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Dave McGranahan
- Triathlon Story 2003
June 22, 2003
Sylvania Olympic
Distance Triathlon Race day has finally arrived! I was apprehensive as this day was eighteen months in the making and I was not sure what I was going to do when it was over. Was I ready for the race? Was my training sufficient? Could I finish under my goal? As the beginning of the race approached, my apprehension was replaced with confidence. I knew I had trained hard and smart and I needed to "relax and trust my training". Earlier in the year I had completed two sprint triathlons; one consisted of a 1/2 mile swim, a twenty mile bike and a 4 mile run. The other consisted of a 1/2 mile swim, a sixteen mile bike and a five mile run on rolling hills. Comparatively, an Olympic Distance triathlon consists of a 1.5K swim (0.92 miles), followed by a 40K bike (24.8 miles) and finishes with a 10K run (6.2 miles). The Sylvania Triathlon is a flat course so there should be no reason I could not expect to finish.
An important goal for me today was to stick to my pre-race strategy and not get caught up in what was going on around me. Today I was only competing against myself and the clock. If I stuck to my strategy and paced myself I should have problem accomplishing my secondary goal of qualifying for the International Triathlon Union World Championship's (World's) on December 6, 2003 in Queenstown, New Zealand. "World's" is the Superbowl of the Olympic distance triathlon for only the best able-bodied professional tri-athletes and amateur's (also known as "age-groupers"). "World's" also has a division for Athlete's With a Disability ("AWAD"). This is usually the only time an amputee has the opportunity to compete against individuals with the same disability. For instance, in the AK male division there are only 3 others who have qualified for World's in the past. In order to qualify for World's as an AK Amputee, the qualifying time was less than 4 hours in any ITU sanctioned triathlon. If enough amputees compete at World's in the next couple of years, there is a chance it can be added to the 2008 Paralympics. My goal for the Sylvania Triathlon was three hours and thirty minutes. The swim went very well and according to plan. I did not swim into many other swimmers nor did I get kicked in the face (both of which are very common). The start of a triathlon race can be compared to a school of tuna being scooped up in a fisherman's net to trying to get out. It is a mass of arms and legs moving very rapidly. If you are not careful you can easily get a broken nose, a black eye or your goggles kicked. Swimming a mile with a broken nose and no goggles would not be a fun experience. I swam hard but not "all out" as I did not want to hit my lactate threshold during the swim so as to conserve energy for the bike and run. I came out of the water on plan in 00:27:27. This time puts me in the middle of my age group of 30-34 male able-bodied athletes. Running and skipping across sand on an incline to the transition area for the bike potion was not an easy task. My lungs were burning and all I could think about was to keep moving as fast as I could. My official swim time (which included running a couple of hundred yards along the beach) was 00:29:23. My pre-race goal for the swim portion was 30 minutes. The transition from the swim to the bike (known as T1) went very well. I had practiced putting on the gel sleeve and the bike leg very quickly and moving through the transition. I missed my goal of 00:03:00 minutes by only 6 seconds. The bike started well and I was feeling strong. I was clipping along at 18-19 mph with a slight breeze at my back. Although I was being passed by a significant amount of people I stuck with my plan of 17-20 mph and did not getting caught up in the race. Ten miles into the race I got careless. I almost "DNF" (Did Not Finish) which is the ultimate let down to see beside your name when the race results are posted. I had moved to the middle of the road to avoid some rumble strips. I looked over my right shoulder to ensure no one was coming up on me before I moved back to the right side of the road. I lost focus and rode my bike into the loose stones at the side of the road. Typically, you can recover from this except in this spot I needed to get over a 2" wall of asphalt to get back on to the road. My tire did not make it and I wiped HARD. Hitting the ground at 18 mph is not my idea of fun. Several very fortunate things occurred in my wreck and permitted me to finish the race. First, I had fallen to the left which had my prosthetsis hitting the ground first and breaking my fall. If I had fallen the opposite way, my good knee would have hit first and certainly would have shattered my knee cap. My head also hit the ground hard but my helmet saved me there. Also, no one ran over me when I hit the ground which is not an uncommon occurrence because a wreck happens fast and it is hard to react quickly. Most importantly, my bike was mechanically sound and I did not get a flat tire (I did not carry a spare, but will from now on). All in all, I only got a bad case of road rash on my right wrist which bled slowly for the rest of the race. The whole ordeal cost me about 10 minutes on the bike leg. It took about five miles or so to get my cadence back. A boost of adrenaline came after 20 miles into the bike. The bike course passed in front of my neighborhood and my wife and kids were there to cheer me on. The last 5 miles, I kicked it into overdrive and pushed the bike up to 23 mph. Overall, I finished the bike leg 10 minutes over my goal of 01:20:00 and averaged 16.35 mph due to the crash (actual was over 17mph). I should be able to ride around 20 mph which means I have some work to do on the bike. The best age-groupers ride the bike around 25 mph and the average person rides around 23 mph. Although I was disappointed with the bike portion I recognized it could have been much worse due to the crash. The transition from the bike to the run, known as T2, also went well. I was trying to come out of T2 in less than 5 minutes and officially came out in 00:04:45. This could be a bit faster but it is very important to get the leg on just right. Running a 10K with the leg on wrong could cause more pain than one is willing to endure. The numerous "bricks" I had practice over the last several months had my legs feeling good. A "brick" is a back-to-back workout consisting of either a swim-bike, bike-run, or swim-run. It is referred to as brick because that is typically what your legs feel like when the second workout begins. At the start of the run, the most important thing I needed to do was to stay focused and relaxed and to pace myself. Six miles is a long way to run and I did not want to run out of gas after four miles, which happened in the two sprints earlier in the year and I finished those on an empty tank. I have a difficult time pacing as it is hard fro me to tell how fast I am running (I have been told this becomes easier with practice). The pre-race plan was to run 15 minute miles which is a slow pace for me but I wanted to ensure I still had legs for miles 5 and 6. My typical training runs average 12-13 minute miles but those only consist of runs 2 to 4 miles in length. I felt great the first three miles and only walked up inclines, purge my legs of perspiration and to hydrate at the aid stations. As usual I came out to fast and ran the first mile in 00:13:17. I focused on slowing during the second mile and finished it in 00:15:11. I thought I kept the same pace going into the third mile but finished it in 00:16:05. After three miles, as in the sprint races, my stump muscles were shot and it becomes difficult to control the leg with any degree of comfort and consistency. This was not the case today. The fourth mile I felt strong and I finished it in 00:16:22. I got a second wind and pushed hard during the fifth mile and finished in 00:14:17. Then suddenly it felt like I hit a wall as I pushed past my lactate threshold and I did a good bit of walking during the sixth mile and finished it in a poor time of 00:17:29. My daughters (aged 5 and 3) ran the last hundred yards with me which gave me a boost of energy. My overall run time was a little disappointing at 01:35:54 (nearly six minutes above my pre-race goal). However, my overall finishing time was 03:43:59, good enough to qualify for World's with 16 minutes to spare. After the race I had no serious abrasion on my stump. I was able to walk with no discomfort on Monday. The greatest amount of discomfort was only in my wrist due to the bike wreck. This is truly remarkable and indicative of what can be done with a great fitting socket, a specialized bike leg and a good prosthetist, my thanks to Vern Swanson. After a few weeks off, I plan to get back into training to prepare for World's. Having accomplished my initial goal, I have set some new goals for myself including: December 2003 June 2004 August 2004 September 2004 April 2005 August 2005 2006 or 2007 To learn more about Dave's accomplishments select one of the links below to read his journal and see photographs from the Triathlons he has participated in. |
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