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~ Mamma Gina's Kitchen ~ |
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Cascade Lakes Half-Ironman Report: 9/7/2002
Cascade Lakes 1/2 IM (1.2m swim/56m bike/13.1m run; point to point course)
Goals for the race: Pre-race food & stuff was pretty much the same as the New Balance 1/2 in June. I do not, however, recommend packing and moving to another city as a good taper-week activity. I sent Jeff to Bend on Tuesday so he would just sit still and get ready for his race. I drove to Bend on Thursday afternoon after packing my butt off. The moving company isn't coming for another week so I had to bring a few amenities to Mamma Gina's kitchen and get the new house in order a bit. Blah blah blah. Scott (in PDX) got to the house a couple of hours after I did. We hung out in our camp chairs most of the evening. A little campfire in the middle of the living room would have completed the scene. Friday morning we drove up to Elk Lake (at 5000') around 7am to see what the weather was going to be like at the race start. We did a quick 1-hour swim/bike/run brick and it was SO FRICKIN' COLD!!! I didn't get feeling back into my feet until we had been back in the car with the heat blaring for about an hour. I started making a list of things to track down that afternoon (neoprene hat & booties, hand warmers, bike gloves, etc.). Luckily we had just picked up a couple of pairs of arm warmers at the Bike Barn in Penticton and I had thrown in some long sleeved bike jerseys and leggings at the last minute. We were here to train about 3 weeks ago and it was sweltering. We did all of our run training over the last month or so in the middle of the afternoon to get used to the heat. I'm not sure it got above 50 degrees the entire day. I made the decision after the brick to wear a swimsuit under my wetsuit for the swim, then get completely dried off and change into all dry clothes for the bike. I've never done that in a race before - I usually just strip the wetsuit and hop on the bike in my tri-shorts and top. We couldn't find any neoprene anything, but managed to find a couple of pair of full-finger bike gloves and some toe covers for the bike shoes.
Friday afternoon we picked up our packets and found out we could park at the lake the next morning so we didn't have to check our bikes that evening (which would have meant another 70 mile round-trip drive up the mountain and back down). I cooked up some pasta with chicken and veggies and we headed for the race meeting. Bobo Anderson, a pro triathlete and the race director/consultant, was a riot (see his website for a taste of the insanity -
Saturday morning (you thought I'd never get there, didn't you) we got up at 4 and I put my race stuff together. Ate a PBnJ bagel and we headed out. Got to the lake around 6 and started to get Jeff set up. Once he was ready to go, I got my wetsuit on and started to get my transition area set up. There wasn't much room around the bike racks to lay out the stuff, so I was just gonna grab my transition stuff and head into the changing tent after the swim. Then I decided to throw the bag in the tent since there weren't many people in the race and things were pretty lax. When I got in there, a couple of women were doing the same thing (BTW, this is like a 6-person camping tent, not the IM-Hawaii type palaces you see on TV). Then we got to talking and just decided to lay out our towels and gear in the tent. Here's what my gear consisted of: full-finger bike gloves with hand warmers that Scott had found and bought for the three of us (thank you, thank you, thank you again Scott), bike shoes with toe covers, two pair of socks (one wool), tri-shorts, long cycling pants, sleeveless tri-top, arm warmers, long-sleeved bike jersey, sports bra. Yep, that's right.
Bobo had said they would delay the IM start until the fog cleared so it ended up getting pushed back from 7 to the 1/2 IM start time of 8:30. A "mass" swim start, if you can call about 150 people a mass. Let me say it again - it was freezing a-- cold. I had planned to draft off of Jeff on the swim but we got separated so I just looked for some feet to follow. I finally found some a few minutes into the swim and followed him until he started in with the ole' frog-kick whenever he'd sight. I swam around him and repeated this pattern a few times. I finally came on someone about 10 minutes in who had a sleeveless Promotion wetsuit on and his number started with 53- (Jeff was 535). I tagged along for a while, then he started going too slow so I passed him. He was #534 - oops. I found another pair of feet - same profile as before (sleeveless Promotion, #53something). He was drafting off of someone who slowed down, so I passed them (this time it was Jeff) at the last buoy. I felt someone tappin' my toes and couldn't find anyone to draft off of so I just cruised for the finish. As soon as I got out, Jeff popped up behind me and said, "Hey, great swim! Wanna pull me for another lap??" Uh, no. I'm done with this cold crap. Came out of the water in 36:something and headed up the boat ramp. People were not so much cheering as they were gazing on in some kind of morbid fascination. You think you get weird looks when you tell people you do triathlons…try having them watch you stumble out of 58 degree water (okay, that might have been an exaggeration, but that's cold like I've never felt before).
