Race Recap - Ironman Penticton
Test of will.
HEALTH
8/28/2024
Lessons:
Focus on ways to calm the mind.
Stick to the game plan.
Train specifically for the race course you will be racing.
Pay attention and stay focused.
Always wear a helmet.
Just take one more step.
Anything is possible.
Learn to be resilient.
In this post, I'll be sharing the highlights of my most recent race performance at Ironman Penticton. This was the final year Penticton will be hosting the Ironman after thirty years. The Ironman has moved to Ottawa starting in 2025.
Ironman Performances to date:
Ironman Canada 2013 - Time - 11:03:24 (Swim - 1:11:56, Bike - 5:49:44, Run - 3:55:27), Place OA - 382/993, Place in Age Group (25-29) - 17/78
Ironman Canada 2017 - Time - 11:05:51 (Swim - 1:11:10, Bike - 6:05:01, Run - 3:44:50), Place OA - 119/1,404, Place in Age Group (25-29) - 12/96
Ironman Korea 2019 - Cancelled due to weather
Ironman Penticton 2024* - Time - 9:32:29 (Swim - Cancelled due to weather, Bike - 5:55:44, Run - 3:34:27), Place OA - 95/1,029, Place in Age Group (35-39) - 10/109
Race Report
Race Goal
This was going to be my first Ironman in almost seven years, and I was setting an ambitious goal of sub ten hours for the entire Ironman. Ideally, I wanted to try and see if I could make it to the podium in my age group. I suspected I would need roughly a nine hour and thirty minute race time to accomplish that goal, but this would mean I would have to have a flawless race. Unfortunately, today wasn't the day I was hoping for.
Nutrition Plan
My friends and I had a potluck two nights before so we had a mix of various carbs, meats, and healthy veggies. I ate my usual pre-race pasta the night before the race. I also supplemented my water with salt/electrolytes from Precision Hydration and Gatorade.
On race day, I woke up at 4:00am and ate a large bowl of oatmeal with a banana, milk and Maple Syrup with a coffee. I pre-mixed about 250ml of Gatorade and Precision Hydration, which I sipped the one hour before the race.
From a nutritional standpoint, I hadn't prepared properly. Since I thought it would be a bit of a warmer day, I super concentrated my bottles with maltodextrin (2.5 scoops), electrolytes, and salt (two tablets of Saltstick) and further supplemented with gels during the bike; however, I had overestimated the amount of carbohydrates I could absorb. I was consuming more than one hundred grams of carbs per hour and didn't consume any additional water along the course until the one hundred kilometer mark. I felt like puking for almost an hour and didn't feel like I could ingest anything else until I hit the one hundred forty kilometer mark. From that point onwards, I was only drinking water.
Sleep
I had been sleeping terribly the week leading up to race day (roughly 3-4 hours a night) most likely due to nerves and pre-race jitters. I took melatonin to try and help me fall asleep the entire weekend, but it didn't help. I finished dinner at 7:00pm and went to bed by 10:00pm the night before the race, but I couldn't fall asleep and slept only three hours. Possibly need to consider meditation or other methods to help me stay asleep.
Lesson:
Focus on ways to calm the mind. Without restful sleep, the body can't perform at its true capacity.
Final Results
Racing is never straight forward. Unfortunately, you can spend your entire year training for an event that may or may not even happen. However, I believe that we don't only become stronger physically, but we develop a sense of grit and determination that can be applied to all aspects of our lives. Despite Ironman Korea and Ironman Penticton didn't turn out how I had hoped and there were significant trials and tribulations that I had to overcome, I've gained a new found appreciation for the word resilience. I hope that my future races won't have the same complications and unfortunate circumstances, but I am 100% sure that the only way I'm receiving a DNF (Did not finish) on my record is if I'm being carried off course on a stretcher.
Lesson:
Learn to be resilient. Not everything in training or racing (or life) will go smoothly. Roll with the punches and bounce back stronger.
