White Lake Challenge

White Lake Half Iron Man Race, Saturday, May 7, 2011 from Penny Quinn
Swim 1.2 Miles, Bike 56 Miles, Run 13.1 Miles
Arrived on Thursday, mid-day.  Walked around the race site, drove the bike course (road construction had the road closed – hope it’s open by race time), and drove the run course.  Made notes of landmarks at 20, 40 and 50 mile marks (and the 28 mile mark – the halfway point).  For me the 56 mile course is made up of 3 legs, the first 20 , the next 20 and the final, well not quite 20 (a psychological game that makes the home stretch seem faster....).  The half way point, reminds me that I should be halfway through my nutrition.  The water stops were at 18, 32 and 45 – so additional mile markers for the ride.  The run was an out and back, so easy to gauge from the turnaround point with water stops at each mile.
Friday morning, I got up at 7am to check out the temperature and the lake conditions.  It was a crisp 53 degree’s outside and the water in the upper 60’s, clear as a sheet of glass, calm. White sandy bottom. Gorgeous.  I put on my sleeveless wetsuit and swam for about 20-30 minutes. Very relaxing. 
Package pickup at 2pm.  Dinner was chicken marsala and pasta.  Up the next morning at 4:30am, breakfast of oatmeal and hot tea.  Car is packed, half a bagel toasted with butter for the ride over (ended up not eating the bagel-nerves/excitement).  Took a banana and carb shake to race site and ate during set up over the next hour.  Sipped on Gatorade. 
Temps in the mid 50’s, heavy fog.  Set up transition area, walked transition site to get familiar with run/bike start and finish’s and my location in the transition (counted the racks both directions).  At the lake, could not see the end of the dock – how are we going to see the buoys??? This is not good.  You could barely see the lights on the boats out on the lake.  Buoys get blown off the dock and start floating out onto the lake and have to be captured and returned to the dock. 
At 6:45am they send the first 3 waves to the beach to warm up and line up for the start.  I’m debating when to get in for my warm up swim.  It’s chilly and I’m wearing a jacket over my wetsuit.  I’m the last wave, so don’t want to go in too soon and end up getting cold while waiting for my wave to start.  Good thing, I waited.
The race was supposed to start at 7am but was delayed to see if the fog lifts.  7:30am – still waiting.  At 7:45am they announce the swim is cancelled, it will be a bike/run - - it will still count for nationals.  We head to transition to take off wet suits.  After much confusion over whether we are allowed to wear our bike gear – and putting it on, then taking it off and then putting it on - - - they finally announce that we can wear whatever we want.  Most people wear their bike gear, some wear their running shoes.  I wear all my bike stuff – including a long sleeve bike shirt that I brought just in case it was cool out.  Good thing, it was much cooler than expected and many people were trying to round up an extra layer.
They are lining us up in corrals down by the beach, when everyone starts chanting “swim, swim, swim” because now the sun is coming up and the fog is lifting and we can sort of see the other side of the lake.  They try to round up the lifeguards and support staff, but after 10 minutes, they say they’ve all left, so there is no swim.  At about 8:15, they start the race – chip start – from the corrals.   
Really bummed that there is no swim, but at this point, I just want to get started.  I’m in the last wave, so now I’m a little concerned about my nutrition, since my last calories were 2 hours prior and I know I need 300-400 calories right before I start, so I’m starting from a negative nutrition at this point.
T1 was a 200 yard run from the beach to the bike and out.  Very glad I have my long sleeve shirt, it’s chilly out. 
My bike plan is to target my power between 110-115 watts (which usually ends up averaging around 108 watts) and keep my heart rate at 148.  I’m having no problem with the watts, in fact they’re creeping up to the 120’s and occasional 130’s.  I back it off – remembering to work the plan (and my transition neighbor’s advice to not get perky on the start of the bike, that the second half has an awful headwind).  Feel like I reach the first water stop pretty quickly and before I know it, I’m going over the little bridge at the 20 mile mark.  At 28 when I planned to stop and pour my second bottle of nutrition into the aero bottle – I realize my time is really good, and I don’t want to stop – I’ll just keep riding and reach down to grab the bottle for nutrition.  Shortly after this, the wind picks up, trying to sustain my power level is getting harder and I start to get a pain behind my left knee that radiates up the back of my leg and into my glute (what the heck is this?  This is new? Hmm….).  I try to stand up in the pedals and push my heels down to stretch the muscles - - a little better but not quite the right stretch.  My heart rate is starting to spike a little – don’t know if it’s the pain in my leg or trying to maintain the power in the wind.  I gear down and spin easy getting my heart rate down and power comes down too – bummer.  I check my time and realize I’m making very good time  - my best training ride so far was 28 miles in 2 hours, anything faster than that would be great.  At 28 miles, I’m at 1:39 (wow! 20 minutes faster??)  At 2 hours, I’ve finished 33 miles (woo hoo!!), but the going is getting harder and I know this head wind will stay with me until the finish, so I’m hoping everything balances out and I don’t slow down too much – just keep your power consistent.  So far, everyone has been passing me and I haven’t passed or been able to see anyone ahead of me (typical of the bike leg for me – usually a very long and lonely ride – I just enjoy the scenery J).  At about mile 36, this little 73 year old lady (cute as a button) passes me saying she’s been trying to catch me for MILES.  As she goes cruising past, it’s so incredibly hard not to punch it and say – oh no you don’t! – but I’ve got a plan – stick to the plan - - - stick to the plan….. Just about this time we have a little out and back down a dead end road – so I get to see who’s in front of me and who’s behind me.  There’s about 5-6 riders ahead of me (1-2 miles) and at least 2 women behind me.  I’m so excited when I hit the 40 mile mark.  I’m more than 2/3’s of the way there and still ahead of schedule.  The pain in my leg is bugging me big time, can’t decide if I should stop and try to adjust my seat (no way - -not now).  I convince myself that since my pace is so good, that my total bike will be much shorter and that if I’ve made it this far, I can make it another 16 miles.  At mile 50, I see the satellite tower and know that I’m on the home stretch and I’m out of nutrition and could really use a little more.  I planned my nutrition for 4.5 hours (in case my ride was longer than my goal of 4 hours) and knew that I had used more to play catch-up after the long delay of the start.  I had my emergency ‘goo’ and decided I should use it to get me the last 5 miles – especially since the muscle pain was still bugging me.  I was hoping that whatever this was – that it didn’t impact my run.
