Transcript Ironman world championship race report october 9th, 2010

Ironman World Championship race report
Patrick Allaire
October 9th, 2010
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
Hello Dear Supporters!
I would first like to thank everyone who helped me in my quest to race at the 2010 Ford
Ironman Championship on October 9th. As with all Ironman competitions, this one
being my 10th, the race is a journey. After all of the training, your hope is that
everything goes well. The Ironman, arguably the most recognized and most demanding
one day endurance event, consists of a 3.8 km swim, cycling 180 km and running 42.2
km, a marathon. Chances are something will go wrong, the key is to limit the damage.
Calm before the storm. I was expecting a very good performance, my pre-race
fitness testing indicated that I was in particularly good form. I wasn’t overly
nervous, mostly excited to test my own limits.
The 3.8 km swim started with 1849 athletes in their best physical condition. Look at
the first YouTube video for the swim start! The fight to get a good position is rough
but over the years you learn to deal with it. The nice thing in this swim is that you also
get to watch all the colored fish as you power your way ahead, which is rather
soothing. Everything was going as planned, but not for long.
At 1.9 km out in the ocean you reach the turnaround buoys, which are often another rough
spot during the swim, since swimmers tend to funnel in around the buoy for the shortest
pass. Usually the swim slows down there and then you have another swim start of sorts.
.
In ocean races, the front of the swim field can be quite wide, and swimmers approach the
buoys at very different angles. As I was approaching the turnaround buoys, I got cut from
the left by a swimmer. That made me slow down and turn right too soon (we had to swim
around the buoys keeping them to our right). At the same time, another swimmer on my
right, slightly behind ended up swimming over me, just as I was about to take a breath. So
instead of air, I got a got a lung full of sea water. It distracted me momentarily, but I went
back to swimming immediately.
The return to the transition zone was getting laborious and I was feeling increasingly
nauseated. I got out of the water over 4 minutes slower than expected, slower then
what I did 6 years ago! Obviously something was going on, but I just kept going hoping
that the nausea would go away.
The transition to the bike was
sluggish and I felt really
bloated.
The beginning of the 180 km cycling
leg is a critical time to take in crucial
calories required for the run leg
(42.2 km marathon). Yet I couldn’t
feed myself. The nausea caused by
all the salt water that I had taken in
continued and when I tried to eat, I
regurgitated.
YouTube movie of the start of the bike leg in Kona
Despite the trials of the swim, I had an excellent
cycle. I was surprised that I did not feel the heat
given that the surface temperature in the black lava
fields reportedly reached over 110°F (43°C ). I
finished in 4h38min, meaning an average speed of
37.3 km/hr. over the 180 km distance, the highlight
of my day.
The transition to the run was uneventful, but then the problems started. It didn’t take
long out on the run course before I started walking. The lack of food and water intake
caught up with me and I could feel hypoglycaemia setting in. I was seriously over-heating
from dehydration and the sun’s heat, which created an ambient temperature of 87°F
(30.6°C). I couldn’t even make it to the first aid station one mile out from the start! It was
going to be a very slow marathon. I decided to try and recover so that I could at least
finish the marathon strong. I walked to the first aid station and took in as much Gatorade
as I could...and kept walking in order to try to absorb better.
After a while I started feeling better and resumed running. That lasted perhaps 5
minutes. I knew at that point that the best I would be able to do was to alternate
short runs and walks. So I tried giving myself some alternative goals in order to
squeeze the best that I could out off the race. Mentally quite taxing.
I finally finished, 9h36min after the
gun went off, ranking 199th overall.
At the end they brought me to the
medical tent, and I was surprised to
be weighing 4 pounds more then
when I started?!? As I found out
from the doctor, the high-salt sea
water caused my body to secrete
water into my stomach, which
explains why I was feeling bloated.
The nausea I felt was a sign that I
was intoxicated by sea water. I now
know that I could have prevented
many issues by getting the sea water
by vomiting it out. A different race,
a new experience. I’m really happy
to have willed myself through it,
truly a psychological win.
My brother looks as tired as I am...
MAHALO!
...it wasn’t all pain!