IMC '97 Race Report

After last year's Ironman Canada (IMC), I wanted to come back to do better. I had injured my knee (iliotibial band friction syndrome) in April of 1996 just after getting back from Antarctica. I was only up to 3 miles of running by IMC last year and didn't want to get reinjured so I walked 23.2 miles of the marathon for a rather poor time of 15:24:58. By the way, an Ironman triathlon is 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking, and 26.2 miles of running (a marathon). All pictures here are clickable to view at a larger size.

My goals for 1997 were to improve my time, to have fun, and to be trained well enough so that I would not get injured doing the race. So I hired Geoff Chase as my coach, mainly to help with running which was pretty much starting up from nothing. It was a long and hard year of training, but made much easier by training with Beth, who was also gearing up for IMC. We did A LOT of hard training, and trained to perform in the heat (IMC has always been in the 90's, except for last year when it was in the 100's!).

My goal times were about an hour for the swim, 5.5 hours for the bike, and 4 hours for the marathon. Toss in transitions for about 10:45-11.

We arrived in Penticton, British Columbia Wednesday night (race was to be on Sunday). The next couple of days seemed to pass with no problems. The hotel was good, we got registered without any hitches, and all of the equipment was fine. Having been up there last year really helped to smooth things out with everything that needed to be done before the race.

On race morning we had plenty of time to get ready. The weather was unseasonably cool and wet. It had rained the night (and day) before. I was hoping the heat would show up later in the day so my training would pay off. Last year, even walking most of the marathon, I actually passed folks who were really hurting from the heat. 'Twas not to be!

I warmed up in the water and then we had to move back to the starting line. I found Don Anderson from Mountain View Masters and stuck by him, since I knew that I'd have a great swim if I drafted him! He moved over to what I think was the pros' starting area; I went with him. Of course, it was a mob scene from the gun. I lost him immediately. I sprinted out and managed to start drafting really well. Near the first turn I had left my leader because he was straying too wide of the buoys. I was all alone in the water, but I figured things would soon bottle-neck at the two turns (and they did) so that I could find others to draft. The course is a triangle: one corner is the start/finish, and then there are two long sides (over a mile each) connected by a short third side. After the first turn I found a woman who was fast and stuck with her. I switched to some guy when she picked a bad line, but ended up back on her feet to the end. I gave up on recording my splits since my watch had been screwed up by being hit in the swim. Oh well. My official time was 59:10 which was good for a 1:34 per 100m, well below my cruise interval of 1:40 in the pool. I was happy. That was about a 4-5 minute improvement over last year, and I even beat some pros out of the water. The swim times were slow this year since the wind had picked up and it was quite choppy. My goal time was achieved.

I hurried during the transition but was thorough since I was going to be on the bike for a while. It was cool when I headed out but figured it would warm up. The first little hill was to break up packs but it seemed to build them up. It was funny to see athletes struggle up in huge gears. But I was in my 26 and the hills weren't steep. I think something was wrong. Was it the cold? Was I just off today? I made sure that I ate and drank plenty on the bike. I grabbed fluids at the aid stations as I rode by. The scariest thing was the down-hills crowded with triathletes that didn't handle their bikes too well.

On the way to Richter Pass the rain kicked in and I was drenched and cold. My feet were frozen. I was hoping for the climb just so I could warm up. So things weren't exactly going as planned. The headwind on Richter didn't help. Finally stopped for a bathroom break around mile 50. There was one section, the "out and back" where you have two turn-arounds and you pick up your food bag. It was bad pavement and everyone hated it. I saw a couple of folks near me fall over (too slow to be called crashes). As I entered the second turn-around to get my food bag, I saw the guy with my bag. Some one else with a nearby number must have been there then since my bag wasn't being held out and the guy was holding some one else's bag. Looking back now, I should have stopped to get my bag, but I wanted to keep going so I didn't. I just kept riding with most of my food gone.

The food set-up was working well: I got a Black Hole bag for food that mounts between the top, head, and down tubes. I had trained with and was using my Jetstream (water bottle in the aerobars for aerodynamic drinking; what'll they think of next?!).

Well, for the rest of the ride I grabbed what food I could from aid stations in addition to the fluids (people hold it out for you just like a feed-zone in a bike race). I never did warm up. Oh, my computer had been on the fritz too. Apparently the rain the night before wasn't good for it! I took it off a few times to get water out of the mounting area and it sort of worked sporadically. First I had cadence but no speed/distance, then I had the speed/distance, and finally just cadence on and off. It turns out that the magnet I had glued to the spinergy flew off and rain was responsible for the flakey cadence. Sigh. It was frustrating not knowing my speed or distance travelled.

My bike ride was officially 6:09:39 for an 18.2 mph average, but this includes both transitions. My guess is that the average was closer to 19 mph. This was slower than I had hoped (wanted at least a 20 mph average), but I figured the cold, rain, and wind had taken their tolls on me.

At this point I was at about a 7:10 time, and if I did 4 hours in the marathon I'd be just over 11, so I dismissed a sub-11-hour time.

I started the marathon and my legs felt dead. I wasn't tired, and I felt as though I had energy, but my legs just were, well, dead. Bummer. The first couple of miles were about 9:15's, and my goal pace was 9 minutes per mile. After a couple of miles of this, I resolved to just keep running except for bathroom breaks (which I hoped would be few). I made it 11 miles before I started walking rest-stops. Boy, I was just counting the miles. My pace was around 11-12 minutes per mile. At least the out-and-back course allowed me to see Beth and other friends as I went. As I approached the finish I could hear a bunch of shouting about 12 hours. I rounded the final turn, saw 11:58, and figured it would be neat to break 12, so I sped up and did it. After a 4:50:07 marathon for an 11:05 yucky pace, I finished in 11:58:56. Boy was I happy. I collected my things and waited for Beth. I knew she wouldn't be long and finished about 20 minutes behind me. Gee, if the race had been a few miles longer (running), she'd have caught me!

My finish was good for 228 out of 321 in my age group, and 862 overall out of 1650. My swim rank was 46 in my age group and 193 overall. My bike rank was 203 in my age group and 746 overall. My run was 269 in my age group and 1128 overall. Guess the run still needs work! ;-)

The only problem after the race was that our hotel room was on the second floor and there was no elevator. :-( Ouch!

So I'm happy with it. Given my heat training and the weather, I think I did about as well as I could have. I should have worn a lot more clothing on the bike, but who would have guessed after temperatures in the hundreds last year? It was a pretty bad day for technology considering what happened with my watch and the bike's computer. I certainly improved my time. Most of all I was happy that I came out of the race uninjured. I had a great time, but I think I'll not do another Ironman for at least a while. Are you reading this, Beth?! ;-)

Thanks to all of my training buddies at Mountain View Masters and the Palo Alto Running Club as well as Shaun, the owner of Magic Sports (a running store) and Mary Jo Chase. Special thanks to Coach Geoff Chase for all of the training plans and for teaching me how to run. Special special thanks to my tireless and indestructable training partner Beth Walker.

Back to Photos 1997