Dave Orlik – Eagleman Ironman 70.3 – Sunday, June 11, 2017

Someone described this event as racing on the surface of the sun. That pretty much sums it up. Man that was hot. Mother Nature teased us a little the day before. Calm water, no wind, and cloud cover. The temps were in the 80’s and humidity was low. Practice time was incredible. But Sunday was not to be the same. Eagleman did not disappoint. We felt the humidity move in Saturday night. By Sunday morning it was 89%. It did taper off during the day, but that sun. OMg… Not a cloud to be found, and baked we did. So how did it go and what did I do to get to this point? 4 Days prior: Alkaline electrolyte water and Base Salt. A lot of water. All week long I made sure I ate clean as well. I took time off, and only did a short RBR on Wednesday. (Missed out on a swim due to work). A lot of rest and daily minutes with a foam roller. That’s it. Saturday. I walked down to Great Marsh for a practice swim. The water was nice so I chose to try my speed suit. Good choice. The water was refreshing. After returning from a short out-n-back I decided I wanted more, so I swam back out. That turned out to be short, as I found the only jelly fish in the water. A local athlete argued with me stating there are no jellies this time of year. I know what tentacles feel like scraping across my face, and I had the cutes to prove it. I was ok and headed out to ride the run course. What a beautiful day. Calm winds and clouds. I was enjoying every minute. The rest of Saturday was packet pickup and then chilling. It was a good day. Sunday I guess experience is starting to pay off. For once, I wasn’t nervous. Hell. It’s only a half, right? (I’ve done more full distance races than half’s.) I hung out at the awesome MMTC tent, set up my bike, met up with fellow TeamBlueline members Dave Sousa and Brandon Chance, then headed to an early swim start. (Being older has it perks…) Swim 43:35 Prior to race start, I went back and forth on wearing wet suit or not. I was so excited to finally race this even in a wet suit, but the humidity and beating sun made me reconsider. After discussing the options with friends, I decided a few minutes saved in the water wasn’t worth raising my body temp. It’s going to be a hot day and I wanted to enjoy the cool water. It was perfect. 74°. My swim wasn’t as good as I would have liked, but it wasn’t my worst. My issue lately is less about speed and more about tracking. (I’m pulling to the right, which is why I don’t golf.) Something to wok on. T1 Nice to go through without a wet suit. The time was longer than I anticipated, but they reversed the swim course and added a run leg between the swim and bike. That seemed really far… Nothing special here, just made sure to use sunscreen this time, and double checked everything. Decided to go sockless as well. It was a good choice. Bike: 2:54:41 I must say this is the first time I really enjoyed biking the course. The conditions were awesome. So unlike Cambridge. My goal was to be under 3 hours. The winds were mild and felt like they were in the same direction as they were on Saturday. This is good. This means a tail wind on the back half. I was feeling good and maintain a decent pace. Every 5 mikes I made sure to take BASE salt. I wanted to stay on the bike the whole race and not have to get off for anything. The plan worked. No cramping. On the bike I had (2) bottles of custom Infinit, water in my speed fill, (1) bonk breaker, and (2) hammer gels. The greatest dilemma I had was figuring out how hard to push. I really felt like I could have gone much faster. Although the humidity felt like it was dropping, the sun was getting hotter. If I went harder would I pay for it on the run? I decided to maintain a comfortable pace. T2 Why so long. Porta Potty stop. No choice; had to go. There was one open right past my transition spot. Put socks on for the run. Turned out to be as hard as it would have been in T1. (Must have been the heat. Did I mention it was hot???) More sunscreen, a gel, Runners Vitamin, and (3) sport legs. Grabbed my hand held bottle with Tailwind, and off I went. Run: 2:09:53 (ouch…) Damn, my strongest event and this turned out to be my worst leg, so I thought. I did a poorly executed version of Galloway. Seemed I could not get a consistent pace and started walking early. I kept telling myself that I just needed to adjust and I’ll be fine in a few miles. Well… This run is always hot. Never cloudy, and just freakin Hot. My first few miles were mid 8’s, and I was OK with that. I assumed it would get better. Ha… I stated walking more and more. I just could not get my legs to move. My inspiration of passing other guys in my age group helped me mentally, but my legs just did not want to move. It was the strangest thing. I wasn’t cramping, no back spasms. I wasn’t having GI issues. I felt good. Like I could to run. My body would have nothing to with it. I said (outload), come on, run dammit… My body responded with a resounding NO. The back half was spent doing leap frog with a girl from our club wearing an older jersey, I just could not keep a constant pace, while she looked very comfortable. I made sure to use BASE salt every mile and plenty of fluids and a few bananas. It wasn’t until mile 12.5 that I was able to finally get moving. I had a very strong sprint to the finish. (At least my body gave a good photo finish.) Strange. Post-Race Many thanks to Tim and Laura for providing a comfortable home at Eagleman. Of course I could not do this without the generosity of my good friends Jose and Christy. To my ever present wife, who volunteered at the waters’ edge, and continues to support this crazy lifestyle. Thanks hon… Last but not least, I thank God for His blessings. Through His grace I am able to push myself beyond my perceived limits. It’s inspiring to be part of such a great club. The inspiration I see every week at the RBR is truly motivating. This year I chose to race to support the families of fallen law enforcement officers. I am part of Team Blueline (http://teamblueline.org/). I stuck around to see fellow teammates David and Brandon. When I saw David (a sub 1:30 runner) jog to the finish, I suddenly felt a little better about my run. Seems we all had a bad run. It wasn’t just me. Desperate to get out of the heat, I made my way back to the home I was staying at and took a shower. Wow that felt nice. Unable to get results on my phone, I decide to walk back down for awards and roll down. Wow, the winning times were incredible. These guys are surely in a different league. I never could find out my rank so I headed home, or should I say, to site in traffic. It wasn’t until Monday morning when I found out I was 10th . My first top 10 finish in an IM event. I am really, really thrilled. It changed my perception of “my” race. I’m not sure what the rest of the year holds, but it’s off to a great start.