Virginia Triple Iron - Triathlon

The last thing Oliveview said to me before I got in the water was, just be "Steady". That was what I was shooting for. Most of these guys are ultra runners, not-so-much ultra swimmers, so I wanted to get into a groove and stay there the whole swim.

Once I got going, I noticed I was swimming neck and neck with Adam. We kept looking at each other (both breathing on opposite sides). So instead of looking at him for 4+ hours, I dropped back and drafted off him. The new plan was to hang out behind him for about 2.5 hours, then figure it out from there. We spent 2 laps going at a very comfortable pace. Once I got the end of lap 3, I started to panic because I hadn't worked out a nutrition plan with Oliveview yet and I wanted to eat every 3 laps. At the end of 3, Adam stood up and there was his crew. I stood up and there was Oliveview! Perfect. Adam took off and I jumped in behind him. I was able do some serious daydreaming and freaked because I didn't set my fantasy football lineup before I left and I knew I had a wide receiver on bye week :(. After about a lap or two, Adam started to slow down. I was coasting right on top of his feet. I had to make the decision to find a new swimming partner. I looked ahead and there was someone else up to the right. I took off and caught him in a few seconds. Right after I caught him, it was apparent why I caught him, he was swimming slower than Adam. Adam went cruising by and I jumped back onto his feet. That lasted about 1 minute and I just had to leave. He just kept slowing down. Spent the last 3 hours solo. The worst part about multiple loops is you have no idea where you are in the pack. I could be last or first. You can't tell. On the way out, I would look for a swim cap coming back in other other side, then try to catch them before I got to the same point on the next lap.

As the day went on, the wind got worse and there was a little chop on the water. I swim with pretty high elbows, so the chop didn't really bother me, but it really bothered allot of other swimmers (as I found out later).

I had about 2 laps left and the RD said the 3rd buoy had been blown to shore, so ignore it. Just swim 1-2-4. I took another look and #2 was "off" too, so I went 1-4. The problem with that was the in bound swimmers. I was swimming in a straight line to buoy #4, which put me on the wrong side of buoys 2 and 3. I just needed to sight a little more as most of the in bound swimmers were hugging the buoy line and I was well right of them.
I finished the last two laps and found out I was near the front of the pack out of the water. I swam to shore, then walked with Oliveview back to the locker rooms.

Not much. Maybe leave Adam earlier, but that wouldn't have changed much.

I got to the locker room and there was the 4Th place guy. He had just showered and was putting on a ton of layers of clothing. I thought about it for a minute and decided to just change my shorts and shirt, plus add socks and a jersey. I skipped the shower. As I was heading out, I heard Oliveview say "Tom will be in there at least 30 minutes". I laughed as I just couldn't think of anything else to do in there, so I left.

Nothing

Before I left San Diego, I deflated my tires and packed my bike for the flight. When I got to Virginia, I put together my bike, but didn't have a pump. I knew they had bike check in so I would inflate my tires then. On Thursday, I brought my bike to the dinner/ athlete check-in, but they weren't doing a bike check-in this year. So, I started the swim with a bike with no air in the tires. Sherri asked Frank (Scuba Punk) to inflate them and give the bike (aka The Death trap) a once over. Apparently I had a huge gash in my front tube. Frank is my Guardian Angel and repaired the tube as well as other adjustments to the bike, all while I was blissfully swimming. Thank you Frank!!!

The bike started off a little shaky as the timing chip they mounted to my frame wasn't getting read by the timing computer. I made about 8 loops around the timing device before they just hand wrote in my time for the first loop.
The course was 67.5 loops, so the first loop was about halfway to the main turn around. As I was heading out, I saw one guy (Roger) then another (Badwater aka Steve), that was it. Really surreal for me to be in a situation with so few racers on the course at the same time.
I made it back to transition and tried again through the timing device...no dice. I tried again and they just hand wrote that in too.
Once again, it was just the three of us out there. No sign of the guy (The German) who I passed in the locker room. Made it back to the timing device and this time they stopped me and moved the chip to a different spot. That did the trick and I had no other timing issues the whole ride. I rode a few more laps before someone else showed up on the course. They were all doing the half lap, so I knew they were well behind me.

