Eagleman 2006 Race Report

(Transition Area)

Eagleman 2006 Race Report:

Date: June 11, 2006

This is going to be my 3^rd time racing Eagleman and I think or hope I’ve learned a few things about myself and my approach to racing this event. My first crack at Eagleman was my first Half-Ironman and I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just trying to squeeze in as much training as possible and read every article posted on the web about Half-Ironman training and racing. My second race was serving as part of my IMFL training and I completely wilted on the run in the heat.

My only real goals were to try and break 5 hours and have a good run. Needless to say, I was pretty stoked to see the news in the week leading up to the race that the heat factor was going to be a non-issue. I already knew that the wind factor would be a coin toss. It turned out mother nature wasn’t going to let us off too easy by sparing us the heat, so she drummed up a nice stiff wind just to make sure we were challenged.

I spent much of my taper distracted by work to get in any training, but I figured at least my muscles will be well rested.

This was the first time I arrived plenty early to avoid feeling rushed trying to get my transition area pieced together. I had time to stretch a bit and relax. My first year, right before my wave was called, without noticing I pulled my wetsuit on backwards up to the waist while waiting for the swim start, some nice guy commented that “I think the zipper goes in the back”. No anxiety attacks this time!

Since I’ve done this race twice, I knew I just needed to get around the sailboat and head home following the buoys. I remember hearing Vigo say that the first triangle buoy was where you turn to make your way around the boat. I’m cruising along and I can feel the water starting to get pretty choppy the farther we get out. I sight the triangle buoy and round it, even following a few other guys when to my astonishment I see the guy in the paddle boat about 15 yards in front of me pointing further ahead and to my right. Oh crap, there were 2 triangle buoys. I swim back to the right and round the second buoy knowing that mistake just cost me at least a few minutes. I also think I got entrenched behind a wave of slower swimmers in my AG because I couldn’t find a gap to get around until a little bit after the sailboat when the swells and side current really split everyone up. I just tried to go with the flow and try not to work too hard. I was a little shocked when I looked at my watch running to T1 and it said 39 minutes. Yikes.

I was in and out of transition pretty quick and felt really comfortable on the bike. My plan was to keep my HR around 145 bpm for most of the ride which would be entirely aerobic for me. I wasn’t too concerned with my speed since I was gauging my effort based on my HR. I fully expected a windy day, so it didn’t really surprise or bother me too much. I just kept focusing my effort based on HR. At about mile 30 or so, Michael Flanagan whizzed by me so fast he didn’t even recognize me. He was hauling! Nothing out of the ordinary about my bike. I followed my nutrition plan (2 servings of Perpetuem, 4 Endurolytes/hr, 1 goo, ½ a cliff bar, 1 bottle of Gatorade & around 1 ½ bottles of H20). I got off the bike feeling pretty fresh. Looking back, I think I could have pushed an HR of 150 or so for 10-20 miles in the middle and still felt the same.

I didn’t keep track of my splits during the run, but I realized I would need to do run roughly a 1:40 split to break 5 hours. I just decided to mentally break it down into 4 – 3 mile runs and see what happened. I lost about 2 minutes because I had to pee at the first porto-potty. I thought I timed it right since I saw 2 of them standing by the first aid station and about 50 yards in front of me the guy just entered one of them. Cool, the other should open up by the time I get there or be very close to it. Nope. I had to stand there until the guy I saw go in came out. I should have kept going to the next one, but I just can’t run when I have to go and I probably would have had to wait at the next one anyway.

With that out of the way, I cruised the first 3 miles and kept chugging along. This was the first time I was mentally able to stay focused in the moment. Every now and then the negative thoughts would creep in, like, “man, I’m only at mile 5” or “jeez, I’ve got 5 miles left. This sucks!” Breaking the run into segments seemed to really help me this time. For miles 9-12, I was starting to struggle. I told myself I wasn’t going to walk, no matter how slow I was running. It worked. I still had to walk through the aid stations. I have a real difficult time drinking without stopping. I guess I need to practice this more.

Aaahhhh, the last mile. I still have a little bit in the tank. Mike Boorstein came cruising by me with about ¾ of mile to go, looking strong. He was being trailed by another runner and after they got about 25 yards up on me, I decided to try to keep them in my sights and hang on. I finished fairly strong and felt good about my effort. Finishing time = 5:08:46.

Post reflection: Could I have gone faster? Couldn’t we always! I guess that elusive sub 5 at Eagleman will drive me back for another shot. But no complaints or regrets here. It was a great day and I had fun doing it. I had great supporters out at the race (thanks Igda, Emi, Eric & Jenn). I haven’t said that about my other 2 tries at Eagleman, so things are looking up. Oh, almost forgot. My name was drawn for an IMWI entry in the raffle. I thought I was hallucinating, but it was true! I only entered for giggles, since it didn’t cost anything and I never win the stupid things. One of the rare times I’ve ever won a raffle, so it got the blood flowing again. Only downside to winning the raffle is that I now would have to fork over $435 dineros to claim my prize. It’s great to win a raffle, but it sucks to have to contemplate paying a sizeable sum of money to collect your prize with your wife standing by you with that look of, “You’re not really going to do it, are you?” Needless to say, I had to take a pass, plus I didn’t have my checkbook on me. Thank, heavens! Two long, rushed months of Ironman training didn’t sound too appetizing.

Winner: Chris Legh. Freakishly fast!