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Race Result

Racer: Kevin Shaw
Race: Eagleman
Date: Sunday, June 8, 2008
Location: Cambridge, MD
Race Type: Triathlon - Half Ironman
Age Group: Male 45 - 49
Time: 5:51:51
Overall Place: 556 / 1382
Age Group Place: 54 / 122
Comment: Man that was "stupid hot"



Race Report:



First a big thank you to my best friend and my wife Suzanne who has given me the freedom to train as I needed to undertake this event and did a great job cheering me on and taking photos of this race. A second thank you goes out to all of the volunteers who made this event possible. They attended to our every need with style, humor and grace. I think it was harder on them then us as they were out there so very much longer.

The day before Eagleman we had planned on a nice easy 35 mile ride through the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. As race day drew near I balanced the need to ride with Suzanne to get ready for our bike trip across Iowa with the realization that this would be two very hot days. My solution was to shorten the Saturday ride to about 25 miles. Suzanne and I rode 27 miles in a little over two hours, nice and easy averaging 13 mph as we stopped a few times for pictures and made sure we were both adequately hydrated.

After the ride we had a nice lunch and then checked my bike in at the venue. The transition area was nice as each of us had an assigned spot, not just first come first served in a general area but a spot with our number and name on it. This really helped people set up and not take up too much room. I walked the area to familiarize myself with the different transition flows. We returned to the B&B for a short nap and, watched Big Brown blow up in the heat at Belmont (hmmmmm!?), and then headed up to St. Michaels for dinner with some friends/fellow competitors from the Reston Runners (RR).

Race morning I woke at my usual 5:00 am and lay there contemplating the race for the next 30 minutes. I had a small breakfast of Clif Bar, banana and tiny bagels with peanut butter at the B&B and then it was off to the race.

We easily walked from the parking area to the transition area and the temperature didn’t seem too bad but it was very humid. I set up my transition while Suzanne took pictures of me and some of our RR friends. I double checked and triple checked my transition and then walked both the swim in and bike out/in legs to again familiarize myself with my rack position. I wanted to waste no energy finding my rack.

Confident that I knew my way around, I headed for a last minute port-o call while Suzanne headed off to put my bike pump back in the car and returned just as I was done in the transition area. We headed over to the swim start and watched waves go off. Almost before I knew it, I needed to get into my wetsuit. It was then that I noticed that between the PAM (to ease the removal of the wet suit) and the humidity that my race numbers were just a smeared memory. Pretty soon they were calling my wave and I was in the water, swimming/wading out to the swim start. Eight minutes later, we were off.

The swim went well for me. I was sighting well and while it was crowded and I got bumped by other guys, I didn’t feel too beat up. About half way through I started seeing some red caps from the wave in front and knew I was having a good swim.

Out of the water, I saw Suzanne, not far from the timing mat as I entered T1. I decide to take T1 very conservatively, ensuring that I put on sunscreen, collected all of my gear and drank some water, both to hydrate and to get any brackish taste out of my mouth form the swim. Suzanne was able to get over to the transition area and get some shots in of me. I jogged out of T1, not a stellar time but I accomplished everything I needed to do to have a good and safe ride.

The ride went pretty good overall. My plan was to make sure I drank at least two bottles of sports drink and water every ten miles and to eat a minimum of 100 calories every 30 minutes. I stuck to that plan pretty well. The other part of my plan was to use some of the water to pour into my helmet to prevent my brain from baking; I have so little viable brain cells that I need to protect the few that function. I felt the cooling part of my plan worked well also. My pacing plan was to start out at a 16-17 mph pace and then slowly pick it up from there. The most interesting part of the ride was the water bottle hand offs at the aid station. I handled (pun intended) the exchanges for the first two very well. But the next too I actually missed three bottles in each I think it was mostly sweaty hands on my part, but I did eventually get the bottles at each station and without stopping. Early in the ride a young women passed me on a red Felt and commented that she like my bike as it was the next year’s model from hers. Soon after I noticed that my Garmin was paused. I was using a new addition to my aerobars that allowed me to see my Garmin better. Unfortunately it was right beneath my right wrist and I guess my watch band was hitting the stat/stop button which caused some interesting pace numbers and distance reading to show up :) I rotated the attachment slightly downward and corrected for that. At about the 42 mile mark , not far after an aid station, I was fumbling with a water bottle and almost went off the road. I felt my bike start to lay down but I regained control just in time and averted a very nasty wreck as I was doing 18+ mph at the time. The only other issue I had was a bit of numbness from the bike seat, a change of position every now and then helped a bit but if I go longer I need to fine tune my seat position. I was able to slowly increase my speed to closer to 22 mph for the final 10 miles so that my average for the bike portion ended up at 19.6, just a tad slower than my goal pace of 20 but not too bad considering the heat, which was now about 90F. Nearing the end of the ride I shifted into my small chain ring to spin up and get my legs prepared for the run. I passed the young women on the Felt that had passed me much earlier in the day. I cruised into the transition area and saw Suzanne taking pictures and cheering me on.

