IRONMAN TAHOE -- THE NEW WORLDS TOUGHEST?

A COLD SUNRISE

I lived this event vicariously through my son, Ben Ewers III. He had raced 3 half Ironman (Vineman, Racine, World Championship) culminating with the Tahoe Ironman in an 8 week stretch.   I visited the doc following my half ironman world championship race and haven't moved a swim/bike/run muscle since.  But, through the technology of Ironman Live and cell phones, I kept track of his race as it unfolded.  And, having raced numerous time with him since he started triathlons in high school, I thought I could feel how he was feeling through the technology.  I was exhausted by the time he finished.

It was a beast of a race.  Cold, hilly, altitude, windy and the slowest average finishing time of all official Ironman races. A huge DNF and DNS count.  Only 2 pros beat 9 hrs, and then only by a few minutes. Follow the link below to some interesting stats.

 www.runtri.com/2013/09/ironman-lake-tahoe-2013-results-analysis.html

BE3 lives in the bay area and has been involved in numerous activities in the Tahoe area including downhill skiing, ultra racing on the Tahoe rim trail, and biking the notorious death ride numerous times. He has a huge respect for what the altitude can do to your ability to get oxygen to your muscles.  He adjusted his race targets accordingly.

I saw that BE3 exited the water with a 67:34 minute split and in 308th place, higher than he usually places. And since the top pro time was a slow 51:36 minutes, I was excited that the new wetsuit he was using and some additional swim training was giving him a great start to the race.  Boy, this is cold and people are pummeling me.  I can't seem to get a breath. The wetsuit must be constricting my breathing. I've never felt like this before, I gotta swim to that anchored boat and get outta here.  Am I having a panic attack?  OK, I'll rest holding onto the boat for a while and unzip my wetsuit to make it easier to breath.  Maybe I should quit. The official is calming me down.  I've seen this happen before, especially up here at Lake Tahoe, he states. Take slow breaths he advises, it's the frenetic pace at the start and the low oxygen content at this altitude impacting you.  OK, I'll try to get going again, can you help me re-zip my wetsuit?  Enough break time, those swimming around me are less frenetic and swimming slower.  I can do this. Long slower strokes.  I've found my rhythm and am moving past these slower swimmers. It's just not gonna be my day. I need to readjust my expectations and goals.  Just finishing safely after this scare.

BE3 WITH ALEXA AT START

Ironman live showed him moving into 104th place at the 4.2 mile split on the bike.  What!  How did he pass 200+ fast triathletes in 4 miles of biking?  I started to check the transitions.  BE3 took 5:34, which appeared long to me. Then I checked what others were taking.   Very long transitions, many in excess of 12 minutes.  It occurred to me that complete clothes changeover must be the norm, as the early morning temps were near 30 degrees. I checked the live video feed for transition 1.  Everybody was heavily clothed and carrying their shoes without bikes.  A long transition run also.  So how did he transition so fast?  Did he know what his placing was?  Quick text to his wife Sandra. Found out she had to leave after the swim as Alexa and Bella were freezing. Boy, was that swim a scare.  It's really cold and I'm wet. Dam, there are no chairs open in this crowded transition tent, that swim pause put me among the masses.  I'll plop down on the ground and change.  My hands aren't working, I'll use gloves and just put a base layer under my trisuit for the rest of the race. The trisuit will dry out quickly on the bike and as the day warms up I'll be just fine.  


By 41.1 miles on the bike he was 55th overall and 4th in his age group, the highly competitive 40-44. At age 44 he is at a relative disadvantage, but if he qualified for Kona 2014 he would race in the 45-49 age group, a small relative improvement.  Quick check of his bike pace.  Actually very conservative (slow) and well within his pre-race plan.  And, yet, he was screaming up the leaderboard. Had to be a tough course. Crap, my power meter just froze up and I'm no longer getting reads. Must have gotten soaked by the rain. I'll have to bike purely by feel. I'm cold, bad decision to not take a windbreak. I'm biking harder than I want to, but I have to in order to not freeze.  It's difficult to eat my nutrition as it's frozen hard. Oh well, maybe I can make top 10 in my age group.  

