Ultraman Canada Day 3 Run Report

My awesome backpack, medal, numbers (V for vehicle, B for Bike, R for Run), socks I wore on the 3 days and my engraved finisher trumpet thingie

Day 3: 52.4 mile (84.4km) run

Start Time: 6:00AM, and we started at a crack in the road about 8km from the hotel.

Conditions: We were warned it would be cool in the morning due to our altitude (872m). I think I remember checking the weather forecast in the hotel the night before and there was no mention of rain or significant wind. Weather Underground says that for August 2 in Princeton, BC, the minimum temperature was 50F and the maximum was 82F, although it never felt too warm at all. Average humidity was 54% for the day. When I was at the start (Richard dropped me off) waiting, I got pretty cold and borrowed a jacket from Lee and sat in someone else’s car to stay warm until we began.

Here is the race’s description of the run course:

The 84.3 km (52.4 mile) double-marathon from Princeton to Summerland is a gruelling testament to your constitution! The run course varies in elevation from 845 m to 1170 m above sea level and has some very steep climbs and descents. Approximately 1/3 the course consists of gravel road.

Of course, I failed to read that BEFORE the race! Here are the run course elevation maps to give you an idea of the difficulty:

I like how they always put a smiley face at the finish point on all the maps! Anyway, you can see that we basically climb for about 70km and then run the hell down. We were on some mountain, but I don’t know the name of it. Definitely not an easy course!

Here is a video of the run, and it’s beautiful so you can see the surrounding scenery. You can see why it is not a given to finish the run within 12 hours.

Goal: To make the 12-hour cutoff. If you use all 12 hours, that is an average pace of 13:44/mile, which isn’t exactly lollygagging for that distance. I had no idea if I could do this, although based on the 35-mile run I had done last October, I thought I had the goods to go the distance in 12 hours or less. But I was paranoid about my right foot holding up (see Training Notes) and also a niggling right hamstring issue I’d been experiencing for about 4 weeks that never stopped me from running, but who knows what could happen after Days 1 and 2? And then all that fucking climbing! I guess during the pre-race briefing I must have been in La La Land, because I didn’t think anything of the maps until I was actually on the course! Perhaps that was my brain’s way of telling me to not deal with it until I had to. There was nothing to be accomplished by getting all scared about hills and such.

Actual: 11:41:20. Cool beans! The splits I kept track of were as follows: 10K 1:10.54, 13.1 2:37.49, 26.2 5:34.33 (2:56.44 for 1/2), 39.3 8:33.10 (2:58.36 for 1/2), 52.4 11:41.20 (3:08.10 for 1/2). The course did actually get harder each ½ marathon, so all things considered, I can’t complain! But I can go faster (especially on the downhill, but that hurt like one motherfucking sonofabitch), and once I knew I was completely good to go with about 10km left, I did sort of fuck around and just enjoy myself when I wasn’t going OUCH OUCH OUCH because of how rapidly we were going downhill. Steve King was at the 10k and marathon points calling out our splits. When I finished the first marathon, I was pretty happy with myself, because I figured I could nearly walk the second marathon and still finish. Still, I should have buckled down and suffered a bit more, but this was a learning experience—my first Ultraman and my longest run ever!

Gear/Clothes: I wore pink Desoto running shorts that I’d used in training a zillion times. Usually whenever I did my long run, but I think I have 4 pairs of the pink ones, so they all got plenty of use. Lee cautioned me to apply Vaseline to the edges of the panty liner, and that was a great idea. In one of the pockets I had a crack baggie of Dad’s ashes, and I had another crack baggie of Lava Salts. I wore a watch for the first time in 3 days. Please note that Lee also had a dead guy with her, but not ashes. She had a photo of a friend of hers who had died, so I told her that once she began running with me we’d be two chics and a couple of dead guys!

The bra top I wore (pink with black straps) is from Athleta, and unfortunately, they don’t make these anymore, but these are my favorite run tops as I am boobless and need very little support and like the small profile (better suntan!) and comfort. I do not use a heart rate monitor anymore. I quit using it, I think, in 2006 when I really leaned out and the thing just bugged me to wear the strap over my bony ribs. Plus, I am bradycardic, so my zones are pretty narrow anyway, and after years of this training, I can sort of tell where I’m at. Usually I’m in no danger of going too hard for my heart to tolerate. It’s more of an effort for me to elevate my heart rate most of the time!

I wore my usual Wigwam socks. The night before I sprayed down my feet and Lee’s (since she was going to pace me) with New Skin. I love that stuff. Prevents blisters like crazy, at least those between your toes. Morning of, I lubed my feet completely with Vaseline. I started out in my New Balance 904’s which are super lightweight trainers (about 8.5 oz.), but switched to the heavier, more cushioned 758’s during the 3^rd ½ marathon, I think, because I was feeling too much rockiness on the bottoms of my feet. In retrospect, lightweight gaiters would have been good, because I ran on the sand shoulder when I could, and that plus small rocks got into my shoes.

I wore my brand new Outdoor Research Sun Runner Hat, but without the skirt, which I ended up not needing. Finally, I wore a white Craft long-sleeve shirt that I had bought in case of blazing sun, but it worked just fine keeping me warm enough but not clammy.

Nutrition Plan

I didn’t think I needed much Ultrafuel, so I ended up splitting the 600 calories I had with Lee, so we each had 300 calories. I also had a Power Bar Triple Threat, so I was up to about 530 calories, and then Lee said we should chow down on the breakfast provided by the race as well. I ended up having some scrambled eggs and a couple of pancakes with butter and syrup. I was a stuffed potato! I probably had over 1,000 calories in me before I started, but that was just fine.

I had requested my crew to have Coke, water and Gatorade on hand for me, and whatever snacks were left from prior days. They had enough Coke for me to just drink that, but for some stupid reason I agreed with Lee in not taking any Coke until after the first marathon. I’d had a few cups of coffee, but I didn’t have much sleep and the Coke would have been welcome right away, but then I figured without it I would hold down my initial pace appropriately. I ended up drinking much blue Gatorade for the first marathon, and then I was more than happy to switch over to mostly Coke.

Training Notes

I did Revenge of the Pirateman (check the blog archive for reports on it) as my last “race” of the 2008-2009 season just 5 weeks after I set a lifetime Ironman PR at Lake Placid. ROTPM featured 52.4 (actually I did 52.46) miles of running in 4 days, and that was the beginning of my fall/winter run focus. I did the runs for that thing faster than I had anticipated.

8 weeks later I was registered for a 50-mile race run by the North Face up in the Kettle Morraine region of Wisconsin. To prepare for it, I did double long runs on the weekends with additional hiking/running up and down this mountain of garbage. I was feeling pretty invincible by race day with a high degree of confidence, but I made some stupid mistakes in gear choice. I wore my usual lightweight trainers, and my elastic (that I no longer use) laces were too tight. This led to undue pressure on my anterior tibialis tendon that brought me to a grinding halt after 35 miles. But, I felt like I definitely had the fitness to get the entire 50 miles done. Even so, it was quite interesting recovering from that. It was like a wake-up call to my legs! In the race itself, I remember my quads hurting like mofos after just about 10 miles because of the hills. I had trained hills, but not TRAIL hills that included roots, rocks, slippery rocks and leaves. I guess my stabilizer muscles weren’t accustomed to that, but I was able, after my customary 1 week off after any marathon or further from running, to begin running, after being checked out since I thought I might have a stress fracture. On the plus side, I had a full bone scan done. Check out a picture of me naked!

11 weeks after North Face I had Goofy Challenge (1/2 marathon on Saturday followed by full marathon on Sunday in Disneyworld) scheduled. I got right back to training, and managed to get in 3 41-mile weeks. During this time I wasn’t biking much, as I was indoors on the trainer. I set a PR in the marathon for Goofy double, and a combined ½ and full marathon PR. This was the 3^rd time I’d done Goofy Challenge.

I still remember that back in July before Ironman Lake Placid, my massage therapist, Mike, had cautioned me about trying to do all of these events so close to one another, telling me he’d be here to fix me up when things went south. I guess that was a premonition?

