I have a few habits that need work. One is meeting deadlines (see all previous blog posts).
Another is the tendency to leave things to the last minute. Case in point: Challenge Penticton 2014 where I dipped under the 9-hour mark in the very last minute to go 8:59:32 and take 6th place on the day.
That margin may
have been a little bigger had we swam in wetsuits, but half an hour before the
start the it was decided that for the first time in the event’s history, the
Pros would be racing a non-wetsuit swim. This wasn’t a setback by any
means. I’d had some very strong swims of
late, both with and without wetsuits, thanks to Laura Medcalf and her guidance in
improving my stroke over the winter.
Also, my girlfriend, Tara, is a former National Team swimmer, and has
brought a huge boost to my swim training this year. Overall, I felt that I could swim well enough
to improve my position at the start of the bike, despite a field that had
deepened from last year.
The first clue
that the swim was going right was that unlike last year, where the pack shot
off towards the first buoy and I was left to enjoy a solo effort, I started out
strong and was able to tuck in to a pack of 5 over the first 3rd of
the swim. We stayed together the rest of
the way, and coming out of the water I was pleased to see that most of the
group were athletes who had put over a minute on me the previous year. And while the lead group had put a solid
chunk of time on the rest of us, for the most part the strong swim meant less
time would be spent reeling others in on the bike.
After a
swim-to-bike transition that dropped me from 12th to 15th,
I set about trying to erase the 7 and ½ minutes between myself and the front
group. I won’t blame the deficit for my pace at the start of the bike. My swim and run have moved up to “solid”
status, but for the moment the bike is the way in which I can affect a
race. By the end of the Mclean Creek
Road segment I’d gone from 15th to 6th, passing Chris
Bagg (who was patiently building an excellent race) for 5th on the
way to Oliver. By Richter Pass I was in
4th behind Jeff Symonds, Sean Bechtel and Andrew Russell. My gap of about a minute behind Andrew stayed
steady until the way back from the Cawston out and back, where he unfortunately
took a wrong turn and lost some time. I
overhauled Sean for 2nd place near the top of the Yellow Lakes
climb, and would come into the 2nd Transition 5:30 behind Jeff. My bike split would wind up at 4:38:02, 13
minutes slower than Chris Lieto’s 4:25:26 from Ironman Canada 2005, but for
sure a decent ride.
The first part of
the run went very smoothly. Too
smoothly. I was so busy focusing on not
losing too much time, to Jeff in front and Andrew and Chris behind, that I let slip
from my mind the fact that iron-distance is much more than just “go at them.”
If you allow the field around you to distract you from monitoring your own
body---which I did----you’re going to get smacked sooner of later.
Sure enough, right
around the 15k mark, Andrew passed me for 2nd, followed quickly by
Chris. At this point my body was
beginning what would shortly become a full-scale rebellion, and the one-two
punch of dropping from 2nd to 4th did not help. I lasted until the way back up out of Okanagan
Falls at the halfway, where I caught sight of Sean and a hard-charging Simon
Cochrane, before the wheels truly came off.
For a few kilometers at the start of the 2nd half of the
marathon, it got to “every-second-step-sideways” ugly out there. At one point on a hill coming out of OK Falls
I remember forcing myself to shuffle, as I knew if I let myself walk, “walk”
would quickly turn into “find a good napping spot on the side of the road.”
Fortunately,
because I always push it on the bike in races, I’d known there was a pretty
good chance that things would hit the fan on the latter part of the run, and
that I’d find myself in such a condition sooner or later. So when it eventually got nasty on the
marathon, while it was by no means pleasant, it wasn’t a surprise. Kind of empowering, even; if you accept that
you’re in a hole because you dug it,
then you understand that it’s you who can dig yourself out.
I don’t think I
dug completely out, in fairness. First
Simon, then Sean passed me along Skaha Lake, and I couldn’t do anything about
it. But looking back, I think the
biggest positive I can take from that marathon is that I didn’t let those
passes blow my ego, and thus my race, to pieces. I kept the shuffle going, taking in enough
food at each aid station to get to the next one. And slowly the beautiful Skaha Lake view
became Main Street, the crowds got thicker, and the long, long home stretch
came into sight.
This last part
held an awesome surprise for me. I’d put
down a decent two-thirds of a race, but all of my errors made in training,
preparing, and on-the-day execution, had caught up to me at kilometer 15 of the
marathon and smacked me into the pavement.
Since I don’t race with a watch, I’d assumed that I’d thrown any chance
of setting a personal best out of the window.
So when some friends at roadside started shouting that I was on pace to
break the 9-hour mark, I couldn’t believe it.
And with 3k to go, when I last hear that I was on sub-9 pace, my
perspective shifted; on a day where triumphs and mistakes seemed to cancel each
other out, here was a chance to tip the scales to the good, for keeps.
I got my shuffle
on and crossed the line with 30 seconds to spare. In the finish video, you can see my upper
body reaching to the right, where Tara has somehow magically appeared (she does
that. It’s awesome.), while my lower
body seems determined to go left. The
whole thing was a wonderful blur of the great Steve King calling me across the
line, being caught by Tara (and the volunteers rushing to help her prop up my deadweight), and sitting in a
wheelchair pouring beer (Cannery Brewing’s Triathalager---“The Official
Challenge Penticton Beer!”) over my head.
The price for the
errors of the day, and the last push to go sub09, was an extra 2 hours in the
medical tent getting very familiar with a bowl of chicken soup. That new PB, however, made it
worthwhile. It had affirmed that while
I’ve got a lot to work on for next year, I’ve got a lot to build on, too.
And I’m looking
forward to doing that building. 2015
looks to be another great year. Tara and
I are just up the road from Vernon in Kamloops now. The River City has been a part-time training
ground over the years, and it’s a pleasure to call it home now. But for 2014, it was the support of some
amazing Vernon businesses that got me to and through my races, and no
season-ending recap would be complete without acknowledging them.
Bluebird Sport and Spine: Huge thanks to
Steve for keeping me on track heading into Challenge.
Endurance Healthe and Fitness:
Melissa and the training group, it was a blast doing the sessions with
you guys.
Laura Medcalf Swim Coaching: Laura, I laugh when people sign on to work
with you and think they’re only getting a swim coach. They’re in for a treat, as I was.
RB Piping Inc: Thank you Rick
and Adrienne. You opened doors for me in
July and sent me into August with a ton of momentum.
Re-Cycled Accessories: Cindy and
Brock, your logo is awesome, your Accessories are more so, and the help you’ve
given me this past year is awesomer still.
Save On Foods:
Thank you for both the support and the great vibes you put out into this
community, Jim!
Sun Country Cycle/Felt Bicycles:
Ricardo, you’re doing huge things for cycling in the North Okanagan, and
it was fun watching it happen in 2014.
Thanks also to the reader for making it through this. Hopefully I'll get posts up with semi-regularity throughout the offseason, as new developments happen with the support network and plans for 2015! Until then, take care.
-Nathan
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