Ironman Texas 2014 - By the Numbers

This post is mostly for my own future reference. I use this type of post as a place to summarize some of the tactical aspects of a race so that I can come back and read them later as I prepare for the next iteration of a specific race, or for another, similar race.

Numbers by Discipline

First a quick look at the numbers across each of the three sports.  In this case I’m comparing against others in my age group (AG) and for the record, my AG is 44-49.  I have also included the data from last year since I have it and since it provides another piece of data to evaluate against.

Swim	2014	2013
My Swim	1:33:20	1:34:30
AG Average Swim	1:22:29	1:27:11	Wetsuit legal in ’14 only!
Difference (over AG)	0:10:51	0:07:19
My AG Swim Rank of 283 Starters	210	192	283 starters in 2013
Bike	2014	2013
My Bke	6:00:37	5:58:51
AG Average Bike	6:21:12	6:12:39	Very windy in ‘14
Difference (under AG)	0:20:35	0:13:48
My AG Bike Rank of 282 Swim Finishers	93	110	278 swim finishers in ‘13
Run	2014	2013
My Run	4:10:09	4:44:39
AG Average Run	5:23:12	5:36:18	Very hot & humid in ‘13
Difference (under AG)	1:13:03	0:51:39
My AG Run Rank of 278 Bike Finishers	27	44	266 bike finishers in ‘13
Overall	2014	2013
My Overall	12:01:26	12:36:00
AG Average Overall	13:26:10	13:35:24
Difference (under AG)	1:24:44	0:59:24
My AG Overall Rank of 260 AG Finishers	57	77	241 AG finishers in 2013
DNF % 2014 and 2013 (of AG starters)	8.13%	17.43%	Very hot & humid in ’13

So what are the take aways from this? Well, I would attribute the faster swim, for the field, in 2014 to the fact that it was a wetsuit legal swim this year. I did not wear a wetsuit, I bet on the fact that it would not be wetsuit legal and I lost that bet. No big deal, I’m happy with my time anyway.

As for the bike and the run, I think the averages show the impact of the weather on the field. 2014 was quite windy and the wind was from an unfavorable direction(?) and 2013 was exceedingly hot and humid.

The last interesting bit in this table is the DNF percentage and I firmly believe that reflects how bad the weather was in 2013!

Next up is my position within the field after each sport and the number of people I passed while biking and running. I’m a slow swimmer, so I get to pass a lot of people on the bike, so I like this number. It really does not mean anything else. I also like the "passed while running" number because it reflects my execution. If I ride correctly, I will still have gas in the tank for the run and if you are “running the run” in an Ironman then you are probably passing people!

Position After	AG
Swim	210
Bike	124
Run	57
Overall	57
Passed While	AG
Biking	86
Running	67

These two charts reflect the relationship between bike and run times. In each, the x axis is bike time and the y axis is run time.  The lines are the average bike and run times.

2014 Bike vs. Run

The first chart is the data from 2014 only. I’m happy to once again be in the lower left, “fast and balanced” quadrant of the chart. Again, this is a reflection of performance (being faster than average) and also execution (not blowing up on the run because I biked too hard).

2013 vs 2014

The second chart is 2014 data vs. 2013 data. I included this one because it helps me to understand the changes in my performance year over year. Notice that the bike average line moved out (slower) and my point stayed the same. I’m happy about that. Notice also that the 2014 run line dropped (faster) but that my 2014 point dropped much further (much faster). I’m really happy about that!

One of my big questions from last year was about goal setting. Based on my 2013 bike and run I was wondering if my run goals were realistic. Rev3 Cedar Point, last September, helped to answer that question and this race did as well. I came to Texas thinking I could maybe go as low as 5:50 bike and 4:00 run if the weather and my day cooperated.  Everything came together and I came pretty close to those stretch goals.

Hydration and Nutrition

This is really dry information that I’m sure nobody but me cares about, so you’ve been warned if you choose to keep reading…

Bike:

I carried two bottles of Skratch Labs Pineapples that I mixed highly concentrated. The actual mix was 9 scoops in each 24oz bottle. I also have a front bottle (32oz) with a straw that can be refilled while I’m moving. My nutrition plan was to try and empty the front bottle prior to each of the 10 aid stations and then refill the front bottle with ~24oz of cold water and ~4.8oz of Pineapples concentrate. Along with the full front bottle at the start, this worked out to 1600 calories

This model worked for me last year, although I did some of the math wrong and thus was probably a little under where I wanted to be from a sodium standpoint. This year it worked well also, although I had a little trouble getting the right measure of concentrate and so I went through once concentrate bottle a little faster than I had planned. I expect that I will continue to follow this plan. Mixing concentrate and water on the bike is easy and carrying two bottles behind my seat costs me very little in terms of weight and wind resistance.