Approaching the finish of the bike leg BE3 had moved into 39th overall (many of them pros) and holding onto 4th in the 40-44 age group.  Two guys in his age group are way out in front of the rest. He has a chance for 3rd if he races smart.  His times are still conservative with the bike, actually slow. There are 10 splits on the bike course.  Many parts of the bike course are repeats, so I started comparing these splits. There did not appear to be much fatigue fade setting in.  Still, the bike times seemed slow overall but his relative placings were great.  I text Sandra.  Does BE3 know where he is?  No, she's going to catch him on the run segments.  I tell her he's doing great.  Go go go.  He brings in a 5:41:33 bike split. Under 20 mph average? Must be very hilly. Another leaderboard check shows that only 3 guys broke 5 hrs.  Where is everybody?  I haven't seen another biker for 12 miles?  At the last turnaround the guy shouted out 40th place?  Must be wrong or 40th amateur at best.  I've done everything wrong.  Must have lost 4 minutes on the swim, under dressed for the weather, power meter froze up, biking too hard, can't get food down, relieved myself frequently on the bike, ugh.  Can't wait for the run. I'll just try to bring it home healthy. 

FUN ON THE RUN

Like the bike course, there are frequent splits on the run, 8 in total, and some of these are repeats also.  Running is BE3's strength as he basically trains for ultra trail runs and tries to squeeze in some swimming and biking as he approaches a triathlon race.  That's why he clumps his triathlons into short time periods.  His run splits look like he planned. Thinking of the line from the Kenny Rogers country western song --"you never count your money when your sittin' at the table"-- I try to not get too excited for him.  At 13.1 miles he moved into 34 overall and 3rd age group.  At 22.6 miles 34th and 2nd age group.  Am I glad to see Sandra and Alexa and Bella. Bella wants a hug and a lift? Great? What, I'm in what place? Wow, everyone must be hurting. Not that many more miles to go, but I'll have to walk some of the aid stations.  I am so cold, even on the run, it doesn't make sense to me as its warmer now? The patches of sun sure feel good.

Yea, he's done!  3:31 run split.   Only 6 pros broke 3 hours. 10:28 final time.  37th overall, 10th amateur, 3rd age group, KONA bound!  I need to go to the med tent.  I am really cold.  What is my core temp?  95 degrees?  I can't eat a thing. 


In an Ironman there can be a whole series of emotional and physical swings.  Unlike shorter triathlons, there is the opportunity for redemption for miscalculating equipment, nutrition, pacing as long as you persevere and keep your wits about you.  It's tough being the parent of an Ironman, even if you are an Ironman.

3RD AT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 70.3 -- A BRUTE OF A RACE

A young looking group of Podium finishers

Well, the Ironman World Championship 70.3 (c'mon, it's a Half Ironman), held in the local of Henderson, Nevada, deserves its reputation as one brute of a race venue.  Fortunately, the forecast of 103 degree heat for the September 8th race was interrupted by a late summer monsoon that brought rain that lasted through most of the bike leg.  [A monsoon in the desert southwest sounds like an oxymoron, but for the residents, compared to their normal dry and hot weather, it feels like a monsoon.  Every year in late summer moisture from the south makes its way north and most of the 6 or 7 annual inches of rain fall in that so-called "monsoon" season.] But, once the rain passed, the humidity remained and it warmed up to the mid-80's for the run.

Besides the usual heat, there are the hills.  2800 vertical climbing on the bike and since it is a point-to-point bike with the ending elevation about 800 feet above the starting point, the bike entropy is not zero. You get to climb but you don't get to descend all the way.  And the run has about 200 feet of climb and descent each of the 3 laps.

