So, if you are reading this, most likely you already know me. If, however, you dont know me, I will give you a quick overview. Hope you dont fall asleep before I get to the good parts, I tend to ramble :)
My name is Darren, Dad, Big D, Son, Barrel (ask my friends why), Doctor, and some other things. I am a chiropractic physician, specializing in sports injuries. I am a husband, a father, a son, a big brother, a little brother. I am an Ironman. I am physically challenged. I have a very loving family that supports me, trains with me, and puts up with me and my "stuff".
I started out thinking I would be writing this for therapy but now Im interested in doing an ongoing thing for friends and family to have something to read about the goings on here in rainy Camas/Portland Metro. Sorry in advance if this bores you but I think I can throw some humour in there somewhere (for the Americans reading, I didnt spell humour wrong, Im Canadian and thats how we roll with words like that; honour, colour, etc).
I guess I have to fill in the "about me" section so ciao for now.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Lake Stevens, 53mph on a bike, PR, good times
I wrote this a while back, right after I did my last triathlon on July 8, 2007, thought I would share it. It will take me a while to catch up between then and now, October, but I will give it my best shot.
Its been a long time since I wrote anything but I am feeling inspired this morning. My coach, Scott McMillan, of Factor 9 Triathlon Coaching (http://www.f9tc.com/), got me through another long distance triathlon at Lake Stevens. Its one of the new stops of the Ironman 70.3 series and it is just north of Seattle so real easy to get to.
The week and a half before the race was spent travelling to my homeland of Canada and sitting in 90+F weather beside the lake I grew up next to. It was great because I did all my swims in open water and all my bike rides were on hilly roads. Little did I know that those rides were preparing me for the two lap course around Lake Stevens.
Two days before the races, we got into Lake Stevens and while the family went to see Ratatouille, I went to check out the race course. I didnt actually get to do that because I spent two hours trying to get the local bike shop to dial in my gearing. Apparently, SRAM cassettes do not compute with Shimano shifting unless it is on friction (vs index/click) and even then, the SRAM spring is very powerful and pulls the rear derailleur down a couple of gears unless you hold it there. That comes into play later during the race which I will describe later. So, by the time they figure out that they cant help me (and make my shifting worse than when I got there), it was time to get the fam from the movie.
Fast forward to race day. 4am, alarm, scares the crap out of me and everyone else in the room, but they quickly went back to sleep. I got all my stuff on while I was drinking my breakfast and before I knew it, 6am came and we were off to the race. Stomach doing flip flops for the entire morning untill I met up with a bunch of people from my club, then it calmed down. I didnt feel stressed but I guess thats what it was.
My wave was off at 7:04 and it was the biggest field in the race, 110 40-49 year olds. I was registered as a clydesdale but they didnt separate us from our age groups. We were off on the gun, and it was no where near as intense as trying to swim in Floriday IM but I still got swam over. I quickly found my pace and I also found that all the buoys were tied to a line that ran the length of the course which ensured that I was not off course and I didnt have to waste time and energy sighting the next buoy. Im not sure that was cheating in anyway but I know Im not the only one that found it. I passed quite a few of the 30-34 and 35-39 ladies groups that went off before us and I thought I was having a great swim. I finished in 36 minutes, one minute off my goal time but respectable in my group, 42/110 and 10/35 Clydesdales. My T1 time was not bad, 3 minutes, longer than I wanted due to the short run and wetsuit removal but I was OK with it.