I stripped my wetsuit outside the changing tent and stumbled inside. I ditched the wet bathing suit, got all dried off and put on every stitch of clothing I could find. My gloves were warm because I had activated the hand warmers before the swim, and I couldn't get my hands in the gloves with the hand warmers in there, so I stuck them in my bento box in case I needed them later. By the time I finally got out to my bike about 7 minutes had passed. Trucked up the hill in my granny gear (why is it that there's always a hill to get out of transition???) and hit the main road.
The profile of the bike course is something like this:
I definitely felt the altitude on the first series of rollers. I was tempted to take advantage of the rollers and flats and really push it, but when we drove the course the day before, Jeff had mentioned that I should resist the temptation and just spin at about 95rpms to save up for the steep sections. That really helped. The climb to the Sunriver cutoff was grueling, but I managed to pass a few people (and got passed by a couple). One lady passed me and mentioned how numb her hands were, then I passed her a few minutes later. She had friends in a truck that were driving the course and would go on ahead of her, then park on the side of the road to cheer her on. As she was about to pass them, I heard her yell for them to give her some warmer gloves, so I threw my hand warmers to her friends and said to give them to her. Apparently they did the trick because she passed me a few minutes later :~) BTW, Bobo had told us he was bagging the "no outside assistance" rule. That turned out to be a very good thing later in the IM race.
Okay…so the descent to Sunriver came up. I grabbed a water bottle at the aid station and filled up my aero bottle. Then I went to my top gear and pedaled my brains out. When I couldn't pedal anymore, I tucked as tight as I could and hung on for dear life. When we were in Penticton for IMC, I had been telling Lori that I was worried about the descents in this race because I'm such a chicken about that. She told me I had to just think of it as free speed. Her voice in my head kept me from sitting up and grabbing the bullhorns (thanks Lori!). I had also just busted my hump to get up those hills, so I wasn't about to sacrifice a bit of this speed. Flew past a few people (even 2 guys!) on the descent, then got to the turnaround and headed back up. THAT was painful. It just didn't seem that steep when we drove it. 10 miles of around 5% grade was pretty brutal. I passed Scott on my way back up as he was heading down to the turnaround and he was looking strong. Finally made it back up to Cascade Lakes Highway and up a couple of more hills before the final descent into Bend. Same procedure as before - gear up, pedal like the wind, hug the bike frame. Passed a couple more guys. Gotta love that. And I was thankful for every stitch of clothing I had on. I had gotten warm a couple of times at the top of the long climbs, but I was FREEZING on those descents. I kept thinking about those people I had seen wearing a singlet and tri-shorts with no arm warmers or anything. I would have frozen to death, I'm sure.
Scott caught up to me a couple of miles before we got to T2 and I was able to keep him in sight for the remainder of the bike course and followed right behind him into T2. The volunteers grabbed my bike and handed me my run bag. I headed for the changing tent, took off my bike shoes, and sat down to rub my feet and see if I could get some feeling back in them. I got bored with that so I took off the leggings, changed into my running shoes, and put on my running hat. I forgot one very important thing which haunted me for the entire run, and that was my date with the Port-a-Pot. About 30 seconds out of T2 I remembered, but was feeling good and cruising along so I didn't worry too much.
