Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Ultraman Canada Crewing Day 2

Day 2- 171 miles on the bike for Ingrid!

Check in was at 5:30 and the start was at 6:00, the crews took off before the athletes to keep the narrow road as clear as possible for the first 10-15 miles. So we drove out to the main road and found a spot where lots of other crews were waiting for their athletes. We hung out and talked with other crews about how their athletes were feeling. I think that gave us all confidence about Ingrid's race, some athletes were feeling good, but quite a few seemed to be having some issues (mostly stomach issues), so we felt lucky that Ingrid had gotten through day 1 so well. When she rode by, she had already passed 3 or 4 people and was close to a couple more, she seemed happy and excited! Yay!!

It was a cool morning, but I had talked her out of wearing her cycling jacket (I know, ME saying she wouldn't be cold??), I was worried that was a mistake, but she said she wasn't cold at all! Whew!!
Ingrid rode by orchards and vineyards, and we stopped and jumped out of the car to cheer her on every 6 miles. This part of the course was mostly flat, Ingrid looked great, and we were having fun! We saw other Ultraman athletes and crews along the way, which was fun and reassuring, since we didn't really see any of them on day 1.

The first really tough part of day 2 was The Wall, it was a mountain, with switchbacks going up and at the end was a very steep section! We knew Ingrid could do it since she had pre ridden it, but we knew it would be tough and even after The Wall, she had to keep going mostly uphill for about 10 miles! The Wall was on narrow roads so it was another "No Feed Zone" so we had to drive to the end and couldn't stop to cheer Ingrid up. But announcer Steve King was on The Wall announcing and encouraging the athletes up the steep climb. We stopped a couple of miles past The Wall and saw a family out spectating, they were some of the only spectators the entire race, so everyone was really happy to see them!
This is actually on Richter Pass from day 1, but The Wall was this steep or more so!

White Lake
Past The Wall, but still climbing. Astronaut Alvin Drew gave a pre-race presentation and the Q&A after quickly went to "how do you go to the bathroom in space?" We all found it funny and a little weird, so we made a sign for Ingrid on the front it said "Astro Al says shoot for the stars" and on the back it said "and pee in your pants!" Ingrid laughed when she saw the sign and later told us that she loved it.

By this time, we had been in the car for a long time, my triathlon math skills were starting to get blurry, and we all started to get a little silly. I heard "woof woof" from the back seat. I turned and saw this:
and Ramona with the Pringle still hanging from her tongue said "look I'm a dog!" Of course I laughed and laughed!
Then Jeff had one too. "I'm a duck! Quack!" Sadly, I don't have a silly Pringle trick.

I think this was about the time Ingrid passed Fausto. Fausto was a very strong looking athlete from Florida who owns a bootcamp business. He looked fast and from the time we met him we assumed he'd be impossible to beat.

At our next stop we got everything set up, when Ingrid pulled up she seemed stressed and in a HURRY! She exchanged camelbaks, grabbed some gels, took a 5 hr energy, and maybe a pb&j and took off in way under a minute! Just after Jeff pushed her off Tour de France style, Fausto rolled by and said "WOW, she's GOOD!!" His crew was right in front of us, so we saw his stop, change of clothes, drink, leg massage... interesting contrast!

Since Ingrid seemed so stressed and rushed, we were a little worried. Has she had too much 5hr energy and/or pre-race?, Is she just in "race mode" after passing Fausto?, Should we remind her she has to run a DOUBLE marathon tomorrow?...We didn't know what was going on or what to say to try to bring her stress level down (or really if we even needed to bring her stress level down). pretty bridge along the course

A stop or 2 later Ingrid yelled "how far to Princeton and how long til the cut off?" WHAT?? Why is she thinking about the cut off, when she's SO far ahead and doing so well, and there isn't an official cut off in Princeton anyway! The race director had suggested that if you got to Princeton much after 3pm, you might want to cut the course and not do the last 45ish mile out & back section, since it could take up to 3 hours, and there was no point in going all the way out there if you were going to miss the real cut off at 6pm. For whatever reason (I blame pre-race) Ingrid had that unofficial cut off in her head big time! I pulled out the map and figured it out. At our next stop, I told her "less than 30 miles and almost 3 hours to Princeton" Seriously, I'm pretty sure even I could make that "cut off". Turns out she had done her triathlon math a little off and really thought she was cutting it close (it makes perfect sense in her race report, but when she explained it to me after the finish I was 100% confused!). So THAT'S why she seemed stressed earlier.pretty views along the Similkameen River near Bromely Rock park

We got to our next real stop in Princeton and Ingrid was back to normal- fast, efficient and relaxed, thank goodness!!
She seemed to LOVE the out & back to Lake Allison, she was flying and we were so happy for her!
Jeff and I on the out & back to Lake Allison

Ingrid FINISHING day 2!!! The announcer said she had moved up quite a few places in the standings after such a great ride! And during the run on day 3, he said she stayed in her aerobars more than any other athlete he saw!

