Post by benv on May 7, 2013 21:09:08 GMT -5
This was my second race in St George, last year I finished my second full ironman race there but got a major beating along the way. It was such a hard battle it just wasn't any fun, so i wanted to come back this year and make up for that and really enjoy myself.
The race is now a half IM distance event and the bike course was therefore quite different though on paper total elevation seemed close to half of what it was this year. Last year my bike split was around 6h45' so i was expecting a 3h bike split. The run was gonna be a total pregnant dog and a 2h run seemed like a great result. Add a 40' swim and 8 mins transition and we're talking a 5h45' race, something around that.
We flew in on Wednesday from Cleveland to Vegas, had lunch at Whole Foods, then drove to ST George. We stayed at the Hampton Inn also, just like last year. Thursday was spent mostly with the family heading to the town center park, race registration, going to the famous Veyo Pies shop to eat LOTS of pie, back to SG for mor kiddie fun in the park and a few rounds on the carousel. Friday was more park fun, bike drop off at the Sand Hollow Reservoir, and run gear drop off at T2 in town.
Saturday, race day! Took the shuttle from the hotel to the town center and then hopped on the bus to Sand Hollow, about a 25 min ride. Everybody was quiet on the bus, i love that atmosphere of excitement and tension at the same time. Got all set up and was really looking forward to a race where i was gonna break my PR in terms of amount of fun I've had in a race.
Just before lining up for my wave i noticed my garmin 310 wristband was broken, so i wasn't gonna be able to track my overall time if i couldn't wear it. Since i would need it for the run for sure, i thought i was just gonna turn it on in t2 but leave it in T1 for now and put it in my pocket afer the swim. Got in the water a few minutes before my wave start, it felt cold but nothing too bad. I had a huge smile on my face, last year this same lake gave me serious doubts, concern, fear when 40 mph winds created total chaos and more than 300 athletes and lifeguards were pulled from the water. But now the water was calm, i was confident, and fear was completely replaced with fun, and was still able to enjoy the views. It was a smooth swim, i think i enjoyed myself a bit too much and wasn't always focused, and cold have gone a bit faster, but ended in approx 42'. Significantly slower than Oceanside but i suspect the swim course was long, simply based on my position in AG and overall. In Oceanside I was 1458th after the swim, now i was 1322nd so i doubt i was that much slower.
Swim - 42:05' , 232 in AG and 1322 OA.
Took my time in T1, put on suncreen and all bike stuff, and got on the bike.
T1 - 5:12.
Goal on the bike was to average 250 watts the first half hour and 260 watts from there on, about 15 less than at Oceanside because this course would be much slower. I had also totally run out of energy in Oceanside during the flat run, so definitely had to dial the watts back a bit. I realized rather quickly that this bike course would be much faster than expected but didn't adjust my power, if it would take less time than i had planned for i'd consider it free energy to be used on the run. An important piece of this race was also to figure out my nutrition because the last few races I've had major bloating that totally screwed up my run. I suspected it was related to fructose in Gu and Perform and decided to race completely based on fructose free products, with Infinit sports drink on the bike and Hammer gels on the run. But shortly after the bike as soon as i started drinking my stomach became bloated again, so it was probably due to other factors, like swallowing too much air on the swim, or maybe my drink being too calorie dense. It definitely wasn't as bad as at Oceanside but it could not be ignored, since i don't want to have to deal with this later in the season when I'll do IM Wisconsin. If it was swim related, i thought it should go away by itself, but my stomach clearly gave some reaction every time i would drink, so i decided to change my nutrition plan. Instead of drinking the 3 bottles i had, i was only gonna drink 2, but every aid station would grab a bottle of water, drink from it, and throw it away immediately. In the end, this plan ended up working very well and the problems went away.
The bike course was hilly but the scenery was oh so amazing. I had good speed but really looked at the scenery, and was enjoying every minute of it. There were many people cheering along the side of the road, i was often waving, cheering back, i was riding focused but at the same time it was nothing but one big party. I felt great on the rollers and stayed disciplined. The last major climb was about 4-5 miles going up through Snow Canyon National Park. The climb was steep, it was long, it forced us to go slow which meant we could really observe and admire the scenery. I honestly can not imagine how these views can be beat... I loved it, in fact i wished the climbs were longer so i could watch it some more before having to play rocket and fly down into town. My average watts were 255, pretty much exactly where they had to be. Legs felt great still, definitely better than in California after the bike.
