Groningen - Of course, as always, I have not written anything yet about the race, but I cannot postpone it any longer. I have set myself behind my computer and I want to get this story on ‘paper’ in one pull. No more delays, no more hesitations, no writing pieces over and over, just an article written without leaving the keyboard by itself for a second. This also means that I cannot rewrite large chunks of the text and I therefore hope that it is all going to be clear and readable to you all.
It has been about a week since I got back from Seattle and I feel a bit awkward. Before the race I had the feeling that all was going to be okay! Perfect you might say, but the thing is that it is going to be okay, the only question that remains at that point is: in what way? This time I flew earlier, did not forget anything at the airport, had no cramps before the race and last but not least I was looking forward to race day! The only thing left was the race itself...
 The days in Seattle and Coeur D’Alene had been good to me. Ben and Cindy Bigglestone gave me their spare bedroom for the first week and hooked me up with a lot of their friend for training. Even though the weather was not as nice as hoped for, things went really well. Training was good in the beautiful surroundings of Seattle, the food was excellent and Ben learned me a lot. After a week in Seattle we moved to CDA by car. Just a five hour ride over Interstate 91, up the mountains, down the mountains, through the planes and into the woods around CDA, that ride was so nice! And so was CDA, a beautiful lake, wonderful people and of course I was about to do what I like most: an Ironman! My home stay at Vicki’s was perfect! The bed was good and she hooked me up with Walter, or was his name Harry, or Mark… It doesn’t matter! He showed me around the days before the race and told me all there was to know about the course, the lake, transit and everything else I wanted to know to be prepared for race day! Which was coming closer and closer, as the briefing was held, the bike was in transit and I went to bed at 9:30…
Getting up was not as difficult normal. I had stuck with the European timezones for a bit, which meant I got up at about 5AM each morning. So when the alarm clock sounded at 3:30 I almost jumped out of the bed. From their my usual routine kicks in till about 3 minutes before the race! I will spare you this routine, because I belief I mentioned it before in some previous post?! And I guess that everybody has their own way of getting ready for the big day?
 The swim
There was a nice clock at the beach which showed the remaining time to the start and that just rocked! I was concentrated and focused to race! No tension, no stress, not much adrenaline, I wanted to race! BOOM! And of we were! The lake had been cold the days prior to the race, but it had warmed up nicely and the water felt great. A small group formed and joining them was the plan. And so I did. I had seen someone sprinting away, taking the lead, but that was just too much to handle for me, the pack would do for now… But the choppy water was strangely enough hard to tackle. Long strokes did not work, shorts ones did not bring me anywhere… Dialing in my strokes just did not work! But keeping up with the group went well in the first lap!
At the beach the cheering from the sides was awesome! It really felt great again to hear all people go mad and ‘JERZY!!! GO JERZY!!’ was shouted a couple of times! Back in the water the dialing problem get even harder. There were big waves, small waves, big waves with small ones inside and adjusting my stroke to the right length turned out to be impossible at that point. Getting dropped from the group was what happened, but I kept going and fighting the continues waves that kept me from finding the right stroke. Somehow it felt a bit as if I was detached from myself. Dozing off during the swim into another dimension, which one however is still a mystery to me, might have been the biggest problem. It was a bit like sitting on my own back during the swim and watching myself trying as hard as possible to keep up with the group… A strange experience, which I have not had before. Back at the beach I found the focus again and did T1 on autopilot. No hesitations, no thinking, no searching, just a clean run through T1 and off to the 180km bike ride!
 The Bike
Getting out of transit is normally a piece of cake… This time however the toes of the spectators were not save from my front wheel. After almost hitting the fence, crunching some toes, I felt the time was right to get going! Ben and I had made a tactical plan for the day and that meant that the first 1 ½ hours the legs should feel painless, then I was supposed to feel them just a little bit and the last 1 ½ hours it should feel like I had put some effort into it… A great plan, or at least when you feel something… Taking it real easy was not that hard, but getting dropped by some women in the first 30 miles was not something I liked. But I got over it (yeah, right!)… Trying to pace myself and sticking to the right wattage we had discussed before the race. The legs felt great! They felt perfect! And pacing went well, or at least I thought it went well. Other PRO’s kept passing me and I kept saying to myself: ‘I’ll be back! The day is still long.’ Twisting, turning, riding up and down the hills, enjoying the beautiful landscapes and photographing cops, missing deer and blind drivers by centimeters made the first lap seem like a blink of an eye… A peak at my split for the first lap showed something completely different however! It took me more than 2:30:00 to complete the first lap!!! Damn, where would that lead??
