Race Day - Broke my PB and chain along the way...

Morning Pre-Race Report

It's 6:18 am and I'm in my hotel room waiting for the race to start, so I figured I'll do a little pre-race blogging. I'm all checked in, numbered and because my hotel is right beside the transition zone, I'm sitting in the comfort of my room relaxing, eating my bagel and drinking my coffee. I get to relax here for the next hour. I'm not daring to lie down, in the fear that I'll fall asleep and miss the race.

I had a dead sleep last night. The alarm went off and I had no idea where I was or what the alarm noise meant. I didn't wake up once last night. Like I said, it was a dead sleep. So far everything is going according to plan, I feel good and it looks like the wind going to be light. I just found out that the swim is going to be a time trail start, which suits me fine, "no washing machine".

Post Race

It's over!!! The good news is I finished the year off with a couple of PB's. But it wasn't without drama.

The morning was uneventful, other than a full bladder at the start. I got to the start line of the swim and before I knew it I was in the water and swimming. Before I got in the water I tried to relieve myself in my wetsuit, but only got about half out before I got in the water.

I swam controlled and not all out. My mind wanted to go all out hard, but my body didn't. With that said, I did feel like I was going at a good pace. Early on in the swim I went off course. I was too lazy to keep sighting regularly. I finally corrected myself and started swimming close to the buoys. As a matter of fact, I was so close that I actually hit three of them and two of them I had to go underwater to get around because I was so close. I also had new goggles and had to stop a couple of times to drain the water. They were leaking on the left eye.

The end of the swim was a challenge because all the swimmers had to converge into a 10 foot wide lane in order to get up the stairs and out of the water. There was lots of congestion and banging into each other. The stairs were steep and slippery which made it even more difficult. I had a good swim and got out of the water in 34:57 according to my watch. My transition was poor, I took way to long because I had trouble getting my wetsuit off. It just wouldn't come off my ankles and wrists.

The minute I got on the bike I hammered. I've learnt that if you want a fast bike time you've got to start out fast. It's impossible to get back that lost time if you go slow at the beginning. No negative splits on the bike and you have to fight through the fear of bonking. I was going for broke. For the first part of the bike it was congested, big time. As much as you didn't want to draft it was tough to avoid.

After about 20 km it started to open up. Everyone was fast. I passed more than passed me, but just barely. It was a little surreal riding with guys who were jockeying for position with me from Switzerland, France and Germany. I was shocked at how low my heart rate was. I was going 43 kph and it was at 139 bpm. By the 70 km mark my average was 40.6 kph. I was really happy with my time. I figured if I averaged 38 kph I'd be happy, now I had a chance to blow that away and average 40 kph. Tour de France Speed.

The only part of the ride that was a little discouraging was the drafting. There was a couple of groups that were blatantly drafting. At first I was jealous and had to tell myself that this is an individual sport and my time will be what "I" did on my own. At one point, I realized that drafting is also dangerous. One guy had wiped out on the road and had all kinds of medical support. It looked serious. No doubt drafting gone bad. I felt bad for him, but it reaffirmed that not drafting has benefits.

I had 12 km left to finish on the bike and "snap", my chain broke!!! I looked down, hoping it just came off the chain ring. Nope, it was broken. At that moment, another triathlete passed me and sincerely said "that sucks". He was right, it sucked. I coasted it down until I stopped at an intersection. My mind started thinking of options. I looked at my speedometer and I was 12 km to the transition zone. I started thinking about running with my bike to get there. When I did the math, I realized that if I run to the transition zone and then have to run the half marathon, I'd end up running close to a full marathon and that would hurt a lot.

At the intersection there was some spectators cheering. I started to think that maybe one of them lived close by and had a kids bike or something I could use. In less time than I could fully think through those two options, a bike support scooter showed up. From the time I stopped it was only about a minute wait and he appeared. I asked him if he had a chain, thinking it was a long shot and he said "yes". In no time he had the new chain on the bike, trimmed it down and secured it.

While he was doing the repair I went around a nearby tree and took a pee. I was trying to go pee off the bike for most of the ride and couldn't get it started. I was not planning to stop to pee until the race was over, I didn't want to jeopardize my finishing time. This being a forced stop, it was the perfect time to relieve myself. What a difference it made. Before going, I was so uncomfortable. The bladder was full. Actually, in hindsight, it was so bad I think I would have had to stop to pee regardless.

The bike repair guy didn't take long, it took exactly 4:55 . I was so grateful and couldn't believe I was back in the race. I hammered to the bike finish and officially finished in 2:20:55. But, according to my bike speedometer I did it in 2:17:03. I ended up having a good transition from the bike to the run.

