Race Result

Racer:	Steve Giorgis
Race:	Duke Blue Devil
Date:	Saturday, October 16, 2004
Location:	Durham, NC
Race Type:	Triathlon - Ironman
Age Group:	Male 45 - 49
Time:	11:56:10
Overall Place:	32 / 149
Age Group Place:	1 / 13
Comment:	No longer an Iron Virgin :-))

Race Report:

In the weeks leading up to this “event” (I refused to call it a race), I was excited, nervous, anxious, and more than anything, worried. My swim and bike training had been solid, but my running had suffered from an ITB issue that would appear after about 13 miles of running. As a result, I hadn’t successfully completed a long run in over a month. Given this situation, my one goal was to finish and become an Ironman. But I was ready to drop out of the “event” if my injuries got to the point where I was causing further damage.

Pre-Event Routine

Thursday – left Herndon at 2pm and arrived at the Kickoff Dinner at 6:10, with one stop. I attended the Kick Off dinner and had the pleasure of sitting with the guest of honor and his party. I had 2 plates of pasta with David Glover and his Mom, Mike Guzak, Brady Dehoust, and Matthew Talbot and his expecting wife. We listened to Glover’s talk of why he does IMs and his experience with cancer. I left for the hotel and was in bed by 10pm.

Friday – Slept OK until ~4:30 when I woke up with a head-ache and a little nauseous feeling…kinda like being sick or hung over. I finally got out of bed at 7am, figuring some food may be good for me, and some coffee. I had breakfast at the hotel: a bagel w/cc, a muffin, a waffle, a yogurt, coffee and OJ. Felt better after that. Headed for the park and arrived at 10:10; headache was gone.

Picked up my packet, put the bike together, and went for a ride of the run course with the Reston gang…5.5 miles; bike was OK and set it in the rack. We then went for a 15 min run and I felt good. I decided to skip the swim since I swam yesterday and it was still pretty cool out and I didn’t want to get chilled.

We all attended the race brief and then headed out to drive the bike course. My fears of getting lost and confused evaporated as the turns were pretty obvious…almost all of them are at a stop sign. The Duke veterans provided some good tipos for riding the course.

Left the park at 3pm, got gas and picked up dinner and breakfast at Harris-Teeter, and back to the hotel to organize all the bags! I had 5 bags: T1, T2, Special Needs (SN) for bike, SN for run, and what to take to my bike before the race.

My dinner was a salad, 1 piece of chicken and a bagel. Hmmm…did I eat enough carbs?

Lights went out at 9:30; but I didn’t fall asleep until around 11pm. (nerves?)

Race Morning – got up at 4am and ate a bagel with PB, a banana, one packet of oatmeal, coffee, & OJ. Arrived at the race by 5:20 and set up all the bags, my bike, etc. under all the stadium lights. One the many great things about this race is that I was able to park so close to the Transition area, only 20 yards away, which made hauling all the bags much easier. Then I focused on staying warm, stretching, and getting ready for the swim. Another benefit of this small race is no lines for the porta-pods. My plan was to drink a whole Endurox the hour before the swim but I only got half of it down; I was still full from breakfast.

It was 6:45 and still about 45 degrees out but we had to wander down to the beach barefoot in our wetsuits. Everyone was standing in the water to keep their feet warm before the start. I decided not to get in and warm up since it would have been even colder waiting for the start wet. Then we had to get out for the announcements, prayer, Star Spangled Banner, etc. Then suddenly we were off.

Swim – My plan was to draft as much as I could and swim long and strong. I tucked in behind Glover who was right behind Guzak. In the midst of the churning, Glover delivered one soft kick to the face, and then the seas parted…everyone spread out, so I had a clear lane to swim in. Luckily, I didn’t have to put in a sprint to clear the crowd; I was able to get into my long and strong rhythm right away. I finally found someone to draft off of but he didn’t sight very well, so I only caught a draft as he passed back and forth in front of me. At one point, I passed too close to one of those big orange buoys and smacked it with my left wrist (in the finger-tip drag position). My whole arm bounced back…no harm done. I got back into rhythm and proceeded on, eventually giving up on my draft. As the sun came up, it was turning into a beautiful cloudless blue-sky day. I could see several swimmers 40 or 50 yards ahead of me. After the first of 2 laps, we had to run along the beach for 50 yards. There were a lot of cheers as I exited the water only to find out they were for the first woman who was right behind me. We ran through and I heard 27:14 for a split…WOW…a few minutes faster than I expected.

