Transition 1 - Swim to Bike
As I clambered onto the dock, thrilled to be done with the swim and not be eaten by the great white sharks spotted near Chatham the day before, I thought "I did it. I finished the part I was dreading the most." I'm a runner by nature and I knew I'd be fine on the bike ride as long as I kept my effort level where it was supposed to be, but the swim, frankly, terrified me. Between the distance and the waves and tide and salt water, there wee too many variables that I was unfamiliar with. But it was over now.
A volunteer, or perhaps the race director, I couldn't tell without my glasses, unzipped my wetsuit and congratulated me.
"What's the time?" I wondered, since I had no watch.
"Just a bit after 1:30, good job." he said.
1:30! 90 minutes for the swim! I practically flew in leaps and bounds of joy towards the transition area. It was a bit of a distance from the swim exit to the actual transition area, but I hardly noticed, i jogged along briskly, but easily, flying as if in mercury's sandals. 1:30! with all that nasty chop staling me, I had been terrified I might not make the two hour cutoff. I hadn't imagined I would make it in 90 minutes.
I got to the transition area and it was pretty well emptied out. "Fine with me" I thought "more people for me to pass on the bike!" Only 90 competitors did the Iron Triathlon, with another 50 doing the Iron Aquabike and I was well back in the swimming pack, 76th of 90. The one person I saw in transition was my friend Nicole who looked like she had gotten out of the water perhaps a minute ahead of me.
"Nicole! We did it!"
"Brendan! Hi!" And off she went.
I take a lot of pride in having quick transitions... I got to my bike rack, finished stripping my wetsuit, pulled on my glasses, helmet, bike shoes and tossed my nutrition into my jersey pockets (I wore my bike jersey on the swim) and was out of the transition area right behind Nicole.
Time - 3:37
Bike 112 miles
The bike course starts with a 6 mile ride along mostly quiet roads to the Myles Standish State Forest, then 4 loops of 25 miles within the State Forest, concluding with 6 miles back into town. My family would be waiting for my at College Pond which I would pass 8 times. My mother, father, brother and sister-in-law had all been waiting there since just after dropping me off at 5:30 in the morning. I can't thank them enough for their patience and support, they wouldn't get to see me until around 9 am!
As soon as I was going on the bike, I popped a couple Endurolytes and downed a large peanut butter Cliff bar, I was HUNGRY! I don't usually eat Cliff bars on the bike, but I knew with the appetite I had developed during the swim that it was just what I needed and it really hit the spot.
A couple miles after leaving transition, I caught up with Nicole and we chatted back and forth, What was her time coming out of the water I asked her. "1:31" she replied. with me coming out a little after her and the Aquabike having a 5 minute head start... that meant I had done the swim in under 1:30! I was stoked!
I settled in and tried my best to stick to my assigned power output (70-75% of FTP, which put me at 154-165 watts). Nicole and I went back and forth passing each other a few times, all the while picking off other riders. She often passed me on the uphills as I tried to hold within my power range, then I passed her on the downhills and flats. Steady, steady, steady I kept telling myself...
We reached the loop part of the course and soon came upon the first big turn on the course, where Nicole's mom was volunteering directing traffic. I yelled out a quick "Hi Debbie!" as she cheered us on around the curve.
The whole course was within 10-150' above sea level, but it was almost constant rollers the whole way. Up... down... up... down... and there were root bumps, cracks and frost heaves all over the place. I had a hard time hitting my target power output and maintaining it, but if it was easy, it wouldn't be an ironman.
Not long after seeing Nicole's mother we reached College Pond and my family was out in force to cheer us on. My mother and especially my father were screaming their heads off for us. My brother and sister-in-law, who had driven down from Maine for this were there too, yelling just as loudly. I had never heard my father so excited, except for the first time the Patriots had won the Super Bowl. It was a huge lift for me and, I found out later, for other racers. My family had cheered every competitor as loudly and enthusiastically as they had me and Nicole. There were few spectators along the course and having such a loud group made all the difference. Over the course of the bike ride, my parents were joined by my grandmother and grandfather, my aunt, my cousins, my sister, her fiancee and their adorable daughter. Seeing them all as I went back and forth meant so much to me and gave me, and other racers, something wonderful to look forward to aside from more hills, more trees and more laps.
After passing College Pond, there were more ups and downs until a sharp right hand turn that started the longest climb on the route. This was also where we joined some brand new pavement that had been laid down in July... oh my god it was beautiful... no bumps and shocks... just sweet, smooth pavement...
It was about this time that I realized that I might be pushing things a little too much. Riding with Nicole brings out the competitive side of me and I didn't want to make the mistake of riding too hard and burning myself out. So I set my power target for the low end of the range and backed off from Nicole until she was well out of sight, which only took about 10 minutes, then settled back into a more normal effort.
Before I knew it, I had finished the first loop of the bike course. "That wasn't so bad." I said to myself. I was feeling good and doing great with my nutrition plan. Endurolytes every hour, plenty of Gatorade and Cliff Shot Blocks every 20 minutes or so. I had forgotten to put on sunblock (doh!) but the sun wasn't too intense and I felt good. I'd had to pee, but had taken care of that pretty quickly and easily.
The second loops flew by as well. Nicole had caught up to me again (she had fallen behind when she took a wrong turn and went off course) but when we did the second climb up the long, smooth hill, not only did she not catch me, but she fell further back. This was partly due to her catching up to a friend of hers, but she also hadn't been riding as much and had worried about falling off later in the ride.
By now, I had also started to really recognize and anticipate seeing my fellow racers along the course. With only 150 competitors packed along 25 miles of loops with 3 out and backs on each loop, we all got to see an awful lot of each other going by and I felt like this built a level of unspoken camaraderie, at least for me.
I finished the second loop, marking the halfway point of the bike ride, in 3:16:26. I had been a little low in hitting my wattage target and I hoped to bring them up towards the upper end of my target range for the second half of the race, so I was well on my way to a near 6:30 bike split.
Unfortunately, halfway through lap 3, I realized that wasn't going to happen. Around that time I noticed an unusual ache in my right knee. "What the heck was this?" I wondered. I tried adjusting the angle of my leg relative to the bike frame, pulling it in closer, or pushing it out, but nothing seemed to lessen the pain.
Now I was worried. My shoulder and neck ached, but that was due to being down in the aerobars so much and would fade once I started running. Ditto the ache in my lower back. No way was this knee pain going to fade once I started to run, if anything, it would be worse! All thought of target finishing times went right out the window. This was now a matter of survival and just making sure I finished and did so without hurting myself.
I backed off on how hard I was riding, just focusing on getting finished. Would I be able to run? The pain wasn't getting any worse, but it wasn't improving either.
I finished the third lap worrying constantly about my knee. Lap four crawled by, thank goodness for my personal cheering section... I also saw a couple friends, Nora and Joe, out on their bikes with their daughter Hannah in tow. What a huge boost it was to see them out where I hadn't expected to see anyone when I was so worried about my knee! I finished up lap four, knee still aching and headed back into town with no other racers around. I took the time to reflect... it was a gorgeous day and I had almost finished my 112 mile bike ride! everything as going so well... except for that knee. Would I be able to run!?
Goal time 6:00-6:30
Actual Time 6:54:13 (First half - 3:16:26; Second half - 3:37:37)
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