Big Kahuna Duathlon: A Race Report
The swim was cancelled. Apparently, if the fog is so thick that you can’t even see the lights at the end of the pier in the dark, then it’s “unsafe.” Of course, we all warmed up, then stood around freezing, waiting for answers.
I was pissed. But. Really, I wasn’t that worried about the swim, so the duathlon would give me a plenty good idea of how I like the Half-Ironman distance.
I like it ok. I may never want to do another (at least that’s what I thought from mile 8 to 10 on the run), but I think I could do much, much better, and very well with more practice.
I biked well. I transitioned as though all I ever race are very short races where you need to get in and out fast, and was one of the first on my bike. So, I spent awhile getting passed. Since that was the idea, though, everything was going to plan. I kept it under control, ate, ate, drank, drank. Admired the view and hills. Etc.
I got to the turn-around and realized I had caught back up to most of the people that had passed me with my nice, steady riding. I intended to go faster on the way back, but I may have gone a little nuts for about 10 miles trying to catch all those girls. Then, I remember ‘oh yeah I have to run. so do they.’ It started to get kind of rough the last hour of the bike. My legs started to feel it. I had to actually focus to try and keep my watts where I wanted them. I was started to feel HOT and starting to feeling gross from all the water I drank.
Finally, I finished the bike in 2:38, with very few girls in front of me. Did one of my super fast transitions (comparatively, for a half Ironman) and headed strong out on the run.
I felt fantastic. I was intending to start slow again and build. I was running strong and catching people and it felt easy. I was even smiling at people cheering me (which, just ask around, is not common) because I felt like there was no way I wouldn’t meet my goals at this pace.
I don’t know if you know this, though, but 5 hours is a long time. A lot can happen.
I started to want to fall asleep around mile 6ish. I just felt dead and lightheaded and started struggling. But I took another gel and kept moving forward. There was a mile marker off, but I was still running sub-8 minute miles and gaining on the lead girl. (Well, not the LEAD elite girl, she was like 45 minutes ahead.) Hit the turnaround on pace for a 1:40 run, time to negative split and pick up the pace on the way back! Uh....
I took another gel. Things were getting slow and heavy. I just wanted to lay down and go to sleep. I started doing crazy things like pumping my arms as fast as I could to trick myself into running faster and yelling out loud at myself.
I got to mile 8 before the wheels really came off.
My left hamstring started to get shooting pain and cramping (which I’ve never experienced) and my knee locked up. Every step hurt and I couldn’t run downhill hardly at all because of the pain. And that section had a lot of hills. It hurt so much and I had five miles left. I just wanted to quit. I could barely move forward. I started crying. Not a good idea in the middle of a race. I stopped crying. I did some walking. Then, I started shuffling, limping, dragging my left leg along. And like that, eventually I made it to mile 10.
The last three miles were less hilly and at that point, you figure, ‘it’s only three miles; i’ll make it to the end eventually.’ With the last three miles being flat I was able to kind of, sort of run again. I got back down to around 9 minute miles.
I didn’t get passed until the last 1.5 miles or so. Then I got passed by a bunch of women. The very end was down a long hill, then along the beach. Running down that hill was so painful, I started crying again, which made me start to hyperventilate.
Eventually, I finished with a 1:52 run (uh, slow down a little bit) and a total time of 4:35.
I walked straight into the med tent, bypass the finishers awards, do not pass go. They took my blood pressure, temperature and asked me lots of questions. The doctor seemed to think I wasn’t dehydrated as much as overhydrated. I had drank 2 bottles of gu2o on the bike and another 2-3 bottles of water without enough electrolytes to balance it out. The unbalance of water to salt makes you do some fancy medical term, but basically your kidneys shut down and you get many of the same symptoms of extreme dehydration.
The doctor said if I didn’t pee at all in the next 2 hours and felt really nauseous or got really bad pain in my stomach, then I should go to the emergency room, because it meant my kidneys were really failing. I didn’t pee for six hours and I could barely keep food down and I started to get really bad pain along my sides, under my ribs, that spread to my back under my ribs and my front (you know, kind of where your kidneys are). We got a little concerned we would actually need to go to urgent care. Until, finally, I had to pee! Yay!
Still. I’ve never been in as much pain after a race as I was last night and am today.
I do think I learned some lessons about the distance and obviously about nutrition. If I had taken more gels/electrolytes on the bike I probably would have been able to tough it out. If I had had more gels with me on the run I probably could have dealt. If I had more mileage or experience with the distance under my belt, I probably could have toughed it out a little longer.
But, it’s done. We’ll see how the next one goes.
Sunday, October 25, 2009