I purposely swam slowly at first to let this girl get ahead of me, so I could tuck in and draft. This worked until the far end of the loop where I think she tried to drop me. She picked up the pace, so I did too to try to stay with her. My right calf immediately rejected that idea by cramping, so I backed off, stretched, and proceeded cautiously by myself. Towards, the end of the swim, my left wrist started to hurt…’strange’ I thought. Oh well, after the swim, I don’t need my wrist anyway.

T1 – I ran up the ramp and eagerly laid down for the wetsuit strippers (my first time!) and it was better than expected. One pull and it was off, I stood up, grabbed the suit and was off to pick up my T1 bag and into the changing tent. I was the 3rd one in there wondering where everyone else went. It turns out there were relay swimmers who came in ahead of me and they didn’t need to change, meaning I was 3rd overall. I’m thinking…jeez, my first ironman-distance race and I’m in 3rd place. I quickly purged that thought as my plan from that point on was to go as slow as I can. Mike Guzak came in and then David Glover. We talked some, and then Glover left and then Guzak and I was still there putting on arm warmers, etc. I finally get ready, grabbed my bike and followed Mike out of the park. Dave Glover’s mom (who had flown in from California to watch!) had just sat down after her big cheers for Dave, then Mike. I think I surprised her because she jumped up suddenly and cheered some more for me.

Bike – I started the bike in about 7th place (including the relays) and I had to really focus on telling myself to back off and not race, but just ride along easy. This is really tough when everyone one else is passing me, I feel great, and I’m giving away places. I finally lowered my heart rate into the target range after about 20 miles, and began my nutrition plan. This is the plan I figured out the night before as I was mixing up my bottles and SN bags. For the first half of the bike, I planned on both solids (3 bars) and liquid nutrition (2 bottles) for 1500 calories total, and then go to liquid only for the 2nd half (2 bottles and gels). Plus I was counting on water and Gatorade at the aid stations.

The ride course was hilly but not too bad; enough to keep you moving positions on the bike. The temperature was a bit cool but the arm warmers and drying off after the swim kept me from getting chilled. I was very comfortable the whole ride.

Early on in the bike, a strange thing happened. Several people had recommended getting a song in your head to help keep an even pace. I couldn’t think of a song prior to the race that I would want to repeat over and over. Early in the ride, a song came to me that I haven’t heard in 20 years or so and I only remember four words of it but it was perfect. Does anyone remember the group called The English Beat? And the song with the words “save if for later”? (I know…I’m dating myself here.) It became my mantra for the ride.

After about 35 miles, we started to turn back to complete the first of 2 loops, and discovered the big head wind. This was supposed to be the fun part of the loop, according to Brady :-/. It was a battle for the remainder of the first loop. At this point, my computer started to phase in and out with weird readings. After a while it quit on me, except for the cadence. Looking back, this was a blessing in disguise; I didn’t want to know how slow I was going anyway. From then on, I pedaled based on heart rate and cadence, and feel of course….saving it for later. As I approached special needs, I had 2 full bottles and more solid food waiting for me; I loaded up and was off. However, I really didn’t feel like eating anything. If fact, I felt bloated from all the food I had eaten so far. From the 56-mile point on, I had half a bottle of my nutrition and water or Gatorade the rest of the bike.

The second loop was where I could start to feel the effects of riding 70 miles so far. Both my Achilles tendons were tender, and I could feel my right knee/ITB getting tight. Riding into a continuous headwind made things even worse. This was probably the low point of the race for me mentally. I was wondering if I would be able to even run. Riding back to the park, we passed by the lake and picked up a cross-wind. The wind was so strong; I had to focus on not getting blown over. I was so happy to hand my bike over as I entered T2.

