Race Report

Anika, her friend Matthew, and I are back in Dublin after spending a little over a week in Switzerland and another in London with Lee Ann and James. We'll go exploring Ireland this three day weekend and at the end of next week Anika and Matthew will head back to the States.
My fears of not finishing the Ironman were unfounded. Despite some problems I had plenty of time and am now the pround owner of a Ironman finisher medal and shirt.
I arrived two days before the event in Switzerland with my saddle, aero bars, helmet, shoes, wetsuit, and all the other stuff to do one of these events. My brother kindly lent me his bike which we outfitted with parts from mine and adjusted for my geometry. I was rushed traveling there and nervous, and promptly forgot the pedals and race tires I had wanted to bring along. I bought new tires and disassembled my brothers shoes to put the cleats that fit his pedals onto my shoes. This all worked fine until about ten minutes into the bike part of the race.

I did well in the swim, finishing in the first 20% of my age group, despite that I took it very easy and mostly let other people drag me through the water. The start was a mess with 2,000 people kicking and pushing each other. It got a little better after a while but about half way through we were funneled through the narrow straight in the picture above and had to run over a small island just to jump back into the water and finish the second loop. I'm happy with my time and the fact that it did not feel like I spent a lot of effort and energy on it.
Transition from swim to bike was slow, but there is no point in worrying about losing a minute or two in a fourteen hour race. Less than ten minutes on the bike and my feet felt funny. It was like they were floating on top of the pedals. After a while I had to stop and investigate. All six screws on both cleats were loose! I thought I had tightened them well enough and they held for two training rides on Friday and Saturday, but now there was a danger of the cleats falling off. About forty minutes ahead was an aid station with a mechanic, so I tried to pedal gingerly to keep constant pressure on the screws and not let them wiggle out and get lost. Fortunately, I did not have to wait that long. A mobile mechanic had stopped to helped a rider fix a flat, and he had a screwdriver I could borrow. In my haste, I fixed the right shoe cleat such that my foot was at a weird angle for the rest of the race. Near the end I was looking forward to the run, so I could put my feet back into parallel again.
I had a very carefully figured out pacing strategy that didn't work, but a failing bike computer helped me overcome that. Initially I had heart rate limits that I did not want to exceed in order to retain enough strength and endurance for the run. My heart rate was much lower than that, and when I went faster to reach those limits, I felt I was overexerting myself for this stage of the race. This worried me a lot, but the bike computer told me that I was going much faster than I had planed. So, I tried to keep a balance between how much exertion I felt and a good speed a little bit above what I had planed; ignoring my HR monitor for the most part.
During the second bike loop I realized that the bike computer would sometimes show zero km per hour and after a while started working again. During the time it showed zero it was not advancing the riding time that I had used to conclude I was going way faster than anticipated. Redoing these calculations using my wristwatch time, I saw that I was slightly ahead of plan, but nowhere near as much as the bike computer had shown.
This, I think, was a good thing. Otherwise I would have tried to bring my heart rate up more, thinking that I needed that to make the bike cut-off. I had a good bike time (for me) and came off the bike feeling like I could easily (slowly) run a marathon. Without the computer malfunction I would probably have stressed more and ruined my pacing.

The last part of the bike was in a heavy thunderstorm with strong head winds.

The second transition was also slow. I was soaking wet from the rain and changing into running gear took a little longer because of that. But that was fine, and soon the rain stopped.
The first loop out of four for the run was fine. It was slow, but I felt I could jog for the rest of the race and achieve my secondary goal of not having to walk during the running portion. Unfortunately, I missed that goal by a long shot.

Half way into the second lap, I bonked and had to start walking. At first I could not understand why, because I had felt good and things were going well. After a while I realized that I had not taken in any food during the first loop; only liquids. I walked to the next aid station and stuffed myself, and then walked some more to let the nutrition do its magic. It sort of worked. After a while I was able to jog again, but it was very hard. Part of it was psychological: once you start walking it is very difficult to convince yourself that running is worth the effort and pain it costs. The other part was probably physiological: it takes a while for food to be processed and be able to use the energy it contains.
Somewhere in there I was following an Italian guy my age or a little older. He was not doing all that well either, but he was faster than me when he was actually running. At one point we go by some park benches and he yells out in joy and plops down on one of them right in front of me. I cursed him, since it tool all my willpower not to sit down right next to him. After a while he passed me again, only to stop at the next aid station to chat with the pretty volunteer there. He did that a few times to me, but now I was one my fourth loop, he had only three arm bands and needed to do another lap, and I was feeling better, knowing that I could finish from here; and soon.
As is usual for me, I kept wondering why I was doing this and reminding myself to remember that I don't actually like pain. As a matter of fact, I hate it. That's why I always have signed up for the next race already, forcing me to continue training. This time I have no race lined up and am ready to retire from the sport (after a five-year, not greatly successful "career" ;-) I'm ready for the couch, some crisps, a beer, and a large-screen TV!

But now my poor run performance is bugging me. This time I was worried about the bike but thought I would do really well on the run for a change. I'm not sure what to do about the bike. I was nearly last in my age group, but I don't think I should have gone much faster without jeopardizing my run. Maybe with more training something under seven hours would be possible and still able to walk afterward. Still not a great time, but better than what I did in Zurich.
On the run, however, I know I can do better. Simply not walking would easily shave of thirty minutes or more. I don't want to do all this training again, but not having done any exercise for three weeks is beginning to bother me, and I think I could do this a little bit faster. Yes, I did an Ironman, which very few people out of the total population have done, but I am one of the slowest in my age group to finish, which so far has never bothered me too much. Breaking into the first half of my age group would be nice, though. I have to think about this. Maybe I'll do another one for my 55th birthday ;-)

Pictures are courtesy of my brother. Thanks!