The plan Sherri (Oliveview) and I had worked out was not to stop in transition. The last time I stopped every time I needed something (and a few times when I just wanted to chat). All of that stopping and starting really added a bunch of time to my last race. This time, I just said what I wanted as I came into transition and they would hand it off to me on the way out.
The weather was a bit warm, 86 degrees and again some of the other athletes were having a hard time with that. I had spent the last few weeks training in 90+ degree weather, so this felt fine to me. Still, Sherri made sure I stayed on top of my electrolytes.
Again, I just tried to stay steady with my effort. I was drinking and eating regularly and felt pretty good.
As usual, I don't have to pee until it gets dark or at least once it cools down, so once the sun started to go, I was a peeing machine. I peed all over that park :)
The only real medical issue I had was I started to get a "Hot spot" on my left foot. I stopped and Sherri put some Moleskin on it and I had no other problems with that foot...for a while.
Now, I knew the plan was for me to get 1 - 1.5 hours of sleep the first night, but at around midnight I started to get sleepy, so I laid down for a half an hour nap. But 20 minutes later my eyes popped open and I was off again. The night was perfect. The weather said it was going to rain late at night and drop to 40 degrees, but I was just fine with my long sleeve jersey. The moon was out and I could almost see even without my bike light. I really couldn't ask for a better night to ride in.
A couple of hours later, I started to get tired again, so I said I was going to lay down again. Just before I laid down, Sherri said "I don't know if you care, but you are in second place". I thought that was cool. I wanted to sleep for 30 minutes again and like last time I woke up just before the 30 minute mark. Off I went.
Some people have asked if I had hallucinated during the night. No, that's for crazy people. Although, at one point I thought I saw Bigfoot. I turned to Abe Lincoln (who was riding beside me) and asked if that was Bigfoot. Abe just said, no, it was a deer. So, no, no hallucinations for me :)
During the ride, I saw less and less athletes on the road and I knew we were getting somewhat close to sunrise, so I decided to sleep for a solid hour. I stopped and ate (meatloaf and mashed potatoes (I think) then laid down to sleep. Before I knew it, Sherri was standing over me telling me to get up. She scared the crap out of me. It took a solid few minutes just for me to get my bearings. The sun started coming up and I felt better and better as the day went on. Somewhere along the line, I dropped back to 4Th place. The rest of the bike was just steady. Around 9 am, the double athletes were now on the bike course. The triple athletes were all going about the same pace now. Nobody was passing anybody else on the course. All of the passing was done in transition, when someone would stop. So these double guys really threw us for a loop because they were moving so fast. We had gotten comfortable riding in the middle of the road (blocking) and a whole host of other bike violations, so it took some adjusting for us to obey the rules of the road again.
Whenever we would get passed by one of the double athletes, we would joke with each other about these "short course athletes" shooting their wad. Oh, the things you think of when you are sleep deprived :)

Probably should not have laid down for those two little naps. I should have taken an energy drink or something to keep me awake for a few more hours. Sleeping just felt right at that time, though.

I don't really remember T2, sorry.

I was happy to be off the bike, but concerned about how my legs would feel after riding for 25 hours. I did no brick workouts during training, so I had no idea how I would feel. I decided to run the first lap by myself instead of with a pacer. I wanted to see if I could push myself without the help of someone else. The main thing I did on the first lap was consciously map out the elevation changes on the course. The first .4 miles is uphill. Even though it wasn't a huge hill, 39 laps still equals running a 15 mile hill. At the top of the hill, you turn right and there were very slight rollers for the next .6 miles to the turn around. I knew I wanted to walk the uphills and run the downhills and flats.
After the first lap, Ira and Renee ran with me. They brought chalk with them and marked the spots on the ground where I was to run and walk. This was mainly for my pacers information.
I actually felt pretty good during the run. I cramped a few times during the day, but overall the cramping was minimal and I was able to work through them. I have had Ironmans where I was in far worse shape.
For my nutrition, I was now on a pretty steady diet of Coke, Cherry Dr. Pepper and regular Dr. Pepper, but from time to time, I was actually getting hungry. I had a few cheese sandwiches during the bike and I think I had a sandwich or two during the run as well. Again, this part of the race is a blur for me. I pretty much ate what Oliveview gave me. She was great about giving me a couple of different options and I would just choose which option appealed to me at the time.

