Tl;dr: Old guy does his first 70.3, doesn't blow up.
I'm an adult-onset swimmer, a get-the-groceries cyclist, and an OK runner. I've been doing sprint tris for the last couple of years, and last year did my first Olympic distance tri at the now cancelled Shawnigan Lake race (it was my first race in a wet suit, too).
At the beginning of the year, I started setting up my race and training schedule, using TrainingPeak’s upgraded Annual Training Plan. Not all of the races had firm dates, and I wanted to play with some of the features, so I added the Victoria 70.3, just for fun. I wasn't sure if I had the time or energy for the training load.
We had a miserable winter and spring in Victoria, and I hate bike training indoors, so cycling took a back seat to running and the occasional swim. I only had two rides anywhere near as long as 90k, so it wasn't looking likely that I'd actually enter.
On the Wednesday before the race, I changed my mind and decided to enter. A friend of mine, who helped get me into this ludicrous sport, has one ambition for each of his races- not to be last. I figured that even without proper training, I had a fair chance of not being last.
Unfortunately, registration was closed. I poked around on the terrible Ironman website, and found out that walk-up registration was possible if there were still spaces available. I made sure to be first in line on the Friday, and got signed up. I had hoped that this would allow me to avoid Active, but no luck there:(
Saturday Bike drop off.
The race has reverted to Hamsterly Beach, after last year's weed-filled, cut-short swim from the south side of the lake. The only problem at Hamsterly is the lack of parking, which meant shuttle busses going along the narrow, winding, country roads. It might have been faster to walk than to take the bus.
Sunday arrival
Since I'm a local, I had some backup plans if it looked too congested leaving the highway or near transition. It was hopelessly backed up at the highway at 4:30am, so I pulled over and let my wife drive back home while I ran across the highway to body marking and transition setup.
Swim 40:25. 2:02/100m pace AG11 (all times from my Garmin, explanation eventually)
The swim was great. The view of the river of swimmers heading out into the lake was quite impressive. I self seeded in the 40-45 group, expecting a time of 42-45 minutes, since my Shawnigan Lake pace was 2:46 and a recent pool sprint had a pace of 2:22. I had done something clever, though. Six weeks ago, I hired Cindy Mabee, a local coach, to diagnose my worst swim problem and give me advice and drills to fix it. All credit for my improvement goes to Cindy. There was a bit of congestion throughout, but avoiding collisions only added 45m to the total. It was almost always easy to find feet to follow.
T1 7:05
I know how slow I was, but I was there to complete, not compete.
Bike. 3:5750 AG21
I'm pretty slow, and my training was insufficient. As well, I'm crap handling a tri bike on any sort of descent, traffic, or bad pavement. With any of those, I'm up clutching the brakes.
My plan was to take it easy so I'd have an OK run. I've never seen so many people out with mechanicals, mostly in the first few kilometres. The first was someone with a flat a few hundred meters from transition. My speed was not helped by a stress-related need to use the portables at every aid station, as well as some permanent ones on the route. Too many people around to try pissing on the bike:)
The weather was a bit cold to start- I shivered in any shade for the first 10k. It warmed up, and there was a nice headwind on the second half. I wound up with a good sunburn on my scapulae, as I hadn't realized how low-cut my tri suit was when I applied sunblock.
I managed a negative split, and passed quite a few people going up hills (most of them passed me on the descents).
Lots of room for improvement.
T2 4:27
Same as above:)
Run 2:00:42 5:48/km pace AG6
A good run. The time included one last pit stop. The first few kilometres were fabulous- I had to slow down. The out and back add-on to bring the circuit up to 10k was an uphill grind (just like the Willis Point Rd out and back to n the bike route). The last three k were hard--I lost the smile that shows up on all of the race photos except for the finish line.
Nutrition
I use gels for most races, but most races for me are not seven hours long. I managed to keep on my gel schedule for most of the bike, but then my stomach suggested I'd had enough for a while. On the run, I was only able to choke down a third of a gel every twenty minutes or so.
Finish and after. AG16 out of 21
Pizza? Not for me, so I just ate an orange slice.
I'm not sure what my final time or place was. After the race, I checked for my time with a friend with data. I wasn't on the list. I had wondered why the MC hadn't mispronounced my name at the finish, as I'm used to, but didn't have the brain cells in operation to wonder why.
I went off to the Sports Stats timing desk, and found that they had lost all of the data from my chip. They managed to find it eventually. I double checked with my friend, and found my bib number and data, but none of my data.
Back to the timing desk. My info had to be manually entered, as it was completely lost. My times and placings finally showed up on the sportstats site, but not on the ironman website.
As well, sportstats reported a bike time ten minutes longer than my Garmin 920 did. I'm used to seeing a few seconds off here and there between watch and mat time, but ten minutes seems excessive. I messaged sportstats, but have heard nothing back.
By Wednesday, my times and placings showed up at Ironman. The sportstats and ironman times agree, but my placing differs by almost forty spots.
I’d like to thank my patient wife, Barbara, and the people who got me into this sport: MC Magnan and Chris Bowen. Thanks as well to those that talked me into doing this distance,especially John McManus.
