World's Toughest Half Ironman - May 2003
The water was rumored to be 60F so I opted for a cold weather warm-up (running repeats up the boat ramp, arm swings and a quick splash on my face/neck). This worked fine and it didn’t seem all that cold when we started. I cruised the swim figuring that I’d be able to make up any lost time in T1, which featured a 100 yard run up a boat ramp followed by 100 stairs.
By the top of the first climb, I was with the leaders and chatting with a racing buddy of mine (Jonathon Toker). Jon and I have raced a number of times and rode together at IMC last year. Like me, he’s a Canadian transplant (we’re everywhere). My time with Jon was short lived as he dropped me PRONTO and headed off. There was nothing that I could do so I simply focused on giving a good effort and hoped to limit the damages.
After a few miles another rider came up to me and we swapped it out for the next 30 miles, each of us keeping the other guy honest when he eased off a touch. It was nice to have someone to work with but each time we received a split, it was one minute larger – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and, finally, 6 minutes down! Jonathon was smoking us.
Chuck’s been helping me with my cycling and one of the changes that we made was to greatly increase my cadence. I used to TT at a cadence of 70-80 rpm and over the last month, I’ve shifted that to 95-105 rpm. At first the change was extremely tough and my legs would burn at any speed. Chuck knows his cycling so I kept the faith and after about 1,500 miles of focus, my legs adjusted and I was able to ride comfortably. I’m not sure if my power is greater and I know that the cardiac load is a bit higher. Still, Chuck assured me that my run would be far, far better. I had run well in New Zealand (after grinding the whole way) so it did take a little convincing to get me to try it his way. Truth be told, it’s a lot easier to swallow when Lance rides the same way!
Coming off the bike, I was six minutes behind Jon – a long way back but not completely out of it. The course rolls downhill for the first five miles and I ran as fast as I could. Arriving at the Mile Five aid station, my deficit was down to 1:20 and it was time to climb. Climbing out of the canyon was long, hot and difficult. A little dialogue started in my head – one part of my head saying that no one could see me so easing off was OK – the other part of my head saying to stick with it until the next aid station to see if we shrunk the deficit further. At the next aid station, the gap was under 30 seconds but I still couldn’t see Jon.
About a mile later, the trail opened up and I slowly closed the gap and took the lead. Once in front, I simply ran as fast as I could. The final part of the run is an absolute classic, a two mile decent into the canyon then a lung/quad/butt busting 1.6 miles up a canyon wall. How steep is the finish? I was going flat out, sitting on lactate threshold and estimate that I was running about ten-minute per mile pace. It was one of those situations were it might have been faster to walk, however, I figured that if I broke stride then I might not start again.
Cresting the top, it was an easy half mile to the finish. My first win of 2003 and the first time I have won a triathlon with more than 50 entrants!
After the race I received a few e-mails and everyone wanted to know... “is it really the toughest?”. Well, only two people went under five hours and only 21 cracked six hours (including the relay people).
See you at the races,
PS – Brad and his team ran a safe, well supplied race. The schwag bag that we received had socks, a running cap, a shirt, some GUs and a Cytomax sample – right up there with every big-name race that I’ve done. The course is tough but life’s not all about PRs! The World’s Toughest is a strength and endurance event, perfect for athletes preparing for an ironman-distance race.
Following my motivational difficulties of March, I got myself back on track in May. My training camp with Chuckie V (Vegas to Boulder) went quite well and finished up the Tuesday before my most recent race (The World’s Toughest Half Ironman).
gordo