This race has been a bit of a xxx for me. I have been planning on doing Gulf Coast as a primer of sorts since watching IMFL last year. Of course things do not always go a planned. Had to scratch the Tallahassee Marathon due to injured achilled tendon preventing any training. I originally scratched Gulf Coast b/c I didn't think I could get my run training in either. Then I had a chance to do the bike leg relay of Gulf Coast and was ok with that. Then that fell apart. Then I decided to just race Gulf Coast and see how the run went (i.e., not hurt myself so I can't train for IMFL). Then, the week before Gulf Coast I sprained my ankle so I scratch myself again. Eat like shit (pizza, chips, ice cream, beer, etc.), don't train all week... my spring season is over until I start training for IMFL in mid-June. Then Gulf Coast tell me on Wed that I can't get a refund or deferral... assholes... but -- my ankle starts to stabilize/recover some. It is still sprained, but I decided to at least get some of my $235 or whatever back and do the swim and see how the bike goes, or something like that..... well enough of the "and then," let me tell you how it went down....
Friday -- leave work at noon, go home change clothese, eat lunch, etc., hit the road to PCB. Stop by at
Blountstown Drugs on the way over and visit the pharmacist -- my good friend Jon Plummer. If you are the in the area, stop by and say "hi." If Jon isn't in, the other pharmacist is Sandy and she is my cousin-in-law, so say hi to her as well. Also, Jon's wife Johanna runs the rest of the store so say hi and browse around. They have a lot of really cool things in their store. They even have a
Facebook page. This is what Jon looks like when he is not working:
So... Jon takes one look at my foot and tells me not to bike, and that I shouldn't even swim. I agree my foot looks like shit, but I am at least swimming. So after shooting the breeze with Plum, I get back on the road to Panama City Beach.
Ok, I know PCB is in "flux" with new luxury buildings slowly taking over... but there is still a lot of shit-holiness about PCB. Like the Boardwalk (at least the "hotel" part of it, which goes for $130 a night -- 2 nights tax tag and title are about $300). The only good things I have to say about such is that the rooms are 50 yards from transition and right in front of the swim. You can't beat the location. However, that also means you can't park on site (have to park in a dirt lot about a 1/4 mile down the road-that-is-constantly-under-construction and have do deal with the crowds. So choose your poision. I am glad I learned this now, b/c I probably won't stay there for IMFL. I have reservations at the hotel right now, but will seriously look to getting another place with rooms a little nicer. Disclaimer -- I am not a beach guy -- red hair and fair skin so I prefer the shade. So if you won't spend a minute in the hotel... maybe you wanna think about it. There are just too many better quality, lower priced, less crowded hotels on the beach for my taste.
So anyway, the expo was cool, lots of things, but a bit overpriced. Still neat though. Packet pick up was really strange. You had to go to a board, id your race number, go to a lady guarding an entrance, identify your race number, give her your id and USTA # (she didn't compare any of that against anything), and she put a red dot on the back of your hand. No red dot = no entry. Then you go to a table of ladies and give them your race number, id, and usat #. They give you a form to sign. So you go to another table where you can sit down and fill out the form. Then go to another table and stand in line to get your race packet. The packets were ready, so as you show up, they put it together for you (more on that later). Write your number on your swim cap. Then tell you to go to another line for chip-timer pick up. Then you can leave and browse the expo some more. Saw this bad boy at the expo. If looks could kill.....
Anyway, saw lots of Tallahassee friends there. I was hoping to run into one of my twitter/facebook friends,
Mary Eggers, but somehow managed to bum around and never track her down. If you have read any of my previous posts, she trains with
Turbo Curbeau, who I met and shot the breeze with while waiting in line to sign up for IMFL.
So after that I took my bike to check-in. I had pretty much decided that I wasn't going to do the bike portion -- just swim and quit -- by then, but decided to check my bike in just in case. I didn't even air the tires up and hooked the seat under the bike rack as opposed to placing my bottle rack over the bike rack (i.e., this is a pain in the ass to remove during a race this way, but more secure).
