Black Bear Race Report

The setting for the race is beautiful, located in the Poconos in western Pennsylvania.  The views of the mountains are spectacular, but watch out for the hills that come with the view!  The race is very well organized and operated.  The race has both a sprint division and half iron.  Race day was almost perfect.  It was about 50 degrees for the start, and about 70 by 9:00am and hit the mid 70’s by noon, with clear skies and a slight breeze.

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The swim is in a dammed river/lake, so there are no waves or weather to have to deal with.  The water temp was in the upper 60’s so almost perfect for a wetsuit swim.  It’s an in-water start with age group waves so it’s not overly crowded.  I was able to hold a pretty straight line and still find plenty of clean water.

The run from T1 to the mount line was pretty long and up a hill, which unfortunately let my heart rate get a little too high.  The crowd was very enthusiastic and motivational all around the transition area.  The bike ride was, bar-none, one of the toughest I’d done.  It starts with a nice downhill and straight into a decent climb, so there wasn’t much of a chance to “settle in”, but rather pretty much sets the tempo from the start.  I really don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say there wasn’t a single flat on the entire course!  We were either going 35+ or 8 mph!  It was a great, scenic, exciting and challenging course.  I’ve never raced IMLP, but I have ridden the Lake Placid course, and I’d say this course is similarly challenging.  I talked to a couple athletes who felt this was a more difficult course.  I know I’m glad I didn’t have to do 112 miles of this course.   It was a great training race in that it really allowed me to push myself beyond my normal training and comfort zone, and then still have to hop off and run.  It is a two loop course so the mental side does play into knowing what you’ve just ridden on the first loop and knowing what’s left to go.  About 10 miles into the second lap, you really need to make sure you stay present.  I’d never seen so many people walking their bikes up some of the big hills on the second lap.  So again you need to race your plan and not “cook” yourself on the first lap trying to keep up with everyone, but rather stay inside yourself and yet push your limits.  I know personally I didn’t stick to my plan as well as I should have and paid the price.  I wasn’t able to negative split the ride and my legs were spent by the time I got off the bike.  I allowed my heart rate to climb too high on several of the hills and felt like it really hurt my run.  However, I was very pleased with my overall bike ride, and feel like I learned a lot.  To be honest probably the biggest factor that caused me to ride beyond myself was the fact that I played a “cat and mouse” passing game the entire ride with a cute 22-year-old girl.  I was determined to not let her beat me (my wife was convinced I just liked following her for the “scenic view”J)!   Anyway, I did manage to beat her, and she ended up being the #1 female overall.

The run is also two laps which is great because you get to pass the crowd 4 times which I find terribly motivational, and forces you not to dwell on how you feel and how much is left to do.   As with the ride, the scenery is beautiful, and (thank God) it’s not nearly as hilly.  There were plenty of small inclines, and almost the entire race is either on grass or gravel trails.  The aid stations were frequent and well staffed.  Probably the most scenic part of the run was an out and back across the damn.  It was an awesome view both out over the lake and back across at the transition area.  As Angela says, “what we do and don’t do sets up the run,” well I understand this even better now.  The run is normally the easier segment for me, but this one definitely wasn’t!  By allowing my heart rate to exceed the plan I believe it caused my nutrition to be out of whack.  About a quarter of the way into the run I began to throw up my carbopro every time I tried it.  The only thing I could keep down was water, and if you asked for it, coke was available at the aid stations.  I remember feeling a little weak, and starting to wonder if I had better back it down a little, and then I could hear Angela saying “how bad do you want it”.  Stay within yourself and focus.  The feeling subsided and I held my pace, trying to only focus my mind on my mantra “smile” and just remember that you’re doing what you love to do, and the pain was gone.  My legs didn’t feel great, but I knew I was giving it all I had, and that’s what it’s all about.   I learned that I’ll need to adjust my nutrition for the higher HR in the future, and why it’s so important to race your plan as exactly as you can, or your in-race adjustments might not work so well.

My overall time wasn’t great, but it was an excellent learning experience and I was happy with my ability to push myself harder than I ever had previously, which was one of my goals for this race.   I would highly recommend this race for anyone training for some of the hillier Ironmen like LP or WI.   The race was very well run and the fans were very enthusiastic.  Probably the only thing I would consider more of an inconvenience than a negative was that there really isn’t any lodging less than about 40 minutes from the race.

“Dare the Bear”

I say “Bring It”