2006 Spin TriBasky

2006 Spin race report by Greg Basky
I gained some new respect last weekend for the friends I've been training alongside for many years. I was reminded (painfully) that it's one thing to swim the 4K workouts, hammer the Tuesday night rides, and do the hill repeats and long runs, but quite another to string together max efforts in all three disciplines.

I was feeling pretty good heading into Sunday's Spin Off Spadina, my first triathlon in 13 years, since my oldest daughter was born. Not cocky, mind you, but reasonably sure I could put together a respectable race. My 1:33 half-marathon in late May bolstered my confidence for a decent run. True, I didn't have as many biking miles in my legs as I'd hoped, but figured I could fake it for 40K. And I had been taking turns leading my swim lane with a Mexican fella named Senior Hehn, so figured I should be hitting T1 with the big fish.

Suffice it to say, my swim at Spin did not go as planned. Was it lack of experience with open water swimming? Those gulps of mucky water? Or the unfamiliar squeeze of a wetsuit? Yes to all of the above. I was hyperventilating from the get-go, and simply could not get my breathing under control.

I got to the far turnaround buoy with the lead group (at least I think I was near the front - hypoxia had already rendered me pretty loopy), then sputtered my way over to the rescue boat and seriously debated pulling the pin on my entire race. I hung on to side of that red plastic canoe for what seemed like an hour, let out a few huge burps, got my breathing under control, and decided to carry on. But by that point, the pack was long gone, and with it much of my confidence and optimism.

Settling back into a controlled pace, I swam solo for the rest of that first loop, and much of the second. I was stupid dizzy when I finally staggered out of the water. Unfortunately, the transition and early part of the bike was a comedy of rookie errors. At the last minute, I decided to race sans socks. And this probably would have saved me some time too -- if I had attached the left shoe to the left pedal and right shoe to right pedal. I made the switch, then charged out of the transition and up that first hill. But even though I'd left my shoes done up very loosely, I still couldn't work my feet into them. Screw it, I figured, I'll just ride like this for a while. It only took me about 7 km to figure out that it's pretty tough to pull up in your stroke without your feet locked in. After clawing back some spots in the early part of the bike by mashing the pedals, I resigned myself to pulling over and getting my shoes on properly.

The rest of the ride was relatively uneventful; thankfully I did manage to continue working my way back through the crowd - eventually catching up to that guy with the sexy black Cervelo worth more than my '94 Dodge Caravan. I was reduced to walking - many times - on the run, probably because I went too hard on the bike, trying to make up for that brutal swim. A low point on my walk-run was getting passed by Eugene T, whose gait, though gangly, was still faster than my sorry shuffle. This came as a crushing blow after finishing one short minute behind the big fella in the half-marathon. Hell, my five-year-old daughter, Kendall, outkicked me in the grassy sprint to the finish.

Will I race another standard distance tri? Too soon to say. But I'm thinking sprint distance might be a better fit for this family guy.

In the lead-up to last Sunday's race, I also gained an appreciation for the real "community" that exists among Saskatoon triathletes. A big thank you to

• John Rayner, for encouraging me to sign up, the great "driveway" stories on our Saturday AM long runs, and that speedy trip to Pike Lake on Friday night for an acclimatization swim (one was obviously not enough);
• Jeff Hehn, for lending me his wetsuit (yeah, I've already apologized for not giving it the speedy swim to which it has become accustomed);
• Curtis Earl, for lending me his tri-suit and telling me it made me look "svelte";
• Kevin Sutton, my parole officer, for hand-delivering an aero seat post to my office;
• Corey Borolien, for trying his damnedest to lend me a seat post; and,
• Glen Patkau, for selling me a pair of aerobars on the cheap.

---

"Mike McKague's HOTTER THAN HADES IN HAWAII" Ironman Race Report
Kona 2004

Juliet and I were are just back from visiting friends on the big island of Hawaii. We planned our trip so I would be able to spectate at the Ironman World Championships in Kona. And WOW, what an event.

We arrived late on Thursday night and stayed about 25 miles north of Kona, 5 miles off the Queen K highway and the Kohala coast. On Friday I was able to check out the lineup for the bike drop off, and there was some pretty serious hardware on display. Lots of cool bikes too. Everybody looked ripped and ready to rock the next day. Just off the plane the night before, I felt like an overweight, pasty hanger-on. Which I guess I was. I also couldn't believe how hot it was. Supposedly the average daily highs were only in the low 30s, but with the pervasive humidity, I was sweating just standing still.

