I thought I would be writing a race report about how I qualified for UltraMan Canada by finishing in under 14 hours and 30 minutes. But instead, it's a tale of things that happen when you travel to races and do not pace correctly on the bike.
My wife is kind of tired of watching/waiting for me at races. Although, when I told her about IronMan Cabo, she said without any hesitation "I'd watch you race in Cabo". With that, she booked her timeshare and told me to sign up. I've been to Cabo a handful of times and love it down there. I actually thought this would not be too expensive of a race as we were already going there for her Spring-Break. Well, it was. I've raced in Arizona and Hawaii and it was very easy to get whatever food that I needed, but, not so much in Mexico. I did the best I could, but if I do this race again (I probably will) I would book a condo instead of a hotel room so I could cook my own food.
We arrived on Fri. afternoon, checked in and I went to register and listen to the athlete meeting. On Sat., we boarded a bus to take my bike and bike/run bags to T1. Once there, the ocean was beautiful. I tried to stay off my feet as best I could, but it was hard to eat a good dinner at our hotel. I slept pretty good, got up early, ate and then went to T1 a few miles by bus. My goals for the race was to swim comfortable, ride moderately, and run 4 min/walk 1min.
As soon as the horn sounded, a wave came crashing in. I thought it was kind of funny because it was just shore break, nothing to worry about. The swim went ok, 1:24:22. I was hoping for 1:15-1:20. Some people think the swim was about 500 yards long, I agree as I would have hit my time target. As,the bike started, I was surprised to be ring with a 20-30 mph head/cross wind. I was also surprised by the rolling hills. I thought I paced good, got to the turn around and picked it up with a tailwind. The crowds were awesome. I've never raced with such energy. Once off the main highway, there is a steady 25 min. climb, followed by about 30 min. of rollers in a steady decline aided by the tailwind. What goes down fast, comes back up SLOWLY. At mile 56 and special needs, I new I was in trouble, I really tried to ride easy. I was not able to eat anything the last 2 hours of the bike. I threw up, and knew I was in deep trouble. The last long climb, I just kept saying to myself "don't stop, cuz if you do, you won't finish". I got into T2 and just sat in a chair for a while. Ok, about 10 min. I exited and saw my wife. She looked at me and knew I was hurting. She asked how I was, and I replied "f#cked". She said "be safe". I modified my plan a few times, then figured I would walk the rest of the first lap, about 5 miles and then resume running. The run is a mind-screw. It's three laps, great crowd support for about 3-4 miles, but then does an out back and not many spectators. But the most brutal part comes at the finishing chute, if you're finishing, you stay to the right and finish. If not, stay left and make a u-turn about 50 yards from the finish line. As I started my second lap, I saw my wife and her parents. My wife started walking with me and then said she would walk with me if I wanted her to. I said sure and she went to our hotel to change as I went about on the course. When I got to the turn, she had her running shoes and shorts on. We walked and talked with each other as well as other racers in the hurt box too. As we were coming up back into town, I told her to get me some food. Pizza, a quesadilla, anything. She offered the guy that was walking with us something also, but he declined. We met up and she got my a quesadilla. It was as dry as a rice cake. We kept walking and I knew I was going to finish before midnight.
I know there are a few reasons why I could be DQ'd, but I wasn't. I have a wonderful wife. After the swim, she ran about 5 miles to the hotel, and then walked about 16 miles with me. Lessons I learned. When traveling to race, try to stay were there is a kitchen, at least until the race is over, so you can eat what you are use to eating. Even if you think you're pacing correctly on the bike, it's probably too hard. At least for me it is. IronMan is like life, it isn't always easy, it doesn't always go as planned, but if you keep moving forward, you'll get to your destination.
