Gary’s Fitness Blog

The Flying Pig was my second marathon in 8 days, as I ran the Country Music Marathon the Saturday before. I have been asked a lot of questions about why I would want to do this, especially because of the training I was doing prior to these runs (i.e. lack of specific marathon training).
I want to answer some of those questions, but I would like to address those in a separate post. I’ll title it; Things I learned by running two marathons in 8 days: And how these lessons can help you. (I’ll write that post soon and come back here and link to it.)

Right now, I want to focus on the Flying Pig Marathon itself. The course, the race organization, how I ran and how much I enjoyed it.

The basic statistics for my run are here: Flying Pig Marathon Stats

The Flying Pig Marathon Course:

There is no doubt that the marathon course is not the easiest course that I’ve run. I ran the marathon back in 2003 and remember it being challenging. This past weekend it did not disappoint. The one change since the last time I ran it was that the Kentucky loop was at the very beginning of the race, opposed to being at the end. This is a welcomed change because running over the bridges at the beginning on fresh legs was much easier than I remember running them on tired and weary legs towards the finish. Even though they weren’t demanding on my legs, they posed a challenge for me to keep my heart rate down where I wanted it - so I had to incorporate a lot of self-restraint during that section.

As you run back into Ohio, the course doesn’t get forgiving. The hills keep coming in a continuous pattern, and once you get to mile six, you have a pretty steady uphill run for approximately 2 miles. This early into the run, it is essential to not get too excited (or discouraged) by the hill. It’s way too early to spend all your extra energy.

Looking at the elevation chart they have of the course, you would think that after the half way point, you would be gradually running downhill the rest of the race. While there are not as many climbs as the first half, the second half still has it’s challenges and is by no means a flat or fast finish.

The two things that I really love about this course is the scenery. Having just run the Country Music Marathon, I can make a pretty decent comparison to it (and similarly to the Rock N Roll in Arizona), and personally I think the Flying Pig is the most scenic and appealing course of the group. The other great thing about the course was the crowd support. If you listen to the podcast, I will mention a couple spots during the course where it just feels like miles that people are stretched out on both sides of the run. I don’t remember getting too lonely at any particular time during the run (opposed to the Derby Festival Marathon), even though a few periods were more sparse than others.

Overall, I have to rank the marathon as difficult to run, but worth the work. (Hard to believe that my marathon PR is still on this course?).

Oh yeah - I forgot to mention - They have the best swag of any marathon by far. They gave out towels, medals, posters, t-shirts (all typical) but they also gave out a very nice Flying Pig duffle bag. This is something they’ve given out both years I’ve run it.

How I ran the race:

I was very happy with how the race turned out, especially considering how I went into the race. The hard thing for me to accept at times is not being on top-of-my-game. What I mean by this is that I am not so competitive with myself that I can’t run a race to have fun and just enjoy the event; but when I have a day like Sunday, I have a lot of - “if I only did x” - thoughts.

There will be a lot of discussion about strategy, training and all the other performance variables in a marathon program in the “lessons I learned” post. But there is one thing that I’d like to highlight here, which will be worthy of repeating many times:

A walk - run strategy is a very effective methodology and race strategy for most runners doing a marathon, and essential (in my opinion) for first time marathoners.

I realize that this is a concept that I have talked a lot about in the past (like.. here, here, here), but it is so useful that it is worth discussing on a regular basis.  Because it is useful doesn’t mean it is an easy methodology to implement; in fact I have found it is the most difficult teaching lesson for 85% of the runners that ask me for help.  They often feel defeated when they resort to a run/walk pattern, they are sometimes told they are not “true runners” (kid you not!).

That is the great thing about this journey of endurance.  We get to learn about our bodies and what they can do physically, our minds and what it can handle, our egos and what it controls and our spirits and where they will take us.

My run walk strategy for the Flying Pig was pretty simple - walk 20 seconds at every aid station.  This was changed early into the marathon because I was having a difficult time managing my heart rate (ego) and pushed that 20 second walk to 30 seconds.  There were times early on that I felt like the aid stations were very close together and was walking too often, but I stuck to the program I decided on prior to the race.

Towards the end of the race, I moved back to a 20 second walk and skipped the final aid station around mile 25 (was shooting for 3:20 at this point).

It was a very satisfying experience.  To put myself in a race that I’ve done before, in a condition that wouldn’t allow me to have a personal best, and then be able to mediate all the negative thinking, push my ego to the back seat while I tried to develop a better understanding of how my mind interacts with my body, to take the time and enjoy the crowd, to view the scenery - and then for a few miles - allow my body to experience pain.

It was a great experience.  I have often wondered what I will do when I get to an age that it becomes unlikely that I will be able to set new personal records or race longer races - Will I continue to race?

After this weekend, I think I can say yes.  And while that answer will come one day, I have found the better (and more self-rewarding) competitions are between my ego, body, mind and spirit.  Not with a training partner or a clock.

Taking that lesson into all of my races will be a challenge, I am sure.