Bike 2h 40' 57", now in 83rd spot in AG and 416th OA.
T2 was pretty uneventful, grabbed my gels, took my garmin from my pocket and turned it on.
T2 - 2:45
I had studied the run course on paper and ridden a part of it before, and this was really the kicker of the race. On paper it looked like you run up a hill for 4.5 miles, then down for 2.1, then flip it. It turned out to be much more inconsistent than that. I started of slowly at around 8:40/ mile and had a good rhythm though my hamstrings were hurting. But the further i got the better they would feel. After 3 miles i grabbed for my first gel and walked while eating it. Within 2 seconds somebody behind me yelled "hey Endurance Nation, I'm gonna tell Patrick you're walking!" I looked behind me, not sure who that was (no EN kit) but immediately started running again. I was however seriously hot and had to do anything possible to cool myself down. Drink two cups of water, poor another one over my head, poor ice in my top or shorts, mostly all of that, i was getting cooked! Once we got halfway my speed started to drop and it got more and more difficult to stay cool. Couldn't maintain my speed and i think only 3 hammer gels on the run wasn't enough (and i had forgotten my salt pills in T2), i needed more but was afraid to take more and risk upsetting my stomach. I had hoped to be able to pick up the pace when running down the mountain but that didn't happen, i was pretty fried. There were a couple more climbs on the way back to the town center which were nasty and kinda sucked. Still, i was so excited as i had accomplished my mission of having the most fun ever in a race, something that had been such a big deal to me ever since IM SG last year.
Final stretch into the finish was awesome, it felt like victory! I didn't even know my final time but knew it was a great race.
Run - 2h02'03"
Final time 5h 33' 02' , 92nd in AG and 508th overall.
This was really an awesome race, very challenging but with unbeatable scenery. It is great to stay in SG before and after the race, very kid friendly also. It seemed many athletes including several pros spent the next day at Zion National Park, and so did we where carrying a 35 lb toddler for most of the day became my recovery workout. Today we visited the Grand Canyon and tomorrow we're flying back from Las Vegas to Cleveland.
Fun times!
Next race: Lake Health half marathon (june 16) and Ironman 70.3 Syracuse (June 23).
Ben
The race is now a half IM distance event and the bike course was therefore quite different though on paper total elevation seemed close to half of what it was this year. Last year my bike split was around 6h45' so i was expecting a 3h bike split. The run was gonna be a total pregnant dog and a 2h run seemed like a great result. Add a 40' swim and 8 mins transition and we're talking a 5h45' race, something around that.
We flew in on Wednesday from Cleveland to Vegas, had lunch at Whole Foods, then drove to ST George. We stayed at the Hampton Inn also, just like last year. Thursday was spent mostly with the family heading to the town center park, race registration, going to the famous Veyo Pies shop to eat LOTS of pie, back to SG for mor kiddie fun in the park and a few rounds on the carousel. Friday was more park fun, bike drop off at the Sand Hollow Reservoir, and run gear drop off at T2 in town.
Saturday, race day! Took the shuttle from the hotel to the town center and then hopped on the bus to Sand Hollow, about a 25 min ride. Everybody was quiet on the bus, i love that atmosphere of excitement and tension at the same time. Got all set up and was really looking forward to a race where i was gonna break my PR in terms of amount of fun I've had in a race.
Just before lining up for my wave i noticed my garmin 310 wristband was broken, so i wasn't gonna be able to track my overall time if i couldn't wear it. Since i would need it for the run for sure, i thought i was just gonna turn it on in t2 but leave it in T1 for now and put it in my pocket afer the swim. Got in the water a few minutes before my wave start, it felt cold but nothing too bad. I had a huge smile on my face, last year this same lake gave me serious doubts, concern, fear when 40 mph winds created total chaos and more than 300 athletes and lifeguards were pulled from the water. But now the water was calm, i was confident, and fear was completely replaced with fun, and was still able to enjoy the views. It was a smooth swim, i think i enjoyed myself a bit too much and wasn't always focused, and cold have gone a bit faster, but ended in approx 42'. Significantly slower than Oceanside but i suspect the swim course was long, simply based on my position in AG and overall. In Oceanside I was 1458th after the swim, now i was 1322nd so i doubt i was that much slower.
