A few years ago I was treating a teammate of mine and he suggested Ironman Copenhagen. It really wasn't on my radar, potentially cold race, traveling to europe would be expensive, etc etc. We ended up doing IMMT together a year later and I guess that seed he planted just sprouted. Next thing I know I signed up for IMKPH.
I had a pretty crappy buildup. I was trying to do my own thing and train under 10 hours a week. Not because I thought it was the best plan, but because I was still mentally broken from IMChoo Sept 2016. For those who don't remember, or don't know. I dropped a key nutrition bottle 40 miles into the bike leg, during the hottest day Chattanooga has ever seen in Sept (165+ degree heat index), 30% of the race ended up requiring serious medical treatment. Well, it was a sufferfest to say the least. I put in a few monster weeks of training and it went all down the drain.
I figured a shorter buildup with lower volume would help me jump start things. It didn't. I couldn't get going until it was too late, but that's ok. KPH was a tuneup race for me. I was going to test myself in the swim, push the bike hard and the plan was to CRUISE the run. ZR/Z1 training pace.
A week before leaving, I noticed I had an itch on my back. I had my co-worker look at it and she said it was a pimple. I thought it was a spider bite for sure, but ok, whatever. Except it kept itching and just got worse. By the time I got to Denmark it began to spread to the front of my chest and started to hurt. By friday (2 days before the race), it started to hurt to move, and take a full breath. I thought it was bed bugs, which is the most terrifying thing to read about online. I freaked out, started putting all kinds of bed bug killing shit in my amazon cart... almost pulled the trigger too. My buddy John said it looked like shingles. I was kind of surprised, I'm 32, I eat well, I'm fit, I'm not supposed to get shingles! I decided to FB my PCP (holla ajay!) and send him some pics. He also diagnosed me with shingles and advised me to get some meds if I could, or suck it up. Well I didn't have time to see an MD then get meds from a foreign pharmacy, so I decided to suck it up. Not going to lie, I never thought I would be HAPPY to have shingles, I mean, it beats bed bugs...
Race morning:
I get to the swim start, it's starting to drizzle a bit, but not bad. I realized that I left my solids at home (2 cliff bars, 1 pro bar)... ugh, that's 600 damn calories. I really need real food during cold races. Not good. John offered me one of his bars, but I didn't want to dip into his backup food. I declined. The swim was pretty cool, single lap swim, wetsuit legal and you enter the water depending on your pace. I lined up with the 1:10-1:15 group and we were sent into the water 6 at a time, every 5 seconds (something like that). The swim went well enough for me, I had a lot of trouble sighting, but that's nothing new for me. After about 700 yards, I found a pair of feet to follow, except some guy liked those feet and pushed me out of the way. Nothing you can do when you're 5'3" and he's 6" and fat. I made a few mistakes on the swim, 1 was not getting a new pair of goggle, the sun was in your face on the back half of the swim and it would have been nice to be able to see better. There was also a ton of seaweed, but meh, you can see the bottom. I swam 1:17, which is a PR (for the full 2.4 swim) for me. I knew my neck was really chaffed, it stung as I swam. More body glide next time.
T1: was cold, and wet. I didn't like how there was no changing tent, it would have been nice to get a bit warmer. I ended up stuffing a plastic bag in my jersey to help build up heat for the first 5 miles. I hate being a crap swimmer, I get out of the water with a bunch of horrible cyclist. Did I mention how shitty triathletes are when it comes to bike handling skills?
Bike: I was ready to crush the bike. I felt strong, a bit cold, but strong. The first 40 miles of the course is FAAAST. There was a slight tail wind and I was averaging 23+mph with 120ish watts. The race director warned us of flintstones the night before the race. He said to put on tires that had protection... ooops, I was rocking my supersonics and grand prix tt. aka the tires with the LEAST puncture protection, faaaaak. Flintstones are round stones that flip upside down and go point side up when it rains. Rain was in the forecast, I was scared. The first lap was uneventful, I was blowing by a lot of people, which is normal for me since I'm such a crud swimmer. By the time the 2nd loop started, it got a bit cold and started to rain.. crap, I threw away my bag already. The rain really killed me, I started to get cold and my power started to drop. Oh, my BTA bottle also broke, so I was forced to hold it on during the whole ride, that sucked. I realized I wasn't going to PR the bike, so I just rode tempo and used it build on my bike fitness. I finished the bike in 5:26. Not my best time, but considering everything, I could live with it.
T2: I got into t2 and I really wanted some vaseline for my bottom, just in case. I knew it was going to be a long run.
Run: KPH course is incredible and shitty at the same time. The crowd support at KPH is the best I have ever seen in any IM. The downside is that its' 4.5 laps, which means it gets REALLY tight in some sections. By the time I was on my 2nd lap, the part that runs through the cobblestones was really congested, I'm really surprised no one twisted an ankle or fell. I took off a bit faster than I wanted to, which was fine, cus I planned on walking a ton of the marathon. Every water stop, every hill, then at least 6-7 bathroom breaks. I stuck to my plan, walk/run a lot of miles, with the exception of mile 23 or 24? It started to rain, I got cold and cranky and I just wanted to be home. So I took off and put down a random 8:15 mile snuggled between a 13 and 14 min mile segment. oops. I also forgot my charger at home, so I ran with my garmin 520 (bike computer) hitting lap every mile. This means I found my pace AFTER I ran the mile. It was a fun little experiment. I was going to just walk from 24-26 since I was vacationing in Iceland the week after and I didn't want to have junk legs for any of the hikes, but my 520 battery was low, so I ended up jogging it in.
During the whole race, the shingles didn't bother me too much. Sure I couldn't take a full breath, but I only had like 1-2 moments where I thought my body was going to break. It was actually worse the days before and the days after. I always thought shingles was adult chicken pox, that it just itched. NOT TRUE. it feels like someone is taking a blowtorch to your skin, it hurts to move, impossible to sleep. But hey, it's not bed bugs.
This is a shitty race report, I know. That's cus I have to wake up at 6 tomorrow to run with my croo. I promise a better race report for IMLOU in 6 weeks.