After Goofy Challenge, I started to add back more biking, but slowly, since it was still winter. Biking remained relatively light, but I kept my weekly run mileage pretty high for me—around 30 miles per week. Between January and March, I did the local series of 3 indoor super sprint triathlons, winning my age group at all 3, and placing pretty well overall in the females. After each of these races, I would hop on the treadmill and run another 1:15-1:30, which is pretty difficult, at least for me.

On April 1, I was doing a long run from my house, and had about 8 miles out of 12 done when it felt like a nail was being driven through my second toe on my right foot from the bottom. I was like, huh, let’s see if I can run through this, since I am used to all sorts of things happening and dealing with aches and pains. I tried, I really tried for about a mile, but the pain would not subside, and so I was reduced to walking. I walked 3 miles home and decided right then and there that I would need to take 2 weeks off from running completely, periodically testing the foot to see if it was just a fluke.

Every time I tried to run, the pain would come within maybe 10-15 footfalls, not a good thing. So I made an appointment with the foot specialist at my ortho. I described the pain to his assistant, the obligatory X-rays were taken, and then I got to speak with Dr. Vinci. He took one look at my foot and made a weird face that I took to mean bad news was on the way. Nothing broken, but I told him I had guesses and he asked me what they were. I was actually hoping it was a muscle in my lower leg that was referring pain to the toe, but he said nope. Adhesive capsulitis is what he said, and I said, “So, OK what’s the bad news?” And he knew I was asking how long to heal, i.e., time away from running. His response was 8-12 weeks.

I was heartbroken. The race was just 15 weeks away, and now I might not even make it to the start line. I didn’t cry in front of him though. He said we needed to make me some new orthotics, too. I had brought my old ones, which I’d trashed during North Face, and actually I had been trying to wean myself off them, which may be what precipitated the problem in the first place—not just the excessive run mileage! So my feet were scanned, and he said the orthotics, which might make me able to run pain-free, would be done in about 3 weeks, and that I shouldn’t run before then. I asked if biking and elliptical were OK as long as I experienced no pain, and he said go ahead.

I had already retrieved a water running program in case I was told not to run, so I was all set to do what I could, wait for the orthotics and see what happened. It was a very stressful period, because now I had to spend more time in the pool, and rather than split my actual swim/pool run sessions, I did them together first thing in the morning. So I was up at oh-dark-thirty to hit the pool, but actually I didn’t mind the pool running. I did all intervals, and they made the time pass quickly, although people wondered why *I* was doing it. I also did maybe ¼-1/2 of each scheduled run workout on the elliptical before I hit the pool, just to lessen the mental craziness of complete pool running.

So I did 3 weeks of pool running/elliptical, keeping up my scheduled run volume, managing a planned week of 7.5 hours total! I never had any pain in the foot at all during this period unless I tried to actually run on a treadmill or ground. It didn’t hurt when I walked, so maybe I had caught the problem early enough and was smart by in taking 2 weeks completely off.

3 weeks after my initial appointment on Friday, 5/7, I thought, “Hmm…my orthotics should be ready,” so I called the office and I was right! I went and picked them up and brought them home and put them into my running shoes in slow motion. I was afraid to try and actually run on them because what if they didn’t fix me? I had found one other person on a forum who had had the same problem and he said the new orthotics worked like magic and he ran pain-free right away with them. So I decided I will just run down my driveway and see what happens. I took 10 steps—no pain. So I got bold and began running on the sidewalk up the hill on my normal running route. No pain! I broke down and cried, but knew I wasn’t completely out of the water just yet. I didn’t go very far because I wanted my real test to be on the indoor track the next day.

Saturday morning I headed to the Y and was suited up to run. I go downstairs to the track and run into a friend, Eric, who is doing his first Ironman at Wisconsin this year, and I have sort of been mentoring him here and there when it’s convenient for both of us. He sees me and says he’ll run with me, and I’m freaking out because I think what if my foot hurts I am going to have a nervous breakdown on the spot, but I tell him I plan to run only for 10 minutes and slowly since I haven’t run on land in 5 weeks. We begin running and my feet don’t hurt, but the orthotics feel odd, which was expected, because they are constructed with this metatarsal bar that corrects my feet from pointing outwards, feels weird to my feet, and my adductors are also in a new position (more on this later). But Eric is talking to me and that is taking my mind off the paranoia I am experiencing and we do 10 minutes and I thank him and head off to the elliptical. I can hardly believe my foot didn’t hurt, but am feeling better about life.

The next week, I had a follow up scheduled with Dr. Vinci, and he reminded me that I’d need to ramp up my “on road” mileage over 3 weeks, and I pretty much stuck to this and got back to strictly road/sidewalks over 3 weeks. However, a new problem surfaced, and that was my adductors hurting like hell! It took me all 3 weeks to realize that this was a side effect of the new orthotics and the position it put my feet in, and my poor adductors just had to get used to it! I had a couple of runs in there where I just quit running, I hurt so badly. But once I realized it was from the orthotics (which I had been told might require 8-12 weeks to acclimate to…hmm…race day was 12 weeks from when I got them), I was able to ignore the pain.

From the 3 weeks after I got the orthotics to race day, I ran strictly on road/sidewalk! With the total amount of training I was doing and extra sleep I needed, I didn’t even have time to drive to my favorite long run trail, Waterfall Glen, to run. But in retrospect this toughened up my legs really well for Ultraman.

I counted on my run fitness from fall/winter to carry me through on race day, and I think it did, since after Goofy Challenge, my longest run was 2:30. Still, in my head, I wished I’d done more running, but about early April was when I figured I just couldn’t do as much as I’d originally scheduled unless I quit my job!

Race Notes

We all lined up at the crack in the road, some words were said about it being our final day and good luck and such, and maybe we counted down—I don’t remember! I was now in a complete mental fog, on the one hand knowing this was the last day and on the other not knowing quite how my legs would fare—you really don’t know until you start running, right? And it’s not like we are going to do a warm up!

I stayed in the back of the field and watched some of the speed demons take off like they were racing to qualify for Boston! This was fun to watch, but I had to monitor myself. I started off nice and slow, just sort of a shuffle, and had no idea of my pace or anything until the 10km point, which is the first place Steve King was stationed. When I saw my time for 10k, I said to myself and then to Lee as she ran alongside me for a little bit, “Some people can’t EVER run a 10k at this pace,” and that made me feel good inside. I had the same thought at the first ½ marathon point, and also recalled that there was a time when I couldn’t run that pace in a ½ Ironman! It was fun reflecting on how far I’d come as an athlete, even though I still don’t consider myself a runner.

Vince, who was crewing for Nick M., ran with me for a little bit. Nick was going to be out of the race (I saw him when he was down, and it saddened me, but I know Nick’s a warrior and will get right back on the horse), and Vince had wanted to get some running in.

I cannot believe Vince's nipples are more prominent than mine ;)

So he ran with me a little while. Vince had just done Ironman Lake Placid the week before and here he was, just dying to run!

Lee began running with me around 31km in. Here we are in a stunning part of the course.

Originally, she was going to wait until I’d passed the first marathon, but I could tell she was just itching to run, as that is her thing for now—she will be doing her first Ironman under my tutelage next year and we will face off at Sado Long Distance in Japan next September. I was super happy to have her run with me because we started some major climbing around that point. Lee would hold my hand and sort of pull me up the hills like a little child! But I was eating it up and I kept telling her I couldn’t do it without her. She kept saying I could, but I know that this first time going so far I needed the extra boost. Plus she was constantly telling me I was doing great, and that I was going to finish this thing. I think even she might have had some doubts about me, which is OK, because I had them, too!

The other really excellent thing Lee did for me was help me across the cattleguards. I don’t remember how many there were, but when you are on your third day of racing and your hip flexors have left the room and you are faced with getting across this obstacle that looks like a chasm, it can make you fear for your life. Lee could see the fear in my eyes, and she talked me through every single one. There was one where she asked if I could go sideways, and I emphatically said, “NO!” At that point, my body knew how to do one thing and one thing only—MOVE FORWARD.

