When my coach told me that he wanted me to do another ironman before Kona, I thought he was a little overly ambitious. I thought the beauty of qualifying for Kona just over a year ahead of time was that I would have a whole year to prepare for my next ironman. I learned early on that there is no value in arguing with him and I have a lot of faith in his knowledge as a coach. We discussed possible race options and last October I calmly signed up for Ironman Canada/Whistler. As the race date approached I thought we both must be nuts.
At Whistler, my husband Dennis and I were happy to be staying with our friend and ski buddy, Tim, who defected from being one of the Squaw Valley faithful when he moved to Washington and bought a ski condo at Whistler. We felt quite at home since we've stayed with him several times and it was helpful not to have changed time zones when traveling to this race.
It had only been six weeks since Ironman Hawaii 70.3 and the time flew by. My body was completely recovered and I'd gotten some pretty long and intense miles under my belt in those six weeks. My life was just seeming like a bit of a whirlwind mentally, three months into my new job which definitely interfered with some of my mid-week training sessions. I went into this Ironman not feeling quite as prepared as I was for Ironman Lake Tahoe (IMLT) in September. Everyone kept asking how long it was going to take me to finish. That always seems like a hard question to me since each race course is different. Based on my IMLT time and because the race was so far north, I was expecting to be finished before dark for the first time which would have to be under 14 and a half hours, and was secretly hoping for 13 and a half hours.
RACE MORNING
I didn't have any trouble getting up at 4:30 AM and I'm getting a little more comfortable with eating a 700+ calorie breakfast at that early hour. Since my bike and transition bags were checked in the day before, I only had to carry my wetsuit, water bottles, nutrition and two special needs bags with me for the mile walk to catch the shuttle to Lake Alta. There were dozens of volunteers taking transition bags, plenty of buses and no time was lost getting to the start. I had been a little leery of the process since I had heard horror stories about the shuttle buses to the start at IMLT. This was just indication of how well organized and staffed Ironman Canada at Whistler turned out to be. I had plenty of time to get my stuff organized at my bike and get ready for the swim. The only drawback was having to wait in a pretty long line to get my tires pumped up. It would be worth bringing a pump and handing it off to a friend, if you had one willing to get up early and bike or walk the two miles to the swim start.
SWIM
I swam out to the buoy furthest from shore to line up for the swim start and then I hung back for about 15 seconds after the start to see if I could avoid being totally beat up on the swim. The swim was two laps of a long rectangle, without having to exit the water between laps. I was in with people and able to draft most of the time and only got into the typical slamming, kicking, hitting melee during the first two turns. There were a couple of times where I felt hemmed in but was able to sprint forward and get out before getting clobbered. The swim seemed to go by relatively fast and I noticed my time of 1:17 as I was exiting the water. I took advantage of the wetsuit strippers, grabbed my bag and ran to the far end of the changing tent where a wonderfully helpful volunteer lathered me in sunscreen while I put on my shoes, generally helped me and packed my stuff into my transition bag as I ran off to my bike.
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| Practice swim at Alta Lake earlier in the week. |
BIKE
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| The calm before 1,800+ athletes entered the water. |
My bike was racked in a special section for Ironman All World Athletes (AWAs) and there were only four of the 31 women in my age group with that distinction. The AWA distinction is a ranking based on a point system derived from the previous year’s Ironman branded race participation. The higher you place in your age group in a race the more points you get. The points are added up from your top three races. So an age group winner who only did one race might be ranked the same as a person who did not place in three races. Therefore an AWA ranking isn’t really an indicator of speed. When I got to my bike I could tell that I was the first of the AWAs to exit the water but I had no idea what that meant compared to the entire field of women in my age group because I wasn’t racked with the majority of my competitors. I prefer having an indication of where I stand in the pack after the swim but I didn't dwell on it for long.
My plan for the bike was to use my heart rate to dictate my pace, aiming for the higher end of zone 3 (Z3) and not letting it drop below the top of zone 2. I made 2 small mistakes in this race, the first of which was getting in my mind that the top of my Z3 heart rate was 5 beats per minute higher than it is. Although my average was in the middle of Z3 for the bike, I was in Z4 for a good bit of time. I may have gone a little too hard on the bike which is not the best set up for the run. My bike time was 6:44:34. My Garmin says that there were 6,312 feet of climbing. There is some climbing early on which isn't much of a problem on well rested legs. There is a nice flat stretch from about mile 60 to 90 where I cruised along at a little over 20 mph. The real challenge began at the 90 mile mark, climbing the final 22 miles from the town of Pemberton back to Whistler. It heated up into the low 90s in that section and I had some inner thigh cramping that I was able to alleviate by pouring water on my legs and mixing up my pedal strokes. When I got to the dismount area, I could barely swing my leg over the back of my bike. I managed to dismount without falling or dropping my bike but I walked through transition after handing my bike off to another great volunteer. I was wishing my legs felt less stiff but I was very happy to be off my bike.
