Buffalo Springs Lake Ironman - Triathlon

I positioned myself toward the right side of the wave as we stood on the beach. Considering there is a right turn as you come out of the cove and head out into the lake, I anticipated it would be crowded for the first 200-300 yards or so. At the gun I ran maybe 20-30 yards into the water and as the guys in front of my started swimming I dove in behind them. It was the typical washing machine of elbows and feet. I was hit in the back of the head at precisely the same point as last year. But last year, that was it. This year it was only the beginning. To say this swim start was combative is an understatement. I've been in barfights that were more civilized. One of the things I love about this sport is the fact that most everyone plays by the rules. About 300 yards in I came in contact with someone who maybe isn't such a good sport. At first he was sort of pawing my right side and shoulder trying to pull past me. I'll even say the grab to the goggles that flipped my goggles inside out could have been an accident. But when he stuck his hand inside the collar of my wetsuit, choking me, yanking my head out of the water, and then pulled me under I lost my d*** mind and mauled him. I got on his back, held him under water and gave him a little of his own business before I pushed him under my legs and went on my way. I'm not proud of it. I shouldn't have let some idiot throw me off, but I considered what he did to be far beyond what one would normally expect in an OW swim. I know there's always contact, but this was malicious in my opinion, and he grabbed the wrong guy. If had happened to me before I was a comfortable OW swimmer my day might have been over at that point. I flipped on my back for a second to get my goggles back on, treaded water to to get my bearings, and got on with my swim. I didn't have the draft opportunities I had last year, but there were a few chances here and there. I got into a rhythm on the long stretch out in the lake and had a nice easy swim. After the last buoy I picked up the pace and started kicking to get some blood flowing to my legs. The exit was smooth and I got up and running to T1 with no trouble.


Probably nothing. I mean I'm not happy about my involvement in a wrestling match, but I don't see how I'd handle it differently. I try to do things to positively influence the race experience of other people on the course by following the rules and being polite to everyone. Maybe I did. Maybe he would have pulled the same thing with somebody who was struggling and they would have freaked out and caught a canoe ride to the beach or worse. Who knows... I didn't really think about it again until after the race when I met up with some guys in the 45-49 AG who said they don't have those issues with the "grown ups". ;)

I saw Holly and Hannah along the exit chute. It was cool to see Hannah smiling and waving, as opposed to looking stunned when I stumbled out of the water at my races when I couldn't swim well. Chad was there yelling and running along the fence when I got to T1 getting me fired up for the bike course. I was about 2 minutes faster this year than in 2006.

Maybe practice a transition or two. My last transition was BSLT last year (my last race before this one).

On the drive to Lubbock I made my annual freak-out call to Dennis (dgunthert). Last year I was worried about the swim (and he set me straight 2 minutes before our wave started). This year it was my lack of experience with race wheels and wind. BSLT can be very windy. He assured me I wouldn't get blown around too much and if I'd just relax and ride my bike I would appreciate having the wheels. He was right again... I told him to expect a call about running hills next year, but since I'm in his AG I think my free advice account may be running low. :)

Coming out of T1 my HR was 172 before I hit the first 8% grade hill right out of the transition area. I was in the right gear for it and I had no problems getting to the top. I even managed to catch my breath and get my HR down during the climb (it was 150 when I got to the top). I settled into my pacing plan right away and I got through the initial hills and onto the flats. I was happy to see the winds were pretty calm and there were a few clouds to keep the sun in check. I expected some crowding on the course from the hills, but even on the flats there were a few packs of cyclists and one outright pace-line that passed me about 10 miles in. I didn't see that last year. But this year people seemed to draft more. In fact one guy I saw several times on the course was never more than a few feet off of somebody's back wheel. He was easy to spot in his distinctive uniform, decked out in his national flag. More on him later...

The hills were a lot easier on me this year because I was prepared for them thanks to the Computrainer. (The CT course for Buffalo Springs is harder than the actual course). And my nutrition was right on. I had a nutrition bottle with 6 scoops (3 hours) of Infinit and 3 scoops of CarboPro for a bit over 1000 calories. I finished it with 10 minutes to go. I took gel every 45 minutes and I went through about 5 bottles of water with ELETE electrolytes. Last year my bike nutrition plan was very poorly exectued on my part. The plan was fine, I just didn't get it done. This year I'd been practicing a lot in training so I was on autopilot with it and I didn't have any problems.

I kept expecting to feel tired on the bike, and I held back a bit because I was waiting for fatigue to set in. Maybe that was because I had such a hard time last year. I should have pushed harder. I had the energy, but I stuck with my pacing plan. The plan was to ride 10 miles in Zone 1, 20 in low to mid Zone 2, 25 in high zone 3-low zone 3, and then spin out my legs in the last mile. I went by heart rate and effort, but my mind wanted to go by speed. The plan was also to ignore the speedometer, so as hard as it was, I did that.

I'm happy with my bike split. I was more than 30 minutes faster than last year, so I can't complain too much. But I could have gone harder. Next year, I will.

PLAN to push a little harder. My legs felt good and I had no trouble holding my pace or climbing any of the hills.

Uneventful transition. I felt pretty good until I got running...

