Months ago my friend Matt and I signed up for this triathlon. And after months of preparation, the time to complete my first full iron distance triathlon had finally arrived. I had been very nervous weeks and days before. "Have I trained enough? Have I trained too much? I hope I'm ready for the marathon run after the swim and the bike" Two weeks before in my nervousness, I spent my Friday night running home from work and finished a 22mi (3:26) maxing my Heart Rate out at 89% at times. I knew this was a bad idea but that's what inspired me to do it in the first place. It recked me pretty good and started some pain in my right knee, so I didn't do much the following week but a little swim and regular commute to work. But, when it came down to it, the night before I was feeling pretty good, though as usual I hadn't slept and rested as much as I had planned on weeks before. As usual, I tinkered with my bike in the hotel room and ended up with only 4hrs sleep. And as usual, in the morning I felt ready to crush it!! In the morning I ate 1 banana, then my wife and I headed off to pick up Matt. I realize that I have forgotten my 2nd water bottle so I found a super nice guy that let me have one of his! I dropped off my "special needs" bag with 13 bananas, 4coconut waters, & a bag of raisins to be picked up at mi 60 on the bike. Of course I got comments, "Wow man, are you having a picnic?" We got our race numbers inked on, more comments, "I can tell you guys are going to have a lot of fun" and my biological age framed in a Bike Love Heart on my left calf to match Matt's.
The SWIM
A 2.4 mile loop around the Russian River. Water temp was warm like 73deg so I wore only my trishorts. Matt and I hung out a while and with two minutes to the start I left him and decided to head down to the water. The gun went off as soon as I got to the start line. Perfect timing, off to a good start!! I took it easy knowing there was a lot more to come and focused on keeping my stroke long and efficient rather than keeping with the front pack. We made the first turn and noticed I was 40yds behind the leader, so I slowed down a bit thinking I was doing well and could use the energy later. As we looped our way back around to the start/finish I thought I was almost done but soon realized I was wrong when the pack in front kept going and after seeing only 27min on my watch it (it could be possible they didn't know where they were going) I figured out this was a 2 lapper.
The BIKE
Into the transition area and on with the helmet, jersey (with a little trouble being wet and having raisins pouring out of the pockets), camelback (yes full of bananas), socks and shoes and I'm out in 4:41. I was feeling awesome now finally on the bike and in nice pace. I decided to start my picnic early and began eating right away 4 bananas, a handful of dates, & some coconut water. I also began to pee really early too so I had to stop a couple times. I was beautiful though the vineyards and there were some rolling hills, some short an steep to deal with. I thought "Shift or not? Oh well I guess I'm already halfway up it anyway" I hit mile 35 for another pee break (damn). Oh well better to be hydrated I guess. As I pedal away SNAP, there goes my chain! I snapped it and now it's dragging along. Shit! I ALWAYS carry my chain break tool, except now of course. So I hang out and have my picnic, watch everyone pass by, drink all my water, put on sunscreen, and pee some more! No support on this tri so I'm pretty screwed. "Got a chain break?" I asked so many people and so many "No sorry, shits that sucks" in return. Wait here comes Matt, and he has a multi-tool with a chain-break for me. "You better stop if you see me on the side of the road" he says. So 40min later I'm back on the roll. I get a couple miles and there's a guy needing help with a mechanical "need help?" He says "yes." So I stop since so many have helped me how can I not? I gave him my patch kit (as I only had one tube) and a CO2 and I was back on the road. After feeling like a brevet so far and feeling like I'm out of the competition now it's starting to feel more like a race. After taking so many links out of my chain I'm now forced to hammer the hard gears since my chain was now too short for the bigger rings. With my hands now full of grease from the chain, I devour some "triflow" flavored raisins & dates on the way to mile 62 and pick up my "special needs" bag of bananas. Luckily there's a porta-potty because I think I was crowning! After 10 minutes I'm back on the bike. Hey there's the Organic Athlete (OA) crew out for a morning ride. I yell at them, they see me and cheer! A little while later "Go Vegan" chalked in at the top of one of the hill climbs. Motivation Baby! I yell "Yeah, go vegan" to the volunteers at the top and they look at me confused, not realizing until later that the OA crew wrote it with our names written below as well. I ride into the bike finish as Matt is starting the run, hopefully I'll catch him!
The RUN
Into T2 and hooray for another porta-potty (What the hell is going on with me? again?) I chug another coconut water (bad idea?) and start the running the flats and walking the steep hills to catch Matt. Some rolling hills on a 8.7mi out and back, a three lapper. My stomach was feeling crazy by mile 4 but I kept trying to catch Matt. I see him coming back 1mi before the turn around "I thought you'd catch me by now" he says. He doesn't realize that I've had to stop at every porta-potty on the way out. So I decide to let the stomach settle and stop eating and drinking anything, I start to feel better in 45min and pick up the pace into lap 2. Then my right knee starts crying at me. I thought "not now, I'm almost done" so I ignore it. I make it to mile 9 and it's screaming at me. So I start walking the flats too. By mile 11 I was limping, so I'm done!! I was thinking that 15miles of limping is no fun and it's been pretty awesome up till now. So I went back and hung out at the Aid Station since I was now eating and drinking again. I paced out and back several times trying to decide if I REALLY wanted to DNF or not, but then decided I had enough and started to walk it off the 2mi back to the finish and started stretching out to recover. Matt caught me on the decent and I told him I was DNF'n. He was looking like a champ and was killing it!
Matt finished in 12:21 and beat his goal time of 14hrs.
And while Matt was crushing it, I was done in 11hrs and was getting my massage
My Summary
I'm glad I was smart enough to stop my self from further knee problems since I'm great today. But, I was looking for a 13hr finish this year and now I'll have to sign up for next year and sub 12! I was happy with my swim time and bike time considering the chain issue and all of my pee stops. I learned that now on a raw diet I don't need as much water as I used to and that coconut water in a cardboard box isn't the best racing fuel. I'm just now realizing how much I learned from this race.
As always my wife Jenny was the best support ever by far and OA was very motivating with their support at the race complete with dinner and storytelling afterwords. Matt's fam is so nice were great company, we had an excellent time with you all! Thanks Guys!
RESULTS
Swim 00:57:42.7 T1 00:04:41.7 Bike 06:16:15.1 T2 00:05:49.1 Run
