Ironman Indiana Race Report-WARNING-it's a long one!
I haven’t written a real race report in quite some time but after what transpired over the past few days it seems as though this one needs to be memorialized somehow and so, here I go; the official Ironman Indiana Race Report, (aka, an overly long, overly dramatic remembrance of one man’s obsession with doing a really hard thing as well as he can).
Preamble
After Ironman Louisville in October of 2019 I was feeling pretty good about myself and my place in the world of Ironman triathlon. I had just performed quite well in a race that had a really stacked field running a huge PR on the marathon with a 3:38 off of a 5:18 bike and if the swim had not been cancelled I would have been really close to a ten hour flat IM (the swim in Louisville is current assisted). I had finished 7th in Kentucky and was only a couple of minutes out of fifth and the final Kona slot so along with my coach, we decided that I would return to Penticton, the site of my first ever IM back in 2004 to go after IM Canada in 2020.
Alas, the world kind of went to poop soon after and the entirety of the 2020 season was lost throwing mine and everyone else’s plans in to disarray. I continued to train throughout 2020 though not at the same intensity with the hopes of doing Canada in 2021. As spring arrived this year, I began to feel anxious about the likelihood that BC would actually allow the event to go on and with the government being cagey and the IM folks refusing to commit one way or the other, my boss at LifeSport, Lance Watson who had some inside intel suggested that it was probably a good idea to look elsewhere and so I did. Ironman had just announced the full in Indiana in an effort to handle all of the pent up demand for 140.6 races so after some more discussions with my coach and my family I made the decision to sign up and went all in on my training.
In the spring I attended a tri Camp in Utah then several weeks later raced in St George where I placed 7th in my AG. I was pretty happy with that given how competitive the field was and the fact that at 54 it is really hard to do well against those 50 year olds!
I ramped up my training over the summer and then trained right through Boulder 70.3 where even though untapered and tired I managed 6th being bumped off the podium by less than a second. At Worlds in St George I had a strong run to finish in the top 30. Through each of those races I had been laser focused on Muncie. I had not fully committed in any of them unwilling to risk injury or possibly needing to miss too much time off training for recovery.
Coming in to Muncie I was feeling really fit and confident. Although I knew the odds were long of getting on the podium given my age, I felt like I had a chance and that was all that I could ask for. The Kona slots were going to be really minimal with a total of 26 for every race through 2022. This meant getting a slot would be well nigh impossible and I was pretty bummed at that. But as always, I focused on the things that I could control and made ready all of my gear and set off for Indiana on September 29th. In the days leading up to the race I was increasingly uneasy. I wasn’t quite sure why. I have done 6 IM races and feel pretty calm about these events but I wondered if I was putting too much pressure on myself. My coach was encouraged, he told me if I was nervous it meant that I was feeling good and nothing was bothering me and that instead of thinking about aches and pains I was thinking about the race ahead. I took his word for it.
Indiana-pre-race
Getting to Indiana was a piece of cake. I was staying in this tiny town called Cambridge City about thirty minutes south of Muncie but the trip to and from the race venue was really not difficult except when a freight train would pass in which case I would get delayed for ten minutes give or take.
I did athlete registration and check in, got to meet one of the athletes I coach who was doing the 70.3 and really just relaxed as much as possible. I rode the first 15 and last ten miles of the bike course and drove the rest convinced that it was going to be a pretty fast course. I was pretty disappointed to be told that no virtual athlete briefing was going to be made available. Given the fact that it was Indiana I was both unsurprised at the Covid arrogance and also angry about it because this is a place where Covid numbers are not going in the right direction. Unfortunately, because of many ongoing changes and discrepancies from the athlete guide to instructions being given in person I felt like I had to attend and so begrudgingly I did and found out that indeed the RD had changed something important, we would now be allowed to place bike shoes in our pedals for T1.
Later I would also find out that the organizers decided to make the briefing virtual after all. The right decision to be sure but why that wasn’t decided on from the outset I will never know or understand.
At any rate, I did my gear drop and bike check in and spent an exorbitant but still worthwhile $40 to secure a parking spot on the lawn of the property owner directly across the street from transition so as to save myself any significant walking on race day. I returned to my luxury accommodations (they actually really were pretty posh) got all my crap together for the race in their assorted bags and bottles and put my feet up to relax for the rest of the day.
Race morning
I slept terribly. Of course I did. I was doing fine until I woke up at 1 to go pee and then I barely slept the rest of the night until the alarm went off at 4:30. Sigh, what else is new. I got up and went through my usual rituals:
Coffee and oatmeal
Thrilling Marlow
Chafing cream EVERYWHERE
Trisuit on.
Check 40 times to be sure that I have everything
Put said everything in the car
Check one more time
Start driving
Have major freakout that I forgot something (this time my wetsuit)
Start to turn the car around only to realize that no, in fact I did not forget the wetsuit and then continue on to the race venue.