For the first 3 miles of the run I was averaging a 6:58 per mile pace. It was a tough run. It was two loops and we had a long and high climb over the causeway bridge. In was basically climbing 4 large and long hills about half a mile long each and it was a total of 2450 ft of climbing overall. I passed a lot of people on the run. For the first loop my legs felt great. I kept looking at my watch because I knew if I pushed it I could break 4:40. One thing I didn't fully disclose on yesterday's blog was that my true finishing time goal was 4:38. I didn't want to give that exact number in fear that I'd jinx it or look stupid if I didn't do it.

Here I was, after a major bike mishap, having the opportunity to finish with a PB under 4:40. I ran as hard as I could. The remarkable thing was that I only averaged 151 bpm for the entire run. It was a hot run as well. There was not a cloud in the sky and virtually no shade. Once I hit the two miles to go mark, I tried to go as hard as I could. I didn't want to have any regrets and miss breaking 4:40 by seconds. As I was getting within the last kilometer I knew I had it. Now I wanted to make sure it wasn't over 4:38.

I ended up finishing at 4:37:50. I did it! I set a PB on the bike and a PB for a half Ironman. I know you can't look back at what could have been and that races are about "expecting the unexpected", but I can't but think my finishing time could have been 4:32:45 with out the chain problem. Un-Fricken-Believable!!! That's fast. I had the race of my life. I peaked at the right time and eating well and not drinking beer for the last 20 days paid off. No Regrets!!!

After the race I felt great. Five minutes later my stomach was rumbling and it was straight to the porta-potty. For the next two hours I went to the washroom 9 times, and still counting. I took some Imodium, but it's not working yet. For lunch I had a gourmet burger. My body knew it wanted it the minute it saw it on the menu. I ate and then had to head back to the room and lie down, my bowels are rumbling. I think for the rest of the day I'll need to be close to a bathroom.

I have some observations about this race. First it is REALLY well organized. Just the fact that they had bike support crews along the course makes a big difference. That's one reason an Ironman sanctioned event is worth paying for. Had I not had it, I may have not finished and I definitely wouldn't have PB'd. The worst part would have been the rumination of not finishing for years to come.

The second observation is that everyone is fit looking. No want-a-be's. I kept telling Alice and the kids, "look at these athletes, they look so fit"! Alice and Alyssa looked at me odd and said, "you look the same, what are you talking about". That felt good and obviously I need to work on my self-image.

The third observation is that THIS IS A RACE!!! There is no people here just to finish. Whether it was on the bike or the run, everyone was going hard. Normally in a race you pass by some people like they are standing still. Or you see people struggle with grimaces on their faces. Not here. Even the slow people were pretty fast. I actually enjoyed the purely racing attitude. It's unlike any triathlon I've ever been in.

The fourth observation is that everyone, including the spectators, are serious. Normally, when I wear the captains hat I get a hundred or more people cheering me on. Including at least 30 plus triathletes. This race I probably had ten spectators and three triathletes comment about the hat. Everyone here is "hard core". No one is cheering you on to finish.

The fifth observation is that you don't look at people in your age group and wonder which ones are the fast ones. Everyone here is fast. You immediately have automatic respect for everyone who is here because you know they are home town hero triathletes. I also noticed that for this race they don't put the competitors age on the calve. I kinda liked that, it forced you to just run your own race.

The final observation is their is a lot of non-English speaking people racing. I heard more foreign languages being spoken than English. It also seems all the German triathletes are tall and strong looking. They look like biking animals.

All in all this was a great experience. I ended up buying another $357 worth of finishers clothing after the race, which puts my total clothing expenditures at just over $800. I thought I was joking when I said I was going to spend $1000. With the U.S. exchange, I probably did spend $1000 Canadian.

The worst part of this race is that I know I could have posted a faster official time. Had I not had the chain mishap, I would have had my ultimate race. Now, I know I'm capable of posting a better time. It's bitter sweet. Frankly, I don't want to have to race that hard ever again.

It turns out I wasn't the only Payne to break their chain. Reid and his cousins rented a pedal car and they broke that chain while riding it. I should have changed my chain before the race. I think the problem originated when I did a ride at lake placid and the chain got twisted and bent out of shape and needed fixing. That probably weakened it. The good news is I now have replaced it and it didn't cost me anything.

Now it's time to pack up my bike and gear. Then we are going to have a 13th birthday dinner for Reid. It's strange, the last time Alice and I were in Clearwater was 13 years and 9 months ago for a convention. I can't remember what the convention was for, but I do remember the fun we had in Clearwater.

Official Times / Unofficial

Swim - 35:16

T1 - 4:16

Bike - 2:21:02 / 2:16:03

T2- 2:32

Run - 1:34:44

Finish - 4:37:50 / 4:32:45

Finish Position Stats to follow.