So I made it to the Flying Pig Marathon this weekend and did another podcast from the course. I’ll write a race report regarding why, how and all the other lessons soon. And I’ll try and get the audio edited and the podcast up later this week. For now here are the stats:

One note - they had a fire on the course and had to change the route around mile 20. I don’t really know how that changed the splits.. but it is a part of the info I guess. (If nothing else it gives us all a “I had to run a marathon that was ‘x’ longer once” story).

lap 1 - 1.02 miles / 7:48 / 7:39 pace / 170 bpm
lap 2 - 0.94 miles / 7:02 / 7:32 pace / 164 bpm
lap 3 - 1.09 miles / 8:12 / 7:32 pace / 164 bpm
lap 4 - 1.01 miles / 7:12 / 7:08 pace / 163 bpm
lap 5 - 1.01 miles / 7:39 / 7:34 pace / 166 bpm
lap 6 - 1.03 miles / 7:49 / 7:36 pace / 161 bpm
lap 7 - 1.01 miles / 8:31 / 8:28 pace / 165 bpm
lap 8 - 1.01 miles / 7:57 / 7:52 pace / 166 bpm
lap 9 - 1.01 miles / 7:41 / 7:38 pace / 164 bpm
lap 10 - 1.02 miles / 7:16 / 7:10 pace / 164 bpm
lap 11 - 1.00 miles / 7:09 / 7:09 pace / 163 bpm
lap 12 - 1.04 miles / 7:45 / 7:30 pace / 164 bpm
lap 13 - 1.02 miles / 7:24 / 7:16 pace / 169 bpm
lap 14 - 1.01 miles / 7:13 / 7:09 pace / 170 bpm
lap 15 - 1.01 miles / 7:10 / 7:06 pace / 171 bpm
lap 16 - 2.02 miles / 15:04 / 7:29 pace / 171 bpm * missed lap
lap 17 - 0.98 miles / 7:16 / 7:25 pace / 174 bpm
lap 18 - 1.05 miles / 7:50 / 7:28 pace / 170 bpm
lap 19 - 0.98 miles / 7:33 / 7:43 pace / 175 bpm
lap 20 - 1.01 miles / 7:51 / 7:46 pace / 175 bpm
lap 21 - 1.01 miles / 7:37 / 7:31 pace / 174 bpm
lap 22 - 1.04 miles / 7:50 / 7:33 pace / 178 bpm
lap 23 - 1.03 miles / 7:34 / 7:24 pace / 180 bpm
lap 24 - 1.02 miles / 7:46 / 7:39 pace / 181 bpm
lap 25 - 1.22 miles / 8:50 / 7:15 pace / 183 bpm
lap 26 - 0.23 miles / 1:33 / 6:47 pace / 191 bpm

Race Result Splits:
6.8 - 53:16
12 - 1:32:52
13.1 - 1:40:16
19.7 - 2:28:36
25.2 - 3:13:35
26.2 - 3:20:40

Other Notes:
1. I walked every aid station but the very last one (wanted to go for 3:20). I used a mixture of 20 second and 30 second walk breaks. To learn more about this, you’ll have to check out the podcast. It is something that I mentioned several times.

2. I actually negative split a marathon! This is a first time… well…. I ran 1:40:16 the first half and 3:20:40 for the marathon. I guess this is the “if only” story I get to tell about this marathon. If the marathon was only 26.2 miles and not 26.x miles, it would have been a negative split - right?

Logbook Activity

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/04/2008
• Total Time: 3:20:40.00
• Average Heart rate: 170
• Max Heart rate: 193
• Calories: 3120
• Distance: 26.8 miles
• Average Pace: 7:29.44/mile

This race was a little bit different for me, so the race report will be a little different. In this report, I will not include race strategy or performance details. I posted the race data from my Garmin yesterday, that should be enough to explain that side of the race.

I ended up getting into the Country Music Marathon on a last minute whim. Here’s how that happened: Nikki was planning on running the Derby Half Marathon and had trained for that race. A little over a week ago, she got an email saying that the Derby Half Marathon and Marathon was full. Her comment to me was,

“I guess you are not doing the race”

Which was fine with me because I wasn’t really excited about doing the Half Marathon anyway. Then I asked,

“I don’t think you signed up either. I don’t remember getting the receipt for your registration?”

It turned out that she hadn’t signed up. She ended up calling a friend (Jill) that was doing Country Music and decided to go to Nashville. Long story short, Nikki ended up not being able to travel with Jill… Nikki was going to go alone… I said I would go with her… I decided to sign up to do the full marathon.

The Marathon Course - the scenery

The half and full marathon runners are together until the 11 mile mark. While the first half of the marathon has some scenic areas (actually a couple different scenic neighborhoods), the full marathon offers an even better enviornment to run through.

There are two stretches after the courses seperate that were very refreshing. The first section was an approximately 1.5 mile stretch that was along a bike path that was along the river. While there were no spectators during that section, it was nice to get out of the streets and run with Jill in a peaceful and more relaxing setting.

The second section was between miles 23 and 25. That section was a loop through a park, evoking similar peaceful thoughts. A welcomed thought when you are at those portions of the marathon.

The Marathon Course - the terrain

I ran the 2004 Country Music Marathon and since that time I’ve been telling people that the course was a flat race. I apologize to anyone that I’ve given this advice. The course is not flat. It is not a particularly fast course either.

There are many sections during the course that have some type of hilly terrain - it never has a long stretch (multiple miles) of running that is forgiving or that would allow you to pull back large amounts of time lost on previous hill climbs.

Nashville as a host city

I just completed the Rock N Roll Marathon in Arizona this past January; given that the race was put on by the same race organization, I think it is fair to compare the two events. I personally enjoyed the venue, course and atmosphere of the Country Music Marathon more than the Rock N Roll in Arizona.

The one thing that made my experience in Arizona so rewarding was the Team in Training involvement, but overall, Nashville is more my style. Not only do I enjoy country music, but the downtown in Nashville and the entertainment options in Nashville are more appealing.

Lodging

We signed up late for the race and were left seeking hotel space at the last minute. We ended up staying at a Quality Inn off of Interstate 24, which was about 3 miles fromt he finish (Titan’s Stadium). A perfect location because it is easy to get to the stadium and they have buses running to the start line.

As we checked into the room I thought we had got lucky, as the lobby was clean and modern. Our room turned out to be “the worse room we’ve ever stayed in,” (a quote from my never-likes-to-complain wife). Besides the damp and mold / moist smell, it felt like it was two feet from the interstate traffic. In fact, after a couple hours of trying to sleep, Nikki got up and went and tried to sleep on the bathroom floor to get away from the noise.