Ingrid was super happy at the finish again and wanted to hang out and talk with everyone, she also had to wait a really long time for her massage. Since the day 3 start is near Princeton, everyone stayed in hotel rooms in Princeton provided by the race. Jeff and I went to check in while Ingrid and Ramona hung out at the finish line. Dinner was also provided by the race, we carefully planned and brought our own food since we assumed the post race dinner would be pasta, and who wants to eat something new (especially from an unknown restaurant) the night before a DOUBLE marathon!! As it turned out we all (even Ingrid!) ate the pasta dinner provided by the race (I don't normally eat much wheat, but spaghetti looked & sounded SO good!).

I think it was almost 8 by the time we got to the hotel and got the van unpacked. Jeff and I had to run to the store to pick up water, ice, etc, and look for a finish line treat for Ingrid. I saw an individual sized coconut cream pie in the deli/refrigerated section (Ingrid had told the race organizers that if she could have any dessert at the finish it would be coconut cream pie- PERFECT!). We stopped and got root beer floats on the way back to the hotel, I was in serious need of a sugar rush, I knew I still had at least an hour's worth of stuff to get done, and I was EXHAUSTED! Jeff looked more tired than I think I've ever seen him too. After getting all the necessary stuff done, Ramona and I decorated the van with blue painter's tape (thanks Coach Cindy!), we were both super tired and could barely think enough to spell Irongrid! I also uploaded a few pictures and updated facebook for the fans at home, since we hadn't had cell service most of the day. Again, I was asleep before my head hit the pillow, but so HAPPY! Ingrid had pretty much the perfect ride, and was feeling good about the DOUBLE marathon tomorrow!



Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Ultraman Canada Crewing Day 1

An Ultraman is a 3 day ultra endurance event. Day 1 the athletes swim 6.2 miles, and bike 90 miles. Day 2 is 170 miles on the bike, and Day 3 is a 52.4 mile run. Way back before our first half irons in 2008, Ingrid found out about Ultraman and thought she might want to do it someday. At the time none of us realized that Ultraman is completely different than any of the triathlons we were used to. Ultraman doesn't have aid stations and lots of volunteers to support the athletes, instead each athlete brings a crew to support them. Ingrid asked her mom, Ramona and Jeff and I to crew for her.

There was tons of planning and preparing, which for the most part worked out well, of course there were a few things that changed and some things we couldn't figure out until we were thre, but all the pre planning definitely made it easier. Ingrid is very detail oriented (come on, she's an engineer!) and I can be pretty detail oriented too. Ingrid had everything planned out and printed in a race plan, and I had further clarified many of the little details (down to 1/8 of an inch thick layer of peanut butter on the pb&j sandwiches :) ), so there wasn't much guesswork.

Day 1Swim start, nothing like the triathlons we're used to! Only 29 athletes and other than athlete's crews, not much of a crowd.They did have an announcer, Steve King, who was at the start and finish each day and at a few points on the course. He did an awesome job, his British accent didn't hurt either, made us feel like Phil & Paul were announcing at Ultraman!
Ingrid and Ramona pre-race

I was excited and nervous for Ingrid's swim, I knew she could do it, but I also knew this would be her longest swim ever! Jeff and I didn't really need to do anything for the swim, Ramona was kayaking and we just had to go to transition and set up her stuff before she finished swimming. Swim start

We drove to a few points on the road where we could see the swimmers across the lake (really we could only see the kayakers, they were really far away), and watched for Ramona's yellow and white kayak and red shirt. Ingrid was doing great! We got to transition and even though there were only 29 athletes, there were way more than 30 cars parked, so we had to park pretty far from the transition area, no big deal, we had plenty of time. We got her transition are set up and watched some of the other athletes finish the swim. Joni Moore of Salado TX wore Jack & Adams gear all weekend and made us feel right at home!

