Pre-race Lead Up
Where do I start? Let’s flashback to last year. I had a disappointing finish to IM Louisville because I had to walk the last quarter of the run (shredded knees). This year, I had hoped to “do it right” and run the run with relative comfort. My training was on track the entire 30 weeks and other than a few flare-ups of my knee, I had no injuries to baby along the way. This led me to be confident that I would have a great race.
Days Prior to Race Day
I decided not to cheap out and I booked the Hilton Monona Terrace for my accommodations. I was SO glad I did this. It was pricey, but it removed so many stresses. The Hilton is connected by a walking sky bridge to the convention centre which houses everything – the village, the transition areas, access to the swim area – you name it. I parked my truck and didn’t use it once. Downtown Madison is at your doorstep and I walked to the grocery store and restaurants. By staying so close, I could simply stroll back and forth to attend the athlete check-in, the briefing, the bike & gear check-in and be there in minutes for the start (and the short hobble home too!)
The only thing I didn’t do that I had planned was to go see some of the Chris Farley sights. One of them ended up being the bar where the UW Badgers light things up before a game (bar is called The State Street Brats), so I opted to get a meal from there and say I saw at least one Chris Farley sight.
As per my routine, I did a 20 minute swim on the Friday. This allowed me to get a feel for the water and have a completely dry wetsuit for Sunday. In the afternoon, I joined an “Underwear Run” that was posted on the IM Wisconsin Facebook page (I highly recommend joining such group pages). This run is something done in Kona where you run in underwear, shoes, and that’s it. About a dozen people did it and it raised $200 for the local SPCA (this counted as my maintenance run).
On Saturday morning, before handing in my bike, I did what was supposed to be a 20 minute “mechanical” ride – just to make sure everything was working ok. Well I’m glad I did it because within 100m my back tire blew. I changed it no problem and carried on. The path along Lake Monona is a marked path and is very flat, so, like Forrest Gump, I just kept ridin’! I questioned whether it was a good idea to stray from the plan, but the path was so flat and I did it in such a leisurely way, it ended up being about 20k which didn’t hurt me at all (I hoped!)
The Night Before
Barrie Baydog Jason Kinnear was in Madison and he invited me to a Q&A for Crushing Iron on the Friday and the pro (Jessica Jacobs) that was speaking said that she carbed up the night before with pizza from “Ian’s Pizza”. So I decided to do the same! I love pizza and it was SO GOOD! Other than organizing my final equipment, I got on Google Earth and “flew” the bike and the run course. You download Google Earth, create a path using the directions in the athlete’s guide and then hit “fly over”. With the 3D building and features, it’s like you are flying through the whole course! Who needs to drive it?
RACE DAY!
I had a good night sleep and went through my morning routine without any problems. I ate breakfast, handed in my special needs bags, loaded a few items onto my bike, got the tires pumped up and strolled down to the swim start area. I chatted with a few racers and when the time came, I geared up into my swim stuff and a wonderful volunteer walked my morning bag to the drop off point (a few hundred metres away). The swim start was a rolling start, which means you look for a sign that has your swim finish time range and you stand with those people. The men pros go in a group, the women pros go in a group and then rest (mix of women and men) go in 5 second intervals.
THE SWIM
I entered the water and was very comfortable and relaxed. We were nicely spread out and although there was a solid breeze on the lake, the backwind made you sail along nicely. I knew we would have to pay for this on the upwind leg, but I’ve swam in such wind before and was mentally ready. In the first quarter I had no one very near me and in the last quarter I had no one very near me, but for some reason, the rest of the time I was bunched up with people! There were the usual zig-zagging swimmers and touching someone’s feet (or they touch yours). I was concerned I would get a solid kick to the face and I tried to find open areas but I guess there were just a lot of people with the same pace trying to be in the same place. I suffered no problems and with the headwind, I actually was still quite comfortable – so I just enjoyed the experience. As I approached the finish, I really felt that I had a full tank of gas (both physically and mentally) and I hoped that feeling would continue through the bike.
TRANSITION 1
T1 has to be one of the most unique transitions in Ironman! You get out of the water and run up a helical ramp that is normally meant for cars to drive up to a parking terrace. Then you enter the convention centre and go into a ball-room to grab your bike bag. Then you enter an adjacent room to change. Volunteers usually help you here and there, but I had one that was acting as a personal assistant! It was wonderful. I exited the convention centre and jogged with my bike shoes to my bike. The volunteers yell your number down the line and your bike is ready off the rack when you get there. What service!