I also ate two gels per hour over the six hours that I was on the bike for 1200 calories.

Total calories consumed on the bike – 2800

Run:

I used the same three bottle system on the run as well. The two concentrate bottles had four scoops of Oranges in each 10oz bottle and I started with 10oz of normal concentration Oranges in the front bottle. I worked through one of the concentrate bottles along with the front bottle for a total of ~74 ounces of Oranges (370 calories). At that point, I got tired of 1) carrying the hand bottle and 2) mixing concentrate at every other aid station… so I decided to switch over to perform, the on-course offering. I’m guessing, but I figure I took two cups of perform each mile after I switched, so ~20 cups of perform (700 calories).

I also ate four gels for another 400 calories. Thus my run calorie consumption was ~1500.

Combined calories consumed ~4,300, which is ~1500 more than last year.

I’m planning to totally rework my run nutrition for IMAZ so that I don’t need to carry three bottles. I’m not sure yet, but I think I’ll work toward a one bottle system, that is NOT hand carried, that I can refill with straight perform as needed. This would allow me to drink between aid stations without having to carry concentrate and multiple bottles. That’s the plan for now anyway, so I’ll see how it goes.

So that’s everything I’ve got to download after a great race.  If you’re still reading, thanks for sticking around. Please feel free to give me feedback! If you do something differently or if you think something could be improved on, please leave me a comment and let me know.

Thanks,

Clark

Ironman Texas 2014 Race Report

Leading up to Texas I tried several times to finish a post about how this Ironman had snuck up on me. Funny thought, right, that an Ironman could sneak up on someone? But for some reason, that’s how I was feeling. I was doing/had done the work and I was where I wanted to be physically, but my mental state was all over the place. The tone of that post changed week to week depending on how high or low I was feeling and in the end, I’m glad that I never bothered to finish it. The key point I was trying to make was that racing makes me nervous and stressed, right up to the point where I actually get to race, and then racing makes me happy! Of course at that time I had not gotten to the happy part and I think that’s why the words would not come…

But now, the race is over, I’ve been to my happy place and (spoiler alert) I had the kind of day that you dream about and hope for in the weeks leading up to the race. My coach talks about training as building a fitness vehicle and racing as your chance to actually drive the vehicle and let me tell you, I drove the shit out of it last weekend!

So with that background to set the stage let me move on to the actual race details.

For Texas, we stay with my daughter and her family in Houston, which is great. It gives Cath something to do while I handle the pre-race BS like registration and gear check, etc. We both get to see our grand kids and it means I have a big cheering section for the run!

Because of the drive from Houston to The Woodlands, Saturday morning started pretty early, although, I guess, not early enough. Cath and I got out of the house late and we were trying to make time on 45 North. I noticed one of the traffic warning signs flashing that the road was closed due to a bad traffic accident. I’m not that familiar with the area so I was trying to pull up the map to see if we would be impacted at about the same time that we came up on the traffic back up. Yikes! Fortunately, we were able to jump off of the freeway and onto the access road. We sat in traffic on the access road for about 10 minutes before we passed the accident and were able to get back onto the freeway. I’m not sure what would have happened if we had missed that last exit but I’m sure glad we didn’t.

Other than that hiccup, we got into The Woodlands and parked without incident.

I made quick work of my transition chores – adding my bottles to my bike and adding my solidly-frozen bottles to my run bag. This is one thing that I did differently from last year that was much improved. Last year my run bottles sat in the sun all day and by the time I picked them up they were really hot and drinking hot drink mix was unpleasant. This year I froze the bottles overnight and they were thawed and still cool when I picked them up after the bike.

I had no issues with body marking or getting in for the swim start. I warmed up a little and then grabbed on to a paddle board since I was not wearing a wet suit and I didn’t want to tread water. Just before the gun went off, I looked over for the clock and was surprised to see quite a few participants still trying to get into the water. I’m guessing there were at least 100+ who were still dry and on the boat ramp when the gun went off.

I found the swim this year to be much more congested than last, but I did not have problems with people grabbing my ankles or climbing up my back. I did get kicked HARD this year, which is something that did not happen last year. Twice to the face including once in the eye where I had to stop and pull my goggles off, and once somewhere “else” that took my breath away for a second. I swam up on someone who had stopped so I stopped, just as he gave a big breast stroke kick. Yup, that was uncomfortable.

My sighting was mostly accurate with only one small gaffe near the entrance to the canal. I swam left of center on the way out and right of center on the way back in.