The legs were still feeling great! No pains, no nothings! Up the hills towards special needs to collect my bag for the second lap. I kept telling myself to take it easy. The road to the finish was still long and if I could just keep this pace I would be fine! Through CDA was again a boost to my moral! ‘Easy! Think of you gear. Think of your wattage. Keep it below 300.’ Which is hard when everybody is cheering for you as loud as they can.
And then it happened! I got dropped! Dropped by myself! The legs still felt great, but the amount of power they put out dropped… They stopped working proper and, and… ‘Argggg! What is happening?’ Pushing it, pushing it, but without the power to push (do I make sense here?). Where were my legs? They were still attached to my body, but I just did not feel them. They did not hurt. My energy plan was still running as planned. Pacing had been a lot better than all other Ironmans, so what was wrong?
 It did not take too long to get myself into a mental rollercoaster! Up and down, up and down! ‘What are you doing? Is this really so much fun as you say? I can’t even keep up with the leading women. Damn, I must be sick or something…’ ‘What are you doing? Come on! Keep going, you can do it! Everybody is cheering for you… Come on! Push!’ ‘Yeah, sure!’ ‘Come on!’ I don’t like it anymore!’ Missing the power, getting dropped by everybody that passed me and not knowing why, made me mentally go from bad to worse within a couple kilometers. ‘No! No, I don’t like this anymore! It has been enough! Enough torture! I miss Hilde… I have been away from home too long! This won’t bring me anything. If Phaedra (one of my team mates) is still standing at that corner I will stop. I want to take a nap. I am tired! Yeah, if Pheadra is still there I will give her my bike and then sit down and cry like a baby!’ I got to the bottom of what I could take! But Phaedra was not at the corner…
Strangely enough that cracked me again, but this time in a positive way! A great way even! ‘Damn! Kasemier!!! What the f*ck are you doing! Stop being such a p*ssy!! Get a grip man! This is not even near the end of the world! Push! Push!’ I almost got to the point where I could not handle it anymore, but I finally got a grip on myself and put it all back together. I felt reborn, renewed, filled with mental strength to go for it! ‘I am going to run this baby till the finish! Hell yeah, I am going to finish this baby!’ The last part of the bike course went by as in a dream. The only thing on my mind was the thought of running the marathon without any doubt!
 The run
Getting back in transit in 5:15 was something even my wildest dream would not have come up with! It was a total disaster, but the marathon was waiting for my arrival. Slow, but without any mistakes my running shoes were tightened for the next adventure. The sun had been high up in the sky all day and get to my shoulders pretty badly and sunscreen was needed for the next 3 hours! Getting out of the transit tent however did not bring me to the sunscreen aid… ‘Sunscreen?’ ‘Green shirts at the left!!’ I looked left… Orange shirt, blue shirts, red shirts, but no green shirts! ‘Sunscreen?! Damn, pay attention!!’ And off I went for the next adventure of the day… Taking it easy in the first 2 kilometers was the plan and I stuck with it! Slowly, but steadily running became easier and easier. Back at transit somebody shouted at me: ‘Sorry about that! Where do you want the sunscreen?’ A guy with a green shirt was at the site of the course with two white hands high up in the air. ‘On the shoulders please.’ The man with the green shirt ran along and put a thick layer of sunscreen on my shoulders and I was ready to run the marathon!
‘Easy, easy, easy…’ 5 seconds later a peak at my watch to see my heart rate. ‘Easy, easy, easy...’ Nicely running along and pacing myself, everything felt great! People were cheering for me and I was smiling from ear to ear and laughing about what spectators shouted. It was wonderful in down town CDA and the kilometers flew by. Keeping my pace low and trying to get my rhythm going and that worked as a charm. I felt wonderful to run along the lake and see my friends down there cheering and having fun with a water hose. Just after I turned from the lake Potts pasted me and he looked strong! A short cheer for him and I was back on my own. ‘This is nice! This is fun! Yeah!’
From Potts counting started and at 17 there were no guys left before the last aid station near the turn. At this aid station someone shouted: ‘ICE!’ ‘Ice? I need to put that in my pants as Mark told me.’ And before I knew it I had put a hand of ice in my pants! ‘Ooohh… That is cold! That hurts… Oooh, that feels nice…’ But that great feeling only lasted for 5 seconds… Till then I had been able to suppress the need to pee, but with the ice cubes in my undy my bladder only wanted one thing: GET THE WATER OUT!! ‘Hhmm… And now what?’ The turn was uphill and I decided to see if I could pee on the way down. It just did not work and the need to pee faded till the next aid station once the ice cubes were molten. With new ice, new need came and faded. Before I knew it the first lap was done and still the pace and feeling were great. It was a joy to run the run and listen to what everybody was shouting to all the athletes.