We borrowed binoculars from another crew and watched Ingrid swim strongly around the last buoy (there were only 2 buoys on the entire 6.2 mile course!). I was so excited for her!! I had watched other crews practically carry their athletes out of the water and into the transition area, so I grabbed a towel and expected to really help Ingrid into transition. She finished and gave me a great big hug, then ran over to her mom getting out of the kayak and gave her a big hug too! She was super happy and didn't seem tired at all! She even said "I think I prefer swimming 10K to running 10K!" Most of the athletes took their time in transition, at least 10-15 minutes, but Ingrid was ready to GO! She hurried through transition and didn't really need anything from me. She took off on the bike looking great!
Ingrid finishing her longest swim ever!

We planned to leapfrog Ingrid every 10K, even though we knew she probably wouldn't need anything at most of the stops, we stopped to see her, cheer for her, and give her anything she might unexpectedly need. We had a lot of fun, even though, really, we were just driving a little way and stopping and waiting over and over. We didn't see any other athletes or crews, everyone got really spread out on the swim. But we did see lots of other riders out on the course, most of them training for Ironman Canada. It got a little stressful when Ingrid would fly by and yell out something, it was hard to hear, but between the 3 of us, we usually got it figured out.

On Ritcher Pass (the longest climb of day 1), Ingrid passed us and yelled out "how long to the top of the climb?" I wasn't expecting that question (I'm not sure why not, who doesn't want to know how far to the end of climb??), but I had just been looking at the elevation maps, so I yelled back "just under 5 miles" Ingrid gave me a dirty look as she rode by- uh oh! We got back in the car and I confirmed with Jeff and Ramona, yep, looks like at least 4 if not 5 miles to the top of the climb...about a mile later we were descending! Sometimes elevation profiles make me want to scream! Ingrid had driven that part of the route the day before, so I'm sure she knew it was no where near 5 miles to the top when she asked me, hence the dirty look!Ingrid climbing Ritcher Pass, before asking me how far to the top
The view from Ritcher Pass

With about 20 miles to go, an official (there were only 2 for the entire event) stopped at our car and told us "you need to encourage her and get her moving or she may not make the cut off time" I said ok. But then I told Jeff, she has 20 miles to go and almost 3 hours until the cut off, she doesn't need to hurry at all! When Ingrid rode by she seemed upset and yelled about having to speed up or she'd miss the cut off, so I yelled after her "don't listen to him! You only have to go 7 mph to make it!!" There was lots of talk in the car about "how dare he stress Ingrid out unnecessarily!" and finally we decided maybe he'd looked at his watch wrong or something and we should give him a break, we didn't want to bring any bad karma our way.

Ingrid finished looking happy and strong! I had expected her to be really tired and want to go home right after finishing each day, but that wasn't the case at all. She was happy and wanted to chat with everyone at the finish, it was super cool to see her feeling so good at the finish! I felt bad when I finally suggested we needed to get going since we still had to eat dinner and get ready for day 2. We got back to the house and I realized I was EXHAUSTED! Why?? I hadn't done anything all day except get in and out of the car about 30 times (and used my triathlon math skills to their fullest)! I wasn't dehydrated, but I realized I had barely eaten anything all day- oops, that was a stupid mistake! So I made sure to pack more quick and easy to eat food in the crew food cooler for day 2. About 10pm I knew that I wouldn't be getting much sleep, I still had to finish some of Ingrid's day 2 food, pack my stuff for the overnight in Princeton, and make a poster or 2 to entertain Ingrid for the LONG day 2 ride. I think I got to bed about 11 and I'm pretty sure I was asleep before my head hit the pillow!

Canada




Just a few observations about Canada first.

1. The Okanagan Valley is beautiful

2. People are super nice

3. The views are really dramatic, especially mountains behind the huge lakes

4. Orchards and vineyards everywhere

We saw salmon jumping in the river, I asked some of these fishermen what kind they were- sockeye, that's the good stuff! I saw they had caught at least a dozen, so I asked if they'd sell some- yes. We bought 2 and grilled them for dinner, best fish we've ever eaten!

Jeff and I got to go hiking one afternoon, we went to Skaha Bluffs Park. It was beautiful and we got to see some really different areas. We took lots of pictures out there.Can you see the person climbing? Look near the bottom between the trees.

It was a "long weekend" while we were there. A few people mentioned it, so we asked if it was a holiday, someone replied "yes". We thought it was weird that no one said what the holiday was. After swimming one morning, I was chatting with an older man walking in the water, he mentioned the "long weekend" so I asked him what holiday it was. He said "it's a civic holiday" What does that even mean? We decided that it must be some super secret Canadian holiday that they didn't want the Americans to know about. Finally Ingrid found out from someone that it was British Columbia Day, I don't think we ever did figure out the significance of British Columbia Day!

Now on to the Ultraman race!