Other than that, my swim was uneventful. I got out of the water almost two minutes faster than last year with the same feelings of relief and joy. (I hate swimming)

Goal Time: 1:30 Actual Time 1:33:20 Last Year 1:34:30

T1 was slow but I knew that was going to happen. Last year I ended up with BAD sunburn after the bike so I was much more careful about putting on sunscreen and also about my choice of clothes. The only real mistake I made in T1 was that my socks were inside-out and I chose to turn them right-side-out just to be safe about irritation or blisters.

Goal Time: 7:00 Actual Time 9:36 Last Year: 7:20

The bike was weird, but fantastic and so much better than last year. I followed my nutrition plan to a T and, unlike last year, I did not have any real stomach issues.

The winds were a factor but I found them to be more manageable this year vs. last. Normally the wind is at your back coming out of The Woodlands and you get some free speed. This year was different and I could see that my splits were slower than I expected going out, but I didn’t worry about it, I just stuck to my numbers and rode my plan. Then, on the way back in, I was prepared for the hurt of riding into a strong headwind for 25 straight miles and that never really materialized. Last year at mile 85, I was starting to get nauseous and by mile 95, I was mostly out of areo position and wishing the bike would end. This year at mile 85 I felt fresh and ready to make up some time and I was able to finish strong but I was not able to make up the time that I “lost” on the way out.

I think the wind was a big issue for many people, not so much because it was windy – it’s always windy in Texas – but because the course rode very different than usual and I think some people had trouble adjusting. In hindsight and after having compared notes with several people, I think the course rode at least 10 minutes slower this year vs. last!

One change that I made this year was a new helmet. I have neck issues and thus have a hard time looking up for long periods of time. My old helmet had a long tail and I was concerned that I spent too much time with the tail sticking up in the air instead of sitting on or near my shoulders. To eliminate this concern, I switched to a Giro Air Attack Shield, which has no tail. I don’t know how much if any difference the tail made but the mental win of being able to look down without worrying about that dumb tail sticking up in the wind was worth the investment. The other big win was the shield. I can’t wear sunglasses on the bike because I end up looking over the top of them because of my neck. Last year, the sun reflection off of the bright white concrete that starts at about mile 90(?) was just awful. This year it was annoying, but much more manageable thanks to the tinted shield.

Goal Time: 5:50 – 6:00 Actual time 6:00:37 Last Year: 5:58:51

Coming into T2 I felt really good and ready to run, so I handed off my bike and actually ran, well jogged, through the chute and around to pickup my run bag.

T2 was slow but again, I sort of expected that. I did the sunscreen thing again, changed my socks and shoes and shirt as I had planned. Then I decided to change my shorts too since my tri shorts were starting to chafe. Of course that meant I was changing my shorts over my shoes. Dumb. I already mentioned my frozen run bottles but I’m mentioning it again as that was a huge improvement.

Last year I came off of the bike feeling really sick and it showed in my T2 time. This year I felt tired but ready to run.

Goal Time: 7:00 Actual Time: 7:44 Last Year: 10:40

My run was nothing short of fantastic. I stuck with my, overly aggressive, nutrition plan for the first lap and then I got tired of carrying a hand bottle and mixing concentrate with water. So somewhere early in lap two I strapped the hand bottle to my run belt and switched off to the course offered nutrition. I’ll be rethinking my run nutrition for IMAZ for sure. Not because my plan did not work, but because I’m tired of carrying three bottles on the run.

Near the end of the second lap I knew I was doing well but I was a little confused about my actual progress. I really wanted to try and finish in under 12 hours and I thought that might still be possible. I asked a spectator what time it was and did the math and it was close. My 13.1 split was about 2:02 and I knew a negative split would get me home under 12, but a negative split was going to be a stretch.

I saw Cath and Sarah and Ben and the kids twice each lap and I was able to give high-fives as I ran past their canopy. Seeing them each lap was a real mental boost and it helped to keep me going.

As I passed the 20 mile marker I did the math again and “under 12” still seemed possible. I tried to keep the hammer down but it was getting harder with every passing mile.

In the end my run was smooth and on target.  I didn’t negative split but at 2:02/2:08 I came pretty darn close. The perfect run for me would have been something just under 4:00 so I was really pleased with 4:10.

Goal Time: 3:55 – 4:20 depending on the weather Actual Time 4:10:09 Last Year: 4:44:39

Overall I went 12:01:26, which is 34 minutes faster than last year and just a little slower than I wanted to go. If I had a great day and if the weather was perfect, I figured I could break 12:00. I had a great day and the weather was perfect and I came pretty darn close.