Entry into the 70.3 Worlds was by qualification at one of the approximately 50 qualifying races held worldwide.  My 65-69 age group typically had one qualifying slot per race.  Due to attrition or passed slots, by the time the bib numbers were assigned, there were 34 entrants in this age-group, 15 of which made their home outside the USA.  Don't think they came here just for the weather.

I had traveled back to Arizona from Minnesota some 10 days prior to the race to attempt to get heat acclimated.  My Internet research had indicated that 10 days of training for a minimum of 90 minutes per day in the heat would get you most of the way there.  I had followed that plan for the Ironman World Championships in 2011 and it proved effective.  It was the hills that were tough for me to get a handle on since my summer training terrain in Minnesota was on relatively flat ground (like 60 mile bikes with 150 foot total climbing!).

My son was going to join me again for this race so we were able to share race strategy and targets. After some consternation I settled on :40/2:50/2:00 for the swim/bike/run segments plus transitions giving 5:35 assuming a good race and the milder weather.  Part of my concern was my arthritic knees which made run training for the past two months difficult and a sprained back that occured 7 days prior to race day. Fortunately, neither was a significant issue on race day.

Early morning Lake Las Vegas during the monsoon

The swim was in Lake Las Vegas, a man-made lake with water from Lake Mead pumped up into it to maintain its water level.  Average water temp this time of year is low 80's, no wetsuits.  There were wave starts and the 60+ males had an early start in wave 4 departing at 6:44.  The swim was uneventful, I held a good line, was not hassled but was surprised by my slow split, 44:25.  I had turned in a 41minute swim at Racine 70.3 in much worse conditions.  Just not a good swim.

The rain was pretty heavy during parts of the bike which I responded to by being very cautious on turns and descents.  At mile point 25 I was not feeling great but only putting out 209 average watts, way below my Racine 70.3 numbers of 220 watts.  I decided to ease up some thinking that the hills were impacting me more than I had imagined.  I finished at an average of 200 watts and with a split of 2:52:47. I only consumed 4 gels and 2 1/2 bottles of fluid on the bike, partly due to the steady rain on the course.  I relieved myself 3 times on the bike, not a good sign, hoping the steady rain would cleanse everything.  [Having to relieve oneself is a sign of over hydration. Water is not getting through the cell membranes into the body so the bladder flushes the excess out in trying to establish a better water-to-salt-minerals balance.  Sometimes ingesting more salt minerals resolves the problem.]  I did manage to take 4 salt capsules with water.

Not in a happy place at this point

I decided in the bike/run transition to go sock less on the run as my socks were soaked (see above) and full of mud from the bike.  I had no spare socks in the run bag (error).  The first mile of the run was horrible as I was not able to get a rhythm, and I realized that I had some small gravel in my shoes which I left there.  I resorted to my planned jog/walk routine that was necessary for me to complete the half marathon, as my longest training run this summer had been 7 miles utilizing a similar jog/walk routine (the only approach my knees tolerated).  At this point I knew there were some of my age-group competitors in front of me but I didn't really care as I was already into "finish" mode.

Finding that happy place

I did notice one competitor gaining ground on me at each turn around.  Not too much I could do about that during the early miles but follow my plan and see what happened.  Besides, I was in "finish" mode and not in contention anymore to win; a podium finish was the new goal. What happened is he passed me with three miles to go starting an uphill section.   I tried to stay with him but he slowly moved away until he graciously walked through an aid station with less than 2 miles to go.  That allowed me to catch up and I remained behind him until there was about 1 mile left with a small uphill remaining followed by a long downhill finish.  I decided to push it and either open enough gap to discourage him or fail in trying.  I did not want another close finish either way.  I didn't look back, he didn't catch me.  My split was 1:59:56. I placed third with an overall time of 5:44:03 including some slow transitions.  My son placed 23rd in the highly competitive 40-44 age group in 4:44:13.

My knees and back survived just fine and I feel healthy.  I've scheduled a September evaluation at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota to evaluate my knees.  I have avoided this clinic visit for some time as I am afraid I will not like the analysis and recommendations.  But now its time to rest and recover and discover.