Epic Man

A Triple Iron distance race? When race creator, Nike athlete, ESPY award winner and friend Jason Lester invited me to take part in the challenge the idea seemed like a good one: probably because he asked me during his other race, The Epic5 Challenge. I figured that by comparison to a 5x Iron over 5 days, how bad could 3x Iron over 60 hours be?

In all honesty, It was a great race and I had a great time! I was very lucky this year with all the races and challenges that I was able to be part of, mainly because of what they taught me about myself and that helped me put a better perspective on this one. I was in control and relaxed. I had mental clarity, patience and great consistency in my base training.

5 individuals and 1 relay team gathered on the beach to start off the swim of the inaugural EPICMAN Challenge. It takes a certain type of character and person just to show up and start a race like this and that is the type of person that I want to be out there on the course with.



This was my longest swim to date. 7.2 miles - steady pace - 4:28:44 - not bad for a guy who spends most of his time at the pool holding up the walls and chatting with others. I was very pleased with my performance. My crew was wonderful and kept me on course with my sighting and nutrition. I had brought both full and sleeveless wetsuits and after talking with friend and local swimmer Kathryn Taylor, I took her suggestion and went with the full. The water temp was great: just right for the full suit and I was warm and comfortable the entire swim. Sometimes you don’t realize how much you are sweating when you swim and it can dehydrate you and make you pay a price later in the race if you don’t keep on top of your hydration.



I also wore a new style of goggles that Chet “The Jet” Blanton gave me earlier in the week. I did not even try them out until this swim which could have been a big mistake, but my crew had my extras and considering how my face felt from my usual goggles after the 4.8 mile Double Roughwater Swim earlier in the month, I was open to try something new. These “Zogg Predator Flex Polarized Open Water Goggles” were amazing and perfect. The clarity was awesome and the comfort was 100% - Very soft on the face, yet the seal stayed. I won’t be using anything else for a while and I suggest you get a pair if you are in the market for a change.

After getting out of the water 4th and getting ready to get out on the bike I offered to wait for the other 2 racers still in the water and make sure that we all made it through downtown safely on our bikes. It added a good 30min to my time, but I was in no rush and it offered safety in numbers for a quick zip through a busy Waikiki.

Just as planned I was on my steady pace. I opt for frequent stops to refuel and make sure my crew is okay and to check and see how things are going overall.

One thing I was sure to do before the race was take off my watch. Time is/was not so important. A Garmin? why bother….the battery only lasts 15 hours. And a wearing a watch would only draw my attention to time. There are studies that compare performance of those wearing watches and on schedules to those who were picking their heads up and enjoying their surroundings. Guess who performed better? I was well aware of where I was on time though. I had to keep it in the back of my mind that I was still on a time limit.




I am not a fast rider. The bike is my strong event. I can hold my own, but in the long haul, the higher the mileage gets, the stronger I ride. I did get a little frustrated in Pearl City on the way back to Lagoon Drive at the tail end of the Island loop because I was tired and wanted to take the safer more direct bike path, but we stayed with the course map and got a little confused, even for being a local rider! When we finally got to Lagoon drive my request was to eat something, sleep for 1 hour and have very limited social interaction: I didn’t want to bark at anyone with my frustration, just wanted to keep quiet and sleep it off.



Eighty loops of the back end of Lagoon drive can be very intimidating. It took what felt like forever to get to 20 and even longer to get to 40 loops. I took quick sit downs with my feet up every 5-6 loops and ate and drank steadily. On these breaks it was easy for me to see that I was taking more breaks than the others, but that was my plan. One of my lessons learned is that some people do not know when to stop. Some where vomiting and pushing through it. Others were noticeably not hydrating or eating or napping and you could tell in their faces what they were going through. I watched a few of the athletes in EPIC5 pretty much run themselves into the ground and I vowed never to do that, so If my breaks become more frequent…..so be it. I was told that at points later into the ride that my morale, attitude, and overall health and strength were looking better than the others that were out there. I was having fun. Race Coordinator Stefan Newbury of TriFreaks rode many of my last laps with me. Instead of doing 80 laps and then riding 6 more miles down the road to get to transition they deemed it safer to rider the 6 miles as more laps and then get transported to transition safely in a car.

I did not run.

I was put in a situation a few weeks ago where I had to choose between races. I have been training not only for The Epicman Challenge, but also for The HURT 100 mile Endurance Trail Run. They are only 2 weeks apart from each other! I was called off the waiting list for HURT only a few weeks before Epicman was to begin and I chose HURT. Since last year’s HURT race I have been eager to return and give it another shot and the only way to due so was not run the 78.6 miles of road running during EPIC and save my legs for the trails. A decision that was made before getting in the water, but a not so easy decision to keep, especially after feeling so good getting off a 336 mile bike ride, knowing I was not going to continue, but really wondering what kind of run performance I could have given.

There is always next time! One very cool award is that you keep your race number forever. Anytime I want to compete again I will be #2 - no one will ever get that number again for any future EPICMAN Challenge. It is mine

Swim Gear:

-Profile Design Wahoo Wetsuit

-Zogg Predator Flex Goggles

-Body Glide and Vaseline

-Planet Sun Sunscreen

Bike Gear:

- Specialized Tarmac

- SRAM Red

- Mavic Ksyrium SR Wheelset

- Specialized Turbo Pro Tubes and Tires