That’s all I say about that. The hotel that Jill stayed in was a nice place that was on West End. I don’t remember the hotel’s name, but it was across from the Blackstone Restaurant and Brewery. A great place to get something to eat. I had the porter, which I can recommend, along with the Buffalo Burger; great post race recovery food!

Final Thoughts

I have now done the Country Music Marathon twice. It is on the top of my favorite marathon list to this point. For those of you doing a 50 States and DC challenge, I suggested making the CMM your Tennesse stop.

This race was personally satisfying. Running with my wife and a good friend and just enjoying the day is a great way to spend a Saturday - add in another 30,000(ish) runners and it becomes a party.

So I decided to head to Nashville with Nikki and thought that I’d jump into the race and run the half marathon with her and then run the full with her running partner (and our friend) - Jill. It was a lot of fun. I’ll write up a race report later, I also used my podcasting recorder during the race, so hopefully I can get that edited this week.

Here are the stats from my Garmin: I tried to use the mile markers on the race course, not the mile labs on the Garmin. They were about .2 miles different. I also missed the split at mile 11, so there are only 25 laps.

lap 1 - 1.08 miles / 8:50.17 / 8:10 pace / 152 bpm
lap 2 - 0.94 miles / 8:04.43 / 8:38 pace / 152 bpm
lap 3 - 1.00 miles / 8:26.60 / 8:24 pace / 154 bpm
lap 4 - 1.03 miles / 8:10.25 / 7:57 pace / 154 bpm
lap 5 - 1.00 miles / 7:45.44 / 7:47 pace / 154 bpm
lap 6 - 1.01 miles / 8:08.40 / 8:01 pace / 153 bpm
lap 7 - 1.00 miles / 8:17.58 / 8:16 pace / 157 bpm
lap 8 - 1.02 miles / 8:09.17 / 8:00 pace / 153 bpm
lap 9 - 0.99 miles / 7:31.55 / 7:35 pace / 155 bpm
lap 10 - 1.01 miles / 7:29.53 / 7:23 pace / 154 bpm
lap 11 - 2.01 miles / 16:37.95 / 8:18 pace / 155 bpm
lap 12 - 1.02 miles / 8:24.17 / 8:16 pace / 147 bpm
lap 13 - 1.02 miles / 8:31.90 / 8:22 pace / 153 bpm
lap 14 - 1.01 miles / 8:14.04 / 8:08 pace / 152 bpm
lap 15 - 1.02 miles / 8:59.58 / 8:48 pace / 151 bpm
lap 16 - 1.01 miles / 8:46.80 / 8:42 pace / 153 bpm
lap 17 - 1.00 miles / 8:56.10 / 8:55 pace / 148 bpm
lap 18 - 1.01 miles /8:52.33 / 8:45 pace / 154 bpm
lap 19 - 1.02 miles / 9:03.60 / 8:53 pace / 151 bpm
lap 20 - 1.01 miles / 9:07.47 /9:04 pace / 152 bpm
lap 21 - 1.01 miles / 9:26.08 / 9:21 pace / 153 bpm
lap 22 - 1.02 miles / 9:28.12 / 9:16 pace / 150 bpm
lap 23 - 1.03 miles / 9:54.95 / 9:40 pace / 149 bpm
lap 24 - 1.01 miles / 10:24.25 / 10:21 pace / 147 bpm
lap 25 - 1.24 miles / 11:09.85 / 9:01 pace / 156 bpm

Finished!

This makes me feel pretty good about my fitness. I jumped in and did the race. Feel pretty good today, a little sore but Nikki and I went for a walk this morning. My heart rates were all in the mid to low 150’s… normally during a marathon that I try and race that average heart rate would be around the upper 170’s. Now, I couldn’t handle that type of intensity now….

But this “trial” does let me feel good about this idea of being committed to the basic week and regular exercise. As Jim said in Jodi’s last podcast (www.confessionsofarunner.com), it is a commitment to a lifestyle. The ability to keep this mentality has allowed me to clear up some nutrition issues and still allows me to be fit.

More in the race report and podcast.

Logbook Activity

• Type: Run
• Date: 04/26/2008
• Total Time: 3:46:49.00
• Average Heart rate: 152
• Calories: 3071
• Distance: 26.2 miles
• Average Pace: 8:39.48/mile

*note* This is an old race report that I wanted to include in my blog archive. This was my first attempt at doing an Adventure Race. What a great experience and fun way to be introduced to Kentucky. Hard to believe that it was that long ago now. Adventure Racing is probably the most enjoyment that I’ve had doing endurance sports. And some day maybe I’ll find a team that wants a runner, sometime triathlete with weak rowing and climbing skills… you never know. Enjoy. *end note*

Jeep Kentucky Adventure Race - 2002

I made my way to Kentucky after a summer of mowing lawns, little exercise and one triathlon. Athletically it had been a depressive season. To make things worse, my first impression driving into Lexington, Kentucky were not that great. But to my relief, I found two groups of athletes:

A. dedicated triathletes at the University of Kentucky
B. the Todd’s Road Stumblers - a running group that meets on Saturday mornings

With a new scene and the social urging of Tyson Carroll, Eric Atnip and Beth Atnip I started a slow path to fitness. This adventure of fitness took a rather quick turn back into competition.

Team New Balance:
The local New Balance store was looking for a team to put into the Jeep Kentucky Adventure Race. Eric ended up getting in touch with the store manager and began to put together a team. The team needed four members which most likely was not going to include me, but one of the guys ended up not being able to participate. This open space was filled by me! The team members were now: Eric Atnip, Tyson Carroll, Dave Kundig, and myself.