I got up early on race morning, excited for a big day of spectating. At 5:30am, even though it was still dark, it was already warm. More importantly, it was already very windy at Kohala. I raced into town and found a good position to watch the race start. This is the first year that the pros went off 15 minutes ahead of the age-groupers. Two helicopters swirling above, a mega sound system pumping out some 45 minute dance track that just kept repeating "right here, right now", and a group of Hawaiian drummers pounding out a "boom, boom, boom" was enough to get me super pumped. I can't imagine the age-groupers waiting on the pier, corralledin a pen all together,having to wait for the pros to line up and finally go. They must havefelt electrified. Once eveybody finally was sent off, I realized how hot I was. And it was only 7:05am. More importantly, it was calm in Kona. Nobody knew what monster awaited them out on the Queen K.

In almost no time, the pro men were racing up the ramp of the pier and tearing off on their bikes. This is always my favourite part of an Ironman race. Safe out of the swim, tapered and anxious legs at the start of a big day. Everytime I have done IMC, I have found myself two miles into the bike, in my biggest gear, racing out of Penticton at 55 kph. I'm sure the pros were doing this speed up Palani hill (for comparison, think MacPherson hill a little steeper and one block longer) as they raced to get in with the Queen K train which was forming out on the course. All the players were there. Jan Sibberson was out front and just missed the swim course record. Considering the choppy water, his 47:04 was very strong, almost 3 1/2 minutes ahead of everyone else. The first main group was lead all the way by heavily hyped Simon Lessing. Deboom, Al-Sultan, Widoff, Bell, Rhodes, McCormack and the first two women and 15 others were in this pack. Reid didn't come out for three more minutes, when he excited with Nina Kraft, Van Lierde, Brown and seemingly most of the rest of the pro mens field. For a Canadian spectator, waiting for Reid seemed very long. Kraft had a nice cushion over most of the other women favourites, as Bowden, Bentley, Badmann, Fuhr all exited about 61min.

And then the highlight of the trip, I saw Dave Scott. Now I really felt like a overweight, pasty hanger-on. That guy should still be out there, schooling the rookies on how to rock at Kona.

I hung out for a while, watching the age-groupers start the bike. The course had been changed this year and the spectating was really good. In the first 10 miles, the cyclists are routed through "hot corner" three times. I headed back to my car and raced back to Kohala on the old highway, hoping to catch a glimspe of the pros as they went past. By the time I got back to the Queen K, about 30 miles into the bike, I had missed the pro men, which was surprising given the conditions.

TheHawaiian gods were pissed off. Do youremember when NBC does its coverage of the race? Jim Lampley(or some other dude in a golf shirt) always holds up a piece of lava and tries to explain how hot it is on the Queen K highway. In the past, I've always thought in my head,"eh? hot's hots, andwe've all raced in hot conditions". In fact Ipersonally like racing when the weather conditions are ugly as Ifeel they offer an advantage to a stubborn-headed guy like me. Well, Jim Lampley has never been able to properly capturemy imagination of true conditions.Let me try...

Imagine the hottest, hottest day you can recall.This day didn't happen this past summer that's for sure. Think back to the warmest day you can remember. Like 42 degrees warm. Didn't we have a day like that three or four years ago? It was so hot that you didn't leave the basement. If you did leave the house, the second you did the heat surrounded you and instantly you were sweating buckets, and simultaneously, lethargy set in. Now imagine your car, parked outside all afternoon in this heat, smack in the middle of the biggest Home Depot parking lot you can visualize. Get in the car and sit there. The temperature is so stifling that your nervous system is telling you that it is dangerous to be in this car. You should get out. Now lock the doors. You're staying here all day. Turn on the car, and aim all the air vents at your face and chest. Turn the heater in the car all the way to the left, and turn on the fan to maximum. Sit there and feel that syrupy hot air heat your nasal passages as you try to breath in this inferno.

What happens on the Big Island is the nice 30 degree trade winds blow in off the ocean. These are the gentle breezes that make your tropical vacation a pleasant and relaxing experience as you sip on a cold Longboard Lager. But on race day, these breezes blow past the resort, over miles and miles of black lava beds.The miles of a'a and pahoehoe lava supercook the air. This accelerates the air over the lava creating much higher wind speeds and much higher temperatures. The air that hits the Queen K highway must be at least 40 degrees and humid. Yes, an inferno.