When I reached the marathon point, I was pretty happy with myself (Steve King was there to greet us). I felt like my pace was fine, even walking the steep uphills, using the ultrarunner mantra, “If you can’t see the top, walk!” I remarked to Lee that many people can’t run a standalone marathon at this pace or during an Ironman, and I asked her if it was mean that I said that, and she said no. At this point, I felt like I probably was going to make the cutoff of 12 hours unless my foot or hamstring rebelled.

Nothing really hurt too badly, not any more than in an Ironman, for about 51km or so. My quads were beat to shit, though, and I knew it. Too bad, so are everyone else’s. I just sucked it up, because at least it wasn’t my foot going south on me!

I can never remember the mile/km points where things happened, so now I will just mention some other things that happened:

• It was nice to see the one little store up there on the mountain that we were told would have an actual aid station laid out for us. And they did! They had a huge table full of all sorts of treats. I may have taken some M&M Peanuts, but I don’t really remember.
• I pooped once, and tried to be discrete about being off road about it. I remember seeing 2 other runner’s poop barely off the road later on. The day after the race while we were tubing in the Okanagan River, I remarked to Kellie, “I SAW YOUR POOP!”
• There were some girls on one crew that every time I went by them, they had some good music blaring from their car’s speakers. Once, the song coming out was “Oh Sheila,” and I’m pretty sure they had put it on there just for me, because I had heard other appropriate songs coming out. I told the girls they were the best!
• At some point we were nearly eye level with power lines stretching from the mountain we were on to another one. I thought this should mean we were at the crest, but we weren’t and had to keep climbing for a bit. I wanted to know where crest was so I could leave some of Dad there. When we finally hit the crest, once again I was happy to leave him in a beautiful place that we had been together.
• Somewhere right before or after the crest, someone in a vehicle comes flying going the opposite direction. It was Gary Wang. He had to stand down and not run because of a heart issue (you can look him up in past Ultraman Canada and Hawaii and see what an outstanding athlete he is). And here he is out on the course asking us runners if we need anything! He gave us a Red Bull, which I only had a sip of (but still enjoyed) although Lee drank much of it, and then later on he gave us a Rice Krispie Treat, that Lee and I shared. I figured that anything that Gary would eat or drink must be magic!
• Someone’s crew had a pair of Great Danes in the back of the vehicle. We had seen these dogs at dinner the night before, and when I saw them this time I wanted to stop and pet them. Lee had never seen Great Danes before and was a little scared. I mean those dogs were both bigger than us! I told her they are big babies, and of course they wanted to give us a little slobber. I am a sucker for animals when I’m out running, and will stop, after asking if it’s OK and safe, to pet any dog. Cats tell you they are friendly so I don’t have to ask! Many times when I’m out run training, I feel bad for dogs being walked by people who clearly aren’t active, and you can tell the dogs want to run. I’ve learned through petting many different dogs that if I ever became a dog owner (I’m a cat person, preferably Siamese, myself), I’d get a Weimaraner, and maybe a couple of weiner dogs.

On my printed copy of the course map between H and I and between I and J, and between L and M, I wrote OUCH. This downhill section was brutal. Many of us agreed that at this point you weren’t sure which was worse—having to run the downhills or struggle on the remaining uphills. It was somewhere in H or I section that I saw the chair by the side of the road.

Lee now tells me she knew I was going to go sit in it. I remember saying, “Look—A CHAIR!” Like it was some sort of sign from above. Well, I guess it was! I sat in there, virtually patting myself on the back for my ability to just plop down into it, and sat there and laughed while Lee snapped a few pictures, and then I yelled, “WATCH THIS!” And I was able to just stand up (with the help of my arms that weren’t beat to crap like my legs) and get out on my own. There were points earlier in the race, too, where I would just bend down and adjust my shoelaces or do other things, and I was surprised that I was able to do so. I guess the secret is not to think about it but just do it before your body realizes that it’s not something it really wants to do. Here is an example of my amazing ability to bend over:

I warned my crew that I wanted to run in with my Jolly Roger flag that was given to me by my sister in law, Laurie, after my nephew’s production of “The Little Mermaid.” Laurie knew how much I like the pirate and skull stuff, and she gave me the flag and also a paper flag that I proudly display in my living room window. A few weeks after I had placed the paper flag in the window, my neighbor across the street asked me one day, “Why do you have that pirate in the window?” It was hard for me to explain, but the real reason I had it there was to remind me that I was in training for Ultraman Canada, and it was like my HTFU reminder.

Someone in a crew vehicle let us know when we were 5K from the finish. FIVE KILOMETERS!!! I was all kinds of choked up at this point and had to keep telling myself to just settle down and keep running. Lee knew that I would need some quiet time at this point.

Mona gave me the flag, and I held it aloft as a way to keep myself from just breaking down on the spot. After regaining some composure, I held it higher, gritted my teeth and looked ahead at a now flat stretch of road that seemed to go on forever. But I knew it was going to end. Now we were nearing a small town, and there were locals on the road, and some of them gave me funny looks because of the flag. Now, one athlete, Rob, had carried a full-sized American flag the entire run, and that makes sense, but I guess a Jolly Roger not so much. Of course, I couldn’t care less what anyone thought at this point, the idea was to get it done.

That last 5k hurt like no other 5k I’ve ever done before, but it hurt real good since I knew I was going to reach the physical end of my journey. During that stretch, I could already sense things looking brighter and all these cares and worries falling off me every step closer I got. We had been told that near the finish line there would be a split so our crew could go ahead of us so we could all run in together. I remember making a left hand turn thinking I was about done, but NO…there was more. Run up ahead to the girls in green we were told, and then turn, and then FINALLY I could see the grass and the finish line and it was better than any Ironman finish I’ve ever had.

There aren’t a lot of people—it is just a small chute lined with flags from the many nations represented, and athletes and crew members are there to bring you in. Part of me still couldn’t believe I had just run 52.4 miles, but the other part of me knew that I couldn’t have done it without my crew. In a way, I thought I had the easy part—just show up and move!

Steve Brown put that medal on me and I felt like I was in the Olympics or something, it all felt so solemn to me. It felt to me like there was this light all around me and I wondered if others could see it. I didn’t know what I wanted (like water, beer or food or to sit down) other than to suck in the feeling. But then I snapped back to reality, asking for something, and I found an empty chair, sat myself down in it and began babbling to whoever would listen. Lee brought me some beer in a bike bottle, as we’d been told the park didn’t allow alcohol, but I wanted a beer more than anything! Lee and Mona helped me get my shoes off, which felt awesome, and they brought ice for my knees, which made me shiver, but I didn’t care. I really had no desire for food yet even though they had stuff to eat.

Someone signed me up for massage, and I was more than happy to sip beer and wait for it, and once again it was great. This time I had a guy originally from Europe—I forget which country—but he had a delightful accent and really loved what he does and where he lives now. It would have been interesting to record the conversations going on at the massage tables, since I know all of us athletes were running off at the mouth like we hadn’t seen people in months!

Then after everyone had come across the finish line, we were all organized to take photos together. I had my bottle of beer with me, and you can see me bending over slightly to set it down.

There were 3 people who were told to sit down, and truth is they sort of just fell down! We all had a good laugh about it, but then settled down for the pictures while all the crew members looked on and snapped their own photos.

Finally, the sun was setting and I needed to clean up and get food and we all needed sleep. Richard and Mona decided they would be leaving in the morning, which saddened me since I had wanted them at the awards banquet the next day. So we had to do some gear shuffling so they could get their room cleaned up and get on their way to finish their vacation! They had gotten some food at the post-race area, but Lee and I needed to chow down—Lee had had some food, but she had just done her longest run ever, too! And she looked as fresh as a daisy!