I got to transition at 6 which was exactly per plan. I parked at my new friend’s house and made my way to my bike where I installed all my stuff, inflated the tires and met up with my 70.3 athlete (who was a big help!).
Feeling ready but with way too much time before the race I went back to the car to put some stuff back, visited a port-o-potty to pee and then back to transition to change in to my wetsuit and head down to the swim start. It was now rapidly approaching 7:30, race time and all of my nervousness from the previous days was gone. I just felt calm and the tiniest bit of apprehension that I knew was just wanting to get going already.
I slotted myself in to the 1:00-1:10 swim group and waited.
Swim
The race started at exactly 7:30 and although they only sent 3 swimmers in at a time, the line moved surprisingly quickly. Most of my IM swims have been single loop affairs but Coeur D’Alene back in 2005 was a two loop swim and this one was to be as well. We would swim 1900m, exit the water for a very brief bit on the beach and then jump back in for the second 1900m.
Once it was my turn to go I entered the water and eased in to a nice steady stroke. I knew that this would be a little more than an hour of swimming and I did not wish to get tired so I kept my stroke a little easier than I would for a 70.3 but tried to hold a nice constant turnover. Sighting was a little difficult at first because my goggles were dark and the sun was not yet up but as I approached the first turn this was no longer an issue. I was passing a lot of people who had clearly put themselves ahead of me for reasons known only to them, they were clearly not very good swimmers but for the most part the first lap was an easy and uncomplicated affair. I dare say, I might have actually enjoyed it! I never really felt tired and all in all it was a great start to the day.
I exited the water and went through the arch. 34 minutes. I was quite pleased with this. Swam easy and yet was in a range that I thought that I should be. I felt like I could go harder on the second lap and maybe make up some time.
At least that was the plan.
You see the problem with a two lap swim is that when you start your second lap you encounter all those people who are just starting their first lap. These are the people who swim up to two hours for the IM swim. I love these people, I truly do, just not so much when I am trying to swim through them all. OMG it was chaos. It was really hard to get any rhythm going because as soon as you would take a few strokes you would find yourself coming up on one or a couple of people who you then had to navigate around. And many folks in this group have a lot of trouble sighting so they were pretty erratic in their directional swimming and it just made for a shall we say, interesting and somewhat frustrating second lap. In any event, while it was a little more difficult it also kind of made time pass pretty quickly and somehow I found myself making the final turn and heading for the finish arch.
When I exited the water I looked at my watch and saw 1:09. (AG 9th)
Swim thoughts: All in all I was ok with this swim. My usual IM swims have been 1:05-1:07 and this wasn’t far off of that. I was pretty even only losing a minute on the second lap not so much due to fatigue but rather I think due to all the effort required to navigate through the slower swimmers. When I look at my AG, I saw that after one lap I was in 13th and at the end of the swim I had moved up to 9th so clearly my swim was more than reasonable and I had done a better job than most at being even.
T1: Truly uneventful and pretty quick
Bike:
Once on my fancy new Dimond I set to work. I knew that this would be the best part of my day but I was mindful of being conservative and setting myself up for a good run. I kept the power down in the 0.7 IF range and was picking up riders ahead of me quickly as I moved through the field on the initial fast but rolling part of the course. At one point a younger guy started going back and forth with me and he started chatting with me saying that he thought we might be riding together all day. It was his first IM he told me and in my head I thought to myself, probably not a good idea to ride with me friend but have at it.
I passed my friend Tyler at around mile nineteen and we exchanged pleasantries briefly. The next day he told me that when I went by I had a train of young guys on my rear wheel. They didn’t stay there for long. By mile 30 I was alone and beginning the one sort of climb of the day. This was along a newly chip sealed road and it was somewhat unpleasant to ride on but we had a stiffening breeze at our back and so going up the hill was pretty easy. To this point in the ride I was feeling ok but not great. For reasons that I didn’t understand my legs were kind of sore and not responding the way I expected but as I made my way up the incline a switch flipped and I could feel things really open up. As we made the turn around and started back down the hill in to the wind I felt really good and began turning over really easily. All along I had been fueling and hydrating even grabbing some water at aid stations and I really felt as though things were going very much according to plan.
I hit the 56 mile marker at exactly 2:31 very close to the pacing that I had expected to be doing and was still feeling good. I stopped at special needs and grabbed my two extra bottles of nutrition. The stop was reasonably quick and I resumed biking.