It was a fantastic day at The Woodlands and now Ironman number two is under my belt. I’ve learned a lot and I have so much more to learn going forward.  I’m super happy to be doing IMAZ.  I can’t wait to take what I learned in Texas and try to put it to good use next time.

Before I sign off, I need to say thanks to Cath for putting up with the many hours of training and my cranky mood swings and the trainer in the family room and everything else that is Ironman training. I love you babe and I think you're the best wife and IronFan that anyone could possibly have!

Thanks also to Sarah and Ben and the kids for coming out to cheer and watch "pop-pop" run Ironman.

Finally, thanks to Will for the super special cheering signs that he made.

My 2014 Season Plan

Let me start off with a note about this post, specifically that I started it back in October and I'm only now getting around to finishing and posting it.  As an interesting exercise in how my mindset has changed, I've left in all of the original post, marking out what needs to be deleted and I've added my updates/changes in red. I hope yo enjoy the read.  Oh, also keep in mind that even four full months later, parts of my schedule are still up in the air...
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This is the first time that I've gone through the process of building out a season plan and it's proven to be quite the exercise in mental gymnastics. I knew for sure that I wanted to do another full Iron distance race, so that was a starting point.  I also knew that I'm out of commission for most of August 2014 due to other commitments.

With that in mind, I set out to build a viable schedule.  Much of the process that I followed was my own, but I did follow the advice I found in a couple of DC Rainmaker posts that you can read here and also here.

The one fixed point on my 2014 schedule is IronMan Arizona.  I signed up to volunteer for the 2013 race and I've already booked my travel. Hopefully this will This did earn me a spot in the 2014 version of the race as this is my A+ race for next year.  Volunteering was really cool and it's something that I highly recommend if you want to get a small dose of the IronMan experience without actually entering the race.

The other race that I'm treating as an A B race, at least from a scheduling perspective, is the 50K version of the Laurel Highlands Ultra.  This is in early June and it has been a sellout in each of the past couple of seasons. I was part of a relay team for this race back in June of this year and it looked like fun.  Plus it's a new distance for me, so I'm making it an A B race for next year. I did actually get in to this one, so it's confirmed and on my schedule!

The reason that the 50K has shifted to a B priority is that I've decided to do IMTX again!  I was up in the air about this for a while but I finally decided that it's the best way to start my season. I did IMTX last year (2013) and then I was able to maintain that fitness level out into October before my world sort of fell apart. Hopefully fall of 2014 is better than 2013, but that's another story.  The plan is to use Texas as motivation for the early part of the season and then build on that for Arizona in the fall.  We'll see how it turns out!

Starting from these two three races and my August hiatus, I worked out the following season plan.

• Volunteering at IMAZ in November 2013 - Done!
• Snowboarding and off-season strength training in December and January and February
• Pittsburgh Marathon - May - I'm treating this as a C race, basically a long structured workout in preparation for the 50K in June. Sorry, too close to IMTX to stay on the schedule
• IronMan Texas - May 17th - This is an A race.
• Laurel Highlands Ultra 50K - June 14th - This is an A B race.
• Pittsburgh Triathlon (International Distance) - July 27 - This is an A race.
• Rev3 Cedar Point or MoraineMan - early to mid September - One of these will be a B race to help prepare for IMAZ.
• Waterman's Half - mid October - This could be a C race, essentially a long structured workout in preparation for IMAZ.
• IMAZ - November 16th - A+ race and the main focus of my 2014 season.

So there you have it, my 2014 season in black and white!

I hope your season planning is going well!

Clark

My IMTX By The Numbers

Here is a detailed summary and analysis of my performance in the 2013 IronMan Texas Triathlon.

First, lets look at the numbers by discipline.  Included in the table below is my time for each sport compared with my age group (AG) average time.  By the way, my AG is 45-49. Also included in this table is my AG ranking for each sport.

So what does all of this mean? Well, it confirms the fact that swimming is my weakest event, that's for sure. It also leads me to question if I should rename this blog to drowningrunner, since the run was clearly my strongest discipline for this race! What I find interesting about these numbers is how they relate to my goals and the question "Am I being realistic in my goal setting, specifically for the bike and the run?" I'll write more on this in a bit, so please read on!

Next let's take a look at my position within the field after each sport. This is slightly different than my ranking because it is a cumulative view after each event. The table below includes my position within the field after the swim, swim + bike and swim + bike + run. I also included the number of people that I passed while biking and while running because these numbers made me happy!

Nothing new in there really, just a confirmation that I spend the ride and run making up for my slow swim!

