Transition 2. Lying on my back, eyes closed, arms above my head, both thighs firmly locked in cramps. Nearby, two small boys and their parents who had volunteered as a family in transition stood by. I heard one of the boys ask, “Dad, is that man ok?” “I’m not sure, son. Sir, are you alright?”, I heard. “Not yet, I’m not.” I replied, “But I’ll get there.” As I lay there unable to move, shift, or reach my feet to put on running shoes I reflected on how I got to this point…
My second attempt at the half Ironman distance came in my hometown location, Panama City. I’m fortunate to live in a place where every distance of triathlon from Sprint to full Ironman is accessible in town or within a 30-minute drive. Having dipped my feet into the half-iron racing a few weeks back at Ironman 70.3 Florida in Haines City, I was more than ready to compete again with a few ideas of tweaks I would make to hopefully get my race under five hours.
Race week arrived quickly as I constantly checked the weather, the course, and training logs determined to put down a good race. Somehow, seemingly out of nowhere, the heat arrived. With no time for heat adaptation, I was somewhat nervous that the heat combined with a notoriously unshaded course would be a challenge. I did manage to get course previews by joining the bike shop ride and getting a slow jog through the course a few days in advance. I also determined to adjust my nutrition strategy to use a higher concentration of Infinit and maintain a couple gels on the bike. And, as prepared as possible, I watched the temperatures climb into the 90°F’s without a cloud or a breeze in sight…
Unlike the race in Haines City, this race would be full of incentive to race times against the local training friends that would also be lining up. While I was mostly focused on trying to get my own overall time under five hours, it was impossible to avoid the side betting and trash talking 😊 So I entered race day with a little extra incentive to outrace Felix thanks to a beer bet by JoJo and Greg 😊 I’d also have the pleasure of racing in front of friends and family since the event is local… so no pressure!
Saturday morning arrived early at 3 AM as I hopped out of bed excited to get going. I ate a race breakfast with some extra protein and carbs and a banana and loaded up the veritable mountain of gear into the car for the pilgrimage to the start line. Arriving in transition while schlepping in as much as I could carry, I stumbled through the body marking line. I didn’t notice until a bit later but my body marker wrote my age down as 40 on my leg… so I’m not sure how to feel about that! Either way, I racked up my gear, visited the portables, and doused myself in sunscreen and body glide in preparation for a barely wetsuit legal swim followed by a few hours in direct sunlight. With gear ready, I strolled around transition to say hi to everyone I new also racing, loaded my gear bags back to my car, popped the car key into my lidded pocket, and stretched on my wetsuit.
Down on the beach, I ran into Ken and Nuno and had our picture snapped before joining up into swim groups. I lined myself up in the 31-33 minute group assuming that the wetsuit and salt water along with a, hopefully, improved swim would buoy me up from the swim in Haines City. I managed to locate Mike who always pushes me to swim harder when we’re in the pool together and we stood around waiting on our swim to start. After the anthem and the sound of the cannon, the swim began and we shuffled our way toward the ocean.
Upon reaching the swim start arch and being tapped to enter, I dove in to a relatively calm ocean excited to be underway. The swim started off well enough for the first 5-700 yards or so. Somehow, though, I began to notice that I wasn’t in my group of swimmers anymore. Picking my head up a little more on the next sighting stroke, I realized I had veered a bit and was now about 50 yards away from the main pack swimming outside… dumb. I sighted a line back in and rejoined the group before the first turn feeling a little unhappy that I can’t seem to get my open water sighting in line. Anyhow, I plowed around the next couple buoys and settled in to an even swim effort trying to make sure that I wouldn’t be cramping at the exit. My line definitely cost me some time as I exited the swim in a somewhat disappointing 35:45, slightly slower than Haines City… lame. Undeterred, though, I stripped my wetsuit, hit the shower briefly, and strolled into the first transition.