The first few miles of the bike were easy, a couple of short rollers but good enough to get me out of the red zone and calmed down for the ride. I passed quite a few people til the first of 4 hills rolled around. Only about 4-8% grades but only 1/2 mile or less but man did it take a lot out of me on the first lap. My bike didnt shift properly and I was forced to hold my bar end shifter to keep it in the 26 because when I let it go, the spring pulled it back to the 23, kind of hard to climb in for a large man but I was able to recover on the descents and I am thankful for momentum because I was able to roll up some of the rollers without much effort. On the first lap, the steepest descent, I was able to hit 50mph while in my aero bars but an impatient local in a BMW pulled out in front of me. I have cat like reflexes apparently, because I was able to get out of my tuck and onto my brakes. He caught up to the people I was gaining on and he hit the brakes too but he turned off before I could give him my commentary on what he just did to me. Anyway, same hill, a little over 1 hour later, I was on the bull horns, ready to hit the brakes and I got up to 53mph. What a rush. No speed wobble from my Zipp 808 wheels and I could have gone faster Im sure if there hadnt been S curves on the hill. What a RUSH!! I didnt feel like I had much else to offer after the last hill but I seemed to find an extra gear about 5K from T2 probably due to crowd noise and the announcer. I was a little bummed when I was in T2 and I heard then announce the womens winner was 1K out and I knew I still had 3 hours of run/walking ahead of me. Nonetheless, I headed out of T2 5 minutes later (ankle braces take a while to get on).
I ran out of the transition zone and through the crowd with the speed of a turtle but hey, I was running instead of walking. As soon as I got out of view of the crowd, I walked to the first feed zone where I used the portapotty and got my drink on, water of course as they were out of beer. Funny, thinking back, I used the portapotty on each of the frist three aid stations at Ironman but didnt have to go til 4 hours into this race, was I dehydrated? Anyway, back to running. I ran/walked for a while but before too long, it became a long walk, short run, then a REAL long walk, shorter run. I drank water at each aid station and had a powergel just before I got there but note to self, get a belt with water bottles on it, the aid stations were too far apart for a hot race, at least for me. I had to get some vasaline at about mile 8 because my underarms, already chafed from the swim, were starting to sting but that quickly soothed it. Oh, also, another note to self, get some spray sunscreen as the stuff that was applied at 7am, before swimming, doesnt last all day apparently. Around mile 10, I tried running again but I had a sharp pain in my left knee so I walked til mile 12.5, just before the crowd came into view, and I ran to the finish. My family was there to see me run the last 100m to the line which was a big thrill for me since they didnt get to see me at IMF. My oldest was too shy to run across the line with me but they were right there to hug me afterwards.
A few friends from my club were there and they cheered me to the fnish which was great too. All in all, even with the shifting problems on the bike, the knee pain, and the sun burn, I had a great day. I even drove us all the way back to Portland, three hours away. So, in retrospect, I think I could have finished in under 7 hrs with a few factors changed, but overall, I PR'd by 1 hour, 3 minutes over my best finish in that distance so Im happy.
Its been a long time since I wrote anything but I am feeling inspired this morning. My coach, Scott McMillan, of Factor 9 Triathlon Coaching (http://www.f9tc.com/), got me through another long distance triathlon at Lake Stevens. Its one of the new stops of the Ironman 70.3 series and it is just north of Seattle so real easy to get to.
The week and a half before the race was spent travelling to my homeland of Canada and sitting in 90+F weather beside the lake I grew up next to. It was great because I did all my swims in open water and all my bike rides were on hilly roads. Little did I know that those rides were preparing me for the two lap course around Lake Stevens.
Two days before the races, we got into Lake Stevens and while the family went to see Ratatouille, I went to check out the race course. I didnt actually get to do that because I spent two hours trying to get the local bike shop to dial in my gearing. Apparently, SRAM cassettes do not compute with Shimano shifting unless it is on friction (vs index/click) and even then, the SRAM spring is very powerful and pulls the rear derailleur down a couple of gears unless you hold it there. That comes into play later during the race which I will describe later. So, by the time they figure out that they cant help me (and make my shifting worse than when I got there), it was time to get the fam from the movie.
Fast forward to race day. 4am, alarm, scares the crap out of me and everyone else in the room, but they quickly went back to sleep. I got all my stuff on while I was drinking my breakfast and before I knew it, 6am came and we were off to the race. Stomach doing flip flops for the entire morning untill I met up with a bunch of people from my club, then it calmed down. I didnt feel stressed but I guess thats what it was.