Getting to Know Kentucky and Mountain Biking:
Everyone on the team had spent the summer competing in triathlons. This meant we needed to practice off road riding and riding as a team. While I originally had low expectations for Kentucky, these practices allowed me to experience Kentucky. I soon discovered that the outdoors in Kentucky are B-E-A-UTIFUL! There seems to be limitless possibilities of outdoor activity within a short drive of Lexington. To practice for the race we made frequent trips to Capital View Park (Frankfort), Carter Caves and Cave Run. These trips were for training purposes, but they became my weekly escape and rejuvenation. It is amazing how beautiful scenery, exercise and a few friends can change a person’s attitude.

Our Introduction to Adventure Racing:
For the four members of Team New Balance, this would be our first adventure race. We felt confident that we had the physical ability to be competitive, Tyson and Eric coming off Ironman Wisconsin, Dave returning from a summer at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and I, well that has been discussed. The areas we felt a little uncertain were: paddle sports, caving, team cohesiveness and navigation. What we discovered was some of these things work together.

The Race:
The start of the race went well as a short run lead into the mountain bike. The biking went fairly well considering the rough course due to the rain, the race the day before and Tyson using a brand new bike. The special challenges also gave little hindrance because the climbing was easily set up and Eric can pull a jeep without much help (got to love those big guys!). It was after the special challenges where our race truly began.

Navigation, Directions and Teamwork?
Wanting to make up time off the bikes we decided to use our finish and close some gaps. We took off running, gear on our backs but heads in the clouds. Running through the course, it became somewhat difficult to keep the team together (mistake #1). Moving quickly through check points we knew we had the caves just ahead. At one point we came to a junction where we took a left without too much thought or reference to our passport (mistake #2). The thing that got my attention were two guys just below the junction in a river bed, unfortunately I didn’t say anything. This was mistake #3 because you should never assume someone just happens to be in a river bed washing off?

As we continued up the other side of the river bed we quickly lost our way (we were way off course). This is where adventure racing and team competition really takes on its life. Wrong turn after wrong turn ultimately put us nowhere near our course. It also started damaging our team morale. As Tyson tried to put us back on course, Dave and I proceeded in frustration and Eric kept things as civil as the occasion allowed. Eventually we made our way back to our missed junction and passed the check point. Then we made another wrong turn (mistake #25 by this point)?! This time we were a little smarter and turned around making our way back to the caves. All said and done, 50 to 55 minutes passed from the time we first missed the cave entrance check point until the time we entered the caves.

Our Finished Adventure:
We used the caves to catch our breath and regain composure. At the exit of the caving section, Team New Balance began to shine. Check point after check point we found ourselves passing teams and gaining on the lead team. By the time we made the canoeing section we found ourselves back in first place, with the canoeing and a short rock scramble left.

Team New Balance did cross the finish line in first place, but it was a bitter-sweat feeling. We knew that a better race could have been run and there were two person teams and individuals that crossed that line before us.

Lessons Learned:
The sport of adventure racing is not a triathlon. Skills are needed, fitness is essential but so is knowledge of topo maps and team cohesiveness. There are also times in a race, even a sprint adventure race where you need to stop and evaluate the next move.

Thanks!! None of this would have been possible without the help of the New Balance Store-Lexington, Kentucky and the New Balance Company.

*note* This is an older race report that I wanted to be included in my blog archive. It has been fun to go back and read my thoughts about this race, which was my first half-ironman distance race. And a very hot day that we still talk about with grand disillusions. (And good reason for people to write race reports.) *end note*

Pigman Half Ironman Distance Race, 2003
At the start of the 2003, I had two main goals:

one - to put out a solid marathon qualifying for Boston
two - to race a half-ironman and to race it well

You can read my Flying Pig report to analyze goal number one. (It was the year of the pigs.)

Pre-Race:
I didn’t get much sleep the night before, but I felt rested. I had my normal breakfast:

* 2 cans of Purify (Kroger style Ensure)
* 1 bagel
* some Gatorade
* with 1 cliff bar 40 minutes before the race

Due to poor planning, I had to find an adapter for my CO2 cartridges right before the race. After a little running around, some borrowed cash and help from the guys at Gear West, I got the adapter a couple minutes before the pre-race meeting.

The Swim:
My strategy was to take the swim very, very easy. When my heat started, I saw everyone run into the water and dive. I jogged behind and kind of fell into the water. By doing this, I was able to make sure I didn’t lose my goggles. I also was able to make a point to myself that I wanted to take it easy.

The first buoy came after what felt like forever, but I wanted to stick to my game plan. I turned the corner and found someone swimming about the same pace so I dropped back and drafted for several minutes. At the last buoy I felt like I had yet to begin swimming so I picked up the effort just a bit during the last stretch.

Coming into the transition I saw my time was 38 minutes, which was about 5 minutes slower than I anticipated. I was a little disappointed but I knew the day would be long.

Analyzing the times after the race, I saw that all the times were a little slow. Even the better athletes that raced last year had times 3 minutes or more slower.

The Bike:
The biggest thing for me going into the bike was pacing and nutrition. I knew the climbs and demands of the course would not be too much because of the daily rides we do in central Kentucky. It was hard to hold back the first half hour but I kept repeating to myself that finishing strong meant more then starting fast. The pace allowed me to take in all the food and nutrition that I needed. I mixed the intake of water, Gatorade and GU’s just as I during training.

During the middle of the ride, I think I may have let my ego get to me? While going up hills I would ride by what felt like 10 to 15 riders, but on the flats there was a pelaton of 4 to 6 bikes that would fly by. My mind made a choice that my body should not have followed. I decided to step up the pace for the next 10 miles. I rode up the hills and pushed the flats. The pacing was not in line with my plan of easy riding the first half, pick it up during the middle and use the end of the ride only for preparation for the run.

