porterb
06-05-2009, 06:29 AM
so here is my race report. pictures will be forthcoming in the near future.
i set two alarms...but even the best laid plans go awry. the alarms were set for the weekday and lo and behold it was a weekend. so things got off to a late start but after a quick breakfast provided by the hotel, i headed to the race start.
so the swim. before the swim there was this dog. super excited, little, and white. running up and down the beach. the volunteers were all holding this banner, they were a gate that would open eventually to let the dam break. there was not countdown, just a cannon. that was a bit of a surprise. swim was rough. sighting very frequently, breathing only one side and always having to lift my head way out of the water. it was a constant switching of seeing just the murky water, waves, noise, maybe a buoy, but mostly other people. very very chaotic and i was proud of myself for handling the pressure and chaos as well as i did. finally time to head back in and with the waves at my back much much easier to do it. came out of the water, looked at watch, oh no 31 something and i came out of the water wayyyy too far to the left, had to run quite a ways to go through the tent. back out again. 2nd time seemed worse, far more waves, wonder why, adn they seemed to come in pairs which was bothersome. but it went much much faster which was good. after the 1st lap i really didnt want to get back in the water. so very happy to see that time was under 57 minutes. i dont know what that means. the swim didnt feel super fast but given my zig zagging and the conditions maybe i should look into more open water swimming races??? oh and also as i was approaching the shore my right hand suddently felt like it had stumbled into an acupuncture practice session...a jelly fish! stinging me! today, june 5th, it is still a little marked up but the pain only lasted maybe a half hour. still quite the surprise.
bike: after a good t1 bike was good. feeling good. legs didnt feel that good though for the fist 2 hours or so. dont ask me why. shoulders sore from the swimming, that has never happened before, it was literally my shoulder joints that hurt, not the muscles. bike was okay, not great. didnt feel super powerful, but i wasnt really trying to be super powerful. just keep a steady rhythm and power going through the whole thing. the wind made it a bit more challenging but it wasnt super windy. another challenge was that my HR monitor had decided to check out of the porter support club. it was working fine right before the race, even conveniently telling me that my hr was a good 130 just standing at the start line...the out and backs through the tunnel werent super fun but the views riding along the water were pretty good to keep one entertained. people passed me a fair bit, i guess due to the good swim time and the fact that the bike is my least strong leg. first loop was a bit slow and then slowed a bit more on the 2nd. however one highlight from the bike portion was managing to pee not once but twice on the bike. and on myself. i saw several people slowing down, lowering pants and peeing while still rolling along. this struck me as a bad idea due to the inherent loss of control of the bike...so when the urge came to pee, i went! much easier than i imagined. and just think of all the time i saved.
ahhhh so i was looking forward to the run so much. i have come to the conclusion that the run is my strength and so hoped to pass many people on the run. transition was seemless, didnt even need sunglasss or a visor due to the cloudy conditions. started out, i had done the pace conversions to min per km for this race even. the first k was too fast, 7:10 pace or so, but then the next 4k i worked very hard to bring the cart and horse under control to a pace healthily above 8 min/mile. i saw many people blazing out on the first miles and just thought to myself just wait my friends, just wait...
so the first loop, big hills. several of them. but, i tell myself, no sweat. just shorten your stride and pace dramatically and you will be fine. and i was. the first 15 miles went by, felt as though i was just gliding along. took in plenty of calories, said hello to a number of spectators and fellow competitors, and was really enjoying the marathon.
aaaaiieee then mile 15 things just ceased to be going so well. legs were punching their ticket and checking out of work. so i spent the next 11 miles doing some walking (d'oh!) and some painful running. towards the end, the last 8k, i was able to run a lot more consistently and finished with my mom! that was great. what bothered me the most was my mental attitude..during the run i found myself talking about giving ironman a break, etc, but luckily the poor attitude did not persist beyond the finish line. in fact, there are just 331 days left until the next one, ironman st. george! whooo boy.
one last note, race day was my moms birthday! so happy birthday again, mom! it was great to have her along for support and to share a bit of vacation.
okay one more last note...as i finish (finally) this race report, i am sitting in a LAN house in a very very very poor part of Brazil. so even as i reflect on the ups and downs of the race, the fact that i can even participate in this sport, let alone have a fancy bike, fly around the world, etc, is testament to how fortunate we all are. staying in a place like this, even though its only for a little while, serves well to remind me of this. if you want to find me on google earth, right now i am in the city of sobral, in the state of ceara, and on monday will go to sao luiz (st. louis) in the state of maranhao.