My wave was off at 7:04 and it was the biggest field in the race, 110 40-49 year olds. I was registered as a clydesdale but they didnt separate us from our age groups. We were off on the gun, and it was no where near as intense as trying to swim in Floriday IM but I still got swam over. I quickly found my pace and I also found that all the buoys were tied to a line that ran the length of the course which ensured that I was not off course and I didnt have to waste time and energy sighting the next buoy. Im not sure that was cheating in anyway but I know Im not the only one that found it. I passed quite a few of the 30-34 and 35-39 ladies groups that went off before us and I thought I was having a great swim. I finished in 36 minutes, one minute off my goal time but respectable in my group, 42/110 and 10/35 Clydesdales. My T1 time was not bad, 3 minutes, longer than I wanted due to the short run and wetsuit removal but I was OK with it.
The first few miles of the bike were easy, a couple of short rollers but good enough to get me out of the red zone and calmed down for the ride. I passed quite a few people til the first of 4 hills rolled around. Only about 4-8% grades but only 1/2 mile or less but man did it take a lot out of me on the first lap. My bike didnt shift properly and I was forced to hold my bar end shifter to keep it in the 26 because when I let it go, the spring pulled it back to the 23, kind of hard to climb in for a large man but I was able to recover on the descents and I am thankful for momentum because I was able to roll up some of the rollers without much effort. On the first lap, the steepest descent, I was able to hit 50mph while in my aero bars but an impatient local in a BMW pulled out in front of me. I have cat like reflexes apparently, because I was able to get out of my tuck and onto my brakes. He caught up to the people I was gaining on and he hit the brakes too but he turned off before I could give him my commentary on what he just did to me. Anyway, same hill, a little over 1 hour later, I was on the bull horns, ready to hit the brakes and I got up to 53mph. What a rush. No speed wobble from my Zipp 808 wheels and I could have gone faster Im sure if there hadnt been S curves on the hill. What a RUSH!! I didnt feel like I had much else to offer after the last hill but I seemed to find an extra gear about 5K from T2 probably due to crowd noise and the announcer. I was a little bummed when I was in T2 and I heard then announce the womens winner was 1K out and I knew I still had 3 hours of run/walking ahead of me. Nonetheless, I headed out of T2 5 minutes later (ankle braces take a while to get on).
I ran out of the transition zone and through the crowd with the speed of a turtle but hey, I was running instead of walking. As soon as I got out of view of the crowd, I walked to the first feed zone where I used the portapotty and got my drink on, water of course as they were out of beer. Funny, thinking back, I used the portapotty on each of the frist three aid stations at Ironman but didnt have to go til 4 hours into this race, was I dehydrated? Anyway, back to running. I ran/walked for a while but before too long, it became a long walk, short run, then a REAL long walk, shorter run. I drank water at each aid station and had a powergel just before I got there but note to self, get a belt with water bottles on it, the aid stations were too far apart for a hot race, at least for me. I had to get some vasaline at about mile 8 because my underarms, already chafed from the swim, were starting to sting but that quickly soothed it. Oh, also, another note to self, get some spray sunscreen as the stuff that was applied at 7am, before swimming, doesnt last all day apparently. Around mile 10, I tried running again but I had a sharp pain in my left knee so I walked til mile 12.5, just before the crowd came into view, and I ran to the finish. My family was there to see me run the last 100m to the line which was a big thrill for me since they didnt get to see me at IMF. My oldest was too shy to run across the line with me but they were right there to hug me afterwards.
A few friends from my club were there and they cheered me to the fnish which was great too. All in all, even with the shifting problems on the bike, the knee pain, and the sun burn, I had a great day. I even drove us all the way back to Portland, three hours away. So, in retrospect, I think I could have finished in under 7 hrs with a few factors changed, but overall, I PR'd by 1 hour, 3 minutes over my best finish in that distance so Im happy.
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