Back at the hotel, I warned Lee that I might moan as I showered depending on whether or not I chafed. But really, I hardly chafed at all, and it was the BEST SHOWER EVER!!! I put on my compression tights, Lee got cleaned up, and we were going to go and get sushi again, but when we were maybe 15 steps out the hotel door and I realized the hotel restaurant was open, I made an executive decision that we wouldn’t walk anymore and would just eat there. It turned out to be just great! Another athlete, Duncan, and his crew were at the next table enjoying some beers and food, and we followed suit.

I slept like a baby (8 hours), and of course I woke up first and HUNGRY. I headed downstairs to the continental breakfast area and got some coffee and a couple of tiny Danish and some orange juice, and sat and talked with some others. I took some coffee upstairs for Lee and rousted her out of bed, as we had some packing to do and then we were going tubing. Richard came by to drop something off and said he was going to Starbucks and asked if I wanted anything, and I said yeah, whatever breakfast sandwich they have with meat on it. He brought some ham, egg and cheese thing on a Panini or something, and it was great. Normally I want McDonald’s after an Ironman+ event, but there aren’t any in Penticton that I know of, so the Starbucks was just fine. I bid goodbye to Richard and continued on with packing.

I was pretty pleased at my ability to walk, although walking downstairs I needed to hold the handrails on either side to support myself and avoid using my quadriceps! Lee and I walked across the street barefoot to get our tubes and get in the river, and the water was nice and cold and we had a riot out there. It was a little dicey getting out without being swept further down river, but there were all sorts of helpers on the algae-covered concrete steps.

After the bus ride back to the hotel, Lee and I were hungry again and she said she wanted a huge cheeseburger, and I figured the bar with the pirate would have them, so we walked down there and yes, we had giant cheeseburgers!

I will stop here and write another post about the awards banquet.

This had been the time of my life!

What I Did Well
I did as much run training as I possibly could, considering I also needed to swim and bike. I successfully navigated an injury and didn’t bug out of the race. I started the day with a full tank of calories, which is not how I like to begin a long run, but in retrospect I guess it was a good thing to do.

I finished! I took time to enjoy myself and appreciate the scenery, my crew, other crews, other athletes, to be grateful for my ability and means to do this event and LIVE LARGE!

I didn’t chafe and I only had one small blister on the medial ball of my right foot that was gone in 2 days. I didn’t go out too fast, and I think I took in sufficient calories and hydration.

What I Can Improve On
If you are into running on the shoulder, I’d suggest gaiters for this race. I think now that my body has been exposed to a full 50+ mile run, it will understand that marathons are not so bad, and hopefully I can do 3 or 4 of them in training for Ultraman Hawaii. I don’t have plans to do any 50-mile races in training—I just did one! I think my run durability has improved much in the last 2 years, and I need to keep this up and remain injury-free. Lee says I can run faster, and I think I can, but then again, UMC was a brutal run course, and Hawaii will be easier, terrain-wise. I would like to be able to do the 52.4 in 11 hours or less. Shit—I can’t believe I am saying this! But that is just 5:30 per marathon, which I think is doable. 10:30 would be better, but if I can crack 11 hours I will be one happy camper!

What Concerns me About Hawaii
Heat. Humidity. Did I say heat and humidity? I feel good, though, because this summer in Chicago has been one of the hottest, most humid on record, and while the acclimation process sucked donkey balls, now I go out in heat index of 100+ and I am pretty good. I am already briefing my UMH crew. Lee will be on it as well as Brad and Morgan, two dear friends of mine who for some reason look up to me. We are already discussing how we will manage the various stages in terms of nutrition content and handoffs and cooling. I plan on buying some Super Soakers for them to spray me down that I will then donate to some local children after the race. Having sufficient ice on hand may be a problem, but we are working on a plan for that, too. Brad, Morgan and Lee will all be able to take turns running with me, and that will make it fun and motivating for me. They have promised to entertain me as well. So all I need to do is train my ass off and stay healthy!

Ultraman Canada Day 2 Ride Report

Riding to the Town of Headwind

Day 2: 170 mile (273.5 km) Ride, aka Snacking my Way Through the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys

Start Time: 6:00AM, and we started in pairs, based on the total time from Day 1. I think I was next to Lucy Ryan, who I took to calling LOO-SEE after Lucille Ball. There was much confusion at the start, but somehow our addled brains managed to get in line properly and take off.

Conditions: There is about 5,300 feet of climbing in this stage, which is not bad for the distance. I didn’t know the climbing amount until after the fact—it should be published on the race site, I think. The weather forecast the night before said it might be rainy, but when I woke up at 4AM it was really windy outside, and this worried me a bit. But as it got light the wind settled down. Weather Underground reports that the high for Penticton that day was 84F just like Day 1, but we went quite a ways away from Penticton, and clearly when we were along the Similkameen River heading towards Hedley it felt pretty damn hot, but I can’t find weather data for Hedley, which I renamed to the Town of Headwind. I guess the town doesn’t really exist. My guess is it got into the 90’s. On the plus side, though, the humidity was still very low. Another athlete reports that we were riding into headwinds for 80 of the 170 miles, and that seems about right. Weather data shows they were 10-15mph most of the time, just enough to make you work harder than you might like, but fine as long as you stayed tucked in aero position, and not so bad if you are tiny person like me!

Goal: 11 hours, including feeding and assorted stops. This is a pathetic 15MPH, which I figured I could accomplish unless the course was hellaciously hilly or windy, which it wasn’t, or I had horrible mechanicals, which I didn’t. It also accounted for potential slowage due to the effort expended on Day 1.

Actual: 11:03:50. Cool beans! I was happy with this considering the winds and heat, but just like for Day 1, I could reduce this by at least 15 minutes with faster and less frequent stops. In reality I would like to go 10:30 on this day which is 16.2mph average, but am fine with anything from 10:30-11:00. Again, I am a balanced triathlete (I suck at all three sports!) and not a seasonsed ultrarunner, so I need to have gas available for Day 3. My actual riding time was 10:36, so I have some more speed in me. UMH Day 2 should be less climbing but more heat and possibly more wind, so I’m not sure I can gain much more on this day there.

Gear/Clothes: I rode Skull Kingdom, same setup as for Day 1, same helmet and same shoes, although I did switch shoes with about 50km to go because I had never ridden that far in the white Sidi’s, and I felt something bugging the front of my left ankle and figured a shoe change was in order.

I wore hot pink tri shorts and a matching bra top from Desoto, with a white sleeveless Zoot bike jersey. Someone on another athlete’s crew thanked me for wearing the pink so they could spot me better! This is another wonderful thing about Ultraman—the other crews are rooting for you and everyone else as much as for THEIR athlete! The Zoot jersey is all kinds of ventilated, and I’ve had it for years, pulling it out for special occasions such as these. Once again, I had lubed my bike shorts with Chamois Butter, and somewhere around or right after Hedley I felt the beginnings of some crotch discomfort, so I stopped and reapplied. This was, I’m sure, a great sight for my crew—me jamming my cream-covered hand down my shorts and rubbing around! I wore the same kind of Wigwam socks that had been slathered with Body Glide, no gloves, but I began the ride with my new Zoot Arm Coolers, and they were good, but I removed them around Hedley, because the wind seemed to keep me cool enough on my arms just fine. I started the day covered in SPF 30 sunscreen that I applied before I got dressed, and never felt the need to reapply it.

Once again, an aero helmet would have been great to use for the first 100km of this ride (or maybe the entire day), as it was mostly flat. After that is when we began climbing, but we also had heat, so if I were to do this race again, I’d just use the aero helmet for that first 100km and then switch to a regular helmet. At least have it available in the crew vehicle, because the temperatures and wind seem highly changeable in the region.

Nutrition Plan

In the morning, I decided to go a bit lighter on the Ultrafuel, and I think I only drank about 500 calories of it, and I ate my usual Power Bar Triple Threat, so I had about 750 calories in the tank to start, and didn’t feel overly full or bloated at the start. While riding, my nutrition plan was the same as for Day 1. I ended up consuming a lot of Coke once it got hot because it tasted good. I had to pour cold water over my head when it was hot, too. The jello shots were awesome, and I think I managed some of a turkey sandwich, but don’t think I drank any Gatorade. I think I ate 4 devilled egg halves, and they were awesome! I think I hydrated well enough again on Day 2. I don’t remember how many times I peed, but it wasn’t a lot (crew needs to keep track of this), and I think I pooped once (inevitable when doing all this racing).