So now on to the relationship between bike and run. the graph below plots bike times on the x axis against run times on the y axis. I also included lines to represent the average bike and run times. Again, this is all specific to my AG.

So the good news here is that I'm clearly in the "fast and balanced" quadrant of the graph, which means that my early bike pacing issues did not negatively impact my run!

The questions that this graph raises for me are about bike pacing and run goal setting. First about bike pacing, I'm wondering if I rode to my potential, and the answer is clearly no. In support of this I present a plot of my heart rate by mileage during the bike. 

My HR plan was 130 - 135 depending on how I felt. So the plot shows a few things: I came out to fast, I settled down and rode to plan for a while, i started to feel nauseous and then my HR fell off of a cliff at mile 94 and I was never able to bring it back up!

In the future I will try to be more consistent on the bike and I will also try to work a little harder!

I don't have heart rate data from the run and I'm really bummed about this. I'm curious what my heart rate was and if I could have pushed harder on the run. I expect that I could have, since I never really hurt during the run, but this is just a gut feeling. Actually, the other bit of data in support of the fact that I could have pushed harder is that I was able to carry on several different conversations during the run and none of them left me winded or gasping for breath. So clearly run intensity is a goal for next time.

My only open questions are about goal setting / pacing for the bike vs. the run. My goals of six hours on the bike and four hours on the run seem to be way out of balance as compared to the remainder of the field. For example, the trend line in the bike vs. run chart above indicates that a six hour ride pairs with a 5:20 run. That same line indicates that a four hour run pairs up with about a five hour ride. Compared to the field, my stretch goal combination was quite unbalanced - just under on the ride, but well under for the run. Moving forward, I need to think about this to see if I can push harder on the bike and maintain similar intensity on the run.

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Just a word of warning before you start reading this part of the post. This is written almost entirely for me - sort of a racers diary entry - so that I can come back to it in the future for reference. It's pretty boring stuff, so read on at your own peril unless you're actually trying to fall asleep...

Hydration and Nutrition:
Bike:

I carried two bottles of Skratch Labs, Secret Drink Mix (SDM) that I mixed at ~6x normal strength. I also had one front bottle with 24 ounces of SDM at normal concentration. Throughout the ride, I took two water bottles at each aid station, which I used to refill my front bottle. I took a few good sips of straight water and then I used the concentrate-bottle to replace what I just drank.   Between the two concentrate-bottles, I was able to carry 192 ounces worth of SDM at normal concentration. Add in the original 24 ounces of SDM from the front bottle and that totals 216 ounces of SDM over the entire ride. In addition, I'm guessing I drank another 40ish ounces of plain water (10 aid stations x 4 oz per refill). Thus my liquid consumption was approximately 256 ounces for the ride. 

As I indicated in my race recap, the sodium balance in SDM works well for me, so I was planning to error on the side of over-hydration not under. 

In addition to the SDM, I ate homeade rice cakes throughout the day. I can only tolerate so many gels, so I try to eat solid food while I'm on the bike. The rice cakes work well for me and they taste good, so that's what I use. I think I ate two cakes, which works out to about 450 calories. SDM is 80 calories per 16 ounce serving, so I drank ~1080 calories. Thus my calorie consumption on the ride was ~1530.

One final note about the ride - my plan for the bike was to eat, drink, pee and repeat, which I accomplished.

Run:

For the run I used the same model, two concentrate-bottles, mixed at ~6x strength and a hand bottle at normal strength. I drank the hand bottle while I ran, refilled it with water at each aid-station and then used the concentrate bottles to top off the hand bottle. This allowed me to race entirely on SDM which is what I trained on.

I carried enough concentrate to mix 128 ounces of SDM plus what I had in the 10 ounce hand bottle at the run start. I drank every bit of what I carried. I also drank some coke at nearly every aid station.

In addition to the liquids, I ate two gels over the run course. 

138 ounces of SDM is 690 liquid calories. I'm guessing I drank another 32 ounces of coke over the day, which is 400 calories, plus the 200 calories of gel total 1290 calories on the run.

Combine calories from the bike (1530) and the run (1290) and I figure I consumed ~2820 total calories on the day.

Massive and Awesome IronMan Texas Race Report

So where to even start?

I guess I’ll start with the truth, which is, simply, that I had such a fantastic day I doubt that I will even begin to do it justice in this race report. Sure there were times during the day where I felt like I was on fire, literally, and there were times where I felt nauseous, and tired and sore, but throughout the day, and in the end, I had the best time ever. So now that I’ve given away the ending, let’s roll this thing all the way back to the very beginning and I’ll get started telling my story.

