Scott's IM Race Report - Triathlon Week

sfricks · 10-30-2006, 08:42 AM

1st, thanks again to my Triweek friends and support group.

I'm chalking this IM up to experience rather than success. In a nutshell…

I got hammered & blinded on the swim and did most of it with my eyes closed because I couldn’t see. My goggles were knocked sideways and the cup entered my eye socket trashing the vision in my left eye. When I got them back on, they leaked severly in the one eye I could see out of. Needless to say this made for an interesting and rather slow swim and pained me severly the rest of the day. I missed my goal by about 13 minutes.

Double flatted at mile 60 & 65 on the bike and cramped very badly. I NEVER CRAMP!!! I never did figure this out??? Went from a 3:15 1st loop split to a 4:00 2nd. I couldn't hammer at all and was relegated to standing or spinning. Every time I'd put pressure on the pedals I'd lock up. Of course the nutrition plan went to hell trying every food & fluid available to control the cramps. My Enduralytes failed me completely. Another 45 minutes off the goal.

By marathon time the nausea was so bad I had to do the run on Coke & Pepto Bismol. Never trained with it but it allowed me to finish despite the pain and lack of proper fuel. Another 30+ minutes added to the total time.

14:20 after the gun I finished. And so goes Iron Life! I can’t wait to do it again in Louisville next August!

Good luck to Heather in IM FL. Go get 'em IronMom!

DOUBLE DOWN · 10-30-2006, 09:18 AM

Congrat's on the finish non the less. As your replaying the race in your head and come up with bits of information that would have made a difference, please share.

hmullett · 10-30-2006, 12:25 PM

Scott~ I'm still so happy for your finish! Most would have given up on the swim. So, that says alot for the Iron will of an Ironman!

Thanks for the words of support! I'm getting all packed up to leave tomorrow (Halloween). And, you'll be happy to know that I'm bringing lots of GE on the road trip to start the load!

Think of me on Saturday and send me good thoughts!

Heather (aka IronMom...soon!)

pyschosyd · 10-30-2006, 01:48 PM

Scott
Just think how much easier it will seem next time! It takes a lot of guts to keep going after so many setbacks. It must've seemed like you were out there forever.

Congrats on the finish, and I guess the moral of the story is keep your elbows up in the swim!:)

Heather, I'll most likely be watching the updates. What is your race #?
Best of luck. I'll be signing up sunday! Let me know the details!

Cheers
Syd

hmullett · 10-30-2006, 05:35 PM

Thanks guys! My bib number is 2177. I'm starting to get really excited! The car's packed up and ready to go!

Heather

chappy · 10-30-2006, 06:12 PM

Great Job finishing. Most people would have quit when the goggle went into the eye socket. Is your eye going to be OK?

sfricks · 10-31-2006, 05:41 AM

Thanks for the kind words.

DD: Hummm... What to do different? Not sure. I'm definately changing electrolyte tabs. I think I'm going back to good old Lava Salts. I'll also pack Immodium tabs next time. I don't think I can ever eat another Pepto Bismol tab without yacking. The coke thing was my race savior. I would not have finished without it so I intend to add it to my training NP. I still can't figure the cramps out. I've NEVER cramped before, EVER. There are hundreds of things that could have cause it so I don't know where to begin. Frankly, I am on wind down and won't crank up again until Feb or so for: Mar Sprint, Apr Sprint, May 70.3, Aug 140.6 so I may never discover the issue.

Syd: Not sure keeping the elbows up would not have helped in this case. The left arm was behind me and I was rotated to breathe. The swimmer to my left came in from a 45 degree angle. I don't necessarily blame the guy (gal) who hit me. He might have had to change course for another swimmer. All I can tell you is I haven't been hit that hard since my days as a police officer. Fortunately the goggle strap was under my swim cap or my goggles would be at the bottom of Lake Mineola.

Terry: The eye is still very red. I might have busted a few blood vessels but it no longer hurts. Just looks like crap :)

I had several friends who DNF'd due to the extreme conditions and similar issues with cramping. I finished in the 43rd percentile despite my difficulties. Many were less fortunate with 68 of 327 (more than 20%) who dropped completely out.

This years Great Floridian was brutal but as I'm fond of saying, "If Triathlon were easy, they'd call it football". :)

Spike10 · 10-31-2006, 08:29 AM

Great job Scott, I checked out your times from last year to compare to this years race and correct me if I'm wrong but diddn't you shave 30 some min. off? To me this is quite good inspite of the setbacks that you had. I had a bout with cramping some time ago and a friend suggested that I drink more milk, I thought that was strange, but it worked and now I don't have the cramping problem.
I still look up to you big guy (and not because I'm only 5'6" ;)) you did one hell of a job out there and I'm proud of you! I can't wait to do my first IM, sometime in the near future I hope, I will take your experiences with me to get me to the tape.
Again, GREAT JOB!!!
Spike.

sfricks · 10-31-2006, 10:42 AM

Thanks Spike. Again I appreciate your support. I'll take it with me to Louisville which, by-the-way, is closed after only a week. I'm not sure if I mentioned that my son is also doing that race as his 1st IM. I can't wait to do this with him, pain or no :)