We were going in to a stronger headwind on the way back out for the second time and my speed was noticeably slower but I paid attention to my power and just kept that even. On my second time up the long incline it began to rain but nothing like what we had experienced in St George at 70.3 Worlds. On the way down the hill the rain was a little harder but the wind was a lot stronger. As I made the turn for the last time to ride the 25 or so miles back to the final turn around it was with a strong cross headwind that eventually became a cross tail. I was starting to feel some fatigue set in and could tell that the effort against the wind had taken a bit of a toll. I dropped the power a little bit but with the wind was still able to hold really good speed and the miles ticked away pretty quickly.
I got to the turn around where I would enter the Cardinal Greenway, a 6 or so mile stretch of false flat with not the best road surface leading back to the last two miles before T2. A young woman made the turn with me and we would yo-yo over the rest of this six mile stretch. (I would learn the next day that she won the 25-29 women’s AG). As we passed back and forth we chatted briefly about this stretch of the race and while it was nice to be on a quiet bike path with overhead dense canopy it was a tough stretch at the end of a long ride. We both enjoyed the company and the conversation to break things up.
When we emerged there was only the last couple of rolling miles to T2 and I made short work of it.
Bike 5:04 3rd AG/3rd place off the bike
Bike thoughts: I am really pleased with this ride. The Dimond is super comfortable and amazingly responsive and fast. I love the 1x drive train and feel it was perfectly suited to this course. I managed my nutrition and hydration to perfection. I wonder if my legs were a little tired from St George a couple of weeks earlier because I am a little surprised at the drop in power over the last hour but the overall impact of that was pretty negligible. All in all, just a really solid effort.
T2: no major issues but I did take too much time to have a really much needed and lengthy pee.
Run
I set off having zero idea where I was in the race. I only knew that I was at the pointy end of the field based on how few bikes were in transition when I started the run but for all I knew they could all belong to guys in my AG. I had pre-determined to run the first few miles to level of comfort being sure to always keep the pace slower than 8:00/mile and to try and average faster than 8:15/mile so long as that was comfortable. In the end, the first part of the run was mostly downhill and so my pace was pretty good and before long I settled in to an even 8:00-8:10 pace. Some guy in a blue Honduran national kit went by me at a good clip. Was he in my AG? Looked like he might be…who knew. Welcome to rolling starts without body marking!
My goals coming in to this race were to try and improve on my 3:38 at Louisville but as I clicked off more miles it soon became apparent that this was not a course for me to do that. There was very little flat on this run with continuous rolling and given the kind of runner I am I know that I can power up the inclines but I tend to pay a price over time. Still, I was making pretty good time as I made my way up and down those hills heading back to transition to make the turnaround for the second lap.
The out and back nature of the course meant frequent Cupcake sightings and even seeing my athlete Chad rocking a huge PR on his 70.3. I saw my new friend Bill a few times and old friend Tyler who urged me on when I was struggling.
At this point I was really starting to feel tired and I started to be overcome with the urge to just sit down. I knew what still needed to be done, I just felt less and less sure that there was any point in doing it. As I started the second lap I found someone with a phone who was gracious enough to walk along side me as they looked up the tracker for my AG. According to the tracker (13 miles in to the run) first place was long gone running away with things but there I was sitting in 4th and everyone from 2nd to 5th were bunched together within only a couple of minutes. This was both encouraging and at the same time discouraging because it meant I would have to dig deep for another thirteen miles!
For the moment I still thought that I could manage things. I was tired but not feeling like I was done. I had worked really hard on my long runs and was used to putting in big efforts at the end so this felt pretty similar. What I had not accounted for though was how much of a toll the continuous rolling hills had taken on my legs. Not just the ups but also the downs. The course was absolutely relentless and I was beginning to feel the effects of it right now.
I managed to hold my pace for a couple of miles but then the wheels came off. I started needing to walk the aid stations and then it became harder to start running again at the end of the aid stations. By the turn around I knew that I only had six miles to go but I was completely shattered. I was now needing to walk for increasingly long stretches. I would force myself to jog and then even run but then the hills would start and I would grind to a halt. It was really, really hard.
I began to believe that all was lost. I was certain that my podium spot was evaporating and I could not make myself move any faster. In my head I remembered something that my coach had told me just a couple of days before: ‘Late in the run, when things are difficult just keep pushing yourself to move because however you are feeling, chances are your competitors are feeling that way also’. His words could not have been more prescient.
I kept spurring myself forward. Walking every second aid station when I could, taking gels and fluids continuously, cooling myself and just spurring myself to keep running no matter how slowly.
With three miles to go I came up on my friend in the Honduras kit and passed him. He was struggling even more mightily than I was.
The last three miles were so hard but I just kept telling myself that I was running to a chair. It would all be over soon. And then, it was. I was entering the finisher chute and surprised to find it all to myself. I ran through the line and stopped the clock at 10:18:50.