Going into the second transition, I still felt really good! I spent the last 6 miles making sure I had every bit of liquid in me I could get. I had also planned on eating a cliff bar, but I couldn’t get it down. So I finished off my last gel. I finished the bike with a pace of 21.4 mph. This was exciting because I felt good and I had only anticipated a 20 - 20.5 mph pace.

The Run:
In one word - Miserable. I felt like I had prepared for everything correctly, used the proper nutrition, but I had not been subjected to that kind of heat in training. The temperature was in the low to mid 90’s by the time we were on the run. And one thing about running on the roads in Iowa, there is NO shade.

I knew immediately that I would not be running a sub 1:30, which is what I felt prepared to do. I quickly slowed my pace down to what felt very comfortable and decided that my goals were to:

a - not walk during the run
b - finish as close to 5 hours as possible

By the time I reached the 3 mile marker, I figured out that the run was going to be rough. There were a lot of people walking through the aid stations and for periods before, after and during. I was taking a glass of water, Gatorade and ice at every aid station (Although I missed ice at one aid station because I didn’t want to start walking).

At this point I believe that my dedication to the mental training during the summer paid dividends. Here is what I did:

* I focused on my foot cadence, upper body position and foot strike
* I moved my focus only to my breathing pattern
* I moved my mind to the mantras that I had been using in my practices and meditations

Psalm 23, for my meditations I had been spending a lot of time in this Psalm so I started repeating it twice

“I belong here, my body has done the training” - this is a phrase that I took from Gordo Byrn’s Book.

During my training runs I had practiced using this phrase as a guide for focus and imagery. I would repeat this to myself 4 or 5 times then I would go back to the Psalms

Finishing The Run:
I believe it was the 9 mile aid station that I decided that I needed to really be careful or I may not finish. I made the decision to walk through the remaining aid stations. It was a little disappointing but I knew it was necessary. I finished the run in 1:50:43, which was 20 minutes slower than I had hoped. My final time was 5:10:12. I had hoped to finish at or under 5 hours.

Post Race:
I felt great until we got in the van to leave. I had to make Eric, Beth and Jeff suffer through a couple stops so that I could deal with sickness. Motion sickness from the van or heat exhaustion, I do not know? But I bet a little of both.

Post Race Thoughts:
No excuses needed, I do feel a little disappointed. I have went back and forth about the heat and how I should react to that, but I think that my final analysis is that I do need to take into consideration the heat and should not have expected to be able to push myself the way I wanted. The bike pacing? Even though I felt good coming into T2, I know that I may have pushed it harder than I should have and trained for. I have second guessed myself a bit, thinking that if I would have stuck with the 20 mph pace I could have run better. I will never know! The final view is that it was a great experience. I now know that I have another couple years before I make it to the Ironman. I also know that I am still improving. And I still want to do more triathlons….!

*note* This is an old race report that I’m adding. It currently sits on my website and I wanted it included in my blog archive. If you haven’t read it, then go ahead. This was Nikki’s first marathon! *end note*

Tecumseh Trail Marathon

Pre-Race: - The start time for this race is 10:00am, which is one of the nice things about this race. Even though you have to board the bus at 8:45am, the later start time allowed us to wake up a little bit later and not worry about getting our breakfast in. So Nikki and I woke up around 6:30am and started to drink our Ensure. We got ready and headed to the finish line to board the bus at 7:30am (which is later than many races start times!).

We boarded the bus at 8:45am and took the hour long bus ride to the start line. This is the first point-to-point race I’ve done. I liked it because the bus trip allowed me to meet a few runners, which is always nice. One thing I didn’t know what to think about were the stories that past runners of the race were telling us. One of the guys told us to add an hour to our slowest marathon time to estimate our finish time for the race. Since this was Nikki’s first marathon, we didn’t know what to do? We had hoped that we could do 6 hours, but with that knowledge, I thought maybe 6:30 would be expected?

At the start we had to wait a little because three of the buses hadn’t shown up, but the race only started several minutes late.

The Start: - The start was exciting as they always are, so I kept in mind that this was Nikki’s first marathon. I also kept in mind our walk/run race strategy that I had used to develop Nikki’s training plan. This was difficult at the start for both of us. At 10minutes I looked at Nikki and said “It’s time to walk.” She kind of looked funny and said, “already.” “Yep,” I said. So we started walking.

The discipline to walk at that point was tough because the trail was just starting and it was still flat terrain. I kept saying to myself that running the last 8 miles is more important today than running the first 8. Nikki looked at me and said “18 more to go,” which is a saying we developed in training that meant no matter how far we have run, always approach it like you have 18 more miles to run. I smiled and said, “not quite yet.”

The race was advertised as a tough race. The hills were said to be something you wouldn’t think of when you think of Indiana. There were reports we read about lots of stream crossings and log crossings; the runners we talked to on the bus ride to the start confirmed those reports. It is also December and the weather report called for rain or snow. Even with the mental preparation for these conditions, I will admit that this race was A LOT more difficult than I anticipated, even if the weather never turned awful. (Nikki said that she mentally prepared for the worst and that it wasn’t as bad as what she thought it was going to be. I guess mental preparation and perception can change everything.)

Mile 13 “The Hill”: - As we went through the aid station around mile 12, I began looking for the “gigantic hill” at the half-way point. Coming from Kentucky, I couldn’t imagine that it would be worse than what Nikki and I trained on when we looked for hilly runs at home. I WAS WRONG! As we came around the bend, we caught a glance at a long line of runners snaking their way up this incline. The lady that we had been running with said, “I’d like to see you run up that.” The challenge was very tempting, especially because not a single person was jogging. Everyone was walking. But wisdom prevailed and we walked too. We took a look back from the top and the line of runners continued to stop and walk. It was pretty awesome to see what we had just accomplished and then realize we had 13 miles to go!