The run was pretty uneventful for a few hours, then I realized I was in 3rd place, 2 laps ahead of 4th place (Adam). I tried to pick up the pace, but Ira gave me some good advice. He said we are 22 miles into a 78 mile race. There are a ton of things that can go wrong in the next 50 miles. If I feel good doing what I am doing, then why change? We will let Adam push to catch me. He said "The race doesn't start until mile 60 of the run". Which I found to be extremely funny.
Now, Ira is a buddy of mine from San Diego who moved to Virginia for work. He and I have done a few Ironmans together, but he has no interest in going longer than that. He called us "Fringe triathletes" and misfits, which I was OK with, actually. So, he hasn't run anything more than a marathon. He ran 25 of the 39 laps with me this weekend! I think that is absolutely incredible that he could do that on no real ultra training. Although he did say "this isn't running, it is more like a slow walk". Still, 50 mile sis 50 miles.
The one thing he did that was killing me, was constantly talking about food. If it wasn't about burgers or ice cream, it was about carne asada burritos or breakfast food. My stomach was growling for hours because of him!
Now, everybody was going at pretty much the same pace. The only time people were getting passed is when they would stop to sleep or to eat. I knew I was ahead of Adam and nowhere close to Roger (2nd place). The problem was Adam was walking up the hill, then running all of the rollers and all the way down to the bottom of the hill. We would be together going up the hill then he would lose me and would be heading up the hill as I was just working my way down the hill. I tried to look like I was feeling good, but I just couldn't keep the same pace he had. I HAD to walk the rollers. At this point, Adam had closed the gap to either the same lap as I was on or just one lap behind me.
Adam had just finished his first marathon and he and his crew looked like they were going to stop. It was dark out and I started to get a little tired. When I got back to camp, I sat down for a little break. I wasn't going to sleep but I wanted to rest. All of Adam's camp was quiet, so I knew he must finally be sleeping. If Adam was taking a nap, then I could surely take a few minutes to gather myself. I don't exactly remember what I was doing, but I do remember sitting and eating. The next thing I knew, Adam had just gone by. Apparently he didn't stop for a nap, just a jacket and missed him on the course. I "hopped" and tried to get back on terms with him, but he never let up. He was an absolute machine out there. After a few hours of the cat and mouse thing, I gave up trying to catch hm (he had taken over 3rd.) All I could do now was stay consistent and wait for him to crack. At some point I figured out I was a few laps behind Adam, but also way ahead of 5th place, so I decided to sleep.
I laid down in the tent and was cover by some blankets. During this time, the temperature had dropped to 39 degrees. After an hour, Sherri woke me up(she scared the crap out of me as I had NO IDEA where I was). I took off the blankets and immediately started shivering. I had never been so cold as I was then. My body couldn't stop shaking. The camp next to us had a propane heater, so I stood in front of the heater for a while. While I was standing there, my legs gave out and I almost took a header into the heater. Sherri grabbed my arm and kept me from falling into it. After that I was awake :). I piled on the clothes and went back out for the run.
One thing that I did notice was, Roger had slowed down a lot. He was with his wife and every time I saw them, they were walking (uphill, flats and downhill). I realized that while I was racing Adam, I may have actually caught up to and passed Roger.
The biggest complaint I have about this race is, nobody could tell you what place you were in. I would ask the timers "What place am I in?" They would say, "I have no way of knowing". The next lap I would say "What lap am I on?" They would say "30" I would then say "how many other people are on lap 30?". They would say "3"...."oooookayyy, so I am in 4th?"...."yep"...."thanks". If I could figure that out on no sleep, I would think they could figure that out too.
Sometime in the middle of the night I didn't see Roger and his wife, so I tried to push on (either pass him or pull away from him). I put in a few more laps, now pretty sure I was ahead of him. I passed his campsite and there was his wife. I asked her where Roger was (assuming he was sleeping) and she said he was out running, that she had taken a nap. The next thing I knew, Roger was coming down the hill. Once again, I didn't recognize him with his wife and had missed him on the course. At that point, I knew the race was over. Neither guy would crack and the sun was about to come up, so I laid down for my last nap of the race. This was preplanned that I would sleep just before the sun would come up and wake up after sunrise. This time it would be for an hour and a half.
After I woke up, I again couldn't get warm. It wasn't as bad as the the first time I slept, but it was still very painful to be shaking like that, plus my legs were now starting to get sore. My quads were stinging every time I hit the ground on the downhill section and my fingers were frozen. The good thing was, after a few laps of going up that hill, I warmed up nicely and once again it was business as usual.
Now, I know this is a little out of order, but sometime either Saturday or Sunday, the crew had breakfast with bacon. If you remember my double iron story, then you know how much I enjoyed the bacon then. Well, I knew they had some, but they never offered it to me. Again this is where it gets fuzzy. Just before I slept Saturday night (I believe) Sherri gave me a piece of bacon. Now she had a big piece of aluminum foil, so I thought she 8 or 10 pieces in there. After she gave me one (1) piece, she folded up the foil and walked away. I thought "hey! what about another piece?" But I was too tired to give it more thought. Now, Sunday morning rolls around and Ira had been talking about food forever and I was getting really hungry. Well, the people who offered me bacon in 2007 was there again and they offered me more bacon this time too! I was so happy I was going to go back to their camp to get it, but they told me to keep going and they will bring it to me. They caught up to me and gave me a piece. That was so good. After I had the bacon I remembered that Sherri had a whole mess of it back at camp but only gave me one piece hours ago. I started to get upset. Renee was with me when I was running a lap and I was telling her how hungry I was. She asked if I wanted a cheese sandwich. I replied "yes, and sneak some bacon in it since Sherri won't give me any." When Renee caught back up to me with my sandwich, it had a niece big piece of bacon in it. :) After the race we had a good laugh about the whole bacon hoarding incident. Sherri wasn't hoarding the bacon, she wasn't sure what I wanted to eat. (Apparently, I had turned down every other offer of food, except for coke or Dr. Pepper. At one point she asked if I wanted orange slices and I (allegedly) said "oranges are for sissies", to which Ira said "yeah, sissies... I think we were both delirious.
Once I warmed up, the rest of the run was uneventful.

