Getting a bit worried... Your bike splits looked off (it IS a tough course though), and you only show up as far as 20k on the run on the mobile website, but no run splits at all on the desktop version...?
It looks like a failed tracking chip, or a DNF...
The tracking was a little off throughout the day, I was told.... but as mentioned a big ol DNF on Strava. First race I’ve ever DNF’d. Still in shock.
Morning started out not great. Woke up with an excruciating headache at 3:15am. Ate a full breakfast. Drank some plain water and Gatorade while getting ready for the early 6am start. Relatively low stress morning minus the headache. We get to T2, drop some bags off and hop the shuttle to the swim start.
This is where a little stress builds. I ask to borrow a pump, a guy gives me a pump and I connect the pump to my valve and tsssssssss all the air is dumped out of my tire. His pump bent my valve and he NOW tells me oh yeah my pump is broken I’m looking for one to borrow too. Are you f***ing kidding me!!??
Anyways, get my tires set up and I’m good to go. That distracted from my headache a bit, which still hasn’t gone away. So I go put my wet suit on at about 5:55 and am then about to go get in line for the swim and as I’m doing that my coach shows up and says something funny so that was all sorts of awesome. Flew across the country while he’s training for Kona just to watch us race. Amazing.
I end up having a great swim and didn’t overdo it at all. Last year I couldn’t swim for months leading up to the rare because of the car accident and rotator cuff physical therapy. I was hoping for 75-80 minutes so when I saw 72 I was really pumped. I didn’t think I’d be able to hold that low of a pace for the full swim, was thinking more like 75 best case.
I then get on the bike and the headache acts back up. The first 2-3 hours my head hurt but it wasn’t awful. Stayed on top of hydration and ate a few 200 calorie Skratch bars. Around 10:15 I notice it’s starting to get got. Really, really hot. Someone said it hit triple digits. Make sure to stay on top of my hydration and will eat in T2 and first few aid stations to make up for missing some calories. Easier to make up for that and you can’t make up for hydration.
I do notice I’m seeing more salt stains on my shorts than I like so I grab my salty chips while still on the bike and eat all of those and get another 300 calories before wrapping up the bike to boot.
I finish up the bike and am happy with my pace/HR/time, not an easy bike at all and it was pretty dangerous out there. You had a lot of people riding on the left side of the road holding their brakes while others have no room to pass on the left passing on the right going 45-50mph. Just not good.
The road quality I thought was mostly fine but there were a couple sections that were kind of sketchy, but the RD had her hands tied and I think overall she did an amazing job. 3 loops did get a little more boring on the bike than I thought it would, though. Oh.... and bears. So many bears out there. Saw several on the bike on the side of the road and a picture of a little guy sprinting across the road in front of a few bikers. Crazy, never seen a bear before outside a zoo.
So anyways, I make it to the run and I’m kind of feeling like ass but am pretty sure it’s just low on calories. Not too worried about it. Eat another bar in T2, take a pee, and get running. First two miles were ROUGH. I got about half a mile in and had to walk already. A tough hill but nothing tougher than what I trained on for almost 7 months. Legs felt fine, but just didn’t have it in me to run up. I know I need more calories so I load up on everything at the aid station. Gels and salt and a cold bottle of water.
I get to a flat ish part and an able to start running again and see my coach and he runs with me for a little bit and gives me a pep talk. I get to mile 2 and all those calories are kicking in and I feel awesome. Start to think to myself we’ve righted the ship. Miles 2-10 I’m running around 9 minute miles with ease, HR in the mid 140s. Good all around. Walking the aid stations getting my water bottle filled and taking in as many calories as possible. Headache still there but manageable.
I get to mile 11 and the wheels just fall off. Everything crashed just out of nowhere. I’ve been making sure to take in probably more calories than I need at every aid station, and stayed on top of my hydration. Honestly not sure what happened. I figure I’ll run walk a little bit, so do that, and I just end up feeling worse and worse. Then my headache starts to go from annoying to legit painful. Started to get dizzy and definitely couldn’t run a straight line. Then it gets to the point I’m struggling to walk a straight line and that’s when I knew it was time to call it. It was still 90+ degrees so it wasn’t getting any cooler and hadn’t cooled down at all really. I started to have flashbacks of the race that lead to the seizure and medically induced coma. I know I could have walked the rest, but with that on my mind and knowing I’m probably only going to dehydrated myself more... Just didn’t want to risk it again given the poor shape I was already in.
Oh, and my shorts were just crusted in salt. I kept taking salt at every single aid station but I guess my body just didn’t want to hold onto it.
It sucks, but I think it was the right call.
My coach is going to look at my data and call me this week. From what I can tell I biked just fine and no issues there. Even dialed back the last 40 miles from the plan to counterbalance the heat.
Typed this all on my phone so hopefully it’s legible lol.
Not sure what’s next.... may take a crack at Arizona this November since I have all this training, average temps for that race are low 70s, and it’s a short flight. Spent too much training in the mountains this year for this to be how my only big race plays out for me.
couldn’t be more of the opposite. Looks like a wounded duck. He does some interesting training videos that I always enjoy watching, btw. Big fan of his.
