quinton jansen's 2011 imc race report

Pre Race
1. How did your pre race ritual turn out?
- Surpisingly mellow.. Workouts in the morning, lunch then nap. Lots of resting.
- Morning of had more food than I expected to before heading down to transition. Forgot to take water into transition, but found some laying about. Had water in car so could have gone back out to grab it if I had to.
- Munched on more food in transition, couple gels, 700ml water.
- Found Harry and then the rest of the suspects which was good. Chatted until heading out for a 'warmup' swim.

2. How did you feel pre race?
Good. Excited, and a bit nervous.

3. Anything you feel may have helped your pre race?
A slap in the face :) Water from the race organization for T0.

4. Did you feel ready for the race?
There were a couple minutes of doubt, but after reminding myself that I was ready and would cross the finish line no matter what, all was good.
Swim
1. Where did you start?
Right of the buoy line, halfway between buoy line and end of beach

2. Did this work for you?
Apparently..

3. How did you feel?
Dizzy (woke up with a spinning head).. Next time slap me in the face before the start (check goggles are clear first :)
As soon as the race started, all was good

4. Any problems?
Nope.

5. Positives
Finished with goggles on

6. How was your sighting ie. were you all over the place?
Better than expected. Mix of pack swimming and sighting to make sure pack was on the right path

7. Did you get smacked?
Smacked, groopped, elbowed, swam on (up to thighs). Felt hands feeling for balls four times

8. Were you drafting efficiently?
When I was (most of the time), yes

9. What was your time?
1:14 on the results
Bike
1. How was your transition from swim to bike?
A bit slower.. washroom break

2. How was your nutrition strategy?
- Perpetitium (two bottles with 6 scoopes, one bag in special needs with 4 just in case). One bottle ready to go, the other one dry
- Mix in gels, (for solids) cliff bars and bannans.
- Salt and viniger chips in special needs (really needed those)
- Basic plan was to put as much as I could down the hatch as possible.. Still forget to eat enough on the bike in the heat.

3. How was your hydration?
- All over me. Frigging bottle caps kept popping off and spilling all over the show.
- stuck mostly with the perform, had a couple water for change in taste
- different flavours of perform threw me for a loop in the beginning
- perfom tastes like shit when it's hot. Only had one cool drink the entire ride
- passed one aid station that had run out of water, but I still had plenty of fluid on board

4. Any mechanicals or flat tires?
- one thumb tack. Should have changed the tyre, but tried sealant which left me with a slow leak to keep filling up.

5. How were the climbs?
What happened to mcclean creek? Missed that turn somehow.
Richter was OK. Been up that one many times.
Yellow lake was the expected drag. Mainly because I knew I had missed my time target by then

6. Any problems?
Nothing that comes to mind.. quite a bit slower than I had hoped for, but all good.

7. Positives
No rain/sleet/snow.

8. Any highs and lows in terms of energy?
Perhaps the last few minutes, but a bit more food (or was it knowing the end was near) solved that

9. Did you know where you were on the course?
Physically or mentally? Physically yes. The out and back's entra spur is annoying. The end of the out and back is annoylying long :)
Run
1. How was your transition from bike to run?
Considering the bike, OK. Took a bit longer, but again had to pee for a number of minutes. Complete change of cloths, fresh socks. Took a couple minutes in the tent to get my head wrapped around the fact that I had to go stumble for 42km

2. How was your nutrition?
- Way better than expected. Gels were going down again. Had enough (hoped for four hours of eating, planned for five and a half)
- somehow managed to get the gels down and half a bag of chips at the turnaround

3. How was your hydration?
- Much better now that I knew about the ice.
- Filled running bottle with water to make the magic mix of perform from dry powder (some mix that I'd used before). Sucked on ice, and put ice in the bottle
- Started out alternating between water and perform while walking aid stations
- ¼ of the way in started with pepsi (still fuzzy.. coke would have been better).. or was it a bit later. Any ways, alternating between pepsi and perform until after the turnaround. Then pepsi at the aid stations, plus other liquids.
- Kept topping up drinking bottle with liquid (water/perform/ice) and used that between aid stations

4. Any problems?
- Fading daylight
- Quads were just trashed, making hills painful (walked hills and majority of aid stations)
- People calling out my name, and it taking me a minute or so to remember it was on the frigging bib.. had that thought process a number of times..

5. Positives
- first attempt at 42km and got across the line with energy in the legs
- three small blisters on toes, only had two left over the next day to drain
- Had expected the run along the lake to suck as no one would be there watching, but was glad to have peace and quite to void my mind with.

6. Any lows and highs during the run?
- I suspect so, but can't recall.
- Then again, with an official making sure I finished in good order, had to hide the lows. Mind you, a couple of us dragging our heels did take a vote and agreed we did not have to listen to the officials anymore.

7. How did you feel finishing?
- Great. But could not believe it was done.
- Walked straight out with a fresh bottle of plain water.
- skipped dinner (not hungry after the buffet on the run)
Overall how did you feel about your race? Did it reach your expectations? Will you do another one? Any problems with the race at all in terms of organization and execution done by the race organizers?
Loved the race.. Gotta do it again. It left me feeling like there should have been more. The medal kinda blew, but that's a small thing. The swim was great, bike was OK, run was a bit slower (was hoping for under five.. maybe 4:30-4:45 based on Dessert Half). Having smiling faces that I knew at the start line was plesant (still say I should have been slapped back into reality). Tony G. still needs to work on his girlish scream.
Hot drinks on a hot day that are splashed all over you instead of into your bottles makes it hard to drink. Running out of water on the bike was not good (squeeked past that issue).
The mandatory pre-race meeting was a waste of time. Did not cover off any useful information (I skipped the dinner and just went for the meeting.. still had Steve dronning on when I got there for too long) like if we had to wear our race number on the bike course.. saw a mix of results with that as some did not bother wearing them)