Training Notes

See my Day 1 report about my bike training.

Race Notes

I remembered that about the first 100km of the ride was flat to gently rolling, so in my head I was visualizing the day as a hard 170km ride with a nice 100km warm-up. Richard had cleaned and lubed my bike, as it’s important to me to race on a clean bike!

We had been warned about a cattleguard at 18.4km in, and were told there would be plywood over it so we could ride right over. Cattleguards here in the Midwest can be easily ridden over on a bicycle, but the kind they have up in Canada are a bit dicey to ride over. Well, we get to the cattleguard and there is no plywood and we are told to dismount and walk our bikes across! At the awards banquet we heard that a couple of intrepid riders went ahead and rode over, but the rest of us walked. I have my right bike shoe clad foot on one metal slat about 3” wide, my left foot on another slat about 2” wide, and I have my bike in my right hand. It was unsettling to walk across, but I don’t think anyone fell in, and I got back on the bike to keep riding, hoping that was the scariest part of my day (and it was).

The first 100km were just beautiful scenery and great roads, and I would yell at my crew to take pictures of the surrounding landscape. The winds were light, and I was in the big chainring a lot. We went through Oliver twice more, which gave me more opportunities to sing-song OWL-EE-VAH out loud to myself. I was pretty amazed at how “not bad” I felt and hoped it would continue through the day.

At 53.9km in, we turn around and begin backtracking. The turnaround point is a Husky gas station, and we literally rode through one of the pump areas and out the other road entrance. I don’t know why, but this seemed pretty funny to me at the time. We went back through OWL-EE-VAH. I think it was on the way out you could see Spotted Lake, and unlike Yellow Lake which is NOT yellow, the Spotted Lake IS spotted. Here is a picture of it. That was pretty cool to see.

After we go along Vaseaux Lake again, we veer off on another road that is taking us to “the wall,” which is a steep climb to Green Lake (which is actually green). At the pre-race meeting, they make The Wall out to be this beast, and I’ve ridden horrible climbs during Horribly Hilly Hundreds and Dairyland Dare rides which are in Wisconsin’s glacial area. In the Dairyland Dare, there is 13,500 feet of climbing in the 200k, and Horribly Hilly Hundreds has about 10,000 feet of climbing over 200k. Each of those rides has nasty, nasty climbs, so I figured The Wall would be one of those. Nope, it was just 8% for 2k, really not that bad, and it was the worst climb of the day. But any experienced rider knows that once you throw one of those in, it can take something out of you, so I didn’t try and be a hero on it or anything. And guess who was on there announcing? Steve King! We are in the middle of nowhere and we are climbing and you hear his voice and he’s talking about you and it makes you want to climb well.

The Wall is just the beginning of much climbing for the next about 45km, which takes us through desert that was absolutely beautiful! The wind began picking up here, too, but it seemed logical for it to get windy in the desert.

Once we descended out of the desert, though, it got windy AND hot.

I did not see this sign. Glad my crew did!

Now we were on our way to Hedley, or the Town of Headwind. It was beautiful riding along the Similkameen River that we could see below us flowing in the opposite direction, which is always a bad sign, since it means we are CLIMBING. It seemed pretty hot and there were people every so often tubing or just floating in the river, and I could even see people drinking beer, which made me want one. Aside: During training I drank 2 beers a day, religiously. I tell people that if I did not drink beer I would disappear altogether! The first beer would be my reward for making it through a training day and would be consumed while I stretched, and then the 2^nd one was with or right after dinner.

I had to keep riding and stay strong in the wind. I poured much water over my head in this section and drank much Coke. At one point I even put ice into the holes in my helmet so they could melt (slightly) slowly onto my head and face. That was nice! Also, it makes the high cost of the Catlike Whisper completely worth the money! I was also putting a cold sponge into my top and my shorts to keep my core temperature down, so each pit stop became sponge exchange, exchange my Infinit for a cold bottle, chug some Coke and then pour a bottle of ice water over my head.

After Hedley, we keep sort of climbing through some park to almost the 200k mark, and I could just tell when I was about 200k in. Just as on Day 1, I only looked at elapsed time on the PowerTap—no speed or distance. Then we make a few curvy jogs and get to the town of Princeton, where there is about a 60k total out and back section. Of course, as soon as we turn north, the wind changes to come from the north, so now we are climbing into a headwind, and it was decent climbing. I knew at this point I was pretty much on target for my 11 hour planned finish time. But this is when my left foot started to hurt just a little bit and I wanted to change shoes, only my crew was nowhere in sight! I about had a nervous breakdown, thinking maybe they had car trouble or something. When they finally showed back up, they told me they had to stop and get more ice, and I was nearly in tears. At that point, I needed to see my crew often just to feel like I was being taken care of. I changed my shoes and the other pair felt better on my ankle, but the bottom of my feet hurt in them because I didn’t move the insoles from the other shoes. DOH!

I just kept pedaling and wondering when we were going to hit the turnaround, again I still wasn’t looking at distance or speed—just elapsed time. We were in an absolutely beautiful area , and we rode by several smaller lakes before we got to Allison Lake for the turnaround. Oh my, is that lake beautiful! But I was glad to say goodbye to it. On the way there, you could see other athletes heading back looking pretty happy. It was hard to tell your relative position all day until we got to the out and back, and I saw some people I was surprised were actually pretty close to me. So I guess I was doing OK.

Anyway, one guy yelled, “There’s a nice TAILWIND on the way out!” And for this I kept working until I got to the little U-turn (I do lots of these in training and am pretty good at them!) and now we began heading down. The tailwind wasn’t there all the time but at some point it kicked in for good, and I set my sights on whoever was in front of me and wanted to pass her just for something to do. I got into the big chainring and actually started hammering, can you believe that 243km into this thing? But I did, and it was fun, and I just kept going by my crew saying I was going in now.

Richard and me. I am happy to be done riding for a few days!

When I crossed the finish line, that was my longest ride ever! Previously I had gone 135 miles, but like I said, there wasn’t that much climbing on this ride so it was like 135 plus additional flatness.

I got another most excellent massage, and now we were in Princeton and the race had made a restaurant available for our post-stage meal. I don’t remember what I ate here, but it was probably less than I should have eaten, as I was tired and wanted to sleep and had to be up at 4AM the next morning to run. The one thing I DID do, though, was have a beer. Richard had one and when I got a look at it, I decided it wouldn’t hurt me. Nick M. asked how I was feeling and I once again told him much better than I thought I would! I mean I didn’t feel completely trashed, so I guessed that a) I must be fit and b) I must have paced this thing well for my abilities.

The race put us athletes and crew up in various hotels, and the one we were in, Sandman, had nice enough rooms, but only window air conditioners. When I am training or racing like this, I need my sleeping room to be around 68F in order for me to sleep. I cranked up the A/C, but the poor thing was having trouble mustering enough juice to really cool things down. I tossed and turned until finally I decided to try and sleep on the floor where it would be cooler. This happened around midnight, and when I got down there, I was worried whether I remembered to put my watch into my run shorts, and so I grabbed them in the dark and felt around, and I had remembered. I wasn’t worried about only getting 4 hours of sleep for Day 3, because I knew it was the last day, and I still felt way better than I’d anticipated.

What I Did Well
I biked at a comfortable but consistent pace that felt like a good “all day” pace. I climbed well, considering I hadn’t done much in training, and I think I hydrated well enough based on the color of my urine before I went to bed. I did not chafe, having a mantra in my head from ultrarunners that if you feel something, take care of it right away, and I did that for my crotch and my left foot. I did eat 4 or 5 deviled egg halves, and they were tasty. I have eaten hard boiled eggs on 7+ hour rides before, and knew that I tolerated them well. I don’t remember how many times I peed, but I guess it was enough. I managed to enjoy myself and keep my sense of humor except for my near meltdown when my crew went AWOL (note to UMH crew: If you are going to go off course, tell me about it please!). Once again, I remained in aero position except on steep parts of climbs, and I remembered to stand up periodically and stretch my legs, neck, wrists and back. There was no lake to cool the legs after this stage, and besides I just wanted to get my massage, eat, set up for Day 3 and get to sleep.

