As you might expect, this is a long report, so go grab some beverages!
Full set of pics here.
Let’s back up to Friday night.
It was like preparing for an Ironman, only worse, since I was completely supporting myself. I prepared a swim bag, bike bag and run bag and I put extra clothing in the swim and bike bags to account for various conditions. I lined up all my bottles in the fridge and made a list of what would go in the cooler for biking and then for running so I wouldn’t forget anything.
I made 2 sandwiches in case I wanted them for the bike or the run, and I peeled 2 hardboiled eggs, anticipating eating 1 before biking and 1 during or after. I loaded the coffee pot and set the alarm for 4:30. After all this was done, I got to preparing Bitch. I did it in my house since it was cool outside and I just didn’t want to deal with that.
I lubed her up, put on the race wheels, strapped on a spare tubular, and was good to go. I think I finished up all my preparations by about 8:30, took a couple of Advil PM and got into bed to try and sleep.
I laid there for about ½ hour just thinking about what I had been doing and how I felt. I couldn’t believe this was actually happening, that I’d planned to do this and then got into Ultraman Canada, that I’d had an Ironman PR only 5 weeks ago, that I had been biking and running well so far, and that despite thinking I was sick, I wasn’t. I had a little soreness in my legs, but not bad, having had a great massage 5 hours prior. But I fell asleep shortly after 9, I think, and slept really well, waking only a few times to pee and drink some water.
Race Morning
When the alarm went off, I did hit the snooze, and I rolled over on my belly and said “arrrrrrgggggh” kind of quietly into the pillow. It made me laugh! And then I realized no snoozing today, I have lots to do, so I got up and thought, “Here we go!”
Coffee was ready and so I fixed a cup and grabbed a Powerbar and took 400 calories worth of Ultrafuel out of the fridge. My goal was to leave for the pool at 5:40AM, but between loading the cooler, then putting everything into my car and moving rather slowly, it all took much longer than I thought, and besides, I had to get all those calories down. I remained relaxed about it yet focused, since it was going to be a long day.
I think I got on the road just after 6, but on a Saturday morning, there is no traffic to speak of that early, so I made it to Good Sam in a flash. As I got out of my car, all I could think was, “This is going to be kind of epic.” The woman at the front desk couldn’t deal with my prepaid receipt for 7 swims, and she just waved me in, so I guess I swam for free yesterday! I got my shit together and snapped a few pics, and then headed into the pool.
The Swim
I was surprised that there were a few other lap swimmers, but still I had a lane all to myself. As I sat with my feet dangling in the water, I wondered how this was going to feel, and I looked at the clock and saw I was starting at 6:23AM, so only 3 minutes earlier than Friday! Goes to show you all that moving crap around takes longer than you think!
I got in and started to swim and thought that once again, the water felt nice and it was relaxing. I decided to just swim easy, easy, easy (which is just a little slower than my normal pace!), since today was all about energy management. Whereas during the 3 days prior I was thinking about a lot of things while I was swimming, today I was just swimming. It was like I was in a zone, and I realized that all I needed to do today was keep going, and so I did. There were a number of times that I felt like puking, since I’d pounded down almost 650 calories under 2 hours before, but this is what I put up with in order to let myself sleep longer. I just hadn’t felt like waking up at 3:30 or 4:00 just so I could get my calories down 2+ hours prior to starting. I thought this was good practice for Ultraman, too, since I will probably be in the same boat and trying to sleep as much as I can. It’s worse, though, when I’m wearing a wetsuit and have stuffed myself full, so note to self—2 hours before starting is a good idea, or maybe I’ll do the old wake up at 2AM and eat and try and go back to sleep.
T1
2500 yards later, and I thought to myself, “Huh—done swimming for the week!” And I thought what the heck, go into the hot tub for maybe 5 minutes to warm myself up, since it was cool outside (maybe 60 is all), and it’s easy for me to become hypothermic. The hot tub felt great, and the shower felt great, and I once again dried my hair thoroughly, and took my sweet time putting on my bike clothes.
Back in the car for the drive to Fermilab. Good Sam is just off the Interstate that I take to get there, so the drive was really quick. I ate an egg on the way there, which tasted good, but my stomach was still full so not sure that was a great idea. Oh well, I’d burn through this all eventually, right? When I got to my usual parking spot at the East Gate, there was a gentleman pruning trees and shrubs, and also they had placed a porta-potty right there! I grinned and inside my head I was thinking, “Hey, I get my own private bathroom today!”