Scott caught me again about a mile or two out of T2 (he had remembered HIS date with the Port-a-Pot) and we ran together for 3 or 4 miles. I finally started to get feeling back in my toes around mile 2 of the run. As we got to the steeper section of the run out-and-back, I could feel my heart rate racing so I told him to go ahead while I took an extended aid station walk. I tried to keep him in my sights and managed to do so for several miles, although I was walking ever 4 or 5 minutes. Miles 5-6.5 or so, right before the turnaround, were pretty steep and really took it out of me. Around mile 8 I finally decided that walking hurt just as bad as running, so I just kept going. I also had to pee like a Russian racehorse so I was busy looking for bushes. I never did find any that I was brave enough to squat behind so I just kept moving. I started to wonder if anyone had ever peed while running like guys do on the bike. I would have given my first born child for a Port-a-Pot or even a concealed grove of trees at that point. About a half mile from the finish, a girl passed me looking very strong and I tried to stay with her but she got away. Turned out she was in my age group and I ended up finishing about a minute behind her for 5th in my AG (not sure how many were in the AG).
I was happy with my race overall, especially the swim and bike. My run training has been less than stellar because, well, I really don't like running. Maybe I'll change my tune about that this winter.
Little did I know at the time, but the race finish turned out to be just the beginning of my day. Scott rounded up Simone from TNO to help us get our car and her friend John needed a ride up to get his, so we waited for Jeff to come through T2 (he was looking VERY strong), then we made the 1.5ish hour round-trip up, hollering at him (and everyone else) as we drove past. When we got back down to T2, I started rounding up our bikes and gear. An older guy (I'm guessing 60-70) named Fred who was the last 1/2 IM finisher came up and asked if I would mind giving an old man a ride up to the start and I just didn't have the heart to turn him down. I waited for Jeff to come through T2 again for his second lap of the run course, then headed up the mountain AGAIN. I grabbed Jeff's special needs bag to drop it off at the turnaround.
About 30 minutes later I dropped Fred off at his truck and headed BACK down the mountain (at about 90 mph…had Jeff been running the same pace he did for the 1st half, I was going to miss him!) I stopped at the turnaround point of the run and he was there eating and just sort of hanging out. I was thinking, "shouldn't you be running or something??", but I just kept my trap shut. It turns out he was trying to warm up. I couldn't find his long sleeved shirt so I gave him the one I was wearing and headed back down to see how things were going. With only 12 IM racers, most of the volunteers had left the aid stations. I don't know if they got bored or thought everyone was finished or what, but it was pitch dark, there was very little traffic, it was dang cold, and they were out in the middle of nowhere. I drove back and forth along the course for a while trying to encourage the runners and asking if they needed anything. I found Scott at one of the aid stations - he had been driving between aid stations to make sure there were cups of water and All Sport poured and shouting encouragement at the racers. With the exception of one mountain biker following a runner, I think Scott and I were the only non-racers on the course between miles 1-12 (except for another 1/2 IM racer who had camped out in her van at the turnaround to help). Bobo and a couple of the other race officials were driving the course as well, but there were long stretches of absolutely nothing. I don't know that I could have finished an IM under those conditions. I drove the course, parking every 1/2 mile with my hazards on so Jeff could have something to focus on to get through the next section. After leaving the aid station at mile 12, I headed for the finish to cheer Jeff in. He had a great finish at 11:56 - I still can't believe he went twice as far as me in less than twice the time! He worked hard for this and really hung in there through what was nearly a hypothermic swim, a grueling bike, and a lonely and hilly run. IMC will be a piece of cake for him after this race!
Despite the minimal support for the IM-ers, this was a fantastic race. You couldn't ask for better scenery, and you're never going to be able to predict the weather. They were talking about moving it up a couple of weeks next year…Bobo, Joel, and Super Dave were the race crew and they did a great job with the resources they had. The race officials and racers were all great - everyone tried their best to support one another. Next year they'll be able to plan around more of the things that didn't go quite right - I'd recommend the 1/2 to anyone who wants a challenging course in an amazing setting. Plus, I'll feed you :~)
Oh…one more tip - if you're like me and you like to go on and on about how sore/tired/hungry you are after a race so everyone can throw you a pity party, don't do a 1/2 IM at the same time your spouse is doing a full IM! I kept starting to say something about how sore my quads were and before I could get a word out I'd look at Jeff all curled up in a blanket with no hope of getting up off the floor without assistance.
Thanks for reading…sorry it was so long! I may not be the fastest, but I always win for the longest race report!
- MG
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