Well, actually one more detail before the story.  I need to thank the very best wife and IronFan - Cath! Thanks for supporting me in all of this and thanks for spending all day out here in the hot sun cheering me on and taking pictures. I love you the most. Also, thanks to Sarah and Ben and the kids for their cheering as well. Love you guys! Ok, so now the story.

My last days of taper were focused on two details, packing and confirming my nutrition calculations. I have always packed in piles and I saw no reason to treat this trip differently. Right from the start I had a pile for each of swim, bike, run and nutrition. I also had my street clothes pile, which included the things I would need for the vacation portion of this trip.

 My bike packing went smoothly, after a momentary melt-down about the bike case that I borrowed being too big. It was not and everyone at @SouthWestAir was super friendly and helpful regarding the bike.

My nutrition confirmation also involved quite a bit of hand-wringing. I think the stress of the event was starting to really get to me during those last days of taper. Obviously, I’ve been thinking about and practicing my nutrition plan during my training. The wrinkle and the source of stress, was that I had been training in 50 – 70 degree weather and I would be racing in 90+ degree weather. Thus, I wanted to make sure that I would have enough liquids on board to not get dehydrated. Of course the good news with extra liquids was that meant I could plan on fewer solid calories. As is typical for me, I totally over worked the planning on this, but I came away feeling prepared which was comforting.
The flight to Houston was uneventful. TSA opened my bike case, but managed to get everything put back without too much issue. Getting everything and everyone into my daughter’s car proved to be quite the challenge, but we managed.

The first order of business once we arrived at the house was to build my bike and get it to the local shop for a quick check. The guys at West End Bikes were great. They even identified and fixed a couple of problems that were leftover from my training ride crash the week before. I had gone over everything after the crash, but it turns out I missed some important details. No worries though, West End took care of it.

Thursday I drove up to The Woodlands to check-in and walk through the expo. Check-in was quick and efficient and the swag was pretty good.  The expo was kind of underwhelming, but I guess I really had no idea what to expect, so maybe that was just me. I can say for sure that if you can put an M-dot on it, they had it for sale somewhere in there!

Friday started with the on-course swim. This is the first time I’ve actually participated in this type of pre-swim and I found it helpful. The water was darker than my previous open water swims and there was more chop as well. Neither turned out to be an issue, but getting to experience both before the crush of a mass start was a good thing! After the swim I got in a quick ride and run and then I checked my gear into transition. Once this was done, there was nothing left to do but wait!

My transition bags, all layed out before I started to fill them up with my stuff. 

My bike and bags, ready to head out to transition. 

My little corner in transition!

Did I mention that it was Hot!

Saturday morning started nice and early with breakfast and then the drive back up to The Woodlands. Cath and I struggled a bit with traffic and parking, but really it went pretty smoothly. I found my way back to transition, added nutrition to my bike and my run bag and then we started the long walk over to the start. We stopped on the bridge just long enough for me to point out the details of the swim course for Cath so that she could try and take a couple of pictures later.

We waited together in the line for body marking and then I handed off my shoes and shirt and I got into line to get into the water. I was trying to focus all of my mental energy on execution and having fun. I was still in line when the pros went off, so I had a pretty good view. Very exciting!

Swim
T-minus 10 minutes and counting! After almost a year of training, the victory lap was about to begin. I managed to get past the choke point at the swim entrance and then I doubled back onto the sidewalk on the lake side of the fence so that I could stretch some more before I got into the water. I remember that they played the national anthem while I was standing there stretching, but the actual timing of it all is a little blurry. I think I finally got into the water at about five minutes to seven. I swam around a bit, tried to relax and clear my head and then I worked my way to where I wanted to start. I was still thinking calm, peaceful thoughts when the cannon went off and my victory lap began. Holy shit, I’m actually doing an IronMan!

I had a couple of goals for the swim – finish and work hard enough to know you’re in a race but not too hard as to burn out early. I was successful on both counts. The swim was crowded, but not in a violent or painful way. I swam up on many people and people swam up on me as well but in my experience it was all handled in a friendly, sorry about that, sort of way that brought with it a sense of common purpose and good feelings. It was nothing like the IM swim horror stories that I had heard. Although I am not a good swimmer, ha, I have always been calm and comfortable in the water. I think the biggest reason for this is my background in whitewater kayaking. Compared to being in a kayak, upside down, in a class IV rapid, the IM swim was calm and peaceful. Of course I ended up at the back of the pack pretty quickly, so I can’t speak to what it was like up front.

Goal Time – 1:30. Actual Time – 1:34:30. A little slower that I would have liked but hey, I’m out of the water and on my way to the bike! Winning.

