4am: wake up and eat 2 scoops of perpeteum
4:10-5:30: sleep
5:30: wake up again and mix the stuff for my bottles, camelbacks, and special foods bags.
6: pump tires. pump tires for 4 incompetent people around me who have apparently never seen a presta valve. WTF? (note, one of these people was an 18-year old, youngest kid in the race, who passed me at mile 22 of the run). Inform everyone else I am not pumping up any more tires.
6:30: race back to apartment and put on wetsuit, send Meghan for espresso
6:50: chug espresso, waddle down to beach JUST in time for the start
7: swim swim swim. Drafting off of 2000 other people is pretty pleasant. The second loop was harder as people got more spread out, but I found some feet that seemed to be going my pace, and just drafted of of them. My wetsuit rubbed some skin off my neck, which hurt, but wasn't too bad. Mostly I spent the last 500 meters squeezing my butt cheeks together trying to keep the workings of a chugged espresso from filling my wetsuit.
8:20: Out of the water! Exactly at the time I predicted! And Meghan was at the chute to cheer! Totally awesome. Now, where's the bathroom?
8:21: Wetsuit peeled off by hotteis. Where's the bathroom?
8:22: Got transition bag. Where's the bathroom?
8:23: Found 4 porter potties!! Wooo!! Unfortunately, their doors were all facing inward so I couldn't enter any of them. No matter, I'll just move one! GAH! The handle was zip-tied shut with a note that said "T2 ONLY" which meant that this wouldn't be available till after the bike.
8:24: ran into changing tent, threw all my crap in the corner. Asked a helper where the bathroom was, and he said "in the corner." I said "that's not good enough, we have an imminent number 2." He laughs "out there!"
8:32: Relief attained, dressed in bike clothes, and off on the bike! Tummy still rumbling. Happy I didn't have an accident.
9:50-ish: hit the hills out by Hayden lake. Sucky. The downhills are great though, and I'm passing a lot of people on them. Tri geeks (at least the ones in my skill bracket) descend like babies.
Coming back into town at the end of the 1st loop, Doctor David from UM (in the 50-55 age group) and Randy? from Coeur D'Alene and I held a good pace. We got split up at the special foods area, which sucked because we had started to bond.
11:5oish: First aid station after special foods. Tummy rumbling hard. I needed to fill my camelback with water and Endurolytes anyway, so I stopped and handed some young volunteer my bike. The volunteers are totally awesome. Racers can't thank them enough! So, this kid is holding my bike as I fill my camelback as I wait in the porter potty line. I finish filling right as a stall opens up and I dash in. The sound is cartoonishly comical. I can hear the volunteers outside and the people in the neighboring stalls laughing. I exit to applause, and I feel 100%. Not that 110% bullshit that's mathematically impossible, but really, actually 100%: best I've ever felt.
2:53PM: Had picked up the pace a bit on the second lap, finishing the bike with a time of 6:20:20 overall. Kept the heart rate in the 140's-15o's all the time except for the climbs, so I was feeling pretty happy with this. Normally I'm in the 160's on a training ride, and mid 170's is my lactate threshold. Post-poop I was pretty chatty even, and I caught up with both Doctor Dave and Randy which helped out the mood even more. Unfortunately, they both fell back in the hills and I didn't see them again.
3:00PM: Exited transition after taking an ibuprofin and stretching out a bit. I was pretty worried about my IT band tightening up in the cold (around 55/60F at this point?). I held a pretty constant 10:20 min/mile pace for the first 13 miles as I got warmed up and into a rhythm.
4:20: Halfway done! Something weird happened here. It had started to rain and the temperature was dropping. Things were pretty miserable. I took another ibuprofin at the special foods area (somewhere around 15 miles) and the weirdness started kicking in. Every time someone slapped me five or cheered it made me want to finish. Finish NOW. In a funky emotional state that was 1/3 laughing, 1/3 sobbing, and 1/3 cranky, I averaged 9:00's for about 5 miles. My rationale was that once I got under 6 to go, I could make it home by sheer will alone. This wasn't entirely accurate, as at the end of those 5 miles the cold really started to get to me and my heart rate dropped to 120. This is for a guy who is usually at 190's when he's running 9's. Something was wrong. All I wanted was one of those space blankets and to be done. I got a space blanket and chicken broth (lots of it), but still had to make it through the last 6.2 miles. This marathon nonsense is bullshit. =) Anyway, the rain started to let up, and through a combination of walking and trotting I managed to get home in under 13 hours overall, which was my goal. Plus, every mile after 15 was basically a PR, because I'd never gone that far before!
I randomly chose to slap fives with people on the right hand side of the finisher's chute, which randomly happened to be where Meghan was waiting. Finishing was very happy. I got my picture taken, they gave me a hat, a shirt, and a medal, and I went home to sit in a bath. My feet looked great, despite what the naysayers of the FiveFingers expected. No blisters, no bleeding, and my joints feel pretty good, considering.
Meghan made me a bunch of tasty food and I passed out.