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I'm an adult-onset swimmer, a get-the-groceries cyclist, and an OK runner. I've been doing sprint tris for the last couple of years, and last year did my first Olympic distance tri at the now cancelled Shawnigan Lake race (it was my first race in a wet suit, too).
At the beginning of the year, I started setting up my race and training schedule, using TrainingPeak’s upgraded Annual Training Plan. Not all of the races had firm dates, and I wanted to play with some of the features, so I added the Victoria 70.3, just for fun. I wasn't sure if I had the time or energy for the training load.
We had a miserable winter and spring in Victoria, and I hate bike training indoors, so cycling took a back seat to running and the occasional swim. I only had two rides anywhere near as long as 90k, so it wasn't looking likely that I'd actually enter.
On the Wednesday before the race, I changed my mind and decided to enter. A friend of mine, who helped get me into this ludicrous sport, has one ambition for each of his races- not to be last. I figured that even without proper training, I had a fair chance of not being last.
Unfortunately, registration was closed. I poked around on the terrible Ironman website, and found out that walk-up registration was possible if there were still spaces available. I made sure to be first in line on the Friday, and got signed up. I had hoped that this would allow me to avoid Active, but no luck there:(
Saturday Bike drop off.
The race has reverted to Hamsterly Beach, after last year's weed-filled, cut-short swim from the south side of the lake. The only problem at Hamsterly is the lack of parking, which meant shuttle busses going along the narrow, winding, country roads. It might have been faster to walk than to take the bus.
Sunday arrival
Since I'm a local, I had some backup plans if it looked too congested leaving the highway or near transition. It was hopelessly backed up at the highway at 4:30am, so I pulled over and let my wife drive back home while I ran across the highway to body marking and transition setup.
Swim 40:25. 2:02/100m pace AG11 (all times from my Garmin, explanation eventually)
The swim was great. The view of the river of swimmers heading out into the lake was quite impressive. I self seeded in the 40-45 group, expecting a time of 42-45 minutes, since my Shawnigan Lake pace was 2:46 and a recent pool sprint had a pace of 2:22. I had done something clever, though. Six weeks ago, I hired Cindy Mabee, a local coach, to diagnose my worst swim problem and give me advice and drills to fix it. All credit for my improvement goes to Cindy. There was a bit of congestion throughout, but avoiding collisions only added 45m to the total. It was almost always easy to find feet to follow.
T1 7:05
I know how slow I was, but I was there to complete, not compete.
Bike. 3:5750 AG21
I'm pretty slow, and my training was insufficient. As well, I'm crap handling a tri bike on any sort of descent, traffic, or bad pavement. With any of those, I'm up clutching the brakes.
My plan was to take it easy so I'd have an OK run. I've never seen so many people out with mechanicals, mostly in the first few kilometres. The first was someone with a flat a few hundred meters from transition. My speed was not helped by a stress-related need to use the portables at every aid station, as well as some permanent ones on the route. Too many people around to try pissing on the bike:)
The weather was a bit cold to start- I shivered in any shade for the first 10k. It warmed up, and there was a nice headwind on the second half. I wound up with a good sunburn on my scapulae, as I hadn't realized how low-cut my tri suit was when I applied sunblock.
I managed a negative split, and passed quite a few people going up hills (most of them passed me on the descents).
Lots of room for improvement.
T2 4:27
Same as above:)
Run 2:00:42 5:48/km pace AG6
A good run. The time included one last pit stop. The first few kilometres were fabulous- I had to slow down. The out and back add-on to bring the circuit up to 10k was an uphill grind (just like the Willis Point Rd out and back to n the bike route). The last three k were hard--I lost the smile that shows up on all of the race photos except for the finish line.
Nutrition
I use gels for most races, but most races for me are not seven hours long. I managed to keep on my gel schedule for most of the bike, but then my stomach suggested I'd had enough for a while. On the run, I was only able to choke down a third of a gel every twenty minutes or so.
Finish and after. AG16 out of 21
Pizza? Not for me, so I just ate an orange slice.
I'm not sure what my final time or place was. After the race, I checked for my time with a friend with data. I wasn't on the list. I had wondered why the MC hadn't mispronounced my name at the finish, as I'm used to, but didn't have the brain cells in operation to wonder why.
I went off to the Sports Stats timing desk, and found that they had lost all of the data from my chip. They managed to find it eventually. I double checked with my friend, and found my bib number and data, but none of my data.
Back to the timing desk. My info had to be manually entered, as it was completely lost. My times and placings finally showed up on the sportstats site, but not on the ironman website.
As well, sportstats reported a bike time ten minutes longer than my Garmin 920 did. I'm used to seeing a few seconds off here and there between watch and mat time, but ten minutes seems excessive. I messaged sportstats, but have heard nothing back.
By Wednesday, my times and placings showed up at Ironman. The sportstats and ironman times agree, but my placing differs by almost forty spots.
I’d like to thank my patient wife, Barbara, and the people who got me into this sport: MC Magnan and Chris Bowen. Thanks as well to those that talked me into doing this distance,especially John McManus.
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