My race report, as posted in Endurance Nation:
Brief Background: 7th race @ Kona, following 10th KQ, @ Boulder. My plan was NOT to race, but try and enjoy myself both during my time on the Island (wife, son, sister+bro-in-law came as well) and on IM Day.
I felt just fine going into the morning. Dinner the night before, breakfast the morning of were all the same as I always have done. I had no hiccups with morning pier preparation, nor with getting to the start on time. Only slight issue was stepping on the scale @ body marking – I was as feared maybe a pound or two under what I had hoped would be my minimum weight, coming in @ 145# with shoes on.
My swim was 1:21:40; for comparison, my very first in ’06 was 1:18, my last two were 1:32 and 1:44. The goal was: “Enjoy Yourself”; I allowed 1:40 in my plan. I was swimming very easily. I was going 48 strokes/minute, which is my standard at all times. Even considering the neoprene pants I wore, I would call the swim a big plus. Transition was pretty routine; I’d planned on 10 minutes, used 7:30.
The bike went exactly as planned. It took 7:35 total time, I’d allowed 7:30. I stopped whenever I needed to refill my front bottle. I pee’d after 10 miles (did not in T1), again @ 38 and 75 miles. I drank every 10 minutes, all of my planned Infinit (1400 calories), about 20 oz of GE, and the rest water. I ate 1.67 clif bars (350 cal), and a bottle of EFS gel (450 cal) for a total of about 2300 cal, or 300 an hour, about my maximum I can get in. My numbers on the bike (the goal: “Take it Easy”): time – 7:18 moving; TSS 163; Kilojoules 2300; VI 1.126; Avg HR 103. That’a about as easy as I can go…
T2 was 9:45, same as planned; took advantage of the porta-potti in the tent to pee. The run started with the first 11 miles between 11:35 and 12:22 pace (13:14 for the mile includingPalani). I had planned 12:00-12:30. This is slower than my training runs on the island, and 70-100 s/mile slower than long run pace). My HR was 115-118 during those miles, what I always do my long runs at. I pee’d once at mile 11, after about 2 hours, so I felt I was hydrating OK. Everything seemed on track.
That got me to sunset and darkness, and I started to fade. It started with my right knee beginning to hurt (the bad one, with a ratty joint between the patella and femur), so I walked a fair amount the next few miles, which were 14:13, 15:56, and 13:58. My hands and feet started tingling, so I took two cups of chicken broth, two banana halves, some more gatorade, and some coke. That helped, so I began running again, but my calves were feeling like they would cramp if I really “ran”, so it was more of a jog/shuffle. My cadence thus went up from about 89/90 to 95/97. Also the knee was still hurting. Next mile was 12:12, then back up to 14. At an aid station coming back out the energy lab, I stopped at a table to take a coke. I must have looked terrible, because the volunteers asked if I were OK. I wanted to sit down, and once I did, I realised I was cold, shivering, with goosebumps, and my calves were fasiculating (very quick small quivering, like they would cramp if I stood up or tried to walk). Something in me told me I should not continue, even though I had more than 4 hours in which I could finish. I felt like pushing any further would not be fun, and I had no desire to spend the next three hours trying to get back to Ali’i via walking/shuffling/staggering. I’ve done too many of these to not enjoy myself. I ‘d gone 17 miles in 3:36 when I abandoned the race. I weighed 138 at the end, compared to 145 at the start, about 5% down.
Looking back, I might have finished if I had stopped for half an hour and refueled, hydrated, whatever, but I was really COLD, man, and worried about my knee. That’s the story.
I do not feel disappointed, mad or angry at myself. I had a great time this two weeks on the island. But given that I have now done 15 races between Xterra and IM in Hawaii, and only two of them were satisfying, I’m going to accept I can’t race here. Whether it’s my physiology or my psychology is irrelevant, I don’t know if I can bring myself to try anymore.
I’m entirely satisfied that I trained well, executed within myself, stayed fed and hydrated, and did not work too hard early on the run. I just couldn’t go more than about 3.5 hours on the run.
But I do want to follow through with the plan, which is to race Arizona.