T1
I didn’t really have a goal for T1 other than just getting it done. I had packed a complete set of bike clothes on the chance that I might want to change, but I decided against it.  There was no particular reason behind that decision and I had ridden plenty of training rides in my tri-suit so I was not worried about it, but it did take a minute or two to actually decide. This turned out to be a mistake from a sunburn standpoint, so next time I will need to take that into account.

I put on my socks, shoes, helmet and gloves and started out to my bike, stopping only for a massive helping of sunscreen, slathered on by a truly helpful volunteer.

Goal Time – None. Actual Time 7:20. About what I expected and I’m ok with that.

I never saw Cath take this picture, even though she was screaming my name and cheering!

Bike
I’ve not looked at year over year data or course vs. course data, but I believe that the IMTX bike course is both easy and fast. That’s not to say there are no challenges – there are, but I’m guessing it’s one of the fastest of the Iron distance bike routes, even in 95 degree heat and wind. Probably the biggest challenge is the mental restraint required to hold back during the out section which is almost entirely with the wind. If you can manage this, you set yourself up for a good ride and a good day.  However, if you miss this, well basically, you can totally screw yourself.

I love the quote that an Ironman Triathlon begins at mile 18 of the run. I thought a lot about this both in training and on race day and I think it served me well.  However, it did not stop me from going out too fast on the bike! But seriously, how could I not - I felt good and I was turning in 14 minute splits! Fortunately, I recognized this trap early and I was able to make corrections before I did any serious damage to my day.

The other key to the IMTX bike course, in my mind, is miles 60 – 80. This section of the course is almost straight into the wind and it starts to separate the stronger riders. In this section, I tried to keep under the wind and ride small and aero. I think I was pretty successful, but I still need to crunch the numbers. I can say that my new bike and wheels are THE BOMB! This upwind section would have killed me on my road bike, so I’m super glad that I made the investment.

Generally my ride went well.  I did finally dial back my effort on the out and I settled into a nice manageable pace.  I was taking two bottles at each aid station and using them to fill my front bottle, which was empty by the time I reached nearly every station.  I took a few good sips of straight water and then I used my onboard, concentrate-bottle to replace what I just drank. My concentrate-bottles are Skratch Labs, Secret Drink Mix (SDM) that I mixed at ~6x normal strength.  Between the two bottles, I was able to carry 192 ounces worth of SDM at normal concentration.  I figured this was more than enough to get me through the day, especially since I was also drinking some straight water at each station. In addition to the SDM, I had a few homemade rice cakes.  I tried to eat some of the rice cakes on my way into the aid stations so that I could wash them down with the straight water I was drinking.

This nutrition plan worked out very well. I had not been able to train in anything close to 95 degree weather, so my total hydration needs were a mystery and thus required an educated guess; with any error coming on the over hydrate side.  The sodium balance of SDM works really well for me, so I was not worried about hyponatremia. I drank all of both of my concentrate-bottles during the ride, so I’m happy with the result.

I did have a couple of issues on the bike, but nothing really serious. I started to feel nauseous at about mile 90. I was able to resolve the nausea if I got up out of aero, or if I stopped drinking. I probably could have stopped drinking, or at least slowed down, but since I was not sure, I figured it was safer to ride a mix of aero and not while continuing to drink. One mistake that I made was not driving the final 20ish miles of the bike course. I drove nearly the entire course on Thursday, but I was running late, so I skipped the leg from Tamina Road back into The Woodlands. I don’t know if I would have recognized it on the drive or not, but from mile 100 to 112 I felt like I was making 90 degree turns almost constantly. I was not ready for this and combined with the ongoing nausea issue, I found it mentally draining. Note to self, next time be sure to drive the entire course and be sure to think like a tired biker when you hit mile 90!

One other note about the bike, or more specifically the officials monitoring the bike. From a drafting perspective, there were only ~20 miles of the bike course that mattered: miles 60 through 80. If this were my race to run, I would have had every single bike official out watching that 20 mile stretch and I would have ignored the rest of the course. I can’t remember how many times I was passed by LARGE TRAINS OF WHEEL SUCKING BIKERS in this section, but it was at least five. This was very frustrating. Other than that, I think the officials did a great job.

Goal Time 6:00:00. Actual Time 5:58:51. Under my goal time and also under my HIM bike split doubled. Without the nausea issues, I think I could have taken 10 or more minutes off of this time, so plenty of room for improvement.