Race
Swim -
Despite not being a strong swimmer, I was disappointed that we wouldn't be able to race the entire course. I also felt terrible for the athletes who were excited to complete the full Ironman distance for the first time. I had trained for over a year and had hopes of qualifying for the Ironman World Championships at Ironman Korea in 2019, but those dreams evaporated when the race was cancelled due to a typhoon that brought torrential rain and flooded the race course. I could empathize with all those first-time Ironman athletes. When the race organizers made the announcement that the swim was cancelled, I felt like my Ironman journey was cursed once again.
Bike -
The race had become a 180 kilometer time trial with a marathon which changed my initial race plan (it shouldn't have). With the rolling start, I started at around 9:00am which was much later than I had expected to get started on the bike. I didn't realize it, but I had stopped drinking water/electrolytes since I finished the water bottle I brought for the start of the race (at 5:30am), and I think this may have led to me being more dehydrated as the race progressed.
As the time trial got underway, I pushed significantly more power (220+watts normalized power) than I had initially planned (195 average watts) for the first fifty kilometers, and my heart rate didn't settle under 150bpm until after the first seventy five kilometers. My initial goal was to never exceed 195 watts (both normalized and average power) and 150bpm; however that plan went out the door, and I paid the price for the rest of the race.
Lesson:
Stick to the game plan. I should have kept my heart rate and power within the limits I set for myself. By overexerting myself at the beginning of the race, I had 'burned most of my matches' for the back half of the bike ride and the marathon.
I had not specifically trained to fight the headwinds and hold consistent power through the rolling hills of the course while in the aero position which required the recruitment of different muscles than I had been training. Despite feeling strong during my training sessions up consistent grades at higher sustained power outputs during training, I had been sitting up in the saddle which allowed me to use my quads to drive the pedals like pistons. The headwinds on the course would negate any efforts to sit up on the bike, so I stayed in the aero bars. My glutes and hamstrings were burning the entire race, and after the first half of the race, I could no longer pedal efficiently.
Lesson:
Train specifically for the race course you will be racing. There isn't a one for one translation between riding up right and riding in the aero position. Spend more time studying the course and the expected conditions and train accordingly.
Weather
The day before the race was rainy, cold and windy. The weather changed so suddenly that the temperature of the water dropped from 21.6 degrees Celsius on Saturday to 13 degrees on race morning. Despite the weather being sunny and clear on race day, the swim was initially delayed and shortened to 750 meters, but ultimately was cancelled due to safety concerns. The air temperature was 10 degrees and the afternoon temperature crept up past 25 degrees.
As I approached the turn around point to start returning to Penticton at about 140km into the race, I clumsily knocked my handlebars while disposing of an empty water bottle. I had been travelling at over forty kilometers an hour and came to an abrupt stop when the handlebars turned ninety degrees. The next thing I know, I flew over the handlebars and landed on my head. Fortunately, I didn't impede any other athletes, and I didn't sustain any broken bones or severe injuries. The volunteers were so kind in trying to get me sorted and wanted me to seek medical aid. Other than bad road rash, black eye, bloody knuckles, bruised wrist and torn triathlon suit, only my ego was hurt. My bike surprisingly didn't sustain any damage (I think my body subconsciously knew I can't afford a new bike, so my brain sacrificed my body for my bike - Thank God!), so I hopped back on a started charging to the finish line. The spike of adrenaline from the crash that coursed through my veins prevented me from feeling too much pain from the accident.
At kilometer 160, I noticed the front end of my bike getting squishy, so I pulled over and noticed that I had a flat tire. After using both of my CO2 canisters to inflate the tire (first canister was a dud), I continued on. Again, at kilometer 171, I noticed the same thing and realized there was a slow leak in my tire, likely a result of my crash. Since it was a slow leak, I tried to ride as safely as possible to the finish. Fortunately, I had enough air in the tire to finish, but I had lost quite a bit of time riding slowly into transition... now the marathon.