Mile 18: - There was an aid station around mile 18. Nikki and I stopped to get some Gatorade and food, plus I looked at my watch. It read approximately 3:40! “Nikki,” I said, “we can make it in 5 hours!” She responded, “We would have to run 10 minutes miles, I don’t want to think about it.” “You’re right. That’s pretty quick, especially on the trails here. Let’s see where we are at when we get to mile 24.”

Mile 22: - We came to another aid station and Nikki kept saying she was feeling good, so we were not walking as much. I looked at my watch again and it read 4:20. I was hesitant to say anything to her again about time, but we had a continuous dialog at this point about how we felt running. The truth is that I think she was stronger at this point then I was…. But I was not about to tell her that!

Mile 25: - To be honest, I had given up on the time by this point because I thought the aid station was supposed to be at mile 24. And if we hadn’t reach mile 24 by that point in time we were not even close to making 5 hours any more. As we ran down the hill towards the last aid station, the volunteer said “Mile 25, one more mile to go!” I looked at my watch, 3:49. “Nikki, we have 11 minutes.” She looked at me and said, “Let’s do it!” Then she took off running like she had just started a track meet. I grunted and begged, “This is way too fast!” She smiled, “You’re right, we could slow down.”

The Finish: - At 4:55 we started to run up the last hill, which hurt quite a bit with the effort we were putting in. But it also felt good because we were passing people pretty quickly and one of the other runners yelled out, “You are going for 5 hours.” “We are trying” I responded, trying to smile. I lost almost all hope by the time we got to the top of the hill though. We had less than 3 minutes to finish and the turn to the finish line was still quite a-ways-ahead. Running down the last stretch, I saw we had 30seconds to 5 hours. I wasn’t into the sprint finish, knowing we were too far away, but as we got closer it seemed more and more possible. I grabbed Nikki’s hand and said, “We can do it!” We sprinted down the gravel road into the finisher’s lane and crossed at approximately 5:00:04! I haven’t seen the official times yet, but Nikki did remind me later that because we started in the back of the starting pack, that by the time she started her watch at the start line we would have been under 5 hours. (Too bad they didn’t have chip timing. Smile.)

It really doesn’t matter to me, because we expected 6 to 6:30 anyway. Plus it was a great experience to complete this very challenging race, side-by-side with my wife. What a good experience for any newly married couple! I am also inspired by the dedication that Nikki had to the training program I developed. She admitted later that she was nervous that the longest she had run was 15 miles. It meant a lot to me that she trusted me as a husband and “coach” and didn’t listen to all the nay-sayers that thought she should be running more.

She also asked me later that night, “so does that mean I could have run 4 hours at a normal marathon.” I smiled.

The Stats:

Division - M25-29
Overall Place - 284
Division Place - 38/156
Total Time - 11:12:37
Swim Time - 01:12:00, Swim Overall Place - 704
Bike Time - 06:13:30, Bike Overall Place - 769
Run Time - 03:35:14, Run Overall Place - 107

Stats taken from my IMMOO results at TriResults.com

Swim Analysis: I was very pleased when I got out of the water and saw that I swam in the 1:12 range. I had anticipated a time between 1:10 and 1:15, but my intuition had me closer to 1:15 than to 1:10. The frustrating part about the swim is that it took a lot time during the swim before I felt like I was actually swimming and making progress. The major issue was sighting efficiently. I ended up using small breast strokes in order to sight, because either I was swimming zig-zags or those around me were - or we all were to start.

This can be improved upon by doing more open water swims during the summer, but it will help to just become an overall better swimmer too. This is the first year in my entire life that I have swam the entire year (not a lot a couple months, but still swam some). That consistency for 2008 will be essential again. I would love to be a sub 1:05 swimmer, since Nikki swam 1:05 at her first Ironman…. maybe she’ll motivate me to actually swim some workouts with her this year?

I will also seek swim technique analysis.

Bike Analysis: I wrote a lot of information prior to the race about my race simulation rides. (Tags and links to articles) The interesting thing about my expectations for Ironman Wisconsin and those rides are that the two didn’t quite run parallel. What do I mean by that? Well - During the simulation rides my common riding time for riding 36.2 miles was between 2:01 and 2:15. If you take that distance and time and derive an estimated Ironman bike split it would be around 6:15 to 6:30.

My expectation going into Wisconsin was that I could ride at or just under 6:00. Why did I think that? Because I wanted to be able to ride 6 hours. That expectation was based upon a hope and dream, not on the reality of my current riding fitness.

There are a couple things that saved my bike leg from completely blowing me up:

1. I understood that riding too hard would blow me up and I knew what type of effort I could comfortably maintain for 112 miles. While I didn’t get a logical bike split expectation from the race simulation rides, they did teach me about my effort levels. Luckily I had spent a lot of time mentally preparing for the race and was able to ride at my proper effort levels and didn’t chase the 6 hour idea… luckily.

2. A period of contemplating reality and pain. I’ve been asked before, “What do you think about all that time.” During the bike, I had a long period of time (around an hour) where I thought about two people, John Reier and my aunt Connie. Both of those individuals have meant a lot to me and both are currently dealing with cancer. I spent a lot of time talking to John and it allowed me to quit feeling sorry for myself and the bloating I couldn’t get rid of. I thought a lot about how it was difficult for John to eat after his chemo treatments. It made me realize the joy that I was experiencing by completing an Ironman. Praise God for the day he granted me!

3. Ale8 and a Honey Bun. The bloating that I had and all the peeing I needed to do made it very difficult to take in Gatorade or eGel’s. (I wasn’t trying both at the same time!) Even taking all the salt tablets didn’t help. What did help was the honey bun in my special needs bag and the bike bottle I had that contained Ale8. If it wasn’t for the approx 700kcals I took in by eating and drinking those two items, I would have headed directly for bonksville. The Ale8 also calmed my stomach down quite a bit (it might have been the ginger?) and I was able to resume taking in my gels.

