Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Vancouver Half Iron – Race Report

Kirsten and I set sail for the mainland on Friday afternoon after at quick stop at Trek to get some aerobars put on my bike for the race. When we arrived in the ‘big city’ we headed directly for the race site and did a loop of the bike route by car. Driving up the big hill from Jericho Beach to UBC worried me a little, but didn’t necessarily stress me. It seemed long, but not too steep to handle. From there, we headed to Kirsten’s friend Leanne’s apartment, where we would be staying for the weekend (which was happily just down the road from the race). She treated us to a feast of the most delicious caramelized onion, roasted mushroom, arugula and goat cheese pizza on homemade dough. Typically, onions and mushrooms are not my favourite thing, but wow, on this pizza it worked.

But I digress….

Saturday was a pretty typical pre-race-day day (so I won’t go into all the long boring details), but I will mention, during our race prep we decided to ride over to the hill at UBC and give it a go. Thankfully, it wasn’t too bad at all – much like I suspected in the car, it was long, but not horribly steep (and as Kirsten so eloquently put it “it’s no Yellow Lake”). The rest of the day went something like this: sushi, bike check, package pick-up, race meeting, more delicious food prepared by Leanne, a chill night at ‘home’ and then, sleepy time village.

The morning seemed to come fast and furious. I woke about 3:30 and never really got back to sleep before the alarm went off at 4:30. After the usual morning preparation we headed off to the race. We wanted to be there early enough to get set up and stand in the bathroom line up, as the line was so long at the New Balance Victoria race that Kirsten was practically still in line about 5 minutes before the race start! Luckily, on Sunday, we had plenty of time.

There was a slight chill in the air, and the sky was a little overcast, but it was a decent morning all the same. The water didn’t feel too too cold at that time (probably because of the chill in the air) and soon enough, it was time to get going. The race was an ‘on the beach’ start which is a little different for me, but when the gun finally went off, it was just like any other start. The crowd of competitors filed into the water and we were off.

Of course, what came next was a little unexpected - salt water, choppy waves and ocean currents. (It was only unexpected because 1~ I’ve never done an ocean swim before, and 2~ it looked really calm from the beach). I struggled a little to find my rhythm amidst the chop and all the people and really can’t say I enjoyed the first part of the swim, but I did feel good about being able to regain my composure relatively quickly when I was getting banged around. I also felt like I did fairly well at just focusing on my breath and my stroke. Another different part of this swim for me was the fact that after the first lap you get out of the water, run around a buoy on the beach, and get back in the water again. It felt kinda weird, and was kinda fun at the same time. The second lap was much the same as the first, although, with a little less smashing around with the other people.

With the swim finally complete I made the long run up from the water to the transition area. I had to kind of laugh at myself running through the sand, as it really took a lot out of me! That said, T1 went pretty smooth and I was out on the bike in a little over 2 minutes.

I feel kind of indifferent about the bike leg. I wasn’t disappointed with it by any means, but it wasn’t the best outing on the bike I’ve ever had either. One minor annoyance came almost immediately after the first climb as I noticed a tightness in my groin/adductor/hip flexor area that I just couldn’t seem to shake. I've been testing out different seats since I got my new bike and, well, I’m realizing now, the one I raced on, probably isn’t the right one. Because of this tightness/discomfort I just couldn’t get comfy in my aerobars and did most of my riding either on the tops or in the drops. I felt like I was putting out a pretty consistent and solid effort, but unfortunately, I’m pretty sure I got a bit slower as the laps ticked by. All that said, I did feel like my nutrition went a little better on the bike then at Shawnigan and I did have fun. The out and back style of the route allowed you to see the other competitors both in front and behind you at various points which made it a little less monotonous. With the final descent of the UBC hill behind me, I knew my nemesis, the run, was the only thing standing between me and the finish line.

After a bit of a frazzled T2 [due to my lovely neighbours on the bike rack not leaving me any space and even throwing their stuff on top of mine (or so it seemed)…] I was on my way. Kelly and I had discussed taking the first km to really just shake the kinks out, to go easy and get in a good head space, and I must say this approach definitely helped. As expected I fought what has become my typical calf discomfort for the first 3 or 4km before it flushed out. Thankfully, this time, I found I was better able to talk myself through it. I had also decided before the race that I just needed to look at this as 4 separate 5k’s as I knew I could handle 5k at a time (5k really does sound so much more attainable than 20k, doesn’t it?). From a mental standpoint, this 5k strategy really helped me. I can’t say I was moving too rapidly, but I was moving - and at a consistent pace to boot. I continued to truck along, and am happy to report that there was no walking and no bathroom breaks! (I even passed a handful of people on the run!). I had expected Kirsten to blow past me early on, but I managed to hold her off until about 1.5-2k to go. Of course I didn’t want her to pass me at all, and then when she did, I wanted to stick with her, but by that point in the race, my legs didn’t have a whole lot of pick up left in them – and you know, coming in behind her really didn’t bother me as much as one would expect. When all was said and done, we ended up crossing the finish line about 49 seconds apart and both under 6 hours. Kirsten is 5:56:47 and myself in 5:57:36.

I feel like I did improve on the things that really bothered me about Shawnigan (nutrition and the run specifically) even if they aren't quite perfect yet. I can admit it now – I was really quite scared going into this race. I was worried how I would react mentally if I had another bad run. I didn't want that to be my last big impression going into Ironman. It's hard to explain, but I guess, long story short, I'm quite glad I came out of this race feeling like things improved.

So, I guess, to sum up what has become a very very long post – overall, it was a good day.

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