Nick’s First Ironman 70.3

Ray and I flew to Victoria to watch Nick compete in his first Ironman 70.3 event. That translates to a 2k swim, a 90k cycle and a 21.1k run. Nick picked us up at the airport late Friday night, then Saturday was devoted to race prep: bike check-in, practice swim, kit pick-up, and pre-race athlete briefing.

Sunday we were up at 4 am for a 6:00 race start. The Ironman app notified us when Nick started his swim and showed where he was in the lake. He was going much faster than he’d predicted so I worried that he’d gone out too hard, too fast. When the app showed him a couple hundred metres from the finish, the little dot stopped moving.

I’ll pause here to mention that Google’s algorithm had been feeding me stories about drownings during Ironman competitions. There have been a couple of recent high-profile cases, and the swim portion is where 80% of triathlon deaths occur.

I’m normally the last person in the room to panic, but after several minutes of no movement, my mind went to the worst case scenario. My stomach dropped and I ran through the crowd trying to find Ray or a race official. I couldn’t find either, so I ran back to our spot by the lake, just in time to see Megan (who’d remained calm) cheering for Nick as he ran past.

It turns out that the app often shows athletes far ahead of their actual position, and then stops to wait for them to catch up. Nick came in faster than his goal time on the swim, but I’m pretty sure my heart rate was higher than his for part of it.

His cycle went well, despite it being a very hilly course, and he came in just under his goal time for that leg of the race.

He’d calculated all his nutrition inputs before the race and knew how much he needed to take in, and when. Unfortunately, he forgot to take one of his gels, and eight kilometres into the run, he bonked. His glycogen stores were completely depleted. He took a gel, but struggled for the next 20 minutes or so and his pace slowed considerably. He got his groove back for a couple of kilometres, but then fatigue set in and his legs stopped listening when his brain told them to go faster. He’d been dealing with shin splints during training so hadn’t done much distance running in the weeks before the race.

A ‘bad run’ for Nick still means running a half-marathon in under two hours, after having just completed a 2k swim and a 90k cycle. He got a fantastic finish time of 5 hours and 25 minutes, coming in 30th out of 175 in his age group, but it was rough going for the last leg.

When he did the Kingston triathlon last year, he crossed the finish line smiling and looking like he’d been out for a light jog. This time, he was kind of out of it when he crossed the finish line. Fortunately Ray and I couldn’t find him, because I’d had enough worrying for one day, but his friends said he was zoned out and not responding to them, until someone mentioned Timbits and then he smiled weakly and nodded. Once he had some food in him, he was much better, but still unsure if he ever wanted to do that again.

Seven years ago, Nick and Eric did a triathlon together in Ottawa. High school friends Myles and Kate were there to cheer them on.

In a coincidental turn of events, Eric – who now lives in Seattle – joined Nick for this event, with Myles – who now lives in Vancouver – and Kate – who now lives in Williams Lake, BC – cheering them on.

We went out for dinner with the whole group afterwards. It was entertaining to watch the three Ironmen trying to walk down stairs. By that evening, Nick had recovered enough to be making plans for his next race, and has registered for the Vancouver T100 in August, with his lessons learned incorporated into his new training plan.

We were up at 4 am again the next morning to catch an early ferry to Vancouver, so Nick and Meg could get to work on time. We had a couple of low-key rainy days, and then two gorgeous sunny days. Ray and I got out and about while Nick and Megan were at work. One day we walked along the shore to the UBC campus, and the next day we went the other direction to Granville Island.

Wednesday evening, we met Nick and Meg downtown, walked along the seawall, then had dinner at their favourite dim sum place.

Nick shares his location with me so at one point I was checking to see if he was on his way home from work and it showed that he’d been in the middle of the Salish Sea for an hour. This time, I did not panic. I did not call the Coast Guard to tell them a plane had gone down. I assumed (correctly), that his phone’s battery had died during the flight.

Thursday evening, we had dinner on the rooftop patio of Nick and Meg’s building, and played a game of corn hole. Sitting up there, enjoying the warm breeze and gorgeous view, it was hard to imagine Nick and Megan ever deciding to move back east. They have very full lives here…cycling, skiing, bouldering, hiking, camping, beach volleyball, good restaurants, interesting jobs and a great group of friends.

We flew home Friday, taking Flair Airlines for the first time, which I was apprehensive about, but it turned out to be the first flight I’ve taken in quite a while that left on time.

A few of Ray’s birding pics from before we left Ontario…

And, a couple more from Vancouver.