Nothing

I came out of transition and I started to feel really bad, really quickly. It was as if somebody flipped a switch and suddenly I was sapped of my energy. I looked at my Garmin and it said I was running at a 7:45/mile pace. I didn't buy it. I know my running pace well enough to know what 7:45 feels like. No way. I kept going. I started feeling worse and my abdomen was hurting pretty badly. It took a while to realize my bladder was FULL. I'd never pee'd during a race of any distance. I never needed to! But it was clear I'd need to if I was going to keep running. I looked at the Garmin again: 7:50 pace. I decided my Garmin was going to be worthless to me if I couldn't rely on the pace so I was disappointed I'd bothered to put it on. When I passed the 1 mile mark under 8 minutes... I reconsidered. I was shocked that my estimation of my pace was so far off. My mind started to unravel a bit at this point. I still don't know why really. I planned to run the first 2 miles in zone 1 (9:30 at this point given my lack of run training). I started feeling worse. My hip was hurting as expected given the fact that I've been getting physical therapy on it for the past few weeks for bursitis. But mainly I just felt weak. When I started thinking about running 12 more miles, I seriously considered walking back to T2 and turning in my chip. That idea occupied my mind almost continuously for a while in fact. I thought about what that would mean in the big picture and I wasn't happy. I thought about having to explain what happened to all of my friends, and how difficult that would be in the coming days. But I still wanted to do it. In fact I'd say I was about 90% convinced that quitting was the thing to do, and if I continued running I was going to seriously hurt myself. Of course my brain doesn't operate under a "majority rules" system. And any dissenting opinion carries the vote. So I kept running. I thought about whether there were ambulances on the course if I ulitmatley collapsed somewhere. I'd never felt this bad at any point in training or a race. It wasn't nutrition. As all of this was playing out in my head, I tried to slow down and I was still getting 8:15 pace... I found a bathroom at 1.8 miles and I took care of the bladder problem. I hit mile two under 16:00. No problem slowing down after that. Hill #1 handled that problem nicely. As much as I was thinking about stopping I was constantly doing the math... only 11 more miles. That made me laugh a little. Only 11 miles. That's the distance of my longest run in training this year, and I did it fresh. I was really feeling sorry for myself. I walked up the majority of the hill and I felt a little bit refreshed when I got to the top. That was the first clue that if I could SLOW DOWN I might make it. I reasoned that if I could keep running SLOWER and just walk up the 2 remaining hills to recover I might be okay. My hip was about what I expected... the pace ultimately settled down a bit and I found a rhythm. Miles 3,4 and 5 passed and I was out in the desert looking out at the "energy lab road" as they call it. The volunteers were great as always. My spirits lifted a little and before long I could see the turn around. I looked up and saw a cloud drifting along the path of the run and realized it was keeping the sun off of me. It was then that I realized I might actually finish the run if I kept going. I saw Peggy cruising in at about mile 5. Not having seen anyone who appeared to be in her AG ahead of her I was pretty sure she was about to secure a Kona slot for winning her AG. That made me feel a little better too.

The miles ticked by, and when I hit 10 miles I realized I could be under 6 hours if I picked up the pace. I picked it back up to 8:30/mile and decided to see how long I could hold that. I felt pretty fresh at this point, and before long I was looking across a part of the lake where you can see runners ahead of you. I saw the guy that was drafting everyone about 1/2 mile ahead of me. And there it was: a rabbit. I decided to go for broke if only to catch his sorry a$$. I was cooking along pretty good when I heard someone coming up behind me carrying on a conversation as they ran. A woman and a man passed me and I looked over at her and noticed she had a gigantic stuffed banana jammed into her racebelt bouncing along on her butt. WTF? Turns out it was Shanna Armstrong (http://www.shannaarmstrong.com), winner of Ultraman among other things. I tried to pace off of them but they were moving too fast so I held my 8:30 pace. I rounded the corner and saw the drafter shuffling along and I knew I'd catch him. I held my pace, passed him up and saw two other guys that were in my AG. I caught them as well. As I rounded the corner and saw the chute Hannah was on the side of the road waving so I ran over to her and she started running with me for the last 50 yards or so. I was under 6:00, about 35 minutes faster than last year making this a IM 70.3 PR for me. My run was a few minutes faster than last year as well.

Once across the line I starded walking and I took one funny step and my hip was suddenly very, very unhappy. I went and found some ice in the med tent (translation = a little dude from TX Tech helped me limp into the tent and collapse into a lounge chair) and packed bags of ice all around my hip. Within a few minutes it settled down and I was able to get up and walk it off. I felt a lot better in a short time.

Well, I would trust my Garmin for one. I know I tend to run a little too fast coming out of T2. I planned to run to the first hill at my zone 1 pace, but when I ran too fast my plan went out the window and everything came unraveled. Maybe if I'd stuck with the pacing plan I would have had an easier time. My run nutrition was good though, and had the not been the case I doubt I could have overcome the pacing mistakes. Ultimately the fact that I found a way to push through when I wanted so badly to quit may prove to be more valuable to me in that long run than a little bit faster run split. I don't mean to dwell on it, but I'm having a hard time describing just how difficult it was not to bag it. I still don't know why I have so much trouble pacing my run off the bike. But I know going out too fast wiped me out for a while, eventually I recovered, and I'm very lucky that was the case.

I iced down my hip for about 10 minutes, and then I went over to the swim exit and sat in the cool water for a while. We took a few pictures and I drank some water and Gatorade. I felt surprisingly good once my hip settled down. I hung out with my family and the BTers I could find.


I've been in physical therapy for about 2 weeks for some chronic hip pain that is being treated as trochanteric bursitis. Normally this would be where I would mention the laundry list of nagging/chroncic injuries, but honestly none of them gave me any trouble on the course. I have to be happy about that. My day could have been much more difficult. I need to remember to consider every event I show up to able to race is a gift.

I didn't do any organzed training for almost 4 over the winter. I see that as more of a problem and I hope to avoid that mistake this year. In fact, having a proper post season transition to winter training is my "A" goal for 2007! I've had to cut back on my run training significantly. Hopefully taking a few weeks off and doing more physical therapy will get me on track.


I love this race. Everyone from the race directors, volunteers, and (most of) the athletes to the people of Lubbock who just have good West Texas hospitality make it worth the 1300+ mile roundtrip drive. I'll be back for a third time in 2008.