IRONMAN Canada 2018 Race Report

03 August 2018

With the new course changes for 2018 and the 34°C temperature forecast, I expected this year’s edition of IRONMAN Canada Whistler to be a hard race. I didn’t know it was going to be this hard!

Race Morning

Race morning starts at 3:30am to get ready for a 6:00am start. It is very early but having slept well for 6 hours I feel ready. This year I will try a bacon and egg breakfast with toast.

I am ready at 4:30 in the morning and I head out to transition area 2 to start the day. I drop off nutrition for the run and head to the shuttle lineup. The lineup is really long and it around 5:00 before I get to board a bus. I arrive at transition area 1 after 5:20 and they are already announcing the swim warm-up is going to be 10 minutes starting now. I guess I won’t have a warm-up today.

I get the bike ready quickly and put on my wetsuit as fast as I can. The pro race is already started and I am just now making my way to the start. I shuffle my way to my start area and position myself around the 1:10 swim time group. I’m rushing to get my wetsuit closed, my cap and goggles on when they call 6 minutes to start. I feel like I’m rushing and the race hasn’t even started yet.

Note to self: If there is a shuttle involved, give yourself an extra 30 minutes next time so you don’t feel rushed.

Swim

The race starts with a “rolling wave” start where we have to go through a gate that is only wide enough for one or two people abreast. After a few minutes standing on the beach, it is my turn to stream out of the gate. I walk into the lake not wanting to rush into things and I keep walking and walking for a long time before the water is deep enough to start swimming.

The swim course is a long rectangle with two long sides with the start at the base of one of the long sides. My goal is to swim 1:08 plus or minus two minutes (hopefully minus).

I swim directly for the first turn buoy far in the distance. This turned out to be a mistake as it is hard to sight a distant target when swimming. After a couple course corrections on the first leg, I swim fairly straight all around the first lap. I finish the first loop in about 34 minutes including the walk at the start which is right on target pace and I feel strong.

About 10 minutes later, I get a cramp on my left calf and it feels pretty bad, almost bad enough to stop. I continue swimming just kicking with my right leg with my left foot dragging behind. A couple of minutes later, it subsides but it comes back with a vengeance 10 minutes later. I continue swimming like this at a very slow pace for about 15 more minutes until I get to the final turn. It is here where the cramp finally subsides for good and I can swim the remaining 200m to the finish line without a cramp.

Swim time: 1:12:39, it could have been better but it could also have been a lot worse with the cramps.

Swim to Bike Transition

I’m out of the wetsuit quickly and I move fast through transition and jog to the bike mount line.

Transition time: 4:11, where did all that the time go?

Bike

The new bike course is composed of three loops around Whistler with a lot or rolling terrain and more than 2600m of total climbing. The plan is to finish each loop in about two hours with an estimated completion time of 6:20 for the at the expected normalized power of about 200W.

The first loop goes by in 1:52. It really goes by quickly.

I lose a bottle half full of calories and nutrition that I will be needing. I don’t exactly know where this happened but when I reach for it in the middle of the second loop, it is gone. In the picture above, there was supposed to be a bottle hanging behind me in the bottle cage. This is not as bad as it would seem as I have stashed a backup bottle in the special needs area which means I will be stopping to pick it up on the next lap. Lap complete in 1:57.

I stop at the special needs area to pick up the backup nutrition bottle at the start of the last loop. The heat is intense now and you can feel the heat radiating from the pavement on every climb. This lap is going to be a little slower than the previous two. It is not too bad at 2:06. All that is left to do is return to Whistler Village, another 10km.

Dismount the bike in 6:17:50 as planned. However, I do not feel like running at all.

Bike to Run Transition

I slowly walk barefoot to the change tent and I am in no rush to get going. I sit down and calmly put on my running socks and shoes and slowly grab all the gear. I walk out of the tent and walk over to the sunscreen table to get all covered. I am not in a rush. I walk out of transition expecting to walk the marathon since I think my legs are gone.

Transition time: 6:23. That was incredibly fast considering how slow I was moving throughout.

Run

As soon as I am exiting transition I apply the rule of “no walking unless at an aid station” and thus, to my surprise, I start jogging.

I see my family cheering at the top of the first hill at the one kilometer mark. It is uncomfortably hot, but I make it to the top without stopping. Hugs and kisses and we’re moving again. This run course is a lot hillier than I remember. It takes about 9km before I get my “run legs” and start moving with a bit less effort and I make it to almost every aid station on the first loop without walking in-between.

Approaching 20km, I start feeling the need to stop and walk. I take inventory and realize I’ve made a huge mistake. I’ve skipped taking energy gels for the last hour. It is hard to eat those things when it is so darn hot. I down two gels at the next aid station and continue walking for a few minutes while I wait for the effects to kick in. Moving again after a few minutes.

The second loop goes much better than the first. I stick to the plan with the gels at every other aid station. I keep filling my two ziplock bags with ice at every aid station (one for the chest and another one for the back) and it is helping. I no longer feel the need to stop although I do allow myself to power-walk whenever my heart rate goes over the 150bpm soft limit that I’ve set for myself for the event.

Shoutout to James “The Red Rocket” Thomas at kilometer 29. The fact that I am here doing this event is probably his fault.

Still firing on all cylinders at kilometer 40 when I make the turn towards the finish line. Just a short run through Whistler Village and towards the finish line.

As I get to the finish line I stay on the right side expecting to see the family there. I high-five everyone but I don’t see my family. I think “Oh well, I guess they are not here” and cross the finish line.

I look for my family and finally they show up about a minute later. They are all angry with me because I was giving high-fives to everyone but I missed them (they were on the opposite side, sigh..).

Run time: 4:43:02. That was a lot slower than I though but it was great considering how hot it was.

Overall

Swim	01:12:39
Swim-to-bike	00:04:11
Bike	06:17:50
Bike-to-run	00:06:23
Run	04:43:02
Overall	12:24:05

That was, by far, the hardest IRONMAN distance race I have ever done. And I enjoyed every minute of it.