I had scouted my route from bike rack to transition exit the day before when I dropped Stella off. It was super easy. I had the third rack from the front, almost all the way to the side. All I had to do once I picked her up was go back to the side aisle and run straight down it to the exit. I got to the mount line, shoved off, started my Garmin, and then it was just me and Stella for the next seven or so hours.
First though, we got to ride through town and all the cheering spectators. I knew my crew was out there somewhere but I didn’t know quite where, and I tried to look for them as best I could without crashing. I saw them within the first few minutes, waved, and immediately ran over a manhole cover and almost wiped out. Well, not really almost, but I made a mental note to be more careful the next time I decided it was a good idea to be waving on the bike.
A moment before near-disaster:
I was in SCR, as my coach had told me to be for at least the first thirty minutes. The first part of the bike course is mostly flat, so it was a good time to just spin my legs, get warmed up on the bike, and enjoy the experience. We headed out to the out-and-back on CDA Lake Drive, which is the part of the course that you both bike and run on. There’s also a really short out-and-back on Northwest Blvd, which I thought was at the beginning of the loop. I realized I wasn’t heading that way and thought I had made a wrong turn somewhere. For a minute, I thought, “Oh no! I’m going off course and I’m going to be disqualified!” But then I realized that was silly, there was no possible way I could’ve gone off course, and that other part must be at the end of the loop. Phew.
I didn’t know exactly where the turnaround was on CDA Lake Dr, but I assumed it was near where this hill by a bridge was. I hadn’t gone any further than that on my training rides in April. So when we got to the hill, I kept thinking the turnaround would be just ahead. It turned out it was a good few miles past that point, which was a surprise. It was mostly an easy ride though, except for one longish gradual hill. When we finally got to the turnaround, I saw all the special needs bags laid out and made a note of where mine was. Then back down the lake road to Government Way.
Heading north on Government Way is still pretty much flat, so I really hadn’t done a whole lot of work on the bike yet by this point. And my swim was mostly an easy cruise, so I was still feeling really fresh. I knew the hills would start by the time I got up to Hayden Lake, and that the hardest one is one of the first ones, but I was surprisingly calm about it (especially considering the total meltdown that I had on my way to Nasty Grade on the Wildflower course that March). I realized I was more eager than anything- I’ve ridden these hills before, I know I can do it, now it’s finally showtime so let’s go!
When I was passing the Albertson’s on Gov’t Way I heard one of the volunteers say, “Here comes the race leader!” I saw the flashing lights of the escort vehicles coming the opposite way, and shortly thereafter was a guy moving VERY fast on a VERY nice-looking bike. It was probably Pontano, looking back at the results, but at the time I didn’t know who it was. After he passed, I remembered the Mardi Gras half marathon, when the race leader passed us coming the other way and us runners on the other side all started cheering for him. I cheered for the next few bikes that passed after the leader. I don’t think anyone else did, and I don’t know if the racers heard me, but it made me feel good anyway.
By this point, it was about an hour to an hour and a half into the bike, and I still felt like I hadn’t really worked yet all day. I knew that was good, since I had a lot of work to do on the hills coming up. I knew that once we made the turn onto Hayden Ave by the country club, that it was about to start. Having ridden the course back in April was a HUGE help all day. Knowing what road I was on and knowing where I had to go next, being able to picture my position on the course map, made it feel so much more manageable. George the masters swim coach made fun of me for taking that April trip (“What didja do that for? You must have too much money to spend”), but I think it’s definitely a best practice!
My Hammer bars stopped being appetizing about an hour into the bike, but I knew I needed to keep filling the tanks if I wanted to be able to run at all, so I stayed on schedule with my eating and drinking and Thermotabs. Other than checking the timing for my eating/salt pill schedule, I didn’t look at my watch at all. I didn’t check heart rate, cadence, distance, or anything. It just didn’t feel necessary. My coach told me that it’s better to go by perceived exertion IF you have a good sense for it, and that I do. So throughout the bike I kept taking a self-inventory, asking “does this feel like a solid aerobic pace?” and “can I run after riding at this effort level?”
We turned on to English Point Rd and got our first taste of the hills. The first one is steep-ish and short. The volunteers at the corner were cheering loud. Gear down, spinspinspin, done. No biggie. Sweet. Then the long downhill- the one where you’re thinking, “hey this is cool, but CRAP I have to climb back up!” It’s a really scenic part of the course, but all I could do was hang on to the aerobars for dear life, stare at the road ahead of me, and try not to go off the cliff at the edge of the road (I’m a bit of a wimp on downhills).