T2
I hit the dismount line, walked/ran my bike up over the sidewalk into transition and handed it off to one of the many super-nice volunteers. I walked the rest of the way around, through bag pickup and then towards the changing tent. I stopped to pee, since I really had to go and since I figured that was contributing to my nausea. Then I hit the tent and tried to decide my next move. Again, I had packed a full change of clothes and again, I skipped using them. I changed my shoes, put on my water belt, race belt, visor and sunglasses and I was off. Oh, I also put a swipe of body glide on each side of my chest to prevent chafing during the run. Unfortunately, the body glide had been sitting in the sun all day in my run bag, so when I wiped it across my chest, I ended up applying a much more liberal dose than I expected.

One final note, just like on the bike, I had concentrated bottles of SDM for the run in my run bag. These too sat in the sun all morning and when I finally got back to them, they were super-hot! I should have expected this and packed some ice or something, but I did not, so for the first few miles I had hot orange drink. Yuck. Next time I'll freeze the bottles the night before, duh!

Goal Time None. Actual Time 10:40. I have no freaking clue how I spent 10 minutes and 40 seconds in T2! All I did was change my shoes and pee. Clearly I need to think about that for next time.

Run
I knew that I would start to feel better as soon as I got off of the bike and that is exactly what happened.  The nausea was gone by the time I hit the first aid station. Unfortunately, my heart rate data was also gone! Turns out that body glide is not a good conductor and the excess body glide from my chest melted in the heat and ran down into my heart rate strap, rendering it useless. Whoops, lesson learned. So now I’m doing my first ever marathon, in an IronMan, on a 95 degree day based on RPE, with no independent data/feedback. Yikes!

No worries, I’ll just listen to my body and run at a pace that “feels” right.

So that’s what I did, although I think I also included a pretty big safety factor, since finishing was the real goal. I walked only the aid stations, and then only enough to refill my hand bottle and maybe drink some coke. Otherwise, I ran the rest of the run. I felt good and I was passing people. Actually, I was passing lots of people. What was really satisfying was that on my third lap, I knew that every person I passed was a person I was going to beat! I’m not normally competitive like that, but after almost 12 hours of moving forward, beating people felt pretty darn good.

In the end, I felt good for the entire run and I was even able to increase my pace quite a bit once I hit mile 21.  My split for mile 24 was only three seconds over my split for mile two and my split for miles 21-26 was my fasted five mile split of the day.  I’m really happy about this as I think it points to strong planning and execution.

Notes on the run course – I loved it! The crowd was great, but what really helped me the most was the fact that it was three laps. This made planning and execution much easier. There were no surprises hidden anywhere in the last 16 miles since I had already run them at least once before! I also loved the fact that I got to see my family multiple times during the run, which was really motivating.

Goal Time 4:00 – 4:30 depending on the heat. Actual Time 4:44:39. Not quite where I wanted to be, but pretty darn good regardless. Moving forward I want to see if I am over estimating my abilities when it comes to run goals or if this was a function of the heat and my focus on finishing not finishing fast.

Final Numbers – 12:36:00, 607th overall and 77th age group! Bam!

Right after the finish and still feeling pretty good. 

About 20 minutes later and I'm starting to crash a bit. Nothing major, just needed to chill and get something to eat. 

The Good
Everything! I am so happy with the way the day turned out. I hope I’ve been able to communicate that in this piece. I hit nearly all of my goals, missing only my stretch goal of finishing at or under 12 hours. I really did have a fantastic day. Cath and Sarah and Ben and the kids were great IronFans. They cheered loud during the run and they took pictures and they were there at the finish. Did I mention that I had a great day?

I’m working on another post with a deeper look at the numbers, but I will say here that I passed a shitload of people on the bike and run! Almost 1000, to be exact! Some of this is due to the fact that I came out of the water in 1601st place overall, but mostly it’s due to the strong planning and execution in the ride and run.

The Bad
Not driving the entire bike course. This was a beginner mistake that I will not make again. Honestly, I don’t know if I would have even noticed the turn, turn, turn nature of the last 12 miles anyway. Feeling sick late on the bike was a drag, but somehow I just knew I would feel better as soon as I stood up. Running without HR data was also a drag, but I managed to make it work. I don’t know if I would have been any faster, but I would have more data to crunch for my post-race analysis.

The Ugly
Sunburn. Yup, that’s the only area where I totally failed and I really don’t understand it.  I applied sunscreen myself and I had volunteers apply it several times as well. I knew it would be an issue, but I thought I had it under control. I did not. Next time I will think differently about clothing choices and I will make an even greater effort on the sunscreen front.

So there you have it, I got to hear the magic words, “Clark Mitchell, You Are an IronMan!” I lived to tell about it and I had such a good time I will almost certainly go again.

Oh, and when we got home, Lizzie made an amazing IronCake for us all to celebrate!

How about you? How was your last race? Did you have fun? Will you go again?