I got Bitchie out of the car and loaded the bottles and had my bike shoes on when I turned around and saw one of the resident coyotes in the prairie just in front of me! I stared at him/her, who stared right back at me, and I thought this was some sort of good omen for me to have a good ride.
I put on the aerohelmet and sunglasses, asked the nice man to snap a few pics of me, and he said he’d do as many as I wanted, and I told him if he was there after 25 miles maybe I’d ask him!
The Bike
The winds were predicted to be NNW or WNW, I forget, but as soon as I headed west, I could feel them. I go west maybe a mile and then turn north, and oh boy, the north wind was brutal, and I’m looking at my speed and I’m maybe going 15. I thought, crap, I am going to suck today, but just kept going easy and right away I noticed my legs were telling me this was going to be hard.
As I made my way around and into the west winds again, I just hunkered down aero and was seeing better speed numbers, so maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all. I didn’t start in on the Infinit for at least 30 minutes, since I was still sort of full from breakfast plus an egg, but then I got down to my nutrition business.
When I got to the Pine Road area which is slightly wind sheltered, I decided I would do 2-mile loops there so I’d hit 40 miles on my first “lap” around the lab. A little less than 1 mile was right into the prevailing west winds, and then a little more was with mostly tailwind, so on average, I guess it wasn’t too bad!
I don’t remember how many laps of
When all was said and done and I got back to my car, I was at 43 miles for my first time around. The man pruning trees and shrubs was still there, but I didn’t want to dally too much, so I let him work, and I ate half of a sandwich, only because I had a taste for real food. I wasn’t drinking as much as I’d planned because of the cool temperatures, having learned my lesson from IMLP 2007 and also from Rockman this year. I was grateful for my personal bathroom and made use of it before heading back out.
I’d been wearing a windbreaker, and hoped it would warm up enough to remove it, but that was not happening today. I saw a number of other riders also pretty bundled up, and I think when we signaled one another we were both probably thinking we were pretty tough to be out in that today.
Starting my second lap, I figured I had enough on board fluids and nutrition to stay out for the remaining 50 miles. When I was at about 48, the Ergomo started going into sleep mode, and good thing I noticed, because I was adamant about meeting my mileage objective! I got to 50 miles messing with it, and since I knew it was almost exactly 2 miles for the
I would say that about at mile 60, I was wanting to quit and just bag it. Every time I would head straight into the wind, I’d hate it. And I was all by myself and I hadn’t seen the sun all day (and really not much the 3 days prior, either), and here I am doing 2-mile loops over and over again. And I thought, hey, this isn’t a race, either, and I can cheat if I want. But I squelched those thoughts because if I don’t finish this, I won’t know what it’s like to do ultra-distance, will I?
And then I just relaxed and kept going. I kept going by a security guard near
I was so happy to be on that last loop, and I pulled over to the gate to chat for a bit. I asked if he’d been there the entire time, and he said yes, how he’d been watching me go around and around, and he asked how many miles today (since he’d no doubt seen me there other times). I told him, and he said he was impressed, and I just said I really like riding! I also asked him to tell Lt. Fry that I said hello (the man who said I could use his name whenever I wanted to ride on the Big Ring), and that I probably wouldn’t be back until next year! I said goodbye, and took off for home.
I got a little sad knowing that I might not be back here until next year. I love Fermilab, not just to ride, but it is beautiful in there and it’s just a great cycling haven. I know I put in hundreds of miles in there, and I’m sure next year will be even more! Since I had a tailwind going back to my car, I got all amped and just hammered, passing a number of recreational cyclists.
T2
The guard at the East Gate signaled to me when I arrived, and after I put the bike, helmet and shoes away, I went over so he could snap a few pics of me and we chatted. He said I was his hero, and I said, “No, I just do this because I enjoy it.” And even though there were moments when I didn’t enjoy it, all in all, I was pleased.
I got out the other egg and half of a sandwich to eat on my way back home. I was pretty happy that I rode faster than I predicted—16.9 mph average as opposed to 16mph predicted—not bad considering the winds! Here is what the winds looked like—I was riding between 8:15 and 2:15:
No wonder I was wigging out around 60 miles because that's when the winds were at their peak!