What I Can Improve On
Same comments as for Day 1 basically, and I would like to complete Day 2 in 10:30 or less total time. I will also try and eat more for dinner after Day 2, and I will hope that wherever they put us up that the room is COLD. Or maybe we will borrow a box fan from a local that I can use in the away hotels.

What Concerns me About Hawaii
The climb to Hawi can be dicey with crosswinds, but climbing isn’t as bad as descending in them, and we only go down that hill on the run. Heat will be a factor as will winds. I’m confident that my Infinit will keep my electrolytes where they need to be, but we might need to carry more water for myself and the crew to cool me down. I know where all the stores are on the Hawaii route, too, so obtaining ice might be an issue. Perhaps my crew’s local friend can have more ice at the ready to avoid pulling off the highway in the middle of the day, because I know what traffic can be like in the Kona area.

Ultraman Canada Day 1 Ride Report

Congratulating myself on eating, awesome, huh?


Day 1: 90-mile (145km) ride

Conditions: There is 4,000 feet of climbing in this stage, which is not bad at all. Weather Underground reports that the high for Penticton that day was 84F, but we were up and down and all around, so it may have been warmer in spots. Humidity was quite low compared to what I am used to at home! For me, it was perfect racing weather.

Goal: 6 hours, including feeding and assorted stops. This is a pathetic 15MPH, which I figured I could accomplish no matter the conditions, barring serious mechanical issues.

Actual: 6:18.29 Why? The time includes my transition out of the swim, which while I didn’t lollygag, probably was 10-15 minutes (crew help me out here, and crew for UMH please remember to time my transition for me!). Also, I did not ride hard because I didn’t want to be tanked for Day 2. Now I know I can ride a bit faster and clean up the nutrition intake time to get that below 6 hours, at least if I ever do the same course again! My actual riding time was 5:47, which is still pathetically slow for me, but I think I can comfortably ride 5:30 and perhaps do 5:45 including transition and stops. On the UMC course! UMH has more climbing, so I may not be any faster, and I might feel more seasick out of the swim there, which has an impact.

Gear/Clothes
I rode Skull Kingdom, my newest bike that was custom built by Elite. I got the bike about 4 weeks before UMC (wanted it sooner, but oh well) and put about 550 miles on it before the race, so my position was good. My reach and drop were set based on me doing an Ultraman, as I’m able to have a more aggressive aero position (which I have on my other tri bike) but aggressive is not needed for Ultraman. Originally I planned to put no tubes on the bike, but I ended up strapping a couple of tubes and put CO2 on there in case I flatted and was somehow out of contact with my crew, so I’d be able to get started on it at least. Skull Kingdom is very light, lighter than my Griffen, Bitchie, though, so weight of tubes and CO2 didn’t make a material difference. I also only planned on carrying 1 bottle on the bike at all times. I have a compact crank and got an 11-28 cassette, which was perfect! I spoke to some guys who used a 28 as well, and while I didn’t need it often on Day 1, I was glad to have it. In 2004 when I did Ironman Canada, I had a 53/39 up front and a 12-27 cassette, and that was fine, but my 3 good bikes all have compact cranks now, and my setup for UMC made Richter Pass feel nearly flat!

I used my Catlike Whisper helmet, which rocks, and I’m buying a new white one for UMH. The ventilation of it is incredible, plus it just looks cool. My red one is now 4 years old, so it’s time for a new one! In retrospect, I could have used an aero helmet. Conditions were perfectly suited for it—not too hot (for me, anyway) and not too windy. A disk wheel would have been nice, too, but I don’t have one that I can use on Skull Kingdom (yet—although it might be possible to put my solid Hed disk on provided the 10-speed cassette can be used on its hub). I used my new Sidi triathlon shoes. Well they were new since maybe June! I am using some New Balance insoles in them that have a metatarsal pad and the things mold to your feet and have a great arch support. They are DA BOMB! I am putting them in my other bike shoes. I got them to mimic the custom run orthotics (more on those in my Day 3 report) I have in order to try and prevent my usual hot spot on the ball of my right foot when I hit the earlier of 80 miles or 5 hours of riding. I have Morton’s Foot, and I have played around with many pads and insoles in my bike shoes, so finding something that I could ride in for hours was a godsend.

I wore tri shorts, as those are what I was fitted for the bike wearing—one time I tried riding with a regular maxi-pad and it made my knees and feet hurt! I had pre-lubed my bike shorts with Chamois Butter. I’d used that stuff during training on 4+ hour rides, and it is awesome. I wore a sleeveless white Iron Girl bike jersey with a bra top underneath that I had bought in Kona years ago and had worn during Ironman Hawaii in 2004. I chose it because the back of the top is ventilated and because, well, it’s lucky! I wore my usual Wigwam low cut lightweight Ironman socks. Those are the only socks I train and race in other than some cute ones given to me by my friend Lori. I had pre-lubed the inside of the socks with Body Glide. I did not wear gloves. I only wear them when I ride my road bike, La Gazza Ladra (she’s a Pinarello Dogma, and the frameset has magnesium, and LGL means “the thieving magpie” which is the name of an opera by Gioachino Rossini), early in the year and even then I wean myself off them. Even though I had put lots of Body Glide on before the swim, I redid the area under my armpits and swiped my feet out of habit. I did not use arm warmers, but had them in the van in case I wanted them later on, and I never did need them.

My crew (the girls Mona and Lee, since I was nekked in the transition tent) had slathered me with SPF 30 sunscreen. While planning for UMC, Lee had thought I should use SPF 50, but someone told me the difference in protection between the two is negligible, and besides I was already tan and have used the SPF 30 on really long rides, and despite getting hot, sweaty and piggy in blazing sunshine, it does the job just fine.

Nutrition Plan
My base nutrition was to be 1 serving of my custom Infinit mix (it’s HTFU-flavored!) per hour, mixed in 20 oz. of water. I tried explaining to my crew that the need for fluid was different than need for calories, because depending on the temperature I might need more fluid (i.e., water), but not more CALORIES. I also asked for many other foods to be available to me (same for Day 2) such as turkey sandwich on white bread (no fiber!) with low fat mayo, PB&J sandwich (with SEEDLESS jam—we had many laughs about how all my foods needed to be SEEDLESS) that I never wanted, deviled eggs (I like hardboiled eggs during 7+ hour rides; but it was Mona’s idea to make them deviled which makes them easier to swallow), Coke (I decided it didn’t need to be defizzed because the fizz can help settle my stomach during races, but I can’t carry fizzy stuff in training because it either escapes from bottles or explodes when you open the bottle), Gatorade (we settled on Blue and Lemon Lime which were both available in Canada. My #1 choice would have been Lemonade flavor, which tastes good in heat, #2 Glacier Freeze which is light blue, then Orange and Lemon Lime). Lee had also brought things from Japan that she thought I might like, and I did—red bean paste stuffed carb things, individual jello shots (super tasty when ice cold!) and maybe there was something else I ate that I don’t remember. At any rate, on Day 1 ride, I think I was pretty good about getting down most of my calories via Infinit.

Training Notes
The longest single ride I did this year in training was 94 miles. In years past training for Ironman, I usually did 5 or more 100+ mile rides. Why didn’t I do them this year? Because my total time spent training (and sleeping) was eating into my time available to travel to do the century rides, so instead of being concerned with distance of any one ride, I just worked to get in many hours of riding per week. My average cycling hours per week from September through end of March were 4.4. The number is quite low because I did very little in September and October (due to a run focus), and then the remaining months were winter and early spring, pretty much all on the trainer (and while I have done up to 5 hours on the trainer at a time, it’s not a regular occurrence), and then I had Goofy Challenge in there which cut out most biking for another 2-3 weeks.

