Ironman Mont Tremblant....Part Duh - The Run

Its All About The Bike....Until You Get To The Run

Transition Two (3:50) - 2012 (4:50)

Coming off the bike, I was totally bagged.  The last climb up to Lake Superior had left me exhausted.  I still had one full bottle of nutrition but my stomach was bloated.  After giving my bike to a volunteer, I ran into the tent and grabbed my bag.  I dumped everything on the ground, put on my race belt, water belt and shoes and ran out of record time.  This was going to hurt.  I felt terrible.  How in the world was I going to run 42 km?

The Run (5:09:30 - Goal 4:30)

As I ran out of the tent, I had to loosen my water belt as it was too tight.  There was no way I could run 42 km.  There is a short nasty hill about 300 meters from the village and I started walking up the hill.  Most of the people ran past me but I didn't care.  At the top, I saw Nigel and Fiona (NRG) and they yelled encouragement.  I weakly smiled and said "this was going to hurt."  They laughed and yelled keep going.  Keep going?  I'm not even at the one kilometer mark.  I started running but by the second kilometer I was walking and that's how the first six kilometers went.  Lots of walking followed by short spurts of running.  I kept gobbling down the salt tablets and started drinking coke at the aid stations.  In hindsight, the coke wasn't flat and it didn't help my bloated stomach.  The plan was to walk the aid stations and hills and run in between.  The aid stations are 1.6 km apart.  How hard could it be to run 1.6 km without stopping?   Very hard.

Somewhere in the first five km I noticed I was still wearing my bike shorts.  I guess that explains how I shaved one minute off my T2 time.  It was tight against my legs and my arm was rubbing against my tri top and was raw.  Odd, I've worn this top several times.  Good thing I put body guild in my run special needs.  Too bad it was about two hours away.  I stumbled my way to the trail and saw Peter A run by.  He was running good.  I wondered where his buddy Adam was.  It would be interesting to know how Adam would do as he just did an Ultra 100 miler a couple of weeks ago and had done no swimming and very little biking. Peter said his long run was only 15 km due to foot injury. Yeah both will smoke me.

My brand new Garmin was buzzing every 10 minutes.  Some how intervals were set on the watch for the bike and run to buzz every 10 minutes (I don't remember setting them).  It was annoying as it reset my pace time for each interval.  I was wearing my Polar watch as well but couldn't be bothered to turn on my foot pod so I just kept hitting the interval button every time I passed a two kilometer marker.  Oddly enough, looking at my splits, the first 10 km I was ALMOST running around the pace I wanted to run at (6:48 vs 6:24 min/km).  This part was through the old village of Mont Tremblant and has several rolling hills.  As I walked all the hills, my pace dropped to a foot dragging 7:58 min/km.  Ugh.  Has the death march started?

I saw Rom and he looked like he was running good.  I was coming back from the turn around on the trail and he was heading in.  I don't think he was going to catch me as he started three minutes earlier on the swim.  After what seemed like running for a life time, I made it to special needs just before entering the pedestrian village.  I looked for my body guild but there was none.  I could have sworn I put one in my bag.  I borrowed one from the girl sitting beside me but didn't want to rub it under my arm as she said it was brand new.   I wiped some on my finger and then wiped it under my arm.  Hopefully that would do the trick but as so as I started running I could feel it rub.  I finally ran into the pedestrian village to the cheering crowds.  Run left to the finish line.  Run right to start the second loop.  I ran right.  I saw Tammy and the kids cheering.  It was the first time I saw them since the run to T1 even though I was wearing a tracker so they wouldn't have to stand outside for hours wondering when I'd stagger by them.  In 2012, I wore the same tracker and they saw me several times on the bike as I rode by the village.  This year, nada.  I gave them a quick hug and told Tammy I was really fucked up.  She yelled keep going.  Apparently Jake (7 years old), repeated what I said to everyone.

The first loop was about 2.5 hours.  There was no way I was running the second loop in two hours to hit my goal time.  It was all about surviving.  Nigel was still on the hill yelling encouragement.  I saw Jason motor by.  He was running fast and I saw Peter and Adam walking in the Old Village.  I yelled I was hurting and they said they were too (they were almost finished).  At an aid station I asked if they Vaseline or body guide.  They said they had Vaseline so I scoped a handful and wiped it under my arm.  Ahh relief.  I saw Lindsay on my way in to the trail as she was coming out.  I yelled at her and she just grunted.  I could have sworn my running was picking up looking at at my splits, it was just as slow as the first loop.  I stopped at one aid station and they asked if I wanted chicken broth.  "Fuck yeah" I replied and everyone laughed.

I had my Garmin set to display total race time and kept trying to figure out if I was going to beat 2012's time of 12:57.  I told my coach I would be severely disappointed if I did not.  Running by each kilometer marker I looked at my watch and tried to do the math in my head.  As I ran to the turn around point on the trail, I would look to the marker on the other side.  If I saw the other side was 28 km, I'd tried to figure out how far it was to the turnaround and then how long it would take to run to the marker and then how long to go from 28 km to the finish line.  Anything to pass the time.

Coming back from the turnaround I kept telling myself wait until you get to the 32 km marker.  Then you know you can walk to the finish.  I hit the 32 km marker and thought keep running until you get to the 36 km marker then you can walk.  This went on for the rest of the way.  Near the end of the trail, I saw Rom heading onto the trail.  He looked like he was slowing down.  I also saw Toraj who is a pretty good runner.  He'll catch Rom.  Heading through the Old Village of Tremblant, I passed an older guy about mid 60s with a white beard.  I wasn't sure which way he was going but he could barely stand.  He was staggering all over the road and a lady (a local) was trying to help him.  I ran by two cops and asked them to call medic.  Running by the swim start, I saw a golf cart medic go tearing by me.  By the time I got to the second last aid station just outside the village, you could hear the music and Mike Rielly.  The crowds were bigger and cheering as I stumbled towards the village.  I had to walk that nasty hill before the special needs while everyone was telling me to run (easy for you to say).  Running through special needs I picked up speed and started high fiving kids.  Entering the pedestrian village someone asked me if I was on lap one or two.  TWO!!  Thank God.  I saw Tammy and kids before running down the LEFT side of the chute to the finish line.  I vaguely heard Mike Rielly call me an Ironman.  13:12:29.  189/302.  Almost exactly 15 minutes slower than 2012.  I was massively disappointed.

In the finishing area, Derek D came up to me.  I've talked and emailed Derek several times but never met him.  A couple of times I came up to Ottawa we never could meet.  How great that we finally meet at the finish line?  After we talked, I tried to get something to eat but my stomach started to rumble and the kids were waiting.  Vanessa started to cry when she saw me (I must have looked pretty scary) so I gave her my medal.  I had to go to the bathroom really urgently so I went and then grabbed a plate of food then shuffled off back to the hotel for a shower.