Thursday, June 30, 2011

Part 3: Time to Fly

I got on my bike and settled in for a long ride. I immediately started getting some fluids and food into my system. The plan was to eat and drink every 15 minutes. My bento box had Honeystinger chews, Oreo Cakesters, and Honey Stinger Waffles. I also had Salt Stick caps to supplement electrolytes. The bike was set-up with my aero bottle filled with water, the bottle on my stem filled with Ironman Evil...I mean Perform and an extra bottle of water and Perform on the back. Aid stations were every 10 miles on the ride. The bike started out through town and then headed out to a scenic ride along the lake. The first hill greeted us at mile 6 and it was about 2 miles long. After that hill the course is flat until about mile 24. I was doing well eating and drinking and decided to make a pit stop at mile 30 to use the bathroom and refill my water. The volunteers were great about holding bikes and getting whatever you needed in terms of nutrition or hydration.

The hills started once we got to Hayden. There were some pretty tough sections of the course but I never once had to get out of the saddle and I was able to take a lot of the hills in aero. I finished the first 56 miles in 3:56:10. I saw Jarret on my way back into town to start the second loop. I was feeling good and I knew that I had paced well on the first lap. Ironman is all about having a plan and sticking to it. At this point my plan was working. I knew I needed to stop at special needs and get something new to eat. Honeystringers are my favorite energy chew but after eating them for 4 hours, I wanted something else. I grabbed my bag and stood and ate a handful of Fritos before stuffing them in my jersey and hitting the road again. I also put my extra Honeystinger waffle in my bento. I had eaten the two I stared with during the first half.

Everything was pretty uneventful until mile 70. I was heading down a rather steep hill at around 30 mph and a deer ran out in front of me. It was huge and close. So close I could hear him grunt and smell him. I locked up my rear break and felt my bike wobble. Luckily, he kept running and didn't stop. I got my bike under control and kept going. The surge of adrenaline spiked my heart rate sky high. I felt dizzy and sick. I stopped at the next aid station at Mile 80 to refill bottles and puke. I felt much better but the thought of food was terribly unappealing. I knew that the next 20 miles would be the hardest so I just got back on and started moving. By Mile 100 I was so ready for the bike to be done.

I rolled into transition with a bike time of 7:35:29. It was about 20 minutes faster then I had planned so I was feeling pretty happy. I was glad to hand my bike off to a volunteer and grab my run transition bag. The legs were feeling decent but my stomach was not.

Part 4: A nice night for a run....or walk

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