From April until I began my taper, though, my average cycling hours per week were about 8.5. That is still not very high (according to my standards and what I “should” have done), but considering all the running and swimming I was doing and that I did take 2 weeks almost completely away from it, it was still a pretty good weekly volume. I would do a shorter ride on Tuesdays (usually about 1:30-1:45) with hard intervals, and then 2 long rides on Saturday and Sunday, many times getting in 8 hours total on the weekend. I also did several back-to-back 80+ mile rides, and since I had many biking miles on my legs (my 2008-2009 season was a new high for me, hitting 5,900 miles), I figured I’d be fine. Usually I also go up to Wisconsin and ride in the hilly area on or near the Ironman course, but I only did that once, in May. Still, I am used to working hard on the bike in training, so my MO is go out and ride as hard as I can for as long as I can after a suitable warm-up. It messed a bit with my head that I hadn’t done a single ride over 100 miles in training for UMC. But I have done several 8+ hour rides in prior years, so I know what it’s like to have lots of saddle time, and doing the back to back weekend rides (preceded by a long swim on Friday) would need to do.

On 12/26/2009, I did a 9100-yard swim followed by a 90-mile trainer ride, and just based on that (7hrs 50min moving time), I figured I was all good for Day 1 of Ultraman.

Race Notes
The Day 1 ride in Ultraman Canada goes over much of the Ironman Canada bike course. I did Ironman Canada in 2004, and remembered much of the course, especially the downhill at the end! I knew all about the 10km climb up Richter Pass and then the climb to Yellow Lake (PS It’s NOT yellow!), so I wasn’t worried at all--even if there had been winds or heat . I don’t recall feeling at all hot that day, at least not to the point where I needed to pour cold water on myself. I had pretty much zoned out during the pre-race meeting when they were discussing the Day 1 ride. I knew it wasn’t too hard except for maybe Richter Pass and Yellow Lake. I did not experience any chafing from either my wetsuit (thanks, Lee!) or in my shorts.

Something I forgot to mention in my swim report is that on really long training days or some races, I wear my black rubber HTFU (Harden The Fuck Up) bracelet that was given to me by my friend Mike L. a few years ago. When I look at my wrist with that on it, it reminds me to suck it up, work hard and get it done. When I went to register and get all my swag at UMC, they slapped a wristband on me that says ULTRAMAN CANADA. I took one look at it and remarked to Nick M. that “this is all the HTFU I need!” And, indeed, it was. I have all my Ironman wristbands, but had taken to wearing HTFU during Ironman races once I had it, but this was different. Once that ULTRAMAN CANADA thing was on me, I would look at it and think I had HTFU’ed by just getting to the start line, and that the race itself was just a continuation of an HTFU cycle. HTFU band remained in my fanny pack for the trip, but I’m still glad I had taken it with me.

I have a number of other amulet things that come with me to races that help me center myself and remember people who are special to me. I had some of my Dad’s ashes in my bike jersey, as since his death in November, 2007, I have taken him with me (and left part of him there) to some of my special training grounds (Fermilab and Waterfall Glen, both of which are nuclear research facilities) and each of my 4 subsequent Ironman races/NothingMans (NothingMan is self-supported Ironman, and I did my first one in 2007 before Dad died, and did another in 2008, then 2009 as part of Revenge of the PirateMan where I did double IM distance on my own over 4 days, and I am doing my 4th NothingMan in a few weeks). He got to go to Florida with me when I did Goofy Challenge for the third time this past January, and I will take him to Ironman Florida (I will be spectating and running the marathon), Ironman Sado in Japan and Ultraman Hawaii next year. Dad had wanted to travel the world in his later years and wanted me to go to Russia with him, but Mom’s health went way south about 15 years ago, and Dad took care of her until she passed in 2006, so he never did get in that world travel. I wanted him to move to Colorado with me in 2007, but he kept his own declining health a secret until he was hospitalized with kidney failure, then a diagnosis of liver cancer. He only saw me race a triathlon once, in 2006, the summer after Mom had died. It was a sprint, and when I found out I came second in my age group, he said, “Why didn’t you take first place?” It made me mad at myself that I wasn’t able to take first that day in front of him, but also made me feel so blessed that he was there with me, and I knew he “got” the joy I received from training and racing. He told me about watching the other racers and how fast I was in transition and how proud he was at how good I was (even though I sucked and only took 2nd). And I wasn’t even that good back then! So I figured the least I can do is take him with me to places he’s never been or we’ve never been to together. There always comes a time during a marathon (standalone or in Ironman) or very long ride, when I reach into a pocket and take his ashes out and hold them in my hand and feel his presence and love, and even though at first he didn’t understand my love of extreme endurance (I am a complete math/computer science nerd in remission, definitely my Dad’s daughter!), he came to realize how happy it made me and how hard I worked at it, and I remember how brave he was the last few days of his life considering all the pain he must have been in, and I think about that and that what I am doing is not anywhere near as hard! At Ironman Lake Placid in 2009 where I set a lifetime Ironman PR, I am holding his ashes up as I cross the finish line, and a few moments later, I once again left him in the transition area just as I had done in 2008. I don’t usually carry Dad while swimming, but I think at Ultraman Hawaii I will ask my kayaker to carry him and leave him in the coral reef.

When I started the ride after that rather long swim, I felt seasick, and I have never been seasick except if I had too much alcohol on a boat ;) Seasick in the sense that my balance mechanism was just a bit off, and I didn’t want anything to eat or drink for about ½ hour. But in my Ironman races I know better than to eat or drink for about that long into the ride anyway, so it didn’t bother me. Of course, they made us climb up a stupid hill right out of transition, and all I could think was WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE THAT THEY WOULD MAKE US DO THIS??? I always find it funny which things I can remember that bothered me during a race that always turn out to be so minor, considering all the crap I had put myself through in training. Plus I forget that nobody held a gun to my head when I applied for this race, right?

Still, I felt pretty good considering I’d just swum 10km, and didn’t think I needed to just rest in transition. The course takes us through the town of Oliver pretty quickly, and we went through it twice on Day 2, and for some reason it reminded me of the musical “Oliver,” so I began saying out loud to myself in my best British accent imitation, “OWL-EE-VAH,” over and over in a high pitch. This amused the hell out of me for many miles. Speaking of many miles, I can’t remember whether it was during the Day 1 or Day 2 ride where I came up with my description of Ultraman:

• Day 1: Swim many miles and bike many, many miles.
• Day 2: Bike many, many more miles.
• Day 3: Run many, many miles.

Whenever it was that I came up with this, I just had to tell my crew, expecting them to laugh hysterically with me for being so clever while pedaling a bicycle. And I had to tell them this several times, to be sure they understood me clearly.

The Day 1 ride is pretty flat for about the first 45km, and then you hit the Richter Pass climb. Just like during Ironman Canada in 2004, as soon as we started going in a general up direction, I asked someone else’s crew, “Are we on the Richter climb already?” And they replied, yes. For you see, I was only looking at elapsed time on my bike computer (even though it’s a PowerTap), and not even speed or distance. All I cared about was taking in my nutrition on schedule. I still remember in 2004 asking a friend, Steve C., who was also racing (and he is the person who got me to register for my first Ironman, Lake Placid, in 2001), where the Richter Pass climb was on the course. I had not even looked at the course map, but had heard about the 10km long climb. I vividly remember him saying to me, “You’ll know it when you’re on it.” And he was right then, and again now.

With the 28 on the back, that climb was really no big deal, plus I’ve done much harder climbing since 2004. Still, you want it to be over, so every crew vehicle I saw I’d ask how much longer until the crest. I had told my crew I needed to stop at the crest and leave some of Dad there, and we did, and I had a little cry but was happy to send him into the breeze over the edge.