At a stoplight on my way back, someone in a car next to me was waving their hands at me, so I rolled down the passenger window and asked him if I could help. He said he saw the 140.6 sticker on my car and had seen them on other cars and wanted to know what it meant. So I nonchalantly said that it is the Ironman triathlon distance, and then I said, “Oh by the way, I’m doing one right now!” And he thanked me for the explanation and said, “You’re an inspiration!” I wonder what sort of sticker I should put on my car now?
When I got home, I unloaded the bike, my bike bag, the cooler and got my run clothes out of the bag in my car. I’d decided somewhere along the way that I should put on tights to run, and I didn’t want to wear the pair that was in my bag since they were rather light and not too compressive. I knew that my legs would appreciate a little compression at this point!
I put the chicken broth on the stove to warm, retrieved my thermos, put on my running clothes, put the bike away, restocked the cooler, loaded the Thermos, and drove to Waterfall Glen, drinking a Coke on the way.
There was an open house in
I got a great parking spot and asked a guy nearby to snap a pic of me and then I snapped one of him and his entire family, and I hit the trail.
The Run
I didn’t feel like I was moving hardly at all, and I really didn’t care what my pace was, but I hit the first mile in just over 10 minutes. I was like what the fuck, I can’t believe I can even run at all by this point! But run I did, and first I completed an 8 mile out and back, averaging about 10mpm.
I swigged some more Coke, grabbed another small bottle of Gatorade and headed back out. I was starting to slow down, but I expected that, and my legs were starting to hurt. They didn’t hurt as bad as at IMLP only because I was running on a softer surface, but I could feel aches and pains cropping up pretty much everywhere—my glutes, hips, quads, calves. But it’s not like I didn’t expect it!
I was toying with how much I wanted to do in my second loop and finally I settled on doing a 9 mile out and back. That way, I’d have only 4 miles left, and I’d either get them in there or head back home and do it from home. In retrospect, I should have shortened this loop because I really wasn’t drinking enough, and I may have been low on calories, but it was hard to tell. All I can say is that when I was 14 miles total in, I was a little weirded out in my head. Part of me thought maybe I should have had someone along with me running, and the other part of me thought, hey, I am in uncharted territory here for me—I guess this is what happens!
And I’m pretty sure it was just all mental stuff and also my body reacting to what I had been up to, but amazingly enough I was still running, albeit now only about an 11mpm pace. I actually had predicted 12-13mpm at this point, so in that respect, I guess I was doing OK! It was more that I just had this overwhelming urge to stop, but it was good that I was by myself and on a trail, because I had no choice but to finish out at least 17 miles!
I soldiered on, and since the sun was low and I was in the woods, the deer started coming out, and that made me smile since I’d never run there in the evening, and yet there were still people out on mountain bikes and walking dogs and such. While it was pretty cool out, it was absolutely beautiful, and sun was occasionally peeking through the clearest blue sky. I got choked up a few times, too, which I suppose was part of the whole doing something I’d never done before. I remembered to leave the rest of the bag of Dad’s ashes I’d had with me along the trail, and thought how nice that he’d been able to be with me in so many big events!
I wish I could describe all of what was going on in my head, but I suppose that's something you would only understand if you put yourself through this. It's a combination of stuff hurts, but it doesn't. I hate myself, but I love myself. I want to feel pride, but I don't. I want everyone I know to know what I'm doing, but I really don't care since I know they wouldn't understand. I'm not entirely sure why I keep doing this stuff, but something draws me to it. I want to know what's inside my head, and I guess I am finding out, and by all accounts I should be laying on the ground unable to move by this point, but I'm not. In the past, I've broken my body down to the point of injury doing far less than I've done this year, and yet here I am running 21 miles, for fuck's sake 52 in only 4 days--I'd run 56 in a week when I did Goofy Challenge in 2007--which I'd forgotten about, but remembering that I know how I'm able to do this today. I want to stop, but if I stop I'm a total loser, and that is my biggest fear--believing I am a loser. Because some people think people who do ultras (ultra ANYTHING) are just big old losers who have no life. Maybe I don't have their life, but I have this one, and it seems to suit me well. I must be a little nuts to do these things, and I'm OK with that.
When I was nearly done with my second loop, I realized it was a little too cold in there for me to continue, and that I had better head home. Mentally, I really wanted to be done and thought it wouldn’t matter if I didn’t finish all 21 planned miles, so I just let that thought settle while I poured myself a cup of chicken broth.