Lesson:
Pay attention and stay focused. One stupid/clumsy mistake can cost you more than just finishing a race. Fortunately I didn't suffer any significant injuries, but it could have turned out very differently had my (limited) luck run out.
Always wear a helmet. This is the only crash I've ever had where my head hit the ground (at least that I can remember). Considering my head came into contact with the ground first, I'm surprised that my helmet isn't more damaged. It just goes to show that it's always important to not cheap out on protective wear and to always wear a helmet!
Run
After entering the transition area for the run, the adrenaline from the crash began wearing off and the pain from my injuries started to radiate. My bloody shoulder, arm, and knuckles were searing with pain whenever I splashed them with water, and I had contemplated pulling out during the start of the run. The first five kilometers of the run course was an uphill slog and at various points along the way, I had slowed to a trudge. A little trick I've learned over the years to keep myself moving during tough times is to create smaller achievable milestones for myself. After the first big hill about halfway to the five kilometer turnaround point, I told myself that I could reassess after I passed the turnaround, full well knowing that I wouldn't quit the race when the return from the five kilometre mark was all downhill. While running towards the turn around, I saw my friend Lucy and it gave me some positive energy to get moving.
Lesson:
Just take one more step. There is a point during every race where you will feel the urge to quit, but if you keep putting one step in front of the other, you will eventually make it to the finish.
After I had returned from the ten kilometer out and back on the course, I started to get into my stride and periodically would bump into my training partners and friends along the way, and that was what I needed to keep making forward progress. My goal for the remainder of the race was to run (at this point it was more of a slow jog) to each aid station and walk through each station treating each as a liquid buffet. I drank as much coke, and electrolyte drinks as possible, while simultaneously dowsing myself in water. Each time I showered myself in ice and water, my open wounds stung and sent a little more adrenaline through my system. Fortunately, the course consisted of two loops, so I continued seeing various friends and training partners along the course which energized and inspired me.
I crossed the finish line in a daze but was also elated to have overcome the roadblocks that I encountered throughout the day. After collecting my medical and other post-race swag, I headed straight to the medical tent to get treated for my road rash where it looked like a war zone. As I waited to be attended to, I observed the medical team members that were preoccupied treating other athletes, some of which looked like they had gone to war. Many participants had IV drips, others shivered uncontrollably under their foil blankets, while the remainder looked like they had passed out. As I reflected on the race and the various events that occurred, I remembered that each of these athletes of varying ages, sizes, backgrounds, etc chose to sign up for this challenge. It is a privilege to be able push our minds and bodies to the limit (sometimes past those limits and end up in the medical tent), and I consider myself fortunate to be able to continue discovering those limits.
Lesson:
"Anything is possible" is the motto of Ironman. By simply putting your mind to something and slowly chipping away at that goal, you will eventually reach it. If you put in the work and are determined enough to reach the goal, you can make any seemingly impossible task possible.
What's Next...
While I'm recovering my injuries, I'm looking ahead to my final race of the year. I have about six weeks to train and hope that my training can help me reach a new personal best. After that, I'm looking forward to my five month adventure to South America and South East Asia.
Portland Marathon - October 6, 2024 - Goal Sub 2 hours 45 minutes
Thanks for reading!
Find your tribe
Last but certainly not least are the amazing team members I had the privilege to train and race with. Although, we didn't have the opportunity to always train together (some of them finish their workouts before I even wake up), we always supported and encouraged each other through the tough workouts, injuries, illnesses, and life challenges. I was inspired to get back into Ironman racing because of them, and I am looking forward to our next race together. Special congratulations to Thomas, Dan, Marco, Tae, and Nat for completing your first Ironman and congratulations to Lucy and Corbin for completing your second Ironman races! Shout out to Lucy for qualifying for Kona 2025! Thank you to Arnold and Tina for chasing us around the course to support!
As always, much appreciation goes out to all of our cheer squad, the volunteers, and the Ironman team for this experience.