Ann Sloan's Race Report From Victoria 1/2 Ironman

Victoria ½ Iron Race Report – Ann S.
(1.2 mile swim, 54 mile bike, 12.5 mile run)
June 22, 2008

Must have coffee or wine or something. It is my epic novel again.

Friday….
Steve (supporting husband) and I headed up to Victoria on Friday after a yummy Sushi lunch in Issaquah. On the way out of town I told Steve, I only have one spare tube and wondered if we should stop by the bike shop to get another one. I thought for a moment and figured, nope, don’t really need another one. If I get one flat I’d be lucky to make the noon cutoff, if I had two flats, there would be no way. I can change my tire, I am just very slow!. So we skipped the bike shop visit.

We had a lovely hour wait at the boarder, good thing we were not on a time schedule!! You know folks are struggling with gas prices, when they shut off their engine and push their car in the board line crossing. Yep, two apparent college gals chose to get exercise and save gas. They pushed their car every time we moved a few inches. Not sure how much it saved but….nice idea….for some. Anyway, we made the 5pm ferry, what a nice way to travel the ‘sprit’ ferries are much nicer than the ‘queen ferries’ The queen ferry lines are not upgraded.….this time the correct Victoria ferry. Found our hotel and had dinner at the hotel. We stayed at the HOJO about 3 miles from the race site.

Saturday
Saturday morning we were up early by default….I was planning a swim with Gail, Hope, Vickie and Paula at 10AM. Steve and I headed for Starbucks for breakfast when I realized I didn’t have any extra clothes to swim in. BUMMER! Starbucks was in a strip mall so we waited for the local walking/running store to open. Found a TRI bathing suit..and bought it….expensive workout, but I didn’t want to put on wet clothes on Sunday morning! Dropped Steve back at the hotel and headed to Elk Lake for the swim practice. Gail, Hope, Vickie and Paula were already there. Sharon watched our stuff as she didn’t need to swim since she was Gail’s runner on her relay team of two.  We got into the water and it was NICE! No yelps, swear words or anything….after Seward Park last weekend, this was bath water! We swam out to a buoy and back which was probably a total of a little less than ½ mile. Felt good. We said our good byes and headed off to lunch planning on meeting back at the race site for the 4 pm race meeting.

Steve and I headed to down town Victoria for lunch. I had a GREAT (hee hee) pre-race lunch….Fish and Chips – yummy. Yea, not the most healthy, but it was good and I enjoyed it. I checked my bike in and registered right at 2 pm…only to find out I really didn’t need to get there that early as we had assigned spots to rack our bikes. There were actually stickers with our names/numbers on the rack. No fighting for rack space at this race. Had some challenges attaching my number to my bike….there really isn’t a good spot so that the thing isn’t flapping around on your legs the entire ride. UGG. Exacto knife to the rescue….Steve cut a hole in my number and we threaded my bento box (food storage) strap through one piece the number and attached it to the bike under the bento box. Parking was a pain, so I already let Steve off the hook for photographer – if he couldn’t find a parking space I was ok on my own this race.

Race meeting – 4pm. Ok, can I tell you how much I hate RACE meetings?!? They totally stress me out, granted it’s all stuff I already know, but hearing it out loud makes me think too much. Make sure you know why you why your doing the race, make sure you eat enough, make sure you drink water today, drink enough tomorrow. Don’t follow the bike in front of you too closely….keep 5 meters between you and the biker in front or you may be penalized, what’s 5 meters anyway?!? Like they are really going to penalize us folks in the back of the pack? Not that I really want to find out! The other announcement/reminder was that the bike cut off for the men was 11:45 and women was noon. While I wanted my bike time to be under 3 hours 30 minutes well within in the cutoff time, you never know what can happen out there. The funniest thing at the meeting was that the race director was thrilled with the 9 porta potties! We said we have plenty of porta potties – yes, 9 along with the 3 stalls in the women’s washroom and mens. Ok – there are 1000 folks participating and spectators…9 ?!?! better make sure to empty before heading to the race site. UGG. He also announced there was ONE, yea count them, ONE on the bike course. Here’s hoping not stomach issues are encountered. The meeting broke up. After the meeting Steve and I had dinner near the hotel…I had pasta and a salad.