Swim - 42:05' , 232 in AG and 1322 OA.
Took my time in T1, put on suncreen and all bike stuff, and got on the bike.
T1 - 5:12.
Goal on the bike was to average 250 watts the first half hour and 260 watts from there on, about 15 less than at Oceanside because this course would be much slower. I had also totally run out of energy in Oceanside during the flat run, so definitely had to dial the watts back a bit. I realized rather quickly that this bike course would be much faster than expected but didn't adjust my power, if it would take less time than i had planned for i'd consider it free energy to be used on the run. An important piece of this race was also to figure out my nutrition because the last few races I've had major bloating that totally screwed up my run. I suspected it was related to fructose in Gu and Perform and decided to race completely based on fructose free products, with Infinit sports drink on the bike and Hammer gels on the run. But shortly after the bike as soon as i started drinking my stomach became bloated again, so it was probably due to other factors, like swallowing too much air on the swim, or maybe my drink being too calorie dense. It definitely wasn't as bad as at Oceanside but it could not be ignored, since i don't want to have to deal with this later in the season when I'll do IM Wisconsin. If it was swim related, i thought it should go away by itself, but my stomach clearly gave some reaction every time i would drink, so i decided to change my nutrition plan. Instead of drinking the 3 bottles i had, i was only gonna drink 2, but every aid station would grab a bottle of water, drink from it, and throw it away immediately. In the end, this plan ended up working very well and the problems went away.
The bike course was hilly but the scenery was oh so amazing. I had good speed but really looked at the scenery, and was enjoying every minute of it. There were many people cheering along the side of the road, i was often waving, cheering back, i was riding focused but at the same time it was nothing but one big party. I felt great on the rollers and stayed disciplined. The last major climb was about 4-5 miles going up through Snow Canyon National Park. The climb was steep, it was long, it forced us to go slow which meant we could really observe and admire the scenery. I honestly can not imagine how these views can be beat... I loved it, in fact i wished the climbs were longer so i could watch it some more before having to play rocket and fly down into town. My average watts were 255, pretty much exactly where they had to be. Legs felt great still, definitely better than in California after the bike.
Bike 2h 40' 57", now in 83rd spot in AG and 416th OA.
T2 was pretty uneventful, grabbed my gels, took my garmin from my pocket and turned it on.
T2 - 2:45
I had studied the run course on paper and ridden a part of it before, and this was really the kicker of the race. On paper it looked like you run up a hill for 4.5 miles, then down for 2.1, then flip it. It turned out to be much more inconsistent than that. I started of slowly at around 8:40/ mile and had a good rhythm though my hamstrings were hurting. But the further i got the better they would feel. After 3 miles i grabbed for my first gel and walked while eating it. Within 2 seconds somebody behind me yelled "hey Endurance Nation, I'm gonna tell Patrick you're walking!" I looked behind me, not sure who that was (no EN kit) but immediately started running again. I was however seriously hot and had to do anything possible to cool myself down. Drink two cups of water, poor another one over my head, poor ice in my top or shorts, mostly all of that, i was getting cooked! Once we got halfway my speed started to drop and it got more and more difficult to stay cool. Couldn't maintain my speed and i think only 3 hammer gels on the run wasn't enough (and i had forgotten my salt pills in T2), i needed more but was afraid to take more and risk upsetting my stomach. I had hoped to be able to pick up the pace when running down the mountain but that didn't happen, i was pretty fried. There were a couple more climbs on the way back to the town center which were nasty and kinda sucked. Still, i was so excited as i had accomplished my mission of having the most fun ever in a race, something that had been such a big deal to me ever since IM SG last year.
Final stretch into the finish was awesome, it felt like victory! I didn't even know my final time but knew it was a great race.
Run - 2h02'03"
Final time 5h 33' 02' , 92nd in AG and 508th overall.
This was really an awesome race, very challenging but with unbeatable scenery. It is great to stay in SG before and after the race, very kid friendly also. It seemed many athletes including several pros spent the next day at Zion National Park, and so did we where carrying a 35 lb toddler for most of the day became my recovery workout. Today we visited the Grand Canyon and tomorrow we're flying back from Las Vegas to Cleveland.
Fun times!
Next race: Lake Health half marathon (june 16) and Ironman 70.3 Syracuse (June 23).
Ben