T2 was great!  No problems, everything smooth, shoes, switch helmet for visor, grab race nutrition belt out of the cooler (ice cubes sticking to it – yeah! Other racers were admiring the ice belt that I wrapped around me), emergency goo slipped inside the leg of my shorts, garmin watch in my mouth and trot on out the area.  A very long way until the timing mat – but taking it easy.  Absolutely no issues with legs, no cramps, no rubber legs, nothing!  Wow, this is way cool! Weather is much warmer now, sun is shining and skies are clear blue (I ditched the long sleeve shirt).
Got the garmin watch turned on, strapped to my wrist and ease on out the first 3 miles.  Execute the plan - - run 1 mile, walk 1 minute, run 1 mile, walk 1 minute.  The water stops were not exactly each mile so sometimes my walk was slightly before or after the water stop.  I always took a sopping wet icy cold towel and draped it around my neck and tucked the ends into the shoulder straps of my top.  2 cups of ice cold water – one I poured on my head, the other I poured on my chest.  Whew! – shockingly cold, but after about a half mile, it felt great.  A few miles of this and I was soaking wet and my shoes and socks were squeaking as I ran - -no problem – keeping my feet cool too!  Made sure to maintain steady intake of nutrition and water.  I had 3 bottles of nutrition and 1 bottle of water on my belt.  When I would get low on the water, I’d refill my bottle at the water station.  My emergency goo kept sliding out of my shorts, so I tucked it in my race belt.  It kept slipping out of my belt so I finally put it inside my sports bra (and NO, it didn’t fall out there – the heart rate monitor kept it in place!).  Passed 2 people on the first 3 miles.  Then no one for a long time.  Because it was an out and back, there were tons (it felt like EVERYONE) of people coming back.  It turned out to be a good thing.  About every 3rd or 4th person would tell me “good job” and it felt great to thank them as I smiled and kept moving – stick to the plan, stick to the plan.  I was watching my heart rate and didn’t let it get above 147 – hold it steady.  The volunteers at the water stops were awesome – another good thing about being at the end of the race – there are no crowds, I was the ONLY one at the water stop and had all 3-5 volunteers tripping over themselves to hand me water, towels, etc.  Pretty cool J  Made sure to thank them profusely for their help!  Danced a little to their music as I boogied on down the road.  At 5 miles, I reminded myself I had already run a 5k and now I was up to a 5 miler  - and in almost the same time as I did the 5 miler in December (without the 56 mile ride) – good job, Penny (it’s okay to talk to yourself on these races – just don’t answer, that’s when people think you’re nuts).  Next up, a 10k and then the half way point – it’s all downhill after that (well, not really, but it’s the home stretch).  At about 6 miles, I passed the little old lady who commented that I was probably one of those she passed on the bike.  Whew, as sweet as she was -  I could NOT let a 73 year old lady beat me.  At the turnaround point, my knee’s were starting to ache and I knew from past runs that if they were aching now, they’d be really bad in a few more miles.  I remembered the aspirin I had scotch taped to the goo that was now soaking wet inside my sports bra.  Pulled it out and saw that they were still okay, so took the 2 aspirin.  I figured it would take 30 minutes or so to work, which would put me somewhere between 9-10 mile mark and that would be right when I needed it.  Plus I was a little hesitant to take it during the race, didn’t want any stomach issues.  It must have worked, I never thought about my knee’s after that.
The next 3 miles were great, because that’s when I started passing groups of people walking.  Always looking for someone in my age group, I passed two of them – yeah! The last 3 miles were the best.  I knew I was coming in strong and still hesitant to push too much too fast.  Not completely sure how to gauge what I can do and don’t want to push hard for 1 mile and then have to walk the last 2.  So I slowly picked up the pace.  People are leaving the race and packing their cars, cheering out their windows at me.  I see a guy about 300 yards ahead of me walking.  If he keeps walking, I know I can catch him - I pick up the pace and pass the guy who has now started to run and then I sprint the last 100 yards over the finish line.  I am so happy!  I finished strong and feel great. 
All I wanted to do was finish this race in 8 hours or less and not be last.  I was real concerned about my times and the race cut off of 8 hours.  I knew I could do the swim in 50 minutes, but had allowed myself up to 60 minutes – just to keep the pressure off.   My best bike was 4:07 and I figured my run would have brought me in around 2:40’ish, so with transitions added, I knew I would be very close to the 8 hour cut off. 
My official time was 6:14:31 (Swim CANCELLED, T1 1:31, Bike 3:39:26, T2 2:37, Run 2:30:58).  For overall women I finished 104 out of 127 and 7/9 for my age group.  I also finished ahead of 13 men – so I wasn’t LAST J.