RACE DAY
Set the alarm for 4:50AM….Thankfully I was only 3 miles from the race site and Steve was my chauffeur. Parking was an absolute nightmare. That is one major drawback to this race. But since Steve was dropping me I could sleep a bit longer than most. I started my morning with Choc Milk and a Bagel w/ peanut butter and jelly. I added the choc milk at the last minute since Starbucks wasn’t going to be open that early! Usually I pick up 200 calories by drinking a latte on the way to the race or training! Stocked up my Ziploc bags for my bento box with Ritz Bits, Sambree cashew things, and a cut up cliff bar. Body Glided up so I would get chaffing anywhere and had Steve put sunscreen on my back. Bathroom stop…..done and done……then we were off to the race.

Got there in plenty of time. Weather was nice but that in between..do I wear long sleeves, arm warmers, nothing…then the wind blows and I want it all! I decided arm warmers and vest…then packed up the other choices so I would not waste more time than usual in transition. I then opened up my hand warmer things…let them get air to start the heating process …once they were warm I put them in my bike socks and then put them in my bike shoes. I then put my toe covers on my bike shoes just enough to cover the air holes of the shoes, but still allow me to get the shoes tightened. I also rolled up my Capri’s so I could get them on relatively quick. Checked everything…and then headed off to the lake. Wished everyone luck on the way.

THE SWIM:

Kissed Steve bye and headed to the water….got in and found it was warmer in the water than outside. They sent us off with a huge cannon blast. I found my rhythm pretty quick. Was around quite a few people, but nothing too bad. Hit the first buoy and was feeling good. Started heading to what I thought was the second buoy….was swimming along and saw the kayakers hanging out and not a ton of people. Granted I am usually at the back of the back, so that is not usual. I kept checking on the buoy, yep on track. Then I looked again… Holy SHIT I am headed towards the third buoy NOT the second. I am pretty much in the middle of the lake who knows how far off …at least 50 + Yards. So I cranked it up and started angling towards the correct buoy. Swim swim, fight and pull. Finally made the correct buoy and then was back on track. Then we turned back and there were some waves. Not too big, luckily I have swam in Lake Washington where there are always waves. But this time I moved a bit more than usual…and started thinking I was getting seasick…ok think of anything else…focus on the fact that you will not be sick…let’s see swim, I am a fantastic swimmer, do I really want to ever do 2.5 miles? Think of those folks freezing their butts off in Coeur D’Alene. Ok, next bouy…finally…feeling better…now turning for home. Ended up neck and neck with a gal on the way in….then I ended up dropping back but I swam until my hands hit the ground…then popped up and headed up to transition.

TIME: 49 minutes 23 seconds
Lost time due to swimming at least 50+ more yards than necesary!

Transition 1:
Got wetsuit off no issues. Dried off…put on Capri’s almost forgot and put shoes on first..then stopped myself. Took hand warmers out of shoes and put NICE WARM socks on my feet. My shoes were toasty too. Fought with arm warmers a bit then put on my vest. Got Camel Back on…gloves, glasses, ear/head band, helmet and was OFF.
TIME: 6 minutes 34 seconds
Need to work on that, but Capri’s and warm socks worth it!