My plan for the bike was to use my heart rate to dictate my pace, aiming for the higher end of zone 3 (Z3) and not letting it drop below the top of zone 2. I made 2 small mistakes in this race, the first of which was getting in my mind that the top of my Z3 heart rate was 5 beats per minute higher than it is. Although my average was in the middle of Z3 for the bike, I was in Z4 for a good bit of time. I may have gone a little too hard on the bike which is not the best set up for the run. My bike time was 6:44:34. My Garmin says that there were 6,312 feet of climbing. There is some climbing early on which isn't much of a problem on well rested legs. There is a nice flat stretch from about mile 60 to 90 where I cruised along at a little over 20 mph. The real challenge began at the 90 mile mark, climbing the final 22 miles from the town of Pemberton back to Whistler. It heated up into the low 90s in that section and I had some inner thigh cramping that I was able to alleviate by pouring water on my legs and mixing up my pedal strokes. When I got to the dismount area, I could barely swing my leg over the back of my bike. I managed to dismount without falling or dropping my bike but I walked through transition after handing my bike off to another great volunteer. I was wishing my legs felt less stiff but I was very happy to be off my bike. 
RUN
Although the aid stations are placed approximately one mile apart, I like to carry my own water so I can ingest and wash down a gel every half hour and rather than having to time my gels with aid stations. I made my second mistake of the day by leaving my water bottle in transition. I was well out of the transition area before I realized I had left my water bottle behind. I made due, eating a gel as close to a half hour apart as aid stations allowed. I drank water at every aid station and also drank electrolyte drink or coke at about half of them. I saw Dennis about two miles into the run and he told me that I was in 7th place after the swim and 3rd place after the bike. That was good news and it buoyed me up for a bit. I really wanted to hang on to that 3rd place. I wasn’t thinking about moving up to first or second place.
I ended up doing a lot more walking during this race than I would have liked. I was having a hard time willing myself to run, especially up all of the little inclines. I had some mental low points and wasn’t able to keep that positive mindset that I pride myself on. I thought "I must be really been moving down in the ranks" but I just couldn’t get myself to go faster. Around mile 16, I noticed a woman in my age group pass me and I thought I would try to stay with her but she pulled ahead after just a half mile. About three miles from the finish I asked someone what time it was and thought I might be able to break 14 hours if I could just keep “running” for three more miles. The crowd support was spectacular throughout the run and the aid stations were all well-staffed and well-stocked. When I got near the finish I could see the clock and tried to pick up my pace to make it under 14 hours. I was thankful that the very last bit was slightly downhill to the finish and I made it in 13:58:56. My run time was 5:42:41. I was glad to be done and happy to at least come in under 14 hours. I was unhappy with the amount of walking I did on the run and thought I had surely lost a lot of ground to my competitors with that run.
THE AFTERMATHI ended up doing a lot more walking during this race than I would have liked. I was having a hard time willing myself to run, especially up all of the little inclines. I had some mental low points and wasn’t able to keep that positive mindset that I pride myself on. I thought "I must be really been moving down in the ranks" but I just couldn’t get myself to go faster. Around mile 16, I noticed a woman in my age group pass me and I thought I would try to stay with her but she pulled ahead after just a half mile. About three miles from the finish I asked someone what time it was and thought I might be able to break 14 hours if I could just keep “running” for three more miles. The crowd support was spectacular throughout the run and the aid stations were all well-staffed and well-stocked. When I got near the finish I could see the clock and tried to pick up my pace to make it under 14 hours. I was thankful that the very last bit was slightly downhill to the finish and I made it in 13:58:56. My run time was 5:42:41. I was glad to be done and happy to at least come in under 14 hours. I was unhappy with the amount of walking I did on the run and thought I had surely lost a lot of ground to my competitors with that run.
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| Always happy to see Dennis and Tim along the course! |
After making my way through the finish area, I met Dennis and Tim at a pre-designated spot. I had intended to walk the mile back to the condo after the race but Tim had scoped things out and found a nearby parking lot where he could pick me up. I had given him and Dennis each a ticket that would allow one of them to pick up my bike and transition bags. Tim told me I should make my way over to the parking lot with Dennis and Tim would pick up my bike and bags, drop my bike at Tribike Transport, walk back to the condo for the car and pick me up. I was in no shape to argue with that plan. We hadn’t purchased a phone data plan for Canada and we were not in a wireless area, so Dennis didn’t have any idea of where I was in the rankings at the end of my race. Once we got to the parking lot and I laid down on a bench, he texted our friend Katherine who we knew would be following my progress. Much to my surprise I had finished with a fourth place podium spot. I laid on the bench truly spent, aching all over, cramping, shivering although I wasn't cold, and at the same time sort of deliriously happy. As it turned out I had been in fourth place after the bike and although I had been passed by the woman who ended up in third place I also passed a woman who ended up in sixth place, managing to maintain the fourth place position that I was in after the bike.
The main takeaway for me after this experience is that no matter how much I feel like I’m suffering on the run, everyone else is suffering too, so don’t give up, stay positive and continue to push with everything I’ve got. My coach was right in having me do this race. It boosted my confidence, it reminded me how difficult ironman races are and it was a great experience in and of itself.
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| Awards ceremony first through fifth from left to right. Sporting My Soxy Feet Sole Long knee socks. A portion of the sales are donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. "You don't have to match to be a pair." |