Run – After a quick change, I gingerly jogged up the hill and through the crowd to the first aid station, out of sight of the crowd, where I immediately walked. Debi, my coach, had suggested I walk for a couple minutes if my knee hurt, so I did. That helped a lot. My goal for the time being was to see if I could do 1 lap of the marathon (5 laps of 5.2 miles each). I eventually got into a pattern of 2 mins jogging and 30 sec of walking/stretching. This got me through the first lap in 56 mins…over 10 mins/mile, or under 5 hours for the total marathon. But, never mind that; now I need to focus on lap 2. Shortly after starting the 2nd lap, Mike Guzek came up to pass me; he was on his 3rd lap. We ended up jogging together, with some walking, for almost 2 whole laps. That was great. Without thinking about it, we forced each other to pick up the pace. I found I could now skip the walking breaks, and more efficiently just walk the uphills, and he later confessed that I was picking up the pace and forcing him to go faster. He ended up dropping me on his “gun lap” to try to catch someone in his AG.

Nutrition on the run was interesting. Since I was going so slow, I wasn’t sweating that much or expending that much energy, but I had plenty of time to eat and drink. I would come to an aid station so often, that I had to skip many of them because I was getting full again, and having to stop at the ports-pods too often. When I did indulge, it was like going to a buffet. I tried some new items while running (grapes (yum), pretzels, chicken broth (yuk), coke), along with the usual gels, water, Gatorade, salt tabs.

By the time I got to lap 5, I knew I was going to make it. This was also about the time I started getting tired and did not quite have the energy to smile and thank every volunteer like I had been doing. I was ready to finish. The sun was starting to go down. I was looking forward to all the lights coming on; the RD promised it was going to be like an air port at night. At the final turn-around at the park entrance, the mileage sign said 23.5 miles. I questioned that and started to worry. I had hopes of finishing under 12 hours and it was 11:42 at that point…time to pick it up. If my ITB shut down, I could walk the rest. I gradually got faster and faster and it felt good. The crowd noticed too as I got many comments the whole way back. I was happy to be finishing strong and smiling big time. I gladly entered the finish chute and crossed in 11:56. Yeehaw!!

Take Aways:

1. To prepare for this IM distance, my actual hours/week training did not go up that much. They were just a lot more concentrated during the weekends, and the week days were more for recovery.

2. The Duke Blue Devil “event” was very impressive. I can not think of much they could have done better. The bigger IM races may be just as good, but with big crowds. The only time I had to stand in line at this race was for the awards brunch buffet. Where else can you park 20 yards from the transition area?

3. Getting to hang out with fellow RATS was fun and made the weekend that much more enjoyable and relaxing; especially for an Iron-virgin. Thanks guys!

4. Did anyone else notice that both the men’s and women’s winners are graduates from the same fine academic institution…USNA (me too).

5 Coming from almost 20 years of racing Olympic distance tri’s, I had to really focus on not exerting myself and just going at a moderate training speed, and it paid off. Thanks to Debi for her expert guidance here.

6. David Glover was amazing. He was the keynote speaker at the Kickoff dinner talking about his experience with cancer and why he does IM-distance triathlons. He was always available to help others, even slowing his marathon run to talk with me as he passed/lapped me. He spoke again at the awards brunch. And he knows the whole race committee, the announcer (who they fly in from California – he was great), he stayed late into the night to cheer others on, etc. Oh yea, and he won the race.

7. I would recommend this race to anyone, especially someone attempting an IM for the first time. The smaller number of participants made it much less intimidating, the course is very fair, weather was perfect (except the wind), volunteers were great, and all proceeds go to helping cure cancer.

Details of my "event":
Swim - 56:33
T1 - 5:10
Bike - 6:05:43
T2 - 2:46
Run (jog/walk) - 4:45:58
Total - 11:56:10

Thanks for reading.