Lake Logan Half Ironman Race Recap (Karel)

 

The past 12 weeks have been difficult for Karel. After a hard impact mountain bike crash, he broke his right (dominant) hand. While the bones healed according to schedule within 6 weeks, the nerve pain and weakness has been slow, frustrating and painful. It took over two months for Karel to feel somewhat comfortable riding outside because the vibrations of the road caused tremendous pain in his hand. Because he still has a lot of weakness in his hand, this affects his grip while riding and how he swims (he doesn't have much of a "catch" in the water). The pinky and ring finger are numb and this numbness continues down his hand, which can be painful and annoying. There is also a lot of scar tissue in his palm and elbow which causes pain if he touches or hits it in the wrong spot.

Throughout this journey, which has been filled with a lot of low, discouraging moments, Karel kept showing up. Not knowing when or if his hand would fully heal, there were a lot of really tough days over the past 12 weeks. But he kept showing up. He focused on what he could do and sometimes that meant training with discomfort, frustration and a bruised ego. He regularly felt slow, out of shape and disappointed by his lack of progress. But he kept showing up. He did what he could with what he had.

As an outsider (who lives with Karel), I could see his progress on a daily basis. Karel could not fully see the progress as it never felt quick or big enough. But over the past few weeks, he started to finally recognize the progress and felt like he was finally at a place where he could safely race. And lucky for us, a popular SetUpEvents half ironman distance was still open for registration when Karel decided he was ready to race a few weeks ago. With the venue a little more than 90 minutes away and a challenging race course that I have done twice but Karel has always wanted to do, it was the perfect race for Karel to make his comeback. 

We traveled up to Canton, NC. on Thursday afternoon. We originally planned to leave around lunchtime after a morning swim, but as Karel was tuning up his bike, he had to change his rear brake as it suddenly broke, which took a little time. And as the last-minute packer of the household, he also had to pack. We finally hit the road around 2pm and after a little traffic and construction around Asheville, we made it to our Airbnb around 4pm. I was able to find us a cute rustic cabin just 4.9 miles away from Lake Logan on Lake Logan Road.

Campy enjoyed his trip and all the new smells. This was the first trip for Campy since he fully lost his hearing (old age) so it was a little more stressful for him (and us) to be in a new place but he settled in after a few hours. Karel was a bit frazzled from the brake incident and the drive (traffic) so I encouraged him to go for a spin after we unloaded the car and it did the trick and he felt much better after seeing the beautiful scenery around Lake Logan. I made pasta for us and we enjoyed dinner on the porch while watching the Olympics on my iPad (YouTubeTV). We didn't have internet but our Hot Spot worked great. 

On Friday morning, Karel did his pre-race warm-up (ride and run) and after he returned home around 10am, I headed out for my ride. I ventured out by myself from our cabin to the Blue Ridge Parkway and enjoyed the incredible views throughout my 4-hour, 61 mile ride. I returned home just after 3pm, showered and ate and then went to the race venue with Karel and Campy around 4:30pm for Karel to get his packet and to do a quick swim in the lake. It was great to see some familiar faces at the venue. 

After we arrived back at the cabin we ate dinner and watch the women marathon for the Olympics (SO exciting!). Karel had a great night of sleep. The alarm went off around 4:30am and shockingly, Karel was in a good mood for it being so early in the morning - even before his morning coffee. Yannick (our athlete) and his GF stayed with us and Campy instantly became BFF's with their dog Boston. After Karel did his normal pre-race routine: Espresso, oatmeal, kit-up, jog, bathroom, we made our way to the venue around 5:45am. 

Karel got body marked, racked his bike, laid out his transition area and then made his way to the swim start. After not racing for a few months, Karel wasn't nervous but he certainly had to make a few last minute adjustments due to his weak hand. Instead of doing a flying mount, he opted to put his cycling shoes on in the transition area as he doesn't have the strength to hold on to the bars with only his right hand. He also can't use his right hand to tighten his shoes so that takes a little more time to do it with his left hand. He added some gel tape to his tri bike handlebar to help reduce the pressure on his hand. He also cut the legs of his wetsuit a little shorter to make it easier to remove. 

After Karel went for another short jog, I helped him put on his wetsuit (again, he doesn't have the grip with his right hand to pull up the left sleeve of his wetsuit) and then he went into the water for his warm-up swim. At 7am, the advanced category started along with the 45+ age group men. 