As you begin the descent, you see Mt. Richter or whatever it’s called, and I remember during Ironman Canada thinking how beautiful it was, and it was still a beautiful sight to behold. And I remembered being a little more scared in 2004 at the descent, but not so much this time! There was a slight problem, though, and that was a patch of shattered glass on the shoulder. It was about 8 feet long and took up the entire shoulder, and by the time I figured out it was glass, I couldn’t just veer into the traffic lane, so I rode right through it, yelling, “OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK.” That’s about how long it took to ride through it. I saw another athlete up ahead stopped and their crew checking her tires, so I took advantage and stopped and asked if they’d check mine. And I had a pit crew! I stood over the top tube and they checked both tires really well, said they were fine, and I went on my way. This is an example of how you can just count on everyone at Ultraman as your family to help you out with anything!

For much time after that until we hit the out and back section, we had almost a slight tailwind, and that was quite tasty! And there was a good stretch of flatness, but I knew once we hit the out and back that we would be more into the wind and that there was a slight climb back there. In 2004, I remember the out and back for how crowded it was with racers and almost dangerous. This time around, I had plenty of room around me to really look around without fear of getting in a crash, and I noticed how beautiful the nearby mountain was as well as all the orchards. Much of the Day 1 course takes us past numerous orchards (Peaches! Cherries! Apples!) and vineyards (the Penticton area is like the Napa Valley of Canada). I would keep hearing this clicking/buzzing noise on the side of the road, and I pretended it was rattlesnakes when it was probably sprinkler systems or some local insects.

The out and back was shorter than I remembered it from 2004, but I do remember that in 2004, this is where our “special needs bike” bags were. In 2004 I had a big bottle of Mountain Dew Code Red, and I guess that was a novel nutritional supplement at the time, and someone asked me, “Won’t that make you belch?” My response was, “Yes—AND FART!” I laughed my ass off back then, and I had a good chuckle in UMC remembering that part of my 2004 race. So sorry that this sounds like a race report for 2004—I will have to go back and read my actual report for that year now. It was warm in there, and I was happy to get back out, even though I knew that it meant we were headed for Yellow Lake (it’s NOT yellow!).

The climb to Yellow Lake isn’t really bad unless you have big headwinds, and we did not. Plus then you know that once you are finished climbing, you get to GO DOWN REALLY, REALLY FAST! Once again when I saw the lake, I thought how pretty it is, but also WHY DO THEY CALL IT YELLOW LAKE ANYWAY??? It is stuff like this that amuses the shit out of me while I am riding, especially since in training I usually rode with my MP3 player (it’s not an actual iPod but I LOVE it and I blame my friend Susan for giving me something that made me ride harder more of the time!), and I think it is responsible for my increase in baseline cadence since I got it. Even with music, though, I have these thoughts that seem so hilarious to me and that if I were riding with someone else and telling them what is going through my mind they would think I was nuts. Ah, the pleasures of long distance training and racing!

We had been warned of possible crosswinds on the descent, but they were noticeably absent for the most part. I did catch a side gust or two, but they were nothing like what I experienced in Kona in 2004 going and up and down to/from Hawi. I get to do that Hawi thing again next year at Ultraman Kona, but wait there’s more! We only CLIMB it on the bike, but then we RUN THE FUCK DOWN on Day 3. That will be brutal indeed.

Anyway, it is such a pleasure to end a nice 90-mile ride with a big descent, and I know I was just smiling like the cat that ate the mouse the entire way. Plus it was so much more fun doing this in UMC than in the Ironman because, again, you don’t have a lot of squirrelly bikers around you. Even better, there was far less traffic than there is on Ironman day because you don’t have all these people out in their cars trying to spectate. As much as I enjoy spectators, I also enjoy LACK OF SPECTATORS for this very reason.

I finished Day 1 at 10:33, which was about ½ hour slower overall than I’d hoped to be, but it was all good. When I crossed the finish line, there was Steve King calling me in, and I had to stop and chat with him. He was sitting there with no shirt on, and this pretty much epitomizes part of what I love about this race. It is serious people doing serious stuff, but at the same time it is laid back, but then you are simultaneously surprised by things like timing clocks and an announcer! Anyway, I told Steve that he had called me in as an Ironman in 2004 and that I was glad he was here with us! He said, “Happy you made it back!” I found out at the awards banquet that we have something in common, besides the fact that he is an endurance athlete—no tattoos!

Next, I wanted to change my clothes. Well, my intrepid crew had taken my morning clothes that I had been wearing before the swim back to the hotel! This made me laugh, but I had no shoes to wear once I removed my bike shoes. Lee graciously gave up hers, and I made my way down to Skaha Lake to chill out my legs. While in there, I babbled endlessly to Dan Squiller, a fellow Ultraman. I was pretty hopped up on caffeine and just high from a respectable finish to Day 1. Dan was the lucky “winner” of a free entry to the new Ultraman in Wales next year. The look on his face at the awards banquet at winning such a prize was priceless! It was a combination of “This is great” and “Oh, FUCK!”

After the lake soak, I got some food—ramen noodles—and then I got my first post-race massage. Us athletes get one each day, and it is necessary, and they have like the best massage therapists you could ask for on hand for us. These people are willing to work on us sweaty, smelly, endorphin crazed people and they seem to enjoy it! When my therapist, Cathy, asked me if anything special was needed, I said hips, low back and maybe my delts. My delts were still slightly sore from the swim, but I think only from wearing the wetsuit that long. I never had sore arms in training. There were things she did to me that hurt, but I understand the difference between bad hurt and good hurt, and this was all good.

After the massage, it was back to the hotel for a shower, rinse out the wetsuit and bike clothes, recheck my gear and bags for Days 2 and 3 since we would be staying in a different town after Day 2. I asked Richard if he could please wipe down Skull Kingdom and clean up the chain a bit. Lee and I decided we wanted some sushi again, leaving Richard and Mona to get a reprieve from me and my neediness. I managed to eat quite a bit of food, definitely more than Lee, but there were a few pieces of sushi left that I put in the refrigerator, thinking I’d catch them in the future.

What I Did Well
I biked at a comfortable pace and never felt I was exerting myself too hard that would endanger my energy for Days 2 and 3. I executed my nutrition pretty well and did not chafe (woo-hoo Chamois Butter!). I only peed once during the ride, but the next time I peed, I could see that I had hydrated well, and the reason I hadn’t peed more during the bike was because of my sodium loading, I suspect. That will be a good thing to do at Ultraman Hawaii, too. I enjoyed myself, engaging in multiple silly thoughts. I remained in aero position except on steep parts of climbs, and I remembered to stand up periodically and stretch my legs, neck, wrists and back. I remembered to go into the lake after finishing (after asking whether I should do that before or after massage and the answer was before), and I remembered to put my compression tights on right after I showered, and that walking to get dinner was a good thing to do. I ate lots of calories for dinner, to the point of feeling nearly stuffed, and I managed to sleep pretty well. I don’t remember whether it was me talking that put Lee asleep or vice versa. I was probably babbling and noticed she wasn’t saying anything, so I quit talking and got to sleep.

What I Can Improve On
I can cut down on the number of foods I need available in addition to Infinit and stop less frequently, thereby going faster. I would like my entire Day 1 to end in about 9:15 total. I know that sounds ambitious, and Hawaii Day 1 is supposed to be harder, but I can ride a bit harder and stop less. I will also consider using my existing aero helmet or a new one since the blue one doesn’t match Skull Kingdom and I am all about fashion on the bike. Crew failed once or twice by giving me a Camelback bottle with the lever set to the “off” position. I pointed this out as “CREW FAIL.” But with a smile on my face! Everything else the crew did was spot on based on our pre-race discussions.

What Concerns me About Hawaii
Pretty much just heat. There is more climbing on Day 1 ride, I believe, and my guess is there will be more no-feed zones there because of the curvy roads and chicanes. I will want my crew to do the running bottle handoffs, which makes their job harder, but oh well, I never promised them a rose garden! I may also need a re-application of sunscreen, depending on humidity, and I may need to toss cold water over my head. These are just concerns, though, since if I get through the swim in under 5 hours, I still have plenty of time to finish the ride to make the 12 hour cutoff.