Man that tasted SO good! On the short drive home, I realized that I would totally hate myself if I didn’t finish what I’d started, so I decided I’d just throw stuff into my house and head back out after some more chicken broth and a Twinkie.
I guess I was a little out of it by now because I decided I’d run up and down the hill from my house over and over until I was at 21 miles. It made perfect sense to me, but it was sort of a stupid thing to do because it meant I was climbing the hill actually 7 times since I needed to do 6 full repeats plus ½ of another. But you know what? I really had wanted to finish running up my own driveway, and now that I was out of the wind (or it had died down), and I put my windbreaker back on, I felt perfectly comfortable. And a bit silly. What possessed me to finish a 21 mile run like this? Pride, I guess.
And so I did, even though I took it really easy and was running around 12:30mpm. Now I was starting to feel happy and good and I thought that now I can finish my finisher’s shirt! I didn’t want to finish ironing on all the pirates until I was actually done, and at one point while I was in Waterfall Glen, that was the “one thing” that kept me going—that I wouldn’t be able to wear that shirt with honor unless I completed all 21 miles!
On my last trip down the hill, I decided to see if I could pick it up a little, and I did, and for a moment there, the pain left my legs. Isn’t it always like that? And I know that if anyone could have seen me in the dark (it was near 8:30), they would have seen my face light up like a beacon!
Totals for Day 4 and Overall Revenge of the PirateMan
Day 4:
Swim 2500 yds in 48:55 (1:57/100 yds)
Bike 93 miles in 5:30 (16.9mph)
Run 21 miles in 3:46.09 (10:46/mile)
Total Time: 10:05:04
Grand Totals
Swim 10000 yds in 3:10.15 (1:54/100 yds)
Bike 224.13 miles in 12:22.20 (18.1mph)
Run 52.5 miles in 8:37.46 (9:52/mile)
Total Time: 24:10.21
Total Miles: 282.31 SHOULD I GET A STICKER MADE FOR MY CAR WITH THIS ON IT???
I had predicted almost 28 hours for this, so I guess I did well! It's funny that in my training spreadsheet I have a chart that has swim distances in yards, meters, and laps/lengths based on pool lengths of 25 yards, 22.5 yards (there is some pool that I swam in at one time that was that length) 40 meters (some other pool that I swam in for a summer) and 50 meters, and I extended it all the way up to Ultraman (10,000 meters) a few years back. I guess I was thinking ahead!
T3
When I got back into my house, I pumped my fists, snapped a quick finisher photo, stripped off my sweaty, stinky clothes, weighed myself (109 on the nose—I guess I really had hydrated enough), decided I couldn’t stomach any more sports nutrition and cracked a beer, showered, finished my finisher’s shirt, and then heated up some pizza.
I was surprised that I was doing OK walking up and down stairs, and I know from having stayed in that 2-story house in Lake Placid twice, that it actually helps to keep those legs moving in that way for recovery.
Sunday
I passed out around 9:30PM last night. I was pretty tired, and while I knew I probably should have eaten more (I managed 3 slices of pizza and only 2 beers), I didn’t even have the energy to eat! I am surprised today that going up and down the stairs doesn’t feel bad at all. I am really happy that today I get to watch many friends online doing their own Ironman races (
I feel really good that I was able to finish what I’d started this week. It has given me a confidence boost about Ultraman
I am especially happy that this is the closest together that I have ever done 2 Ironmans—the last 2 years they were 8 weeks apart, and the first time I did a double in 2004 they were 7 weeks apart. I was a little worried about the 5 week spread 2 weeks ago, feeling like I’d nuked myself pretty good by averaging 200 miles per week on the bike 3 weeks in a row right after IMLP. I started feeling my piriformis acting up a bit, but after I started icing them after long runs I felt fine. I was worried about my running until I nailed a glorious 14 miles a few weeks ago.
While there are a few things I should try and accomplish today, the only requirement is to get my lawn mowed. I should have done it yesterday, but oh well, I was doing an Ironman, eh? I am going to really celebrate tonight with a dinner of lobster and steak and a bottle of champagne. I could care less if I wake up with a hangover tomorrow!
Now all I gotta do is be able to swim the 10k all at once, bike 260 miles over 2 days and run a double marathon! Ultraman
ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
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