Ultrababy Day 1 Review

I thought I should do a quick recap of how day one of Ultrababy went for those that want to know more details of what it was like than can be crammed in a few tweets.

Swim and swim conditions.  Our local lake is great for open water swims.  It's 2.4 miles out and back, so I swam the 6.2 by going back and forth nearly three times. We had no boat traffic and the lake isn't big enough to develop huge waves, so it was mostly calm with only a bit of texture.  It felt like it was around 74 degrees, so no wetsuit.  It's also freshwater (obviously), so the swim was possibily a bit slower than what could be done at the real Ultraman in salt water with wetsuits like they get.  But they also get currents, so who knows for sure. Anyway, I made sure I went over the distance a bit just to validate that I wasn't cutting corners.  6.23 miles

Brian paddled next to me in a kayak.  We did feedings every 20 minutes (Maple syrup, Hornet Juice, matcha powder, and salt tablets.)  It was pretty uneventful, which is exactly what you want.  And I met Dana for the first time ever, right in the middle of the lake, as she was knocking out 2.4 miles of her own.  Emily was crewing for her in another kayak.  Shoulders got a bit tired towards the end.

Bike. I had to assemble my bike during transition, putting the rear wheel on and a bunch of other stuff. This is because nobody was watching our stuff as we were swimming, so it was all crammed inside my car. It was fun and I was feeling fine, so no big deal.

The course was four loops, totallaing 93.6 miles.  Ultraman is 90 miles, but with more elevation gain, so I was going overdistance again on purpose to settle the difference. About half the course was hilly, and the flatter half was made from some of the most intense chipseal you can find, slowing progress significantly. It was a real grind, very challenging.

The interesting tidbit you wouldn't think of is that your arms cramp up when reaching into your jersey pockets. 6.2 miles of swimming does a real number on the shoulder and arm muscles!  Reaching for those behind-the-back bottles and goodies was pretty painful at times.  I also had a rear bottle cage snap in half within an hour of starting the bike, so I had to jam an additional water bottle in my jersey pocket, adding to the "fun."

I felt good the first two loops, but I think I was shorting myself on sodium the second two. This combined with high humidity and heat (heat index of around 94 degrees) pushed me to my limits.  I was going as slow as I could the whole day, but still was struggling to keep going by the end. Still, when you but it into context that it was an 8+ hour day of exercise in the Texas elements, it starts to make sense. 

Day 2 (172 mile bike) will be the same heat as day 1, but I'm a bit smarter about the sodium intake.  And I ate McDonald's, pizza, cookies... all kinds of crap after we finished day one to reload the calories too.  

Overall, I'm having tons of fun and everybody is doing great.  The heat for the day 3 run (53 miles), has me a genuinely worried, and I finished today too dehydrated, so I definitely have my work cut out for me and have to stay on top of things.  I originally wasn't concerned about day 1 at all, but it proved to be far more difficult than I planned. It was definitely a reality check.  If I finish this thing, it will be a true accomplishment. 

Ok, back to eating cookies and more sleep!