That heat is what those poor athletes were riding into, going north at a snail's pace into a wind that rivals any that even Swift Current could match. I'm guessing 70? 80 kphs? The pro women were moving at maybe 15 kph. And this physical and mental torture was happening at 9:30am, not even a third of the way into the bike. Talk about vicious body blows. Anyone racing who thought about the day in the whole, as opposed to one pedal stroke at a time, was beaten right there. That's where Lessing dropped out. I was thinking, "theseare impossible race conditions". If you ever hope to race in Kona one day, always train on the windiest days. Always train on the hottest days. Of the 10 days we were holidaying, 1 day was even windier, 7 days almost as windy, and one day calm. You are almost guaranteed to be racing in hellish conditions. (If you don't believe me and you do want to race as close as possible to Kona, a new Ironman qualifier, the Honu Half-Ironman is set for June 2005. Its located on the Kohala Coast and the course must use a lot of the Queen K highway.)

Did I mention that the course isno where near flat? The entire bike consists of hills similar to the first three rises going out towards Aberdeen, only five times higher and three times longer. Very little flat whatsoever. And don't bother taking a deep dish front wheel. Or if you do, leave you're aerobars at home. The crosswinds will ensure you'll fall off your bike every time you try to drink or eat.

Anyway, everyone knows how it all ends. It would have been nice to been there last year when Canadians took the race, but this year the Germans did it. And did it well. Stadler outbiked Reid by 24 minutes. Incredible. You can win Ironman on the bike. Reid ran 11 minutes faster than Stadler, and was still more than a mile behind. And Kraft, she outswam by 8 minutes, outbiked by7 minutes, and outran by 5 minutes Badmann, extending her lead all day and ending up 37th overall (and she coasted the last few miles).Wow. The times reflected the brutal conditions too. Only 7 men went under 9 hours (last year there were 26) and only 3 women went under 10 hours (16 last year). Congratulations to Lori Bowden for sticking it out to get 12thfemale (and zero $) after being stung by a bee on the bike.

There are a few age group results I want to mention.

Kerrie Wlad and Glen Mengering, who live in Colorado, but are both originally from Saskatoon were competing. They have both come home to race Waskesiu a couple of times. Glen, in his rookie try had a good day, but a typical "curses, I'm from Saskatoon" run of 4:28 gave him a nice view of the sunset. Glen, who used to race mountain bikes with Irene K., Gerald R. and Kevin W. had nearly a six hour bike, so it was windy! His wife Kerrie, in her second race, came home with a stunning performance. After a 1:20 swim and a 6:20 bike, she ran past 450 athletes to finish with an incredible 3:19 marathon. 3:19!!!! Holy Crap. Remember the long story above about the heat? Double Holy Crap! I'm guessing that less than 100 women have run better than a 3:20 marathon in the entire history of this race. Congratulations Kerrie, you rock! Way to go!

Another guy who needs note is the second place male Canadian. Can you guess who it is? Dave Harju? Kevin Cutjar? Jamie Cleveland? Garrett McFayden? Nope, nope, nope, nope. It was 40 year old Pierre LaVoie from Quebec. He won his M40-44 age group. 9:37. And you know what? I think he does this every year. I remember in 1998 whenReid won the race, who the the second Canadian? Pierre LaVoie. If Peter Reid wasn't from Canada, we'd all be cheering this guy on.

But the biggest freak of the race has to be Yves Tabarant from France. I didn't see this guy on the course, but I'm sure he looked out of place. He won his age group and set a new record by over 30 minutes. His swim was 1:08, his bike was 5:32 (but again, the wind, check the results to see that almost half of the pro men went over 5:30) and his run, 3:05:48. 9:53 total. Beat all the women, but one. 28th fastest run overall. The kicker? He's 55. I'm speechless. A 3:05 run. Good God.

Anyway, the whole event was awesome. IMC is certainly just as exciting to watch, the big difference is that everyone in Hawaii is fast, and its brutally hot. I don't know if I'll ever have the chance to race in Kona, but I encourage everyone in the club to enter the Kona lottery every year until you die. I thinksprint distance racing is a great event to get people involved in our sport.And an Olympic medal is a special thing. But all other races are just training for the Ironman.As hockey players dream of winning the Stanley Cup,tennis players dream of winning Wimbeldon, and soccer players dream of winning the World Cup, I dream of performing at Ironman. The Ironman is the spirit of the sport and to see thesmiles of thefinishers coming down Lakeshore drive in Penticton, or Ali'i Drive in Kona is to understand the philosophy of triathlon racing. It was very special to go to Hawaii and see it all first hand.

Thanks Mike McKague