Afterwards, I decided to skip the pasta dinner. Didn't want to eat conference center food the night before a race. Well, since I really wasn't racing, I drove around and settled on Publix -- chicken strips, corn, tater logs, red velvet cake with cream cheese icing, bbq chips and honey mustard pretzel nibblets. And a 12 back of bud select. mmmm.... All I can say is if you are gonna be a bear, be a grizzly.
Wake up at 5AM Sat. No rush, even though transition closes at 6 and the race starts at 6:05 or so. Fart around, eat a energy bar, drink some gatorade, etc. I decided to pack a transition bag just in case -- bike shoes, helmet, run shoes, foot towel, sunscreen. That's it. Go get body marked and enter transition around 5:35 or so.. as you can tell I was jittery from the caffeine withdrawl....
Then mess around for a minute or so and set up my transition area. This is when you can really tell that I really didn't expect to race at all. No fluff -- nothing but the necessary stuff.
After that, there was not much else to do but visit with friends and then watch the race start before getting suited up..
So finally, two waves before the team relay wave (the very last wave), M35-39 gets the go. I was nervous about the swim for three reasons: (1) sprained ankle; (2) eating like crap all week; and (3) haven't done anything at all athletic since I sprained my ankle the previous Saturday. So I decided to be the last guy in the water and just take it easy. One thing I was not prepared for was the swells. The water was clear, kinda warm (I was getting hot the last half of the swim), and not choppy at all. But the swells were making me a little seasick and making it tricky to breathe. But I just swam, one buoy, (remember to focus on stroke), next buoy, etc., remember to kick lets (hmmm... ankle feels ok)etc., etc., geez, when do I turn, buoy, etc. Finally hit the first turn buoy. Half a mile in 16 min. Ok, I can live with that. .2 mile to the next turn buoy and then back to the beach. This was the part when some of the guys in the wave behind us started catching up. No worries, let them through. Don't try to hang on, a week off and you shouldn't push that hard. Even though my ankle felt ok, I had to remind myself that I hadn't trained, hadn't eaten properly, and my body had been fighting to recover from a sprained anke. So I was nowhere near where I would have been if I hadn't sprained my ankle.
The .5 back sucked ass. I was hot, overheated, etc. Everytime I thought I was getting close to the last buoy, another one would appear on the horizon. All you could see what the hotels slowly getting closer.
I will say that the water and sandy bottoms were really neat. You could see the floor, look at stingrays, etc. No sharks, happily, althogh we did swim through a few schools of baitfish.
Finally, finally got out of the water. My watch said 39 minutes and change. Slowly limped my way up the beach, into T1. Took my time in the showers they had set up. Even stripped off my wetsuit on the bench by the shower, and went back into the shower to get some more fresh water over me and my wetsuit. Then limp into the bike. Here is when I mention that after I left transition set-up for the last time, some of the people I visited with encouraged me to give the bike a try if my ankle felt ok during the swim. So, as I entered T1, I thought... why not give the bike a shot?
So I moseyed over to my bike. Sat down. Slowly put on compression socks. Visited with other triathletes..., slowly put on shoes, slowly walked over to exit T1, and got on the bike. This is when I realized I might have some trouble. For example, I so expected not to bike that I didn't have any water, gatorade, gels, etc., -- nothing at all with me or on the bike. So if the first aid station was 20 miles out, it was going to be a looooooong 20 miles. Also, I didn't even bring my garmin or other hr monitor into transition. All I had was my cateye and my wristwatch, which I completely forgot about.
The first 5 miles I literally spun very, very easy. Probably averaged 17-18 mph, sitting up, hr probably didn't break 100. To my suprise, there was an aid station at 5 miles. So I loaded up on gatorade, water and cliff shots. That helped out a lot, b/c my mouth was still salty from the sea water. During this time, I was getting passed by other bikers. I didn't pass anybody. Didn't care though as I was just happy to be riding.
