World's Toughest Half Ironman

I will start by saying that I somehow managed to finish the whole thing.  I did not expect to be able to do the run because of my calf pain that I have been writing about a lot lately.  I had even considered not going up for the event.  I had not run in over a month and a half, I had not swum since last year's Full Vineman, which had been August 4th or so, I had only ridden my bike a handful of times in the since April 1, and, to top it all off, it was supposed to be over a 100 degrees on race day.  Usually, Claire and I would drive up for this kind of event together, but with the high temperatures and the lack of scenic beauty around the finish area, we thought it would be better if I went up on my own.  We were also worried about how Mathilda, our dog, would handle the heat.  Our decision for me to go up on my own was a good one.

I left Sonoma County at a little after 1 on Saturday, and was quickly enveloped by the heat as I headed through Davis and Sacramento.  Our Chevy Blazer has an air conditioning problem where the vents that blow air directly out on the occupants are broken, so you only get cold air around your feet and out of the front defrosters.  It was much better than riding in a VW Bus, but it was still very warm.  I got up to the registration area in Auburn at around 4:30 and picked up my stuff.  I then headed over to the finish area where I found some shade and relaxed with a good book.  I made sure I was drinking plenty of water.  I also dropped my running shoes and hat in the transition area even though I didn't think I would really be needing them.  It was an interesting "camping" experience since there were some collegiate teams there for the International distance triathlon.  I got to listen to a bit of rap music, and according to one guy nearby, "the best song ever written."  I always thought "Stairway to Heaven" filled that spot.

I woke up Sunday morning at around 5 and got my cycling and swimming stuff together.  I stuck my wetsuit and things into my messenger bag, slung it over my shoulder, and coasted most of the 7 miles to the start of the race at Folsom lake.  I didn't really know where I was going, but I ran into some other folks that were heading down there and we coasted together.  I was still a tiny bit hopeful that my calf would not be an issue since I had been taking plenty of Ibuprofen and icing it.  I lathered on plenty of sunscreen, and barely squeezed into my wetsuit from 1989 when I had done the World's Toughest Triathlon in Tahoe.  I was the only one around with pastel colors on.  It was  deep water start, so I swam out about 20 yards from the shore and waited along with quite a few people.  When the starting horn went off, I took off with the masses and "enjoyed" the experience of getting kicked and clawed by 100's of other swimmers.  About 5 minutes into the swim, my shoulders felt like they were on fire, and I was starting to second guess my lack of swim training.  I didn't want to slow down since I knew there were a couple of 100 other swimmers behind me, so I flipped over on my back a couple of times and backstroked to try to loosen things up.  Much to my surprise, things loosened up, and the second 2/3's of the 1.2 mile swim felt pretty good.  I came out of the water feeling much better than I had at the start.  Swimming in Folsom lake is not a good experience either.  There were times where we were swimming through lots of debris that made me scared to breath in.  There was also a very strong gasoline smell at some points.  As I started running up the boat ramp, I felt that all-to-common pain in my calf.  I had to laugh to myself, how could I have thought it would go away?  I hobbled over to my bike, threw my stuff into my transition bag, and climbed on my bike.

Well, remember that 7 mile coast down to the start, now we had to climb back up it.  I think it was about a 1000 foot climb or something like that.  I hadn't set my bike up special, not even putting on my race wheels or aero-bars.  I figured that since I hadn't been training at all, I didn't want to push myself too much on the bike.  For the most part, the lack of aero-bars was not a big deal.  The bike ride was seldom flat.  At this point it was also starting to heat up around there.  I made sure I drank plenty of fluids, and put down an Enervit every 45 minutes or so.  I was suffering pretty good during the ride, but I knew that I wouldn't have to do the run, so I didn't have to have anything left when I finished.

When I did finish the bike ride, I felt totally spent.  My legs hurt, my calf had been hurting the whole ride, I was very happy that I could just grab my stuff and head back to the car.  I pulled into the transition area, saw my running shoes sitting there, and decided that I might as well put them on since I didn't want to walk back to the car in my cycling shoes.  I then put on my hat and even wrapped my race number around me.  I downed one more Enervit, and thought I would just run a couple of steps and see what happened.  Much to my dismay, there was no pain.  I ran out of the transition area and onto the dirt single track that made up about half of the run.  I kept waiting for the pain to hit me, but I felt great.  I figured that anytime I started to feel the pain, I would just stop and walk back to the finish.  The run course consisted of two 10km loops with a little extra added onto the second loop to give you 13.1 miles.  At this point, it was over a 100 degrees out there, but the volunteers were doing a great job of throwing ice water on me and I don't think there were too many times during the run where I ever dried out.  I did have some stomach problems around mile 9, and I won't go into too much detail, but suffice to say that I somehow got rid of everything I had eaten and drank over the last hour in about 3 seconds.  It was a little embarrassing, but only a couple of runners were out there to see it.  After that I felt terrific and clicked off a couple of more miles before I started to feel tired.  I felt pretty good as I came across the finish line.  It would have been nice to see Claire there, but I wouldn't have wanted to think about her sitting out in that heat all day.  I was a little disappointed with the after race food.  They had advertised smoothies and burritos, and when I finished, all they had left were room temperature hotdogs.  I know there were plenty of people still out on the course, so I wasn't as if I was one of the last people.  I think that all the athletes who had done the shorter version ate up all the food.  A race organizer should plan for that.