T1 was smoot as I pulled on my bike gear and trotted out to the mount line. JoJo was at the line waiting to get out a course marshal and managed to give me splits to a couple of local riders 😊 The bike was where I hoped to make up a little time. The course is solidly out and back with very few turns. The first six miles take you through town to the main highway, SR79, where you spend the majority of the ride before coming back into town and winding back to transition. I made an attempt in the first few miles to put out a steady effort while getting in fluids. It was around mile 5 that I noticed that I hadn’t tagged my watch to tell it I was on the bike so I flipped it to bike mode and mentally chided myself that my digital tracking was going to look stupid…
Tracking out onto SR79, I chugged into my steady effort staying low in the bars and formulated a plan for nutrition. I would take in a gel in the mile before the aid stations at mile 15 and 31 and ride the rest on liquids. Somewhere around mile 20, I was somewhat convinced that it may not be my day. I was having an unusual twinge in my lower right back and definitely feeling my glutes and hamstrings more than normal… Instead of focusing on this, though, I mentally reminded myself of my bike goals:
- Put down a solid bike effort;
- Catch Sullivan;
- Limit the time Felix would make up on me; and,
- Hydrate for the run!
Around mile 25 I got my first boost as I caught up to Mike who had destroyed me on the swim. At this point, I hadn’t yet been passed on the bike, but that also didn’t last long as I was passed just before the turn around at mile 28. The wind on the day was blowing out of the north. Combined with a slight climb from sea-level at the beach, the ride out was slower than I hoped as I averaged about 22.5 MPH on the way out. Making the turn, I now realized that I had been into the wind. The reward was getting the rare opportunity to ride downhill with the wind at my back almost all the way back!
The ride back felt like flying as I averaged much better speeds and perception coming back. The trade-off was that I now began to feel tightness in my quads and thighs that would become important soon. I began to realize around mile 38 that I may need to take on extra liquid at the last aid station. My strategy had been to be fully self-contained on the bike between my three bottles and this had worked well in Haines City. Here, I was feeling the need for more. I mentally cleared the mental hurdle of having to toss one of my bike bottles and felt good that I had brought at least one older bottle that I felt ok throwing 😊
At mile 45, I tossed an empty and picked up a bottle of Gatorade from a volunteer. Overall success for my first time actually doing a moving bottle grab at aid! Coming out of aid, I rounded the curve and began the climb over the bridge and back in to Panama City Beach. Climbing’s not my strength so I wasn’t too disappointed to be passed for the second time on the bike. The beauty of a climb is getting to descend on the back side and, with course control active, it was a pleasure to be able to pedal up and top out at 40 MPH on the short bridge descent. Sadly it was during the descent that I started to experience the cramps and needed to briefly interrupt my pedaling rhythm to stretch out hamstrings, glutes, and quads.
Coming back into the beach, the turn to go east resulted in a loss of all tailwind, the shift to crosswind, and much more traffic. Nevertheless, I was only passed one more time—for a grand total of three—and did manage to make up a couple more spots. Overall, I was very pleased with the bike leg as I averaged 23 MPH putting out consistent power at target and ranking with the 102nd overall bike time. More room for improvement but I’m happy with where I’ve worked my bike split up to.
The second transition began well enough. I trotted my bike back to my rack slot, stripped my helmet and gloves, and reached down to take my shoes off… boom! Instant lock-up of both quads and thighs landed me quickly on my rear next to my bike leaning back into the asphalt, eyes closed, while slamming a fist into each muscle to get them to release. I managed to get them released long enough to get my cycling shoes off and one sock on before they locked up again. As I rolled back, unable to move for a couple minutes, I wondered if this might actually be it for the day and, even if I could get moving again, if I would soon be on the side of the road for the run course in severe cramps. After a few minutes of unexpected laying around, I finally managed to get my socks and shoes on through a combination of prayer, punching my quads with my fist, yelling at my legs, and probably freaking out the family of volunteers standing ten feet away 😊 I stood up and walked around for a second to see if I could stay up. Since I didn’t immediately fall over, I decided to start slow and begin the jog out.
The run course at Gulf Coast begins with an immediate climb over a pedestrian bridge before descending into three pancake flat loops and returning over the bridge to the finish. I was worried that I would lock up at any moment but settled in to a cloudless, shadeless trot at just over an eight minute mile. I breezed through the first aid station taking on just water for dousing and a drink before moving along. Around mile two, Mike—who I had passed on the bike—caught me back up on the run. We talked briefly and he moved ahead of me. I was really glad to have him on the run with me as it gave me motivation to pick up my pace and keep up. Coming in to the second aid station, Mike walked the station and I re-passed as I was still in “run through” mode. We caught back up to even to the next station where I ran through again. I expected Mike to come by me again soon. Coming in to the next aid station, I thought Mike was running on my back left and shoulder pivoted with a “You walking this one, buddy?” said to a total stranger… Turns out it was no longer Mike there and I received a confused look for a second before deciding that I just didn’t care enough to be embarrassed at that point.
At mile 5, having no shade and having taken on no ice for some reason, I allowed myself a three minute walk break. I had been running steady at just over eight minute miles but was starting to really feel the heat of a shadeless course. I made a couple smart choices coming in in that I opted for a sweatband instead of a hat and had been keeping my skin cooler suit wet. Still, with the constant bombardment of the sun I needed a break! I was far from the only one to take a breather at this point and ended up taking a couple more quick walks until I reach the next aid station. This gave me time to adjust me strategy and find a little inner motivation to move along.
The brief break gave me a chance to think clearly for a minute about my situation. Despite having been born in Brazil and raised in the Southeast my whole life, heat is not my friend. I’m an overheater and quickly seem to lose my ability to think clearly. Recognizing this, I adjusted my strategy to walking every aid station. I would toss as much ice as I could and drink everything I could grab along a steady walk before running again at the end of the station. Confident that this would see me through, I stumbled into the aid station at the halfway point knowing that I no longer truly had a shot at finishing under five hours.
Immediately upon dumping in the first load of ice, I knew this was going to help my situation. With two cups of ice jammed into my skin cooler suit, I started to feel the cooling effects go into major work. I dumped a couple cups of water over my head and chugged a couple more before reaching the end of the aid station where I had promised myself I would run again. As I moved back up to speed, something I hadn’t counted on occurred—the ice shifted its way… downstairs… so that was unplanned. As unplanned as it was, this turned out to be hugely helpful!
There are a number of things I love about my De Soto Sport Riviera Flisuit. The compression panels on the legs and skin cooler up top are the perfect combo for racing. A couple water lid pockets allowed me to carry my car key and a gel without worrying about losing them along the way. And the one-piece suit means that the ice I was jamming in was staying in my suit and doing me some good! It was performing beautifully now during the race as I kept packing ice in and discovered that the leg compression panels were holding the ice exactly where I really needed it the most, quads and groin 😊 If you’re thinking that you’d like to try a one-piece tri suit, let me recommend this one! Through miles 8, 9, and 10, the cooling effect dropped my core temperature back into a good range and the aid station walk strategy, while costing me time, was getting me hydrated again.
At mile 11, on the last lap, I was now at the point where I could actually run again. In fact, I was running faster and better than I had at the beginning of the run leg! I was now holding just over a seven minute mile pace on the run and walking the aid stations and feeling ok again. I kept it up for miles 11, 12, and 13 while mentally kicking myself that I didn’t switch to this sooner. I’d been steadily passing people on the run and was quickly overtaking everyone left in front of me. I finished out the remainder of the run and made the turn for the finishing chute after climbing the bridge again. In the finishers chute, I dropped my pace back to not pass anyone at the line as there is no need to mess up someone else’s picture or experience just to gain a few seconds.
I was rewarded when I turned the last corner and saw my family on the side of the finisher’s chute just before the arch! I was so happy to be at the end and see everyone! It was by far the best moment of the race to see my wife, kids, and parents at the finish line. I ran over to the side for hugs and kisses before trotting over the line to finish the race in 05h08’32”, five minutes faster than Haines City while still leaving me plenty of room to improve 😊
After clearing the chute, I wandered into the athlete food area where I met up with the family again and loaded back up on food and drinks! I also immediately borrowed Lauren’s phone to check on my friends in the race and see my official times. I was stoked to have completed another half and was more than ready to take a rest. It was also nice to know that there was no long road trip ahead of us to get home which is a huge benefit of living in race town! Looking back on the race, I’m thankful for the experience, for my family for coming out to watch, and for my friends who provided some extra motivation to keep going. There’s plenty of room for improvement in my racing and I’ve had a blast just getting it to this point. Hopefully another season of racing will see me back for Ironman 70.3 Gulf Coast with an improved time!
If you’re wondering about the side bet, I managed to get Felix by about six minutes thanks to the improvement on the back of the run course. Otherwise, I feel certain that he would have caught me on the run in overall time. If you’re going to be racing with friends you know, I’d suggest trying to get a little side action going for motivation 😊 It really helps when you’re trying to find a reason why you should keep running at mile 5! Overall, I had the fourth fastest local split overall with the third fastest bike split so I’m happy about where I’ve gotten to and the room I have left to improve! Of course now I can definitely say that everything hurts so I’m off to try and recover 😊
John Fielding 