Well, I woke up the morning of the event thinking I needed to be getting my duck hunting gear together. It a cold morning, especially since Boise had been much warmer the weeks leading up the the June event. The thought of duck hunting in the cold winter weather must have passed quick, because I failed to pack any warm gear for the race. This turned out to be a very bad mistake.
I had spent months preparing for this gig. I had ran in frigid weather at near zero degrees, rode in sub 30 degree weather, and spent plenty of time in the pond weeks prior to this event. One thing different in training, I failed to stand around outside for 2 hours in the cold before taking off for a ride with wet gear. I tend to leave the nice warm house before heading out on a bike ride or run.
Lucky Peak Res is known to send out-of-towners home before they even get their feet wet. This day was no different. There were a lot of people packing their bikes to their cars before the start. Water temp was a smoking 57 deg, while the air temp was in the 40's. There were reports of snow on portions of the bike course, with a bone chilling wind to boot. The start of the event is on top of a hill where the wind can bite pretty good. An afternoon start time didn't really help with matters. We all stood watching pros, and other age groupers start. It was raining and blowing, but all we could do is try to keep warm in our wetsuits. Some folks had hypothermia symtoms prior to the event start. Getting into the water was a relief from the blowing and rain.
Being a slow swimmer, at the end of the swim I started to keep in mind that I had been out there too long. I started kicking hard near the end to get some heat. As I got out of the water, I was no longer cold while I transitioned to ride. I did manage to get a jacket and some gloves on prior to leaving for the ride (which was shorted to a big 12 miles). I did mess up by wearing my jersey in the swim, but not sure if it would make a difference putting it on after the swim.
Prior to the swim, there was a local triathlete and shop owner telling some of us to ride our bikes with our wetsuit on to prevent hypothermia. Turns out I should have listened. The winner of the event rode in his wetsuit and proved that was the way to go.
On my ride, I decided to keep a 70.3 ish pace even though it was only 12 miles or so. I was hoping to turn this into a nice half marathon. Well, for some reason I started getting cramps on the bike, which never happened before. The cramps didn't hit until the last miler or two before the run. I hit the head in transition to try to relieve the cramps, but that was not happening. So off I went to take the 1st few miles easy on the run. The cramps only got worse. I "ran" the 1st lap. But was only able to run the 1st few miles of the second lap. It was walk, run for a while, but then I had to damn near crawl, walk for around 5 miles. I did cheer on the other pain-seekers in the vicinity as they tried to motivate me. This camaraderie started as far back as the 1st lap as a guy with an apparent knee or lower leg issue would leap frog me, as we took turns leading for a bit we'd try to cheer each-other on. The same attitude was seen by others, as one gal yelled at me saying "come on pretty, it doesn't hurt that bad". Kind of made me chuckle, but it did hurt...
Near the end I thought, "what a waste of training I had done leading to this lack luster performance". But, I decided I'd build on what I had, and finish this thing no matter what. Then my friend came out to run me in a few miles to the end. I told him to get lost, as I was a bit concerned they may DQ, me for his support. I was not about to get a DQ after all that I went though on the run.
At the end, I got my big award and tried to warm up. The wind was freezing. My cramps were real bad, and I was very cold. And just wanted to get the heck out of there. My friends and wife made me go the the ER since I was wimpering about my guts hurting. The ER got me some warm blankets, and all was good in 10 minutes. They made me take in 3 liters of IV before leaving. Then I was good to go, like nothing happened. Recovery, at the speeds I went, no much to recover from... But, I seriously felt a sort of phantom cramp every time I went running for at least a few weeks.
Lessons:
1) Just prior to the event, drink water, keep warm, think about changes in plans, take extra gear.
2)Keep warm, keep warm, keep warm. (next year will probably be hot)
Bonus) Do a few transitions after duck hunting; in Dec/Jan, after hunting in the snow, take a river swim prior to a nice long bike ride. It build up the tolerance to cold.
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