THE BIKE
The parking area that acts as the bike rack area has two helical ramps and you mount at the top of the second ramp and get to ride your bike down! This eventually puts you out on the road (protected by pylons for the busy sections) and off you go. There is about 5% of the race in the city and the rest is in the cornfields and cow pastures of Wisconsin. It was not unlike the rolling countryside of the Barrie area. If you are comfortable riding in Oro Medonte, you would have no issues with Ironman Wisconsin. I had heard mixed reports about how “hard” it was – but I would put it well below Muskoka, Tremblant, and Syracuse. It was more likely on par with Louisville (and the Barrie area). The bike portion was again, a very comfortable experience. My plan was to stop every hour to stretch my back, have some nutrition and reapply anti-chaffing cream. It turns out that the weather was cool enough that I wasn’t sweating much so I had to go to the bathroom more often than planned. I really wanted to “enjoy” the whole race experience so when the bathroom feeling started to creep in, I decided to hit the next aid station. It worked well, because I combine it with my back/nutrition/cream plan and had a completely enjoyable ride. Typically by the end, you are dying to get off your bike and I didn’t experience that drudgery feeling at all. I was almost waiting for the “other shoe to drop” and have some sort of negative experience. The only things I can report on was that a car had misunderstood the “car left/bike right” sign and tried to turn right at a street. This blocked our bike lane and a volunteer jumped out to stop them and to move some cones to get them out of there. A bunch of bikers had to do a pretty quick stop and were quite upset. I saw it happening ahead of me, so I had plenty of time to react. No one was hurt – but it’s a reminder of how fast bad things can happen. I also saw two other riders on stretchers being loaded in ambulances, so again – it can happen.
TRANSITION 2
T2 has you ride up the helical ramp that you came down and a volunteer grabs your bike for you and you go back into the convention centre. The changeover was smooth and all of my physical and mental systems were “in the green”. I carried the positive feeling of the swim entirely through the bike section, but I knew that if there was any place that I was going to have “dark moments” or physical breakdowns – it would be the run section.
THE RUN
The course itself was very good. There were lots of twists and turns (which break up the long sections), there were only two mild inclines and there was a decent section along a waterfront path that was nice. The crowds were everywhere and the final section through the downtown entertainment area really gave you energy. We also got to run inside the Camp Randall Football Stadium which was a nice little diversion!
I had done a lot of researched on the run section and had determined that there was an aid station at approximately every kilometer except 5 stretches (where it was about 2k). When I train, my Garmin vibrates every kilometer and I slow to a walk, have a drink, take a few deep breathes and carry on. My plan was to mimic this in the race. Nutrition wise, I wasn’t happy with the BASE bars that they offered on the course, so I stuck with bananas. I also carried my own Clif Bloks and used them as nutrition (and a treat) for the 5 “non-aid station” sections. This worked extremely well and again, I was waiting for the “other shoe to drop”.
As my training ramped up, I had completed a 31k run at the Barrie waterfront and did it with a little bit left in the tank. With this knowledge, I felt that if I could survive up to around 35k with proper form and then the last home stretch would be on adrenaline and crowd support. The 35k point was at a turn-around point in the course, so I also figured that mentally I would be able to just gut it out.
In past marathons, I’ve had shredded knees (Louisville), heat stroke (Marine Corp Marathon) and aching hips and back (Tremblant). In this race, when I hit the 35k mark, all my systems were still in the green. I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about this wonderful situation! I had made an agreement with my wife Stacey, that if I was barely able to cross the finish line, I would raise one fist in the air and if I had a strong, solid race, I would pump my arms 3 or 4 times. As I approached the last 3 or 4 kilometres, I started to know that I would be fist-pumping and it got me a little emotional for sure.
My right knee and my Achilles tendons “just” started to let me know they were there (I wouldn’t even call them angry) and I remembered to just take it easy (Alla’s advice!) and enjoy the crowds and the experience. I also started to get sick of the sugar with the Clif Bloks so I had a few cups of chicken broth and potato chips (salt, yum!) which I have done in the past. I had one little section where I had skipped a Clif Blok and I felt my energy dip a little. I forced down a Clif Blok and the needle went back into the green. It’s amazing how your fueling can be at such a fine line!
FINAL WORDS
Every race is different, but this one truly was the best experience I’ve had at a long distance race. Last year, with walking the last quarter of the run portion (and walking the entire Escape from Alcatraz), I didn’t feel like an “Ironman”. This experience was definitely “redemption” for that. It was also special because there were no short cuts taken. I stuck to my training schedule almost to the day and I built up my knee strength using strength exercises and a stretching routine. I also focused on enjoying the moments and while that sounds easy – it actually takes some discipline to not overtake someone on a hill or think too much about your “bike time”, etc. I also was disciplined with my “chafe management” and fortunately avoided the raw consequences I’ve had in the past (yay and sorry if that’s TMI). I am already registered for IM Penticton and with my family joining me, a large number of Barrie Baydogs participating and reports of how wonderful the course is – I’m already pumped to attack the training (in the new year) for my next Ironman experience!