So coming in 13 minutes slower on the bike was a little bit of a bummer, but I knew I had ridden smart (besides the two times up Devil’s Hill) which meant I was ready to run.

Run Analysis: I made it through the transition pretty quick and tried to get into a “quick feet” running pattern right away. My legs actually felt sluggish to begin, but in the first mile I felt like I passed a hundred people. It also was nice to hear some of the encouragement from the spectators:

“Gary, you’ve got a nice cadence!” “Gary, you’re making it look easy” “Gary, your pace is excellent!”

I didn’t necessarily feel that way, but it was nice to get that feedback. When I hit the first aid station I contemplated to run through it and not walk through. But true to my training strategy since last November, I hit the split button on my watch and walked through the aid station grabbing water and gatorade. At 20 seconds, I took off again. “Quick feet, light feet,” I kept telling myself.

I used this pattern for the entire marathon, but around mile 16 I decided to walk for 30 seconds instead of 20. That may seem like a “break down,” but I was happy to be increasing the walk by 10 seconds and not several minutes or miles!

There were a few things during the run that motivated me and helped me push on: I was passing lots of other runners, I saw all the others with me several times and got encouragement (Eric, Beth, Jeff and Nikki), I ran with a guy (Jonathan Cross) that I met on the run and he was encouraging and during the last four miles I thought I was on pace to go under 3:30.

It turns out that I wasn’t on pace for a sub 3:30, but did run a 3:35. That was the 107th best run of the day. That made me happy.

Final Analysis: The one thing that makes me happy about the Ironman Wisconsin race is that I had a race plan and executed it almost to perfection. The times are a little bit off (re:bike analysis) but that was due to improper expectations not poor execution. As a first Ironman attempt, I’m not sure I could have been happier with that level of committment to a goal. I beleive all the years of reading others’ race reports talking about going too hard too early has really driven home the message that execution is a major factor in Ironman events.

Feeling very happy about the experience and what I was able to accomplish I have to admit that I was a little down yesterday. Looking at a time of 11:12 and then looking at where the front of pack guys race, I realized that it is going to take a lot to make it up there. “How can I get my bike that much faster?” I have asked myself that question several times the past few days.

It could have been that I turned 29 years old yesterday, which made me think about the “what next” question a lot, but I walked around the early part of my birthday thinking that maybe Ironman should become a thing of my past. Even though I enjoyed the event, I thought maybe I need to move on. Return to “the checklist”. The list that says I have to accomplish “x,y,z” in order to feel successful and happy. A list that would be difficult to fulfill if even more of my time was dedicated to “going faster.”

Sitting at my computer I turned on - The Samples. It kind of brought me back to a place in my life where I once lived. A place where “conquering the world” wasn’t so high on my list. A time where the romance of spending a year learning to surf or running away with a loved one seemed pretty important.

Then I came full circle. Ironman is about a lifestyle I want to embrace. I want to be active, I want to enjoy the outdoors. I want to share the joy of movement. So what if I drive a wrecked ‘95 Saturn SL2…. I may or may not “conquer” Ironman, but I’m going to embrace it! So I’m signing up for IMMOO ‘08, maybe another full-distance race too if I can find one in May or June.

[Sidenote: Interesting that Nikki gave me the book Stumbling on Happiness for my birthday!]

It is now a few days post Ironman Wisconsin and it is time to sit down and write my race thoughts down. I am going to break the race into a few different reports and reviews in order to keep them shorter and topic centered. The reviews I am going to write for now are:

1. Ironman Wisconsin - The Experience
2. Ironman Wisconsin - My race results and analysis
3. Ironman - What Next? (2008 thoughts on training and racing)

Links will be provided once the reports are complete.

Ironman Wisconsin - The Experience

Thursday - 9/6/07
Nikki and I finished our early morning training sessions and jumped into the car to drive to Wisconsin. The trip was pretty uneventful other than the terrible rains that forced us to drive 35 mph for way too long.

After getting into Madison, we went straight to our hotel to see Jeff, Eric and Beth who drove up on Wednesday. Soon after arriving, Eric looked at me with a concerned look and said, “Let’s take a walk.” Right away I thought that my bike had been destroyed because we all transported our bikes in a U-Haul that they pulled. The initial anxiety was an over reaction to what actually happened. The short story is that Nikki’s bike wasn’t secured well enough and her cassette ended up scratching my rims all up and destroying my tire. The solution was that I used Beth’s wheels that she normally rides because she was going to use a set of race wheels anyway. Problem solved.

Friday - 9/7/07
We woke up early enough to make our way down to the Gatorade swim. The water was really choppy and made me a little nervous. Even though I had improved my swimming a lot over the last year, it was still my first Ironman experience and the idea of 2,300 athletes swimming together made me nervous. The choppy water didn’t help.

The rest of the morning was spent at the convention center getting massages (I didn’t but the others did), buying items at the store and getting my registration packet. One major lesson I learned was to not let your USAT membership expire. My number expired on 8/31 so I had to stand in line forever while Nikki by-passed at least 45 minutes of standing in line.

Upon returning to the hotel Eric spent time changing out wheels and cassettes for us. Thank goodness for his bike mechanic knowledge. I should learn a few more of the basics too. We went on a little ride from our hotel that afternoon to make sure the bikes worked properly. They did, but I still felt a little uneasy on new / different wheels. Looking back it was just something for my mind to grab ahold of and stress about.