Then came the “big” hill, it’s not huge but it’s the biggest one on the course. I got down to first gear and spun my way up, in the saddle the whole way. My heart rate got pretty high but I got to the top reasonably comfortably and recovered well on the way back down. There’s another hill just after the big one that looks HUGE as you come around the corner, but when you get up to it it’s not that bad.
And so on like that for a while. I realized that drinking one bottle of sports drink every hour in 60 degree weather is different from drinking one bottle every hour in 95 degree weather when I had to stop to pee about ten times. I pretty much knew that would happen, but my body was used to drinking that much so I figured I should do it anyway. The only times it was mildly annoying was when I had to wait in line for one, but it was never long.
On the way back into town from my first loop, I got passed by this guy who was going pretty fast. I saw the name on his bib number said “Pontano” and I realized I’d just gotten passed by the race leader! Cool.
Passing my awesome support crew:
I had a pretty relaxed little picnic at special needs just after the beginning of my second loop- I ate my chips, read my notes, restocked my Hammer bars, and generally chilled out while the volunteer held my bike. I eventually felt guilty that I was keeping him from REAL work and decided to get my butt back in gear. I told him, “Well, I guess I’ll get back at it.”. He replied, “Back to work, huh?” and I answered, “Why not? It’s a beautiful day!” and off I went.
The start of the second loop was probably my low point on the bike ride. That was when I started feeling the effects of the hills from the first loop, and was looking down the road at another round of the same. The thoughts of, “Can I really run a marathon after this?” started creeping into my head. I remembered that Jen told me that there would be highs and lows throughout the day. I had listened to her, but I’d never done a day as long as this so I’d never experienced that to this extent. I told myself that this was just a low, and not to worry about it because I was going to feel better soon, I wouldn’t feel this way for the whole rest of the race. That made me able to calm myself down about it a little bit and just focus on riding. And a little while later, I did rebound and feel good again. The hills the second time around were definitely more challenging, and my legs felt like they had more miles behind them than they had left in them, but staying focused on the moment and the immediate task at hand- this hill, this downhill, this turn, this aid station- helped me to not think about that. I tried to go as easy as I could whenever I could, which wasn’t often out on the hills.
One thing I did notice was I was passing tons of people on the hills. I wasn’t trying to, that’s just how it happened. I thought about trying to go up slower, but it felt like that would actually be more work so I just went with what came naturally. I don’t think anyone passed me on any of the hills, not that I can remember anyway. This one guy who I kept passing on the uphills and who kept passing me back on the downhills yelled out to me one time, “You sure can climb good!”. That made me laugh. Another guy who passed me on a downhill shouted, “This is the one good thing about being fat!”
The wind REALLY picked up for about the last hour or so of the bike. I could see some very menacing-looking clouds off in the distance and was hoping they weren’t heading our way. Or if they were, that they’d hold off at least until I got off the bike. The wind itself though didn’t bother me much. It wasn’t anything more than a lot of the training rides I’ve been on at home. One guy passed me and said something about the “hurricane force winds”, which just made me think- well then it’s a good thing I’m a Katrina survivor!
Another thing that I noticed all day but especially on the bike was how awesome the spectators for this race are. The volunteers are also amazing of course, but I just couldn’t get over how many of the local residents sat out in their front yards cheering for us, in pretty crappy weather, ALL day. You ride the section from 4th Street to Government Way and through town four times on the bike, and I saw all the same people all four times. There was the guy/girl in the Elmo suit playing the drums, the lady in a cow costume mooing at us, a kid dressed as a chicken with some sort of cape on (Super Chicken?), people ringing bells, banging on coffee cans, blasting music, cheering and shouting and carrying on all day long. Old, young, people with kids, groups of friends and people on their own. It was chilly, windy, cloudy, and generally crappy out and yet there they were, so enthusiastically supporting all these athletes who they didn’t even know. It was easy to believe that they really, honestly wanted us to have a great day out there and that they were pulling for every single one of us. It was really touching and inspiring.
Rolling back into town the second time, I couldn’t believe I was almost done with the bike! On one hand, it did feel like it had been a long time, but on the other hand, I was 2/3 of the way to being an Ironman! How crazy! At the end of my long training rides, all I could think was “Get me OFF of this thing!” and I’d read several race reports that described the same feeling at the end of the bike. Don’t get me wrong, I was definitely ready to hand Stella off and get on with the rest of my race, but I was honestly feeling pretty good. When I got to the arrows on the pavement that I passed on the last loop that said “Finish This Way” and “2nd Loop This Way”, it felt so good to follow the one that said “Finish”. At this point, the entire course was lined with cheering spectators all the rest of the way into transition.
About to make the turnaround and come up on the "To Finish" sign:
