 8min pace. Cruised all the back down mainstreet and cramped right before the last aid station before the turnaround at the Sicamous. Downed enough Gatorade and water to get home. Rolled in for a 10:35 finish and a 3:45 marathon. I was fully cooked….but not too cooked to ham it up in the finish line. G got a pic of me right before I hit the shoot. I turned around to make sure I wasn’t going to get over taken. I’ll leave the rest to when they have the "watch me finish" link on IMLive. Kinda fun. First time I haven’t just simply run down the shoot and thrown my arms up in relief….
We went to the roll down just for the heck of it the next day. Missed a Kona slot by about 15 mins – in my AG, that was about 10 guys. No biggie. I so thoroughly enjoy the process of training for an IM and other ultra-endurance events that the privilege of competing in the IM is icing on the cake. A Kona slot will be a true gift – I’m a pretty patient dude. I can wait; that means the process continues with a significant purpose. J
I started the sport of IM four years ago. When I started working with Molina he said it normally takes 5 years to get to where you can really race the IM and start to realize significant improvements and potential. I went to my first masters practice 2 ½ years ago, suffered through my first real group ride about a year ago, and in 1996 I weighed 210lbs. I vividly remember what it’s like to be a guy that couldn’t even run a mile; I also vividly remember the intense pain I experienced the first time I ran three continuous miles – that was in the summer of 1998. At that point, I knew something was desperately wrong. I subsequently followed Gina’s (my wife’s) path to health and fitness. That’s why I enjoy the training process. I easily slip into pattern of training a ton and not really racing much. I now realize to continue any improvement, my body needs the stress of racing….and I’m beginning to enjoy it. J
What’s next? Three weeks of virtually nothing. That’s always tough. I usually crack at day 10 and start swimming and mountain biking a little.
See ya out there.
- Jeff
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