Run thoughts. This was far from my best run and honestly nowhere close to what I think that I am capable of but I am unashamed to say that I grossly underestimated how hard this run course was and that I paid the price for that. I’m not sure if I had run significantly slower on the first lap if I would have managed a stronger second lap. In the end, really only the pure runners handled this course well. What I would soon learn is that amongst the rest of us, I did well at not falling apart. Or at least I fell apart less than everyone else. Still, not my best moment in an IM marathon but not my worst either.
Aftermath:
I was led to a picnic table by a nice volunteer who once satisfied that I wasn’t going to pass out or die, left me alone with my thoughts. I was pretty happy with 10:18 though it was painfully close to the 10 hour barrier that has long been a goal of mine. I felt certain that I had lost my podium spot but I asked the nice woman sitting next to me if I might borrow her phone to look at the results just to check.
Third.
I was astonished.
I was disbelieving.
I even told her that’s not accurate. Surely there is someone who is going to finish in a moment who will bump me down. and then, as we watched, someone did finish…below me in fourth. It began to dawn on me that I had finished THIRD! I quickly scrolled backwards through the results timeline to see how I had come off the bike in 3rd. The man ahead of me in second had blown up on the run and DNF’d. Another guy had passed me but all along, there I was, solidly in third pretty much right through the run. My friend in the Honduras kit WAS in my AG. He had passed me early but I passed him late and he ended in 4th. The whole thing was surreal.
I hobbled back to transition and then to my car where I sat and looked at my phone that had absolutely blown up with messages from so many people who had seen what I had done. It was absolutely overwhelming and I just broke down and had a good old fashioned cry right then and there.
I was completely over the moon and just beside myself at what I had accomplished. A 23 minute PR at the IM distance. Toughing out over a really hard run course to maintain my position.
My 7 IM times:
Canada 2004: 13:15
Coeur D’Alene 2005: 11:54
Arizona 2013: 10:41
Boulder 2018: 10:41 (5th place, KQ)
Kona 2018: 10:49
Louisville 2019: 9:08 (no swim)
Indiana 2021: 10:18 (3rd place)
This was the result of so much hard work and dedication and without the support of my family would never in a million years have come to pass.
Although I did not get a Kona slot awarded to me the day after the race, Ironman added slots to this race a couple of weeks later and I automatically qualified for the 2022 Ironman World Championships with this result.
Concluding thoughts.
OK, I’m in to the home stretch, I promise. Here are some thoughts and lessons learned that I am taking away from this whole event:
Consistency is king
There is really no other way to put it. I have been a model of consistency for the past three years and I have zero doubt that my continuing successes are attributable to this fact more than anything else. And it isn’t just about hitting all my workouts, it is about hitting them all with good quality. I never just go through the motions, I always approach every workout with the same intent; that this one day could be critical to getting me to my goal. It is not like I never miss a workout but it is exceedingly rare and the fact is, I believe that the sum total of all of those individual efforts is what gets you to the finish. Since January my training has looked like this:
102 hours of swimming for 320,000 m
286 hours of biking for 8460 km
125 hours of running for 1440 km
This was accomplished by training almost every day.Ironman is a team sport
Without the support and buy in of my amazing family there is no way that I could train as much as I do nor have the successes that I have. Make your family part of the process. Make sure they understand what they are getting in to as much as what you are getting in to. I have made a lot of sacrifices to get where I am but I continually acknowledge that they have as well and by constantly ensuring that I am infringing on them as little as possible it is doable to ensure that everyone is in a state of happiness with what is going on. Keep communication lines open and make sure that everyone in on board right from the start otherwise reassess your goals and objectives.Keep nutrition simple
I use ZERO supplements, ZERO fad diets and no ridiculous electrolyte or salt tablets on course. Nutrition for long distance triathlon just does not have to be that complicated. Eat sensibly in training, go easy on the alcohol (or, like me skip it altogether) and for goodness sakes, eat carbs! Your body wants them and uses them over ten plus hours. I don’t need CGM to show me that my sugar goes up after eating, I don’t need to intermittently fast, I just eat normal foods (mostly plant based-a personal choice) and on race day fuel exactly how I practiced in training. Do the same and you will be fine.Plan your race and race your plan
I have said this a million times and will keep saying it.Focus on the things you can control and be prepared for everything else but tune it out
The amount of insanity and energy wasted by people on crap that is out of their control never ceases to amaze me. I plan and prepare for all eventualities but give exactly zero fu%ks about any of them unless they come to pass.Enjoy the process, enjoy the day
I will close on this. If you don’t like the training, if you don’t like the volume then don’t do Ironman. There are shorter distances that you can do and even other kinds of endurance sport. Personally, I LOVE the process of preparing for an IM. I love the fitness I get and the body shape that it gives me. I love how my kids have changed their own attitudes about putting in hard work and about fitness in general and I love the races. Triathlon is incredibly empowering and I will never stop loving it.
Last but not least….podium place ROCKS! :-)
