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July 9, 2006
 
Local Triathletes Becky Olacke,
Mike Coughlin and Paul Graham followed former Sudburian
Kyle Guembel in this year's Peterborough 1/2 Ironman Triathlon.
Kyle was first overall. Laura Haapamaki and Drew Anderson
competed in the Sprint Distance Triathlon.
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The Peterborough
Experience
by Mike
Coughlin
After skipping
this great Half IM event last year, I was looking
forward to some more hot weather practice at the
always toasty Peterborough Half Ironman. Training
had been steady and my running was finally starting
to come around so I was looking forward to what
I could do out there. Paul Graham, Becky Olacke
and I drove down and camped beside transition
with a bunch of other triathletes which was a
lot of fun. My big pasta dinner was chased by
a couple pieces of pizza which tasted good at
the time but had me feeling too full the next
morning to eat a big breakfast.
Race morning
was warm as expected and after a short swim warmup
with a couple of 50m efforts I was ready to race.
I chose to start on the right and swim on an angle
to the first turn. I was rewarded with zero contact
in what is usually a real scrum of a mass start
swim. After a couple of surges to stay on good
feet after once clearing my goggles and once getting
tangled on a swim buoy line (yes it was as funny
as it sounds) I was out of the water and across
the mat in 29:12 and 15th overall. The swim was
probably short and this race is not exactly stacked
with swim studs, but it was still a huge swim
PB for me. (Swim:
29:12 - 15th overall, 5/69)
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After 51 seconds in
T1, I was off and riding. For some reason I felt compelled
to hammer away, and by 25km I was in 5th place and going
insanely fast with a tailwind. The return journey was
5min slower for me into that wind, and I was feeling the
climbs in my legs a bit too much, but I caught up to Jeff
Beech in 4th and we started to bring back 3rd and 2nd
in the last 15km. By this point, I could sense I had dug
myself a hole (grave?) and even felt the chills a couple
of times. Jeff on the other hand looked very comfortable
and ready to run a marathon if he had to. ( Bike: 2:25:19,
6th Overall, 1/69 M30-34)
Nutrition wise I brought along
700kcal of concentrated InfinIT (including 1.7g sodium)
in a bottle which I downed along with 3 bottles of water
off the course. Later I found probably 100kcal in the
bottom of my supposedly empty bottle. The upside was that
my stomach did not act up for a change and I could stay
very aero in that wind.
Rolling into T2 with a bike time
of 2:25 and change, I almost collided with the 3rd place
guy who was stopped at the entrance as officials were
making him reclip his helmet (it seems this mistake is
made even at the front of the pack). I managed to race
through T2 in 44 seconds and start the run in 3rd place.
I dropped back into 5th by the 2km mark and settled into
a very conservative pace for fear of blowing up. I went
though 3 fuel belt bottles of cola (225kcal) and one with
150kcal of InfinIT in the first 12km, using aid station
water to wash it down and pour on my body to stay cool.
This got me comfortably to the turn around on pace for
a 1:38 run; a fair bit slower than I wanted, but still
in one piece.
On the return leg of the run I
continued to move well, but the hills were beginning to
feel more difficult. For some reason I was obsessed with
the heat and kept doing my best to stay cool at the aid
stations rather than consume calories. I realized my impending
doom about 500m past the 13km aid station with an empty
fuel belt. It simply amazes me how quickly the wheels
can come off. When Dev Paul passed me at 500m later I
had already begun the death shuffle. That was followed
up by walking, staggering sideways, stopping to consume
many cups of cola, more walking, and finally a slow jog
which sped up slightly during the last km (it is incredible
what cola can do for you – the stuff should probably
be illegal). On the bright side, I had plenty of time
to cheer on other athletes and thank the volunteers which
I don't always do when I'm racing hard. (Run: 1:49:34,
131st Overall, 20th/69 M30-34)
Finish 4:45:38
- 24th Overall, 6/69 M30-34
Lessons Learned:
I made a decision to race this
event hard and eat rather lightly on the bike, and the
hole I dug was simply too big to climb out of. I was worried
about the heat and forgot to focus on the calories. Ironically,
the weather got cloudy and cool for my 7km death walk/stagger/shuffle.
My gut feeling is that with 2-3 extra cups of cola at
each aid station I could have ran the whole way, but in
order to run it relatively well I would have needed to
back off by a few minutes on the bike (and even possibly
the swim), and STILL pound the coke on the run. A smaller
dinner and bigger breakfast would probably have helped
a lot too.
Any way you slice it, the Half
IM distance is a tough one to race, especially in challenging
conditions and terrain like Peterborough. Congrats to
Sudbury native Kyle "Wolfgang" Guembel for winning
in an impressive time of 4:12, my travel buddies Paul
and Becky for setting PB's by over 10 minutes each (Becky
got 3rd in her age group too!), and fellow Sudburians
Laura Haapamaki and Drew Anderson for strong showings
in the sprint race. As for me, there is some unfinished
business I have left out on the course, and as Arnie likes
to say, "I'll be back!".
Mike Coughlin
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