My day started out at 6am waking up in my tent that I had set up in the backyard of my friend Karen's house In Welland which was close to the Race venue. I grabbed my I buprofin and downed a few pills with water to give me relief of my joint pain being caused by the hot humid weather of the low pressure system on this race weekend. Then I quickly broke camp taking my tent down as I wouldn't be returning after the race. When I finished packing the tent I carried all my gear to my car which was blocked in the driveway so I couldn't get out. After I put everything in my car I went inside the house to look for the car key's to the car that was blocking me. I couldn't find them, so I thought what can I do? I didn't want to wake Karen up but I had to. So I climbed the stairs up to her room and to my delight she was awake, where I told her I was blocked in and asked if she would move her car to let me out, which she did.
I'm on my way now and I grabbed a pre-made bagel and cream cheese I had in my cooler in my car and a couple of stroopwaffles along with some gator aid as my pre race breakfast and stop at a Tim Horton's for some coffee.
When I arrived at the venue there were only a few cars parked, but it wasn't long after the parking lot started to fill. I parked right beside the arena where the packet pick up was and went in to register. I got my race number 137 my long sleeved shirt and a bag with a bunch of coupons and a couple of packs of nuts and stuff, not much swag???
I went back to my car to get y bike and gear to set up my transition and when I got to T1 to set up most of the racks where empty except my rack where there were already 20 or 30 bikes racked! I said out loud " I guess us old guys like to be early lol"
After I set up I went back to my car to grab another Stroopwaffle and a bottle of water. As I get to my car I see one of my Barrie friends drive in and walk over to where he parked to say hello to Jim, who was doing his first half Ironman distance race, his daughter Jacquie and Wayne.
Carrying with me my container of my world famous chocolate orange chocolate chocolate chip cookies, I then offered them some.
Jim who was racing went in to register and I caught up with him and the others in transition.
Jim talking strategy which worked! he had an awesome race.
Me at my bike setup in T1 before the race
I then met up with other Baydogs( my tri club) members who were racing and specially looked for Joanne Merkley as I promised her some of my cookies. I finally met up with Joanne who was standing in line of the woman's washroom and she greeted me with a big hug to which I gave her a bag of my cookies., which I think must have helped her in her race as she did awesome too!
My Race...I headed down to the water and swim start area carrying my wetsuit, then put on my wetsuit and got in the water so a short warm up swim as I haven't had much swim training of late! the day before I did a short 500m swim without my wetsuit to test the waters which would be my longest swim since I did Binbrook two weeks before which was only a 750m swim, so I was not prepared at all for this race with little to no swim training since I did Disney in May with the 2000m swim and that again being my longest swim since Jan. But I was well enough trained with my "less is more" training and attitude. lol
The water was warm and calm and as I awaited for the start of the race Jim swam over to me to wish me luck as I did to him. This race was a little different then most half Ironman races as it was a mass start rather then a wave start, I guess because of the smaller field only being under 300 participant. But there was on wave start before us, the elite racers who were doing the three race challenge for prize money where they race this race and to other races later in the year, and the pros, they got a 30 sec head start of the rest of the field.
The horn goes off and a way we go. I started on the far side near the center of the canal but back, as I didn't want to get caught up in the bashing of the mass swim start. It didn't help? I thought I would just have a easy smooth swim race, but as I started out for what ever reason there seemed to be a lot of splashing! even with me hanging back? WTF is going on? as I swam I took on a few mouth fulls of water and started choking, so I had to slow to a stop to get my breath and stay calm. I finally coughed out the water from my lungs and continued on just keeping to my pace and not over exerting myself. I make it around the first turn buoy then cross over the canal to the next turn buoy with no problem swimming around them without much contact form other swimmers. for the next leg of the swim I started to get into my groove of nice long easy strokes up the canal passing the start/ finish area and swimming on under a bridge and to the far end buoy. I swim across the canal to the final buoy and back down to the swim start/finish line and in. I climb up the bank which organizers had pea stones dumped to make it easier for swimmers to get out, as it is a steep climb up and out of the water, but with the help of volunteers it wasn't to tough.
I climbed out ran over the timing pad and checked my watch, hmmm? ok 39 min better then I expected. Because of the logistics of the swim the organizers had a secondary timing pad for when we got to T1 as the transition from the waters edge to T1 was around 300m if not longer? and some of it was even over gravel? which for me both just running without my orthotic was hard enough on the path or along the grass alongside the path as which I did, but the gravel was a real challenge for me as I'm sure it was for others.
I do a quick change and get to the mount line and run past then hop on my bike. ( I wish more people would learn how to mount on there bikes and not stop on the line and get on there bikes at a stand still) anyways I'm off or my ride.