1.2 mile swim: 31:34 (8th advanced out of the water)

Karel had an OK swim. He was a bit frustrated by how he felt and performed in the water but he knew it reflected this current level of fitness right now. The biggest struggle was feeling like his feet were going to cramp as the lake water went into the river water (10 degree drop from 72 degrees) and then completely out of it and disoriented when he tried to get on the dock to get out of the water. He hobbled his way out of the water and into the transition area. He was then frustrated by his transition area which he felt was super slow as he couldn't get his shoes fasted tightly with his right hand and it took him a little longer to take off his wetsuit. The hand was already giving him issues but he just did the best he could and was relieved to finally get on the bike. Out of the other guys, his transition of 2:05 was not that slow but for Karel, who always says that nothing good happens in transition area, he felt like it took forever. When I yelled at him that he had a great transition, he mumbled "no I didn't" which I took as he was frustrated in the start of his race. Later I learned that Karel was just off from the swim and he wasn't upset at what I said but just frustrated with how he felt in the swim and with his transition. 

55.6 mile bike: 2:31.11 (2nd fastest advanced bike)
Once Karel made his way up the climb out of the race venue, he was already loving the twisty, punchy, technical nature of this race course. I gave Karel a few suggestions as I had raced here twice before so Karel kinda knew what to expect on the course. He also loaded the course map into his Garmin so that he wouldn't get off course as this smaller event didn't have as much signage as an IM-branded event. There were a few times when he questioned if he was still on the race course as a few other guys got off course. There were also a lot of issues with dropped chains, flat tires and a few crashes as this course is super challenging but also really technical. We had 6 athletes out on the course so I was hoping that everyone would be safe. I was actually not worried about Karel as I knew his bike handling skills would be just fine for him to race this course. Karel later told me that he loved the course and he had so much fun riding. His hand wasn't a limiter on this course as he can still get out of the saddle and change gears (electronic shifting) so that allowed him to ride a really strong race. He passed several guys over the course of the race. The last kicker of a climb around mile 44ish was tough and he got a bit rattled as a truck pulled out in front of him on the descend but he stayed upright and didn't overreact. When I saw our athlete Yannick arrive back into T2 after a blazing 2:24 bike split, I was shocked to see Karel as the 3rd advanced athlete (there was one guy who came in right behind Karel but DNF'd as he was just doing the swim/bike) off the bike. Another local athlete from Greenville was 2nd after Yannick. Karel came in about 7 minutes after Yannick and I was so surprised to see him. This course really suited him with all the climbs, twists and turns. He just loves dynamic race courses. 

13 mile run: 1:23.30 (3rd fastest advanced run)



 

After Karel transitioned from bike to run, it was time to do what he loves, which is chase people down on the run. I wasn't really sure how Karel would run as he hasn't really been doing any race specific training lately for the run but you can never take the competitive nature out of Karel. After the first loop, Yannick was flying and had a huge lead. Karel was now just 5 minutes after Yannick as the 2nd place overall athlete. The run course was a slight uphill and slight downhill out and back with a loop around gravel and a grassy field to end the first of two loops. By the end of the first loop, Karel was in 2nd place and was getting a little closer to Yannick. Over the next half of the run course, Karel was able to close down the gap to our athlete Yannick to just over 2 minutes and extend his lead over Scott by almost 5 minutes. Unfortunately, Scott took a wrong turn on the bike which put him back a bit - otherwise, I think it would have been a tighter battle between first to third place overall. Karel found the first loop to be a cruise-effort but the 2nd loop felt a little more tiring on miles 6-9 but he just broke the course up into segments and said that this was one of his "easiest" run performances in a half. Karel had his race nutrition on him (Skratch Matcha) and didn't need any water at the the aid stations for cooling. One of the aid stations had coke so he had one small sip on each loop. Although the weather went from cool and cloudy to warm and sunny, Karel didn't feel warm on the run thanks to the shade from the trees and the breeze from the creek water. Karel kinda shut it down near the end of the run as he felt his 2nd place was secured. He finished with great satisfaction with his return to racing and just so much gratitude to be back out racing again with his friends and fellow competitors. Karel absolutely loves racing so it's been really tough to be on the sidelines for the past three months. This was just the boost that he needed going into IM 70.3 World Championships. 

Finishing time: 4:29.39, 2nd overall. 

After Karel finished, he chatted with his buddies Yannick and Steven before making his way to the cold creek to cool off. Karel wasn't exhausted or overly sore but just tired from the race effort. Campy, on the other hand, was exhausted. I was too! But it was great to be out there to cheer on Karel and our other athletes. After the award ceremony, we said good bye to this beautiful race venue before making our way back to Greenville.