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Race Report from Jeff Whitmire: I can’t do this one justice without actually starting this report on a few days ahead……..I decided not to taper into Duke. It is not my “A” race and I actually had a similar workout scheduled for the weekend anyway, or so I thought. Saturday 9/13 6:30am (day before the race) - I started my weekend workout. I flip-flopped my weekend so I am doing a 1hr 45 min run and a 1hr bike. I also decided to try some fueling strategies for longer races. So I ate a peanut butter and honey sandwich and drank a bottle of ensure before starting. It didn’t take long to figure out hydration was going to be a key. I tried to hydrate at every opportunity but I don’t think I kept up. I finished the run…a little over 12 miles and started out on the bike. I ended up riding for about 1 ½ hours. I was tweaking a new Specialized frame but that’s a story for another day. Anyway, I finished the workouts, jumped straight in the shower and began loading up for the trip to Raleigh. Fast forward 1 ½ hours heading up I-85N. I heard an odd noise and looked in the rear view mirror. My bike had come loose from the bike rack and was swinging like a pendulum by the seatpost. A rather ominous beginning I would say. The rest of Saturday went pretty well. It did take a while to find food. I ended up settling for less than a satisfactory portion of cannelloni at some place called Biaggi’s near the packet pick-up. Then a little race preparation and off to bed @ 8:30pm. Did I mention that our room was right beside the vending area???? Enough said about that! Sunday 4:00am (race day) …..and the alarm tolls. I rolled out of the rack, and hopped into the shower. Pack up the goodies. Eat a peanut butter and honey English muffin, 1 bottle of ensure and started drinking Gatorade. We head for the start around 5am. I drank 1 more bottle of ensure on the way. We arrived at the race site and went through body marking with little trouble. I started setting up the transition and realized my Garmin was dead…..bad news. We plugged it into the car charger to try and get enough life for the bike ride. Note to self….charge it the night before. Then the official announcement: “Water temp 79.1 degrees, wet suits not permitted”. Only pertinent because at packet pick up they had it posted as 77 and everyone assumed a wet suit swim in the making. Several trips to the bathhouse and one to the port-a-john later it was time to start. Swim - I waded into the water and swam directly to the edge of the pier and held on. I didn’t feel like wasting energy treading water. The horn blew and we were off. I had absolutely no trouble siting bouys or with navigation this time. I swam a steady course and can only remember redirecting one time. I have been practicing swimming with my eyes closed at the pool. I think that helped. Out of the water in 38 minutes. That’s 18 minutes faster than 2004. I also had my 1st cramp. That’s 3 hours earlier than 2004. Hmmmmmm……remember Saturday?
Bike - Into transition with little fanfare. A lot of bikes still there this time, that’s new. I transitioned to the bike, put on my newly charged Garmin and off I went.
It took about 1½ miles to work out the swimming cramp and get the quads kicked in. From there I felt good….until mile 6….I hit a bump going over Hwy 1. My water bottles flew off the bike, and get this, over the bridge down onto the interstate. I was left with one bottle of nothing but Gatorade powder. Nothing to drink for me until mile 28 at the water bottle hand-off. I had planned 1½ bottle per hour, including a cliff bar quarter every 30 minutes and a cliff block on the hour. Have you ever tried to eat a cliff bar with no fluids???? I was already behind on hydration…..remember Saturday? Now I was 1 ½ hours behind today.
The rest went by fairly quickly….except getting stung by a bee at mile 40 and my chain coming off twice. I’ve got to find a good mechanic. Time - 2:48 avg 19.8mph. 28 minutes faster than 2004. Run- After talking to Tina in transition analyzing my hydration situation and my goals, I decided to shut it down for the run. My goal race is in November…not September. I headed out for the run intending to just keep enough pace to finish in under 6 hours. I think by that time it was about 90 degrees. The course at Duke is mostly hill repeats…in fact, that’s all it is. It’s a bit ridiculous. At about mile 4 of lap 1 my Garmin went dead again. From that point I lost my focus and couldn’t really tell when I needed to run and walk. I had no way to gauge intervals…so I pretty much shut down completely.
Total time about 6:15;
still waiting for the official posting. A 45 minute PR at the distance
on a day when I could have probably cut another 15-20 minutes off
the ½ marathon time. A good experience and a lot of knowledge
to carry to Tempe. |
