PumpkinMan 70.3M 2012 Race Report
Bill Wheeler
In the days leading up to the race all I was anxious about was getting my gear up to Maine. Getting ready for marathons, your crap fits in one bag. Getting ready for this race felt like getting ready for an expedition up to Everest. Finally race day came. I had a breakfast of coffee, applesauce, and Boost, and then it was off to the start. Got into transition, set myself up, then off for a 10-minute warm-up run w/ some striders (some running habits die hard).
The weather was perfect, cool and cloudy. No excuses today. Better put up or shut up.
Swim
This was the part of the race that I had been visualizing for months. After seeing the swim start at IronMan Lake Placid this year, I knew that I better find a way to get comfortable in the scrum. So at my last tune-up race I had abandoned my traditional swim start position of off to the side and started in the middle. That gave me the confidence that I can hold my own in the water.
For PumpkinMan, the race starts in waves of no more than 100 athletes. I was in wave 6. When my 1.2-mile, 2-loop swim started, I was in the middle of it. I wanted to go hard for the first 100 yards to let the pack thin out, then find my rhythm. From my open water swims, I knew I should come around the first loop in 17-18 minutes. Going out to the first buoy I had my feet grabbed, and a felt knocks to the side. But I was dishing it out as much as I was taking it. I accidentally got hold of someone’s shoulder while I was pulling back. But I didn’t care about the bodies around me, I had to do my thing and just swim. Took the first turn, found open water ahead of me, and just cruised.
When I hit the marker for the start of the second lap I took a quick peek at my watch, and all I saw was 16 minutes. I said to myself “Just maintain, just cruise.” With clean water, I just focused on rotating my core, reaching out far, and pull smooth. But now I was catching swimmers that started ahead of me. Some of them were veering into me and I ran into someone doing the backstroke. To me it was great. As I was passing people I was saying to myself, “This was you last year. You put in the time to get better at the swim, and now your proving it, just GO!”
I took the last turn and now it was time to consciously focus on kicking. I wasn’t trying to kick hard, but I didn’t want to get out of the water without warming up my legs. Getting out of the water was a bottleneck; I ended up walking over someone. Ran to the timing mat, and hit the split on my watch: 32:50. BOOM! I figured I worked hard in the water, and I wasn’t going to redline on the 100-yard hill that you climb up to T1.
Bike
This was the part of the race that I had been looking forward to the most. With the new bike I had a two-part game plan. First, based on my training rides I didn’t want to push my heart rate over 135bpm. I can’t give you a good reason why I came up with that number other than it felt comfortable and with the right cadence I could maintain around 20mph on the flats. The second part of the game plan was HAVE FUN! This might sound stupid, but my whole reason for doing this 70.3-mile triathlon was to give my mind and body a break from marathon training. I was going to stick to a comfortable heart rate, and ride my own personal 56-mile time trial.
Well, I didn’t come anywhere close to 135bpm until after 12 miles on the bike. What was going on? For the first 10 minutes on the bike I was just afraid that I was going to blow-up. Then I started to think, “I just swim 1.2 miles faster than I ever had, your body will calm down when it’s ready to. For the meantime, go on feel, and keep your breathing calm.” After the race, Matt Musiak also highlighted the facts that it’s hard to calm-down at the start of the bike for this course because A) you have to climb a hill do get to T1, and B) the bike course goes uphill the first 10 miles. Lessons learned.
After calming down, the rest of the bike went like clockwork. I never tried to press too hard. I tried to drink every 5-10 minutes and take in gels every 45 minutes. I tried to keep my heart rate between 140-150bpm (a little improvisation on the fly) and cadence between 90-95rpm. After 46 miles I was looking forward to getting off the bike and run. I wouldn’t say that I was getting tired, but I wanted to get to MY event. Everything felt like it was clicking, and I couldn’t wait to run.
Got back to transition, and hit the split: 2:33:14. I remember thinking, “Okay, well, that was the fastest you’ve ever ridden 56 miles. This run should be interesting.” Here are some averages from my Garmin: speed 21.5mph, heart-rate 148bpm, and cadence 90rpm. More detailed info is here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/221088670
Run
“Alright, business time. You’re a runner, finish this thing.” Game-plan for the run: 1) forget the heart rate monitor, run on feel and 2) ease into the run, then cruise, DON’T PRESS. Coming out of transition all of the sudden it hit me, “I have to PEE!” Instead of stressing about it, I ducked into the woods and took care of business. First mile split was a 7:10, a little fast even with the pit stop. But it felt good, I wasn’t pressing, I just had to maintain.
The course is rolling, so with every uphill I focused on a high turnover and arm swing. I went into my run nutrition plan of half a gel pack every 3 miles w/ water and Gatorade every aid station. Miles 2-8 I was able to comfortably hold between 6:32-6:53/M. Then fatigue crept in, miles 9-11 were between 7:01-7:02/M. But the great thing was I didn’t go into panic mode. In a stand-alone half-marathon I would have tried to pick my pace up to get back to a sub-7 average, but I wasn’t going to do that after 4 hours of continuously moving. “Just cruise, don’t press” was the mantra. Keep the turnover high, run smooth. Downhill to mile 12, a 6:52, “Alright, we’re back. FINISH THIS.”
Well, here comes what I think was my biggest mistake of the day (I’m sure I’ll be told that I made others, but this was a bone-head move). To get to the finish you first run uphill, hit a flat, and then go downhill. I ran this part of the course during my warm-up to game plan for the finish. My runner mentality kicked in: strong uphill, hit the flat, and KICK!
One stride into my kick, my left hamstring reminded me of the fact that I’ve been moving for over 4.5 hours, it seized up on me. Now I wasn’t going to break 4:30 for the entire race and this point, but I had to tiptoe down the grass hill to finish. Had I just cruised and held pace I know I could have gone under 1:30 for the run. In the end, I’m not going to complain about a 1:30:15 half-marathon at the end of a 70.3-mile race. But the runner in me knows I could have been a little smarter in the finish…next time, right?
Lessons learned from training and PumpkinMan 70.3:
- Go into the race relaxed with an idea of what paces are TOO HARD
- Accept that there will be variables out of your control, and when it comes to weather, everyone competes under the same circumstances
- DO NOT treat the bike like a dessert cart, the harder your pace, the harder it is to digest your fuel
- If you have a bad bike time, you will not make up overall time the first mile of the run, you will implode
- After a long-course triathlon, finish the run strong, forget about a finishing kick
Finally, thanks to all the Cyclonauts. If I have ever talked to you, I’m pretty sure I learned something from you. Entering this sport can be daunting, but this club helps with the learning curve. Thank you.