I haven't ridden the course so I didn't know what to expect? The only thing I have heard is that the course was flat and fast! So I just started peddling not knowing how hard to go? So I eased into a rhythm and was soon cruising at 36kph on some nicely paved smooth roads. the course was awesome! but the day began to become hot! I stayed in areo for as long as I could stand and had to sit up in relief to stretch out my back. I haven't done allot of long rides since I did Disney, matter of fact I haven't done much riding in the last month, so I didn't want to push my pace and I wanted to save some legs for my run.
At times I would get into a groove and I would be cruising around 40kph then again I would have to sit up to stretch. They were right! this course is flat and fast! But the problem with flat and fast is there was no down time, if you stop peddling you slow down, so I tried to keep my rhythm and pace a constant not pushing hard but keeping my speed at or above 30kph. As I rode on at my pace I was passing people like they were standing still getting up to speeds of 38-40kph. I caught up and passed Joanne and said to her" you must have had a great swim to be in front of me? " I later checked and her swim was about the same time as me but my run up to T1 and my transition was slower so she just got out on the road before me.
Not long after my back started seizing at around the 25-30k mark and I had to keep sitting up to stretch out. The day was also getting hotter and as I passed by the shores of lake Erie along route I wanted to stop and jump in, but I kept going! I kept pushing forward at my pace and along come Jim passing me and saying," come on Joe! lets go! or something like that? I thought for a second maybe I should jump up and go with Jim, but then my back was twitching and I said naw! I'll just keep my pace going and maybe Jim will burn out. lol
It felt like forever getting to the turn around, and when I did all I was thinking about was when I pass by that spot on lake Erie, I'm going in! My back was seizing bad and I had to cool off and stretch it out. At around the 65km point there it was! Lake Erie! I looked and looked! where can I stop and pull over? Finally I saw my entree point! I stopped walked my bike in off the road. the shore was rocky so I kept my bike shoes on and just walked to the waters edge and when the water was deep enough I dove in! Ahhhhhh! , I sat there with shoes and helmet on in the water and started to stretch my back. The water felt great and I sat for about 5min watching riders pass along the road. then I saw Joanne pass and said it's time for me to go. I climbed back out of the water with my shoes covered with seaweed jumped back on my bike and away I went.
I had my sights on Joanne and it took me a little while to catch her when as I passed her I said " man you a hard one to catch up to! I saw you pass me as I went for a swim. lol " and she said " I saw someone in the lake! was that you?" I said "YEP" lol My back was feeling better after my swim, but it was still tight. I got to the finish and dismounted like a pro again, getting off my bike before the line and running with my bike over the line and into T2.
I check to see my time and was happy I was sub 3hours with a 2:55:02 and a 30.9 kph average, it would have been faster is I didn't go for my swim. lol After I racked my bike I was going to take my time, as I need to stretch out my back and had to cool off again.
Me stretch in T2 after I racked my bike
Me taking a shower to cool off
Me making myself look good before taking off on my run. lol
Not long after that I started to run a little, then I came up to the first bridge and street crossing and I started to follow the orange cones over the bridge. I get halfway across the bridge and an official on a bike starts yelling at me saying I'm going the wrong way, and he said, didn't I see the arrow pointing straight!?! I told him no, what arrow?? I told him I was just following the cones, and there where a bunch of people there at the corner? and why didn't they say something to me there and then?? So I turn around and go back with the official who looked like he was getting ready to DQ me!! then we get to the corner and I see the arrow behind a guy who was standing in front of it with his bike!!!GRRRR! Anyway I continue on.
Having just come off of doing a half marathon the week before I was planing on having a decent run. I finished my half mary with a time of 2: 42 and figured if I can finish today with 3 hours I'll have a decent 6:30hr race, but I was having a hard time getting my legs moving with my knees hurting and my back was still tight so I started walking some more to give my back time to ease up, which it did later. While I was walking some local guy with his bike saw what went on with me and the official back in the corner and decided to keep me company. At first I though he was sent by the official to keep an eye on me so I don't cut any more corners. lol But he was just a local doing some voly duties who runs this course all the time and wanted some feed back from me while I walked.
Well It was time for me to start running, my back was feeling better, I was all hydrated and although my knees hurt I can manage to move forward with the pain but with a noticable limp on each step. Then I get this feeling!?! You know? the feeling that it's time to go! and when you get that feeling , it's hard to run! if you know what I mean? lol So now I'm back to walking with a limp and looking for a pot a potty? I see none? I get to the 4km aid station and ask where are the port a potties? one guy told me there is non here, but their is one back at transition, WTF??