Passing transit and into the second lap! One of the women who had passed me in T2 was running really slowly and it felt so great at that moment that the plan for the run started to pay off! But at the next aid station the ice not only made my bladder cramp, but also the inside of my belly. ‘Oooooh ooh! Oeehh, that doesn’t feel right…’ Luckily every aid station has porter potties! A short 30 seconds rest was well deserved, needed and inevitable and with ‘5 kilos’ less to carry the run continued at the same pace as just before the potty.
 Just after that I got back to Ben, Cindy and their friends. ‘Still looking strong Jerzy!’ ‘There are some dead flies running in front of you…’ That last line triggered me. My heart rate was still nice and steady, even though the porter potty had been a slight drop in the curve. ‘Lets put 3 beats extra effort into it.’ Within 100 meters the heart rate had climbed 3 beats and the pursuit was on! Within a couple of kilometers I got to John Flanagan who was walking. ‘That is one! Let’s get the next one!’ But that was easier said than done… Getting back at pace right after the potty and the addional push to catch those dead flies got to me really quickly. My stomach started to twist and turn and before I knew it I almost had to throw up. It was just too much for my body to handle after 8:45 at the office. It was done with my pushing! The liters energy drinks, all the super sweet gels and at the end the cola were just too much for my stomach to handle. But the race was not over yet! Pushing it to the limit I got to the turn with ice in my undies and an upset stomach, but with ‘great’ legs… Slowly uphill and a bit quicker on the downhill. Pushing it till… Till my right knee started to hurt again and that was not a good sign! That knee got injured before and there was no way that that was going to happen again and that meant taking it easier to the finish. I kept running as I had agreed with myself! Only the little piece of the course made me walk, just before the knee was about to pop.
The turn towards the finish was insight! An age grouper passed me just before the last turn into the main street that leaded towards the finish line. I did not care! I just had run the whole marathon! I made it in one piece! I was so proud of myself, for hanging in there, for pushing it harder after crashing mentally, for the victory on myself, for all that had happened during the race! People were cheering, shouting, screaming, clapping their hands, wistling on their fingers and what not more! The last 800 meters my body was covered in Goosebumps all over. Smiling from ear to ear and waving at the people at the side of the road! ‘YEAH! This is unbelievable! WHAT? Place 14? YEAH!!! YEAH! Bring it on!!’ At the finish things felt great, I thanked the people and bowed in a thankful way! I MADE IT!!
 Done!
Happy to have made it Tristan Brown from Team Timex made some pictures of me. Mark was at the fence and I had a little chat with him and then I crashed! The legs were not as painful as normal, but the heat, the sweet stuff I had been eating all day, the duration of the hard effort, the sunburn on my back, my wet feet, my whole body just got knocked over! At the massage tent things got a bit better and the short massage was strangely enough only painful for the feet and hands. Mark got my things from the car and there was time for my nap, the nap I wanted to take on the bike. For thirty minutes I lay in the grass, dozing off to another world and waking up from the generators supplying electricity to the Ironman village.
Mark (who race a lot of Ironmans before) wanted me to eat something, but that was really the last thing on my mind. The stomach was still upside down, ready to be emptied if possible and that was what happened just before Mark got back with pizza, cookies and chips. It was the greatest relief of the day! The chips tasted so great! The cookies were the best ever and even the pizza was so great! My body felt better straight away and Mark said that I got back some color in my face. Walking around was easy. The legs were just a bit stiff and the food had put me back on track. After hanging around for another two hours or so Mark brought me home, where I even found the energy to clean up some of my things from the race…
 The days and weeks after
It has been two weeks since the race, but still there are some questions unanswered. One of them is the fact that I could run up and down the stairs without problems the next day! This should not be possible, right? So my body could take on a lot more!? Body and mind should work together, which they did not do! Mentally I pushed it till I could not take anything more, I wanted to sit down and cry, but got a grip on myself and pushed it even harder to the finish, but without getting to my body. It was slight bruised and battered, but not as it was supposed to be.
Of course I feel pleased with the result, place 14 is the best so far and there is more to come! I am pleased with winning the battle with myself! I enjoyed the adventure on which I took myself. It was amazing to see where things can lead to and where my boundaries are! They are once again redefined and they will be changed in the future! I wonder where it will lead me next time…
So did it turnout okay you might ask? Well, it did! I figured out what was going to be okay, what was going to be right! My eyes got opened. It had nothing to do with the race, the result of the race as you might expect. The magic word is: change! I need change to get to a higher level and to possibly realize my dreams in the future! Change in training, change in preparation, change in perspective, change in my mind, change in my feelings before, during and after racing. The weeks in the states showed me what needs to be done. I learned and now it is time to find the right change!
Related links:
Photos Steve Quin Ironman CDA
http://www.ironmancda.com/ |