It wasn't until mile 9-10 that I actually came up on another cyclist. I was still spinning easy, no desire to push things. Then I passed the cyclist.... "click." Right in front of him was another cyclist... "click," then "whoomp." All systems go, and my body knew what to do. While I complain about not training and not eating the week leading up to GC, I had the previous 17 weeks of solid bike training in my system. So go I went. I pushed it up to right below the point where my ankle felt uncomfortable. Tried not to work my ankle/calves any, just keep foot straight/flat and use my quads as much as possible. Went from 17-18 to 23-24mpg. Nice. Started pasing people like I was on a rocket ship.
One thing that suprised me was the amoung of people on their bike swerving all over the road. I gave up shouting "on the left" at them b/c more often than not they looked left and swerved my way. Just decided to blow by them w/o warning. The rest of the leg out was fine.
First left turn was really neat. Aid stations on both sides of the road, and lots of bikers. The adrenaline really kicked in. Dump old gatorade, pour remaining water over me, throw out trash from cliff shots, grab new gatorade, new water, new cliff, and hammer down. Roads were rough, but there were lots of riders heading the other was past me. I milked my excitement a little too much, b/c after we turned around and headed back down the road, I went hit the headwind and immediately went anerobic (well, gasping for beath so I guesstimate accordingly). Had to focus on spinning, less power, stay low and breathe to get my hr under control. The rest of the ride was pretty much the same, fighting headwind and trying to keep my mpg from slipping to far under 20.
About mile 35 my ankle started getting a little tired. By mile 40, a little more tired. My mile 45 it was pretty tired and I was just focused on making it back to T2. I wasn't in pain, but could tell that my ankle was getting a little stressed. After what seemed like an eternity (the last 10 miles always to do me), I hit front beach road -- 5 miles back. By then I was struggling.
Breathing shallow, sick of gatorade. Neither regions sore b/c I didn't really use any bodyglide or anything b/c I was not expecteting to ride bike. Pouring all the water I had over me to stay cool, when I heard a voice in the car beside me. I wasn't sure who it was, looked over and saw a silver Porsche -- Plummer, who else! He had been planning on coming over to watch the race, but missed the swim. Originally, I was planning on quitting at T1 and meeting up with him. Since I didn't quit at T1, I had been wondering what he had done. He realized I hadn't quit, and went and ran some errands and then saw me on the bike. It was good to hear some encouragement from a good friend. Even slowed down so he could take a picture of me.
I couldn't decide whether to give a thumbs up, or the thumb/circle ok sign below the waist, so this is what I wound up doing. And yes, the handles on the side are mine, but the junk in the back is cliff bars, etc., that I was hoarding. Anyway, come into T2, I realized that I could not slip my foot out of my shoe (swelling and all), so I was going to have to unclip. Decided to unclip my left (i.e., sprained) ankle first, twist... nothing, twist a little harder... nothing. Twist hard -- HOLY SHIT THAT HURTS!!!! You can't see b/c I am wearing sunglasses, by my eyes were squinched closed. You can even see the used cliff shot wrappers under my left leg shorts.
Walk across the line and tell the first volunteer that I was quitting and to take my chip, and head over to the medical tent to ice my ankle. Plum found me there and sneaked in to give me some company. Afterwards, we had some fun:
Fried grouper, french fries, hush puppies, beer, coldstone, mmm... mmm... goood. Afterward, Plum dropped me off and headed back to Blountstown and I went to check out my time.
If you can't read that small, it says:
Swim (1.2 miles) 39:53 (61 out of 76 in my age group) (2:03 per 100 m; 1:53 per 100y, so slow)
T1 11:08 (75 out of 76 in my age group, but what fun it was to shoot the breeze)
Bike (56 miles) 2:49:05, 19.9 mph avg, 36 of 75 in my age group).
Total, minus the run 3:40:05
So, I will take it, sprained anke and all. For reference August 70.3 was 28:10 swim (downstream river), and bike was 2:39:31 (average 21.1). So since this was an ocean swim, and I didn't start pushing until mile 10 on the bike.... I am very happy with my limited performance.
Next up -- 6 weeks off until I start training for IMFL. In the meantime -- rehab ankle, eat very little and lose as much weight as possible before training starts. So, in the meantime if you see me with ANYTHING unhealthy in my hand, smack me in the back of my head and call me fatass!
