Race Report - Morden

Finish time: 5:41:40
AG: 7/10
Overall: 33/81


Pre Race:

Got up at around 5:00am, with Dave making a comment about early races, it was probably funny and everything but my brain was still not working at that time since I had a terrible night sleep. Anyhow, got up and eat a bagel and banana and 300ml of Gatorade. We then biked to the race site (about 3k) and got our transition sorted out. Got body marked, and explain to all the out of town racers how our timing system worked, since they didn’t understand the tab system… no its not a chip ;)

Swim: (35:30)

Well the swim was nice and easy. I had a goal of 35 minutes and my plan was to draft the entire time and just work on sighting. The first lap was nice and easy, lots of contact but nothing that bothered me, except for the guy that kept on swimming on top of me… I think I drafted for about 95% of the first lap. At the end of the first lap I was holding about 17 minutes which was just on pace, and then I dove back in for the second lap. Same thing mostly drafted this time, and just kept it nice and easy. The water was cold which is what I like, so I never overheated or felt sick. Got out of the water at about 35 minutes and felt that I could have done two more laps.

Bike 2:57:37 (incl. transition):

Well I had a plan, keep it in the small chain for the first 10k, get some food in me and then bring my HR to about 75% for the remaining 80K. The first 27k were with a cross wind but I didn’t find it was holding me back to much. The road was terrible after the 15k marker, and that was probably worst than the wind. AT the 27k turn around, I grabbed some water and since I had a small tailwind decided to hammer a smaller gear and put some time in the bank because I knew that coming up the 2k climb out of the valley would be in the wind and I didn’t want it to affect my avg speed. Got to the turn towards the valley which is about 10 from that point and the wind had picked up, but it was a tailwind and I decided to just cruise. I was holding about 40km/h on that section and my heart rate was around the 70% mark. I was just making time here, but knew that on the way back it would be a full on headwind. Went down the valley without issue and got to the turn around point and had to make a decision; Stop so I can get water, Gatorade and a banana or only get Gatorade and banana. Well I decided on the second option and that actually cost me since 10K later I ran out of water. Went up the 2K climb and didn’t have any problems, but there was no recovery afterwards because I had to ride in a full headwind for about 12K. Got back to the #3 highway and back towards transition. Finally got passed at this point, it was only the second person that passed me all day so that was pretty good. Overall, my bike split was what I wanted, my computer was showing 2:55 and that was my goal time. Also, I no point did I think that the bike ride was to long, I was just pacing and enjoying myself. No major mental block, just kept on singing and kept focused on HR and RPE.

RUN (2:08:34):

Oh the run, man did that hurt. I don’t remember much of the run other than I kept on thinking that this was beyond any pain I have felt before in racing. The first 10k were good, I was holding just under a 6min/k pace which is slower than my goal pace but was holding a comfortable pace. The problems started when I started my second lap. My legs gave out on the golf course section and I was forced to walk a good km if not two. I just couldn’t keep a pace that was comfortable nor did I feel I could run anymore. When I got to the 17K marker, they mentioned that they had pretzels, I grabbed a few and man did that do the trick. I got the sodium I needed and about 5 minutes later I was holding 5:30min/k if not a tad faster (I stopped looking at my watch as I was getting depressed). Every aid station from that point, I got pretzels and water and just kept on going. Crossed the finish line and felt pretty good.

Overall Impression:

Well the purpose of this race was to see if I was fit enough for ironman. I’ve been putting some large volume and wanted to see if my training program was meeting my needs. I put my race goals on paper and I meet 2 of the 3. My goal swim time was 35 min, my bike was 2:50-2:55 and my run time was 2 hours. Overall, this race validated all the training I’ve been doing and also help me believe that I’m going to be ready for ironman. Just gotta work on nutrition and I think I’ve got this thing in the bag.