I finished IM WIsconsin yesterday; here's a few observations:
Registration: If you want to do this race next year, sign up NOW - last
year, it closed in
less than 24 hours, but after this year's conditions, that may
deter some people.
Weather: The average temperature for this date in Madison is 73F. For
the last three years,
it has been 85-90F. This year was the worst: hit 87 by 11AM, and went
to to 92 by 1 PM,
staying there until 4. Still 85 at sunset, 7:15 PM. Not oppressive,
Hawaii type humidity, but
if you've ever spent time in the Midwest, well, you know the scene.
Water 76, Air 70 At
swim start. Wind picked up after 10 AM, which was a problem in a few
sections of the
circular bike course, but was a great boon coming home, as it was at
our backs for the last
20+ miles, a mostly gentle downhill. WHEE!
Course: The water was WARM, upper limits of wetsuit legal. My new T1
let me go a minute
faster than CDA, but my HR was 10 bpm higher than there, due to the
overheating, I
guess. The bike course is billed as "relentlessly hilly", and I guess
it is, but, for
comparison, the Peninsula Metric Century 100 miler on Kitsap in June is
a tougher route.
The only shade on the course was during the "climbs", which were
peopled by small
crowds a al Tour de France - narrowing the road, ringing cowbells in
your face, etc. The
pavement was mostly good smooth asphalt, or smooth chip seal (they use
smaller rocks
than Pierce County seems to, with more tar over them). A very fair bike
course. The run
was all through downtown Madison and the UW - we ran through the empty
football
stadium twice, along the lake for a while, with a couple of small hills
(very short) thrown
in. One of the "hills" was actually a pedestrian overpass over a main
highway. Aid stations
were closer than 1 mile in some cases, which was a bit confusing for me
as I was walking
each station - so I ended up walking more than I wanted.
Results: Based on the pros' times, comments from other racers, and the
20% (!) DNF rate -
I believe the highest ever for an Ironman - the conditions were brutal.
Times in general
seemed to be 30-90 minutes slower than competitors' previous efforts.
My result: I had to use every single heat dissipating trick I know:
sponges on the shoulder,
ice water saturating my hair (longer hair is better for this!), ice
cubes down the suit in
various location (a one-piece tri-suit is the best option for this),
double drinks (at least 12
ounces) at every aid station, staying away from water, slugging
gatorade, coke, and
chicken broth, taking salt tabs and e-caps Race Caps hourly starting at
two hours in, and
just going SLOWER, to survive the day. I managed to run the whole run
(except for aid
stations), but after the temp got over 86 (my personal physiologic
limit for "racing"), my
pace started to drop from my plan (which was first based on getting to
the run in good
shape, and second, based on HR - in the heat, more of your blood flow
is tied up cooling
the skin and gut, so less is available for muscle work). I did manage
to once again finish
fourth in my AG (third straight time I've done that), once again be a
bridesmaid for Kona
(ditto). But I did finish 400th overall (out of 2090 starters), my
highest Ironman finish ever,
and I did keep running to the end. Combined with staying out of the med
tent, and only
losing 6 pounds, I'd call it overall a successful day.