Gulf Coast Triathlon Race report (working title)

Gulf Coast Triathlon 70.3
Date of Race: 5/08/2010
Total Race Time: 6:49:42
Overall Place: 479/614
Age Group: 25-29
Age Group Place: 44/51

Pre-Race:
Rode down to PCB Thursday with Jody and Todd, listening to Jody sing every song ever made, even the bad ones. Got dinner and ended the night early back in the room looking forward to practicing the open water swim the next day. Friday morning woke up and headed down to the gulf for a practice swim. I’m happy I had the chance to practice because I learned Ocean motion + me on my back = vomiting, and that no matter what I would float in salt water with a wetsuit. This was very comforting to know, and would really help come Saturday. After regaining my sea legs I spent the rest of the day hydrating and trying to calm my nerves.

Warm-up:
Race morning woke up at about 3:30 had a banana and saw the white caps in the ocean and laid back down telling myself it just looks bad from the 10th floor. At about 4:15 I woke up for good had 4 pieces of peanut butter and honey toast and headed down to transition. After setting up transition, I went to the shore and watched as the waves before my wave entered the Gulf and got my feet wet.

Swim: 51:28
Before the swim started Matt (a clubmate) and I gave each other last words of encouragement and he moved to the front of the wave as I creped to the back. When the horn went off I slowly made my entrance to the water, not wanting to fight people and waves, and began my way out. Almost to the first buoy, I threw up a little and thought it’s nice to get that out of the way and just kept swimming. Also there was a huge wave with little bait fish jumping out of the water, that was a little scary. They don't call them bait fish for nothing. Later when I brought this up no one else saw this, so maybe I was hallucinating. After the first turn things got a little better and I was able to get some kind of rhythm, I should have recognized this omen because when I made the turn to come back in it seemed like all hell broke loose. The waves were exponentially worst going back than coming out. I threw up four times losing everything in my stomach, but quitting never was an option (I believe, I was so far off course that they wouldn’t have found me if I wanted to quit anyway). I remember coming up for a breath and almost being flipped completely over, thinking “that would have surely broken my spirit,” thankfully I didn’t roll. After finally exiting the water, I slowly made my way to transition thanking the higher powers.

T1: 6:28
The day before the race Todd Laberge pointed out to drink a lot of water once you exit to dilute the salt, so once I got to transition a drank a complete bottle of water. I was really thirsty after throwing up so much but I felt pretty good, other than being thirsty.

Bike: 3:05:48 18.1mph/avg
On the bike I had a plan to drink two bottles of Carbo-pro and Gatorade, to take two Gu’s and to get a bottle of water once my first bottle of Gatorade and carbo-pro was gone, and to stay in the saddle the complete time and not spike my HR. I never pushed out of my comfort zone the entire ride, my Garmin had my avg HR at 134. There was wind on the bike but I was focused on not letting anything out of my control be an issue during this race. I don’t think I have ever been this focused during a race. I felt like I nailed my nutrition and didn’t let the people around me alter my plan, I was truly racing myself at this point in the day and I knew my goal was to finish. I stayed very consistent, and knew I would need to if I was going to finish, especially without cramping. Around mile 35 I got hungry, and had half a cliff bar. Getting off the bike I felt great.

T2: 3:26
I entered transition with Mark Holder and he told me “he had pushed way too hard on the bike,” this helped my confidence heading to the run knowing I managed my bike really well. I watered off my feet reapplied some vasaline and slipped on my shoes and off I went. Exiting the transition, I reminded myself what Ron told me, “this is your 70.3 experience, enjoy it and have fun.” I exited T2 with a smile ready for the run.

Run: 2:42:35
I started the running feeling really good. I didn’t have any pains at all. It seems as soon as I began to run the sun came out with a vengeance and there was no shade the entire run. I ran all the way through mile 10 with a smile on my face, only walking through the water stops. At mile 10 things began to fall apart. I had blood coming through the top of my shoe from not running with socks. My foot didn’t hurt but I was mentally spent and the sight of the blood stain gave me an excuse to walk. So I began to walk/run. Finally someone from my age group came up and passed me and that motivated me not to be last in my age group, if we were indeed the last two people on the course, so I started back running. Around mile 12 I passed two of PCB’s finest sitting in the back of their pick up truck smoking cigs having a beer, and the guy yells “You’re fit, what in the hell are you doing way back here”, even I had to laugh at that. If only the drunk bastard knew how far I have come. That lightened the mood at little heading around the last corner where some North Georgia Multisport loser succeeded at being annoying and down the road to the finish I went. Coming up on the finish I saw another guy from my age group so I picked it up a little more making sure to cross the line before him. Once I crossed the line and stopped running, I instantly went scatter-brained. I stood there not knowing what the hell to do.

Post Race:
One of the volunteers kept asking me if I wanted him to go with me, and I kept saying no. It was really weird, I felt like a little kid with a stranger approaching. After getting away from him I wondered into the convention center and saw they were giving massages. As soon as I signed the paper for the massage I began to cramp. Two ladies came over and began icing me down and making me drink more Gatorade, last thing in the world I wanted at that point, but they were extremely helpful. Eventually I came too and the nice massage lady walked me to the ATC tent where the rest of the club was waiting. I spent the rest of my time there cramping, hanging out with the gang.

What would I do differently:
I definitely need to increase my run and cycling volume A LOT. I also need to incorporated salt sticks into my nutrition. My face was caked with salt by the end of the race, surely that will help some with the cramping (post race or during). I also should have started off the run with a higher cadence. Once my body was used to running, I felt like it was nearly impossible to speed up my cadence.

Rate your overall experience with this race:
The volunteers at this race were the best I have experienced. Everyone was extremely helpful and seemed excited to be there. I really enjoyed the positive energy. The bike was boring and flat, though I like flat, and there weren’t many if any spectators on the run, but the volunteers were incredible. I would defintely do this race again.