So I continue on, I try to run but have to stop and walk before I get some leakage. I make it to the next aid station thinking they have to have a potty here?? NO POTTY!! I keep moving forward and start cramping and I have to stop till the cramp passes. I keep moving on. I walk a little run a little, walk more, run a little and cramp and stop. I keep going finally getting to the farthest reaches of the course where we have to cross over the canal and still no potty. I see a official and ask, Where the Fuck are the potty's!! This is now 6-7km out and I haven't seen one?? He says jokingly, I guess we will have to review this problem for next year? there are none out here. He said just go in the bush. I said where? The brush is so thick and full of mosquito's? so I continued on.
A short time later the official came up to me with some TP and said; Here, and passed me the TP. I said thanks and carried the TP with me looking for an opening in the woods. At the 7 mark I finally see an opening, a little path up a hill so I go in to do my business, but soon as I get in the thick brush the mosquito's attack!! I say screw this! I'm not going to squat! I then try to take a little pee to relieve some pressure of my cramping only to pinch it off early as the mosquito's where attacking everywhere, and I mean everywhere!! So tucking my business back in I run out of the bush.
I start to run a little but I still had to go bad. I finally get to the turn around still carrying my TP. I cross back over the train bridge, back onto the path and was on my way back. By now I was cramping more and my head was turning left and right looking for a place to go! I tried to run more but was only able to go a few steps before having to walk and squeeze to keep from having a shitty day! if you know what I mean.
At the 12 km mark I had all I can take and was looking desperately for some opening in the bush. again I found one that look very open, so thinking there might not be so many mosquito's I duck in going in about 50 yards, I quickly pull down my shorts as I'm being attacked again by thousand of mosquito's! They were everywhere! any open skin they were on it! I'm slapping my face, my arms my legs and my butt!
As soon as I squatted I couldn't help but explode!! the mass and force must have taken out 500-100 mosquito's with the blast! lol but it still wasn't quick enough as they were attacking and biting every part of exposed skin on my body!
Soon as I released the pressure I felt quick relief, I cleaned up with my TP and pulled up my shorts as fast as I could because my butt was covered in mosquito's having a butt roast for dinner and I ran out. When I got out out of the woods I had to do some more cleaning up as I didn;t want to chaf, and where else to clean up better then to jump in the canal on the other side of the path. Once I cleaned up I couldn't believe how much better I felt. from then on I was able to run. I started with 10 and two's for the first few km then reverted to run as long as I could usually 3-4 min and walk 2min for the rest of the way back.
When i get to the corner where I went the wrong way at the begining of the run, the course has me going over the bridge for a short loop on the other side of the canal, down along the canal passing oposite the transition area on the other side going to the next bridge, crossing over and going down the canal about 200m to the turn around and then back again.... OH! and this shorter loop of 5-6k had two sets of port a potty's along the route so you had access to them 4 times in the short loop!! Grrrrrr.
The last few km I met up with a young lady doing her first half distance Ironman who was hurting with her run, who her herself said to me she was a strong runner and couldn't believe how tough a day it was? She was from the states and we chatted as we walked together telling each other our story's of this day. I encouraged her to keep going with walk and runs as I was doing when I caught up with her. We started to run and pick up the pace when we were getting close to the finish. When we got to the last hundred meters and we could see the finish line I told her this was you time being your first half Ironman, so run it out and get a good picture of your finish as I hang back. I waited for her to cross when I realized and looked at my watch saying it was 7:29!! and I wanted to at least finish before 7:30, so I quickly started running it out to beat the clock all the while the camera guys were still taking pictures of the young lady after she finished. I then yelled at them, hey what about my picture??? I guess I'm not a pretty enough!?!?! lol Anyways I finished under the 7:30 mark with a 7:29:53 Whew! that was close! lol and with no finish photo? lol
I get to the finish and again Kent was there doing more voly duties and greeted me with congrats, I then got handed a hat? WTF? Don't we get medals I said? ...if I knew there were no finisher medals I said? I would have DNF's a long time ago! lol ... Oh well! not a big deal, the hat was nice.
From the finish line I met up with Adam who had a great race doing the DU half ironman and finished first in his Age group and 4th overall! We then had to take our medal bite shot and since Adam had a medal for finishing first in his AG and I had no finisher medal, we decide to do the bite with our hats.
All in all it was a good race except for the lack of porta potties on the first 12k's of the run, which I'm positive cost me a good hour on my run, but hopefully that will be rectified for next years race and I can prove I could do better when I don't have to hold my poo poo most of the race. lol But to be fair on my run on the way between 12 and 14k I did see a city potty tucked in the wood line and missed it on my way out on the run, but it was not clearly marked. Still even with that there were not enough potties on the first part of the course, so just in case I will be bringing my mosqito spray and make sure all parts of my body including my nearthers are covered. lol
In any case, I am definitly going to be doing this race next year! It's a good one!
My stats...
243 137 Josef Polcz 7:29:53 TM50-54 29/29 154 38:45 1:57 2:55 2:33 176 2:55:02 30.9 5:56 245 3:44:43 10:39
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