The Ironman Hospitality
The rest of the weekend was really governed by the Ironman timeline. We went to the athlete dinner and meeting, we raced, we woke up Monday morning and went to the Ironman store, attended the awards banquet and then left. One thing is for certain, Ironman does fully support the athlete and they do a tremendous job building up the experience to be a one-of-a-kind event. I’ve always been a little anti-MDot because of the associated attitude. (The one that says your not “xx” if you haven’t done Ironman or Kona, etc.) I can see the addiction to these events and I appreciate the place that these events have in triathlon. But I also appreciate the place that events like the Lake Barkley Race has too.

Why Triathlon is different than many sports.
One thing that continues to come up again and again for me is the line between the professional athletes and the age-group athletes. This maybe due to the fact that professional triathletes don’t make big money or because they commonly come into the sport from positions that rarely include the limelight, I don’t really know. Maybe triathletes are just level headed by nature (although I’ve seen some very unlevel headed age-groupers….).

After volunteering at the finish line of the Ironman Louisville race and talking to people that were also there, several people mentioned how nice Chris McDonald (the overall winner) was. At Ironman Wisconsin we sat down at the athletes’ dinner and Jeff began talking to a kid sitting next to him. While in line, I realized that it might be Zach Ruble a younger professional. Jeff, Eric and Beth ended up talking to him throughout the dinner and I had a brief opportunity to also talk to him after the race. Once again an example of a professional that was generous with his time and not big-headed. How many sports can an average fan/athlete get that close to the professionals?

The Spectators and Volunteers at IMMOO
This is definately the best part of the Ironman race experience in Wisconsin. There were over 3,500 volunteers at the race! It is pretty amazing to have volunteers strip your wetsuit, find your transition bags, unrack your bike, chase you down with bottles of water, etc, etc.

The fan support for this race is also like no other event I’ve done, outside of the Chicago marathon. A few things that really stood out to me:

- Swim to Bike transition: heading up the helix and into the parking garage was amazing. Spectators stood two or three deep all the way up the helix, which made it hard not to run by-the-way. A very nice pick-me-up after swimming 2.4 miles.

- Verona: Beth and Eric had told me about the people in Verona, but it had to be experienced. Riding through town made me feel like a professional cyclist riding through a small town in France. The street was baracaded off, spectators were lining the street on both side cheering.

- Devil’s Hill: If Verona made you feel like a professional cyclist, then this climb definately did. The spectators were line up on both sides again, but this time there were no baracades. It reminded me of some Tour de France climbs when you wonder if fans are going to get out of the way… in this case, out of my way. As we hit that hill, both times the cheering got me a little juiced and I killed the hill. I spun fast and past a lot of riders both times. (And noticed my heart rate in the 170’s!)

Final Thought
The experience of doing an Ironman is worth the time, effort and money that it took. I always anticipated I would race Wisconsin in 2008, now I am certain I will be there again. While I was a little too dazed to hear my name called out “Gary Ditsch. You are an Ironman” I was told by several people that they saw it online.

Another amazing thought. People actually cared and were able to see me become an Ironman. The only thing that was able to make the day better, was that Nikki became an Ironman on the same day! The training and the race will be an experience we will be able to share together for a long time.

After spending time watching Iroman Wisconsin last year and seeing so many people struggle with the cold temperatures, I thought that I’d take a little journey through the historical weather records on race day in Madison.

I also wanted to see how the race may have been impacted by the type of weather they had. The best place that I have found to review race results and the historical results is, www.triresults.com

The TriResults site actually just put up an Ironman Wisconsin Events page that has a great listing of the historical data, including: the results listing, divisional top ten by year and Hawaii qualifiers by year.

Weather Data: taken from wunderground.com

Sept 10, 2006: Mean - 56F, Max - 59F, Min - 53F
Sept 11, 2005: Mean - 80F, Max - 91F, Min - 69F
Sept 12, 2004: Mean - 71F, Max - 85F, Min - 57F
Sept 7, 2003: Mean - 74F, Max - 89F, Min - 59F
Sept 15, 2002: Mean - 59F, Max - 71F, Min - 48F

Results Analysis:

Taking some data from the TriResults site, I wanted to see how the times changed year to year. To make things easy, primarily because the data was already put together, I took the 10th place finishing time (male 25-29) and the last Hawaii Qualifying time for each year.

I realize that those times are not a good snapshot of the field of triathletes racing on those days, not even a good snapshot of the male 25-29 year old age group, because to finish that high you are definately on the long tail of things. But the data was accessible and there may be a day I’ll have the desire to search through and find the median number in the age group so that we can see where the exact middle finisher would finish…. maybe later. Here’s what I do have:

Final Thoughts:

So are there correlations that we can draw from this data? I think the one thing that becomes obvious is that the 2005 race was an outlier in terms of race performance (among the top 10 and Hawaii Qualifiers). When looking at the weather data, we also see that 2005 was the hottest year the race has been held. In 2005, the average temperature was 80F with a high of 91F. The high’s in 2004 and 2003 were both in the 80’s (2003 being 89F) but the averages were both down into the lower 70’s.

The one fact that I find interesting was that in 2006 the times were not significantly different than the times in 2004, 2003 and 2002. I guess I expected them to be primarily because we saw so many people appearing to struggle with the cold. The best explanation that I have for this is that the results that we are looking at are people that are on the course for 10 to 10.5 hours. If we were able to look at the middle of the pack (mop) and back of the pack (bop) results, we might see something different. My hypothesis is that the weather becomes more of a factor the longer your day is, but it is just a hypothesis.

The last thought that I have is that the weather will impact the way I approach the event, especially if it is going to be a very hot day. But in the end, it is a variable that is out of my control and therefore something I should be prepared for, but should not be anxious about. It appears that most years athletes do a pretty good job of adapting to the conditions.

To view some Ironman Wisconsin 2006 Race Reports that I tagged on del.icio.us go here: Ironman Wisconsin Tags