This transition went pretty smooth, no real issues except I forgot the sunscreen and since I was hydrating so well on the bike I needed to stop at a port-o before I started the run. Soon enough I was jogging out of the transition with a cup of water down my throat, ice in my hat and holding onto a cube at my wrist. Someone had mentioned it helped cool your core blood so I thought that would be something to try. My run strategy was to walk through all water stops, places just about one mile apart, getting at least one cup of Gatorade and one cup of water as well as a cup of ice to put in my hat., Anything to try and beat the heat. I was cruising out of transition pretty fast, given the conditions, at an 8:14 m/mi pace for mile one.

Mile two I was an 8:48 m/mi pace and I knew I was not doing myself any favors at this pace and decided my new strategy was to add the rule that if my HR got to 155 or higher I would walk until it returned below 135. I saw ChrisD at about the three mile point and saw my HR was just over 155, so I walked a bit. This was easily the hottest part of the run. It was a ¾ mile section of newly constructed road that was very wide and had a section of fresh, dark, hot, smelly asphalt. Sure I know I sugar coat it but it was like running through hell. Chris passed me and when my HR dropped to 135, I passed Chris and was able to put some distance between us. I didn’t want to play the leap frog game with Chris I need a mind boost so I decide that I didn’t want to see him until I passed him on the return trip. Pace really was no longer an issue, it was pure survival mode. I didn’t want to run hard but I didn’t want to be out there any longer than I had to either. I continued with my water stop plan and it worked well. By the time I got to the next water stop I still had a tiny bit of ice still in my cap, but I no longer felt the cooling effect so fresh ice helped that immensely.

I took a Clif shot at about the 4 mile mark and washed it down with water, then Gatorade and more water. I saw PeteB shortly after that and got the news on DaveB who pulled out at the bike due to leg cramps. Miles 3-5 I managed a 9:54 average pace. Man the heat was getting to me and I took a couple of extra walk breaks just to make sure I wouldn’t blow up. Miles 6 through 12 were a miserable average of 11 min per mile with mile 7 the worst at 12 m/mi but by then I was glad to see the turnaround mark and knew I was on the home stretch. I was starting to feel a bit fried from the lack of sunscreen and realized my mistake at T2. I hoped I wouldn’t get too fried as the UV index was at 9. I said a little prayer of thanks and asked for a little more strength to make it to the finish. I also noticed that my palms were no longer sweaty so I began to get worried that I was getting into some dangerous territory as when you stop sweating you are in danger of heat stroke. I made a promise to myself that I would drink extra at each aid station.

On the way back I saw Pete and then Chris as they headed to the turn around. I notice that they might have been gaining on me a bit. At the eight mile mark I felt a little cramp in my stomach. I wasn’t sure if it was a muscle or lower GI thing. I really hope it wasn’t lower GI and that just wouldn’t have been pretty. So I walked a minute or so and it actually went away and I was able to get back to my plan. Back to the gates of hell on the by-pass road, man-o-man was that very hot and miserable! The middle miles of this slog fest ranged from but then we were approaching the last 5K and the neighborhood where residents had their hoses out. Thank you residents of Cambridge!!!! At this point I noticed I was passing a few people in my age group and I decide my new goal was to not let them re pass me.

I now felt strong enough that I could play the “shirt game” this is where I pick a target, a shirt and real it in, passing the runner in the shirt and then picking out a new shirt. The triathlon version of this game is to check the age on the calf while you’re doing it and making sure that no one in our AG passes you, especially if it was a shirt you passed. I played this game pretty well and it helped me finish strong. The 13th mile I clocked in at about a 8:55 per mile pace and the final sprint to the finish was an 8:36 m/mi pace.

I felt great crossing the line and both heard and saw Suzanne in the stands. After collecting my finisher’s medal, a volunteer came up to me with a gallon jug of very cold water and poured it all over me. I have never felt anything so sweet in my life, well almost nothing as sweet ;) then a guy sprayed me with a hose and really drenched me.

I got my picture taken both by myself and with Suzanne then we found a shady spot where I laid and stretched for a while and just basked in the memories of the day. I wasn’t hungry so we just sat and chatted. We called my son to learn that they had won their final game by 7-0 and were in contention to move up a division next year. Man what a great sports day for us! I finally got over to the food tent but just had a slice of watermelon that was wonderful.

I saw Pete who was trying to find out about Patty who was in the Aquavelo and should have been finished. We found out later that she DNF’d after going most of the distance. The report on slowtwitch.com was that 10% of those who toed the line DNF’d

All in all a great day under very difficult conditions, but not difficult enough to change my mind about Chesapeakman, double the fun!!