right so thanks for reading!
i set two alarms...but even the best laid plans go awry. the alarms were set for the weekday and lo and behold it was a weekend. so things got off to a late start but after a quick breakfast provided by the hotel, i headed to the race start.
so the swim. before the swim there was this dog. super excited, little, and white. running up and down the beach. the volunteers were all holding this banner, they were a gate that would open eventually to let the dam break. there was not countdown, just a cannon. that was a bit of a surprise. swim was rough. sighting very frequently, breathing only one side and always having to lift my head way out of the water. it was a constant switching of seeing just the murky water, waves, noise, maybe a buoy, but mostly other people. very very chaotic and i was proud of myself for handling the pressure and chaos as well as i did. finally time to head back in and with the waves at my back much much easier to do it. came out of the water, looked at watch, oh no 31 something and i came out of the water wayyyy too far to the left, had to run quite a ways to go through the tent. back out again. 2nd time seemed worse, far more waves, wonder why, adn they seemed to come in pairs which was bothersome. but it went much much faster which was good. after the 1st lap i really didnt want to get back in the water. so very happy to see that time was under 57 minutes. i dont know what that means. the swim didnt feel super fast but given my zig zagging and the conditions maybe i should look into more open water swimming races??? oh and also as i was approaching the shore my right hand suddently felt like it had stumbled into an acupuncture practice session...a jelly fish! stinging me! today, june 5th, it is still a little marked up but the pain only lasted maybe a half hour. still quite the surprise.
bike: after a good t1 bike was good. feeling good. legs didnt feel that good though for the fist 2 hours or so. dont ask me why. shoulders sore from the swimming, that has never happened before, it was literally my shoulder joints that hurt, not the muscles. bike was okay, not great. didnt feel super powerful, but i wasnt really trying to be super powerful. just keep a steady rhythm and power going through the whole thing. the wind made it a bit more challenging but it wasnt super windy. another challenge was that my HR monitor had decided to check out of the porter support club. it was working fine right before the race, even conveniently telling me that my hr was a good 130 just standing at the start line...the out and backs through the tunnel werent super fun but the views riding along the water were pretty good to keep one entertained. people passed me a fair bit, i guess due to the good swim time and the fact that the bike is my least strong leg. first loop was a bit slow and then slowed a bit more on the 2nd. however one highlight from the bike portion was managing to pee not once but twice on the bike. and on myself. i saw several people slowing down, lowering pants and peeing while still rolling along. this struck me as a bad idea due to the inherent loss of control of the bike...so when the urge came to pee, i went! much easier than i imagined. and just think of all the time i saved.
ahhhh so i was looking forward to the run so much. i have come to the conclusion that the run is my strength and so hoped to pass many people on the run. transition was seemless, didnt even need sunglasss or a visor due to the cloudy conditions. started out, i had done the pace conversions to min per km for this race even. the first k was too fast, 7:10 pace or so, but then the next 4k i worked very hard to bring the cart and horse under control to a pace healthily above 8 min/mile. i saw many people blazing out on the first miles and just thought to myself just wait my friends, just wait...
so the first loop, big hills. several of them. but, i tell myself, no sweat. just shorten your stride and pace dramatically and you will be fine. and i was. the first 15 miles went by, felt as though i was just gliding along. took in plenty of calories, said hello to a number of spectators and fellow competitors, and was really enjoying the marathon.
aaaaiieee then mile 15 things just ceased to be going so well. legs were punching their ticket and checking out of work. so i spent the next 11 miles doing some walking (d'oh!) and some painful running. towards the end, the last 8k, i was able to run a lot more consistently and finished with my mom! that was great. what bothered me the most was my mental attitude..during the run i found myself talking about giving ironman a break, etc, but luckily the poor attitude did not persist beyond the finish line. in fact, there are just 331 days left until the next one, ironman st. george! whooo boy.
one last note, race day was my moms birthday! so happy birthday again, mom! it was great to have her along for support and to share a bit of vacation.
okay one more last note...as i finish (finally) this race report, i am sitting in a LAN house in a very very very poor part of Brazil. so even as i reflect on the ups and downs of the race, the fact that i can even participate in this sport, let alone have a fancy bike, fly around the world, etc, is testament to how fortunate we all are. staying in a place like this, even though its only for a little while, serves well to remind me of this. if you want to find me on google earth, right now i am in the city of sobral, in the state of ceara, and on monday will go to sao luiz (st. louis) in the state of maranhao.
right so thanks for reading!