When I got to mile 60, I told Sherri I was going to drop the hammer on the guys ahead of me. She said I should have dropped the hammer when the other guys were at mile 60, not me. They are almost done :)

I did get a chance to run with Lauren and Sherri's boys. That was cool. I ran my last lap with Sheila.

If I were to do anything different, I would have raced the whole time instead of relaxing and going into cruise mode. I think if I had stayed focused and not slept that last time, I could have over taken Roger for 3rd place. He was suffering while I felt really good.

After the double, my legs were shot. I laid down and could barely move for days. After this race, I felt really good...like I hadn't done anything for the last 55 hours. I didn't want to sit down, so I walked around a bit. The first thing I did was brushed my teeth. My mouth was so gross. After that, Sam's crew offered me a beer, so I took it. I also smelled Doritos, so I rummaged around our camp trying to find them. Somebody said we didn't have any Dorritos, but some kid was eating them across the street. Somebody from camp went over a got me a bag of Dorritos...Dorritos and beer...umm so good.
After that, Sheila had gone into town and got BBQ and beer for the crew so we had a little party instead of going to the awards dinner.


My desire for sleep


This race went as good as I could have expected it to go. I felt absolutely incredible the whole time (give or take a few minutes here and there). Both physically and mentally I felt dialed in.

I have my coach to thank for getting me ready to race. Randy Bernard at Trimycoach.com is as good as it gets for ultra distance endurance racing. I have Sherri to thank for most of my mental well being. I told her I was retiring back in 2007, but when I called her to tell her I was going to do the triple, she already had a plan put together on how I could take hours off my race time. Mainly not stopping to chit chat. I trained all year doing long stretches without the need to stop, so the race was no different.

I also couldn't do this race without the help of BT. You all are so great. The emails and Inspires during the race and over the last few months have really helped.

I still can't believe the absolutely incredible people who gave up their time and money to help me out. Ira, who expected to run a little, but had no idea he was going to do 50 miles. Renee who flew in from Tampa to help me. Frank and Amy who are just God sends. They kept me laughing the whole time and I knew my bike was in great hands with Frank. Sherri, Ralph and the kids. They gave up so much to take care of me and my family. Ralph took over camp duty and had to put up with the redheaded squatters who stayed in their cabin all weekend. The boys having to put up with my ultra competitive, super high-tech, city dwelling pre-teen daughter and Eliza who was Sean's best friend for the weekend.

Sherri, I don't even know what to say. You know I couldn't and wouldn't have done this race without you. Period.

Last but not least, my family have put up with so much, dealing with me and my training. I don't know why Saint Sheila puts up with me. Oh yeah, I know why, for every hour I spent training, she spent shopping :)

I know I said I was going to retire...and I might, but just before I left San Diego, my coworker said to me. "Swim for those of us that can't. Bike for the people who can't bike and run for those people not able to run." That really meant a lot to me.

So, when I got back home, people ask "why do you do this?" I just look them in the eye and say "Because I can". So while I have no plans on doing another race, as long as I am still able to do this stuff, I will continue to do something.


Now, this race report is so long, I am not going to proofread it. So, I reserve the right to add on at anytime if I...or others remember what really happened that weekend :)