THE BIKE:
I love the bike! The swim goal is usually just to get to the bike.  Since we had pre-ridden the route in May, I knew it was do able. My biggest concern was to eat enough on the bike to survive and do well on the run. June came too fast to work on nutrition. Set my bike watch to buzz every 20 minutes just to make sure I ate something. Out of the gate was a pretty good hill. HR was up so didn’t want to eat right away, but did drink some water. Went by Gail….then at the crest of the hill caught Paula…encouraged her to hang tough and remind her she had done ½ this ride before! Nice down hill…unfortunately saw a racer’s day had ended as he had crashed…volunteers were looking out for him. We kept on going. It was a MUCH more beautiful ride this day…no rain. I was perfectly dressed! Wasn’t cold or hot. We did have a few headwinds, but nothing like Moses Lake. I was happy to have had that experience there! Watched over my speed and kept cranking! Up another hill and then down and flats. My legs were feeling good and I was cruising along. Hit the second lap! Whoo hoo. Feeling good. Up up up again. This time I passed a couple of more folks on the hill. Words of encouragement…of you have done this once already…you can do it again! ½ way home.  Lovely views, several spots reminded me of the Chilly Hilly course along the water. The second lap near the end it did heat up a bit, but nothing unbearable….made me worry about Troika in August a bit! UGG. Ate lots of the Ritz Bits…and Sambrees, both are my new biking favs! Yummy. Didn’t touch the cliff bar…didn’t sound good. Drank 90% of my gadorade and NUNN. My water was at about 30 oz. I could have stopped to go to the bathroom, but didn’t really want to waste the time! They had us end on a bit of an uphill so we had to work a bit to then coast to the dismount spot. WHEW! DONE. Next ride, need to not use the interval of 20 minutes so I can monitor my cadence and speed better. I would have liked to have a higher cadence, was at 77.

Time: 3 hr 23 minutes
Avg HR : 147
Avg Speed: 16 mph (yea me and Black Betty !)

Transition 2:
I was much more with it at this race than Barb’s race last year! Not much wasted time here. Some of my time was walking my bike to my rack! Then someone had put their bike in my spot…so I took someone elses. Changed socks, took off Capri’s arm warmers and ear band. Shoes on, Sunscreen on, Family of 4 (just 2 this time) on, Race Belt on. Everything CHECK – good to go!

TIME: 5 minutes 02 seconds

THE RUN:
Now for the run. Of course my foot pod would not work! SHIT! That thing doesn’t like ½ Iron races – it didn’t work at Barb’s either. Oh well, no distance/pace time. The course was marked every 1 or 2 Kilometers…but that was too much thinking. Started off by walking my 4 minutes or so. Started running, then found a bathroom. I was quick – 1 minute 4 seconds…and I was off again. I walked EACH aid station and took either Gatorade or water. I ate a GU about 2K and the 12K, I think. The first lap was good. Felt pretty strong. The back side was pretty busy with lots of people finishing up their day! Me, I was headed on to lap 2. I did pretty good on lap 2…it did get lonely out there several times…no one was around. You definitely feel like you might be last. Saw Gail at one point headed towards me…She had made the Bike Cutoff…Sharon could run! Way to go. She was running opposite of everyone as she was done for the day, but wanted to make sure to see if she could do at least 6 miles …training for Barb’s. Anyway…I kept going. Wasn’t feeling totally 100%....especially when I saw another gal puke. Yeah, keep running and don’t think about that. I think I probably was on the edge of proper/improper nutrition. Most likely could have used another gel or stuck with my Gatorade not theirs. Who knows. I do know I hate figuring KM versus miles..that had me all screwed up more than once. Now how far do I still have and what time is it and can I make 7 hours? Too much calculating. Thankfully I miss calculated near the end and thought I had further to go than I really had…whew! There was the finish line!

As I headed there, heard Gail, Brandy and Jennifer yell….then near the finish line heard Steve yell – go Ann! Then heard the announcer call my name! Yea great time! Very happy.


Time: 2 hr 22 minutes
Avg Speed: 11 minutes 28 seconds per mile

Total Race: 6 hours 46 minutes

Recovery:
I definitely learned from Barb’s race. I ate a mini bagel with peanut butter then had power bar recovery drink they were giving away….that stuff was actually good. I soaked in the lake for about 20 minutes…where I ran into a bunch of TNT gals from Seattle. I also ran into Stacy and Elyse from Cheryl’s group of prior years. Poor Elyse had 3 FLATS! But she still finished! I also checked in with Brandy, who barely missed the bike cutoff…Hope struggled with the swim as did Jennifer. Paula met her goal of doing the swim and bike! Vickie finished and we cheered for her as well as the relay team of Gail and Sharon.

I ate another bagel….and then a couple of hours later….a yummy filet at The Keg. Jack and 7 ups were nice too. 

Troika next on the plan! Don’t know if I can do better, but I will be Tri-ing! Won’t be as lucky with the weather I am sure.

Thanks again to Cheryl for her great training plan and group!