T1 and Bike

Unlike Canada last year, we had normal-sized changing tents at CdA (thus, no public nudity required).  I ran up from the lake, and into the transition area.  Volunteers are screaming numbers out, and someone hands me my bag, which has my bike clothes, socks, shoes, helmet and salt.  I run into the tent, and the volunteer cannot get the bag open.  I remained calm for about a minute, and then yelled at her to just rip the plastic and open it.  She finally gets that done (felt like eternity, and time is of the essence), and she dumped everything out on the ground for me.  I’d already taken off what I wore under the wetsuit, and I’m spraying everything important (including the feet) with a silicon-based spray so I don’t chafe.

Now- indulge me for just a sec.  This is a squirrel moment.  I cannot tell you how much I appreciate EVERY single volunteer during an IM.  They are the lifeblood of the race; it wouldn’t be possible without them.  At CdA, there were over 5,000 of them for just 1300 athletes.  HOWEVER, in my humble opinion, if you’re going to volunteer for the changing tents, you need to have completed an IM yourself.  Why do I say that?  Because you need to understand completely what the athlete needs, and how fast they need it.  This is not a coffee stop, people.  Believe me—I wish I didn’t have to change clothes, but the lady bits cannot tolerate 112 miles on what amounts to a tiny piece of cloth.  I need a full bike chamois.  Nod if you are hearing me…..

Anyway, I made it out in 8 min, which isn’t bad considering the drama and my changing.  I set out on the course, which is 2 loops.  The plan was to take it relatively easy on the first loop (goal time was 3:15) so I didn’t overcook myself for the second.  This bike course has 7500 feet of climbing (yep, repeat after me- Paige is an idiot…..), so I had to be smart from the beginning.  The first part of the laps are pretty fast and flat next to the lake, so it’s easy to get stupid.  The hard and relentless part of the course starts at mile 19-ish.  I stayed on track and rode a 3:15 for the first loop.  I kept on top of my nutrition, and although it wasn’t hot, I dumped water on my chest and back at every aid station (about every 15 miles).  

Just past the half-way mark, I knew something was wrong.  My HR was way too high for my effort, and my stomach was revolting.  I had no idea what the problem was because I’d never felt that bad that early in an IM, and everything with my nutrition was the same.  I kept drinking and dumping water on myself, but the stomach agony never went away.  I dialed back my effort in an attempt to get the HR down, and to make it back to transition.  I kept repeating my mantra from Kayla: Just be the best Paige I can be at that particular moment.  I can’t tell you how many times I repeated that…. I got hailed and rained on for about 10 miles just past mile 80.  All I could hear was tink, tink, tink off of my bike and my helmet.  It was freezing cold though, and actually felt good.  

At about mile 95, I got a drafting penalty.  We only have 20 sec to pass another athlete once we start, and when our back wheel has passed the other athlete’s front wheel, they are supposed to sit up and slow down.  Well, I was trying to pass a dude, and shocker (I could bitch about that male habit forever, but I will spare you guys)—he sped up when I was almost past him, so I couldn’t get by within 20 sec.  I had to ride to the next penalty tent and sit for 5 min.  As shitty as my ride was, this just compounded the BS.  At that point, because I felt so bad/sick, it would’ve been very easy for me to throw in the towel.  But I don’t know how to quit, so I got back on the bike and returned to transition in 1 piece, albeit very slowly.  Time- 6:54— my slowest IM bike split ever.  Ugh…….