Calgary 70.3 - Never count yourself out

Well...where to begin.

This was definitely my A-race for the season and I was super nervous to boot. I couldn't really pin-point a reason...there were several yet none?

Anyways, the night before the race I was in bed 8:30am reading for about an hour before I doozed off. I fell in and out of sleep for the next several hours until 3:00am rolled around and then I was full on awake.

I got up at 4:00am to load up the car and eat my breakfast which consisted of peanut butter toast with sliced banana on it...YUM! Before leaving I gave Mel and the dogs kisses.

Got down to the Casino around 5:15, got marked, dropped off my T2 bag and hopped on a bus for the trip out to Ghost Lake. I threw on my headphones and listened to some tuneage for the trip.

Upon arriving at the race site I immediately headed to my bike to pump the tires, and do a last minute check over. I ran into Darryl, Mark, and Trevor near my bike and chatted with the gents for a bit.

After that I farted around for a bit...dropped of my T1 bag, chatted with Chris and some other friends and hit the porta potty a few times. (They need way more next time around)

I wore my 2008 Lake Placid Ironman Finisher's Jacket to the race site...and as a result, had a few people come up to talk to me about the race last year. We recounted how much rain had fallen that day and what our experiences were as a result. Kinda cool to run into people, from completely ends of the earth, a year later at another race and location. The triathlon community is global...large yet small at the same time.

Midas's Swim
Around 8:00am I got into my wetsuit for the 8:30am swim. Did a quick warmup around 8:20am and then lined up in the water to get started. I decided to start front row and to the left and had to tread water for a few minutes while awaiting the start.

When the gun went off we hammered to the first buoy to try and avoid the crowd. Within the first 100m I was drafting along side some dude.. I spotted once to ensure he was to the front-left of me...then when I put my head back down and came around to breath I got kicked square in the face. It is the first time I took a full on blow in the face and my right eye took the brunt of it. That really hurt. I popped up to suck in some air before moving away from my draft and eventually passing him.

It took me a good 500m to get the heart rate settled down. My chest felt tight and I couldn't get enough air in. As a result, I was breathing every second stroke. Eventually things settled and I was golden.

I found sighting the buoys really difficult as they were too far apart. A couple of times I had to stop and pop up to take a peek at where I was and where I needed to go. I deviated off course twice but were able to correct myself before going too far.

I was on my own with no draft for about 90% of the swim. On the way back I eventually caught up to the heat in front of me before the last turn to shore. At that point the waves were huge and I slowed down a little bit because I was having trouble breathing between the waves.

When I got back to shore I hauled ass through transition as best as I could. Once changed I felt like I was running forever down to get my bike, then forever back out the other end to begin the bike.

Blue's Bike
Beginning the bike, I lost part of nutrition but didn't stop to pick it up as I had enough to get by anyways. The first 65km went well. I rode steady but not too hard. Between 65km - 70km I hit a little bit of a rough patch but I think that was mainly due to not taking in any nutriton recently. From there to about the 90km mark I felt awesome. Once I hit 90km I started to get some pains in my lower abdomen. The last 6km into tranistion two were a little rought. I felt, thirsty, bloated, and had some stomach pains.

By the time I reached T2 I believe I was somewhere around 3rd in my age group. But at the point I knew I was in trouble as I wasn't feeling too good. Had a super slow transition before starting the 21km march.

Mabel's Run
The first 1.5km into the run were absolutely painful. It felt like someone was squeezing my lower abdomen while stabbing a knife into each side. I stopped into a porta-potty after the first aid station but did nothing to relieve my abdomen woes. I trugded on for the next several km's...jogging and walking. I got the opportunity to see Chris shortly after the first big down hill. I was excited to see a friend on the course and we high-fived as we passed each other. Shortly after that I ran into Keith and wished him luck.

At the 7km Darryl came ripping by me. He looked super strong and was on his way to a well earned 3rd spot overall in our age group!

Around 9km I had a little bit of a panic attack. I couldn't get my stomach to settle down and the sharp stabbing pains were becoming a little frightening. I gave consideration to just calling it quits but for some reason let the idea pass.

Meanwhile, I was trying everything at the aid stations...water, coke, powerade...nothing seemed to work. After a few minutes of drinking, I would get sick.

At km 16 I made myself throw up along the pathway to see if that would ease something. After emptying the tank I still felt like shit. Oh well, only 5 more km's to go.

I walked a lot of the last little bit - with 1km to go I figured I would try and run. With a about 100m to the finish line I saw a couple of people in my age group and figure I would try and beat them to the finish line. You never know, maybe the extra spots will get me a roll down to Clearwater.

The finish was a blur...at that point I was a total over-heated bag of shit. I drooled all over my catchers and as a result earned a chair in the med tent with a couple of ice packs and a COLD glass of water. [The water on the course was effin warm!]. After several minutes I was good to go and wandered around for a bit to find some familiar faces.

I eventually gathered up my belongings and made my way back to the casino to my car. I dropped everything in the parking lot, got in the car, started it, and just cranked the AC for a few minutes.

I called a couple of family members before making my way back down to the race site. Our friend Jill had won her age group so I wanted to stick around and see her get her award. During the awards ceremony/roll downs it became clear that I might actually get lucky and get a spot to Clearwater.

After much anticipation, I was one of the lucky ones to get awarded a roll down spot to the World Championships in Clearwater, Fl in Nov. Thank-you to the 8 people in front of me who, either didn't take the spot, or weren't there to claim one.

Even without a Clearwater spot, I was oddly satisfied with my race performance. I exceeded my expectations for the swim and bike.

The run was a whole other beast that I have to tackle. I am going to be working with my friend Katie to go over my nutrition and if it is contributing to my stomach issues on the run. She has a wealth of knowledge on the subject so I am really thankful she is going to help me out with this.