a swim...a bike...a 10k
August 20th, 2017
After having a great swim and bike at Ironman Lake Placid 4 weeks ago, and having a little more time for my ITB to heal, I was looking forward to this race. Fitness felt very high. You can read about my goals going into the race here.
The swim had a beach start, which I love. I'm good at getting out fast and that allows me to settle in behind faster swimmers as they go by me. The gun went off and I sprinted a few steps before very quickly starting to dolphin dive. Once swimming, I looked to either side and realized I was first! This doesn't matter for much but was cool to realize and did help me settle in behind some fast swimmers. After 150 meters or so, I found feet that I identified as Chris McDonald's, and I hung on there. I would have been out of my mind excited if I could have held on the whole way, as he went on to swim a 53. But, around the 6th buoy (I think they're about 100m apart) I started to drift back. Thankfully I didn't have to swim solo for the remainder. Chad Holderbaum, Dan, Clarke, and one other guy were soon there to pull me the rest of the way. It was a strong effort, and I was pleased with my time and position. I exited the water in 58 minutes and in 11th place.
Sometimes running from the beach to T1 I am flying on minimal effort, sometimes I feel heavy, sluggish, and out of breath. I think it has to do with how hard I swam, especially how hard I was kicking, and if I was overheating in the water. At Ironman Lake Placid I was flying, here I was not. While I swam in the same draft pack as Dan and Chad, I lost some ground through the long t1 run.
Starting the bike, Chad was about 100m ahead. My hopeful plan was to keep up with him on the bike. I worked hard in an attempt to close the 100m to the legal distance of 12m, but my efforts weren't making any progress. I didn't feel like I had any spunk to my ride. Patrick Evoe passed me, and I thought perhaps I could use him to pace me up to Chad who was now as much as 400m up the road. That worked to close it down to maybe 200m but then I fell back and they both quickly went off into the distance. I could see that my power was lower than Placid, even with the same effort. It was frustrating as a few others passed me and I didn't have the power to keep up. It was as if I found a super biking ability at Placid, but then lost it. In Ironman, sometimes there are lows or it takes time to work into the groove. I kept the pressure on but throughout the day my power was just getting lower and lower. My total average power ended up to be 9.3% less than at Placid. This correlated with my time behind Chad and Dan. At Placid I was 3 to 4 minutes back, and here 16 to 19 minutes back. Coming into the race with high hopes, I was definitely discouraged.
Ok so here are my blabber thoughts on my DNF. Had I had a strong bike, and the 8% was still out of reach, I'd gladly push through the marathon for a time and placement result that I'd be happy with. For a variety of reasons, many pros did drop out or otherwise had a bad day. Because of this I could have easily placed top ten. Even though top ten was one of my goals I wouldn't have been happy with my result with such a weak bike.
In finishing the run, I'd be taking a risk of setting myself back in my ITB recovery. My training runs have gotten to 2 miles pain free and I think I could have run the 26, but obviously with taking some risk. For some of my goals I'd be willing to take that risk, and that's why I started this race. But for missing the 8% and not having a result I'd be happy with, I deemed the risk not worth it.
I'm not comfortable with dropping out. This was my first DNF ever of 15 Ironmans, and well over 100 total races. I don't like the give up when things aren't what you hoped for mindset, which is essentially what I did. In some sense making this decision was the cost of signing up for so many races, and for starting them all when I'm not 100% prepared. Part of that could be labeled as the name of the game. There is an aspect of chance in trying to hit the 8%, and starting more races gives more opportunities. Now a few days later, I do have some regret about dropping out. I could have finished.
Few people would have even noticed that my bike split was so "terrible" without me proclaiming it as such. However there's also the possibility that had I finished, I could have re-injured my ITB for a mediocre result and wished that I called it quits. You only ever know the outcome of the choice you make. At least I am healthy and ready to move forward. I have 8 weeks to recover and rebuild before my all in attempt at Ironman Louisville. If I can rebuild my run and have the spunk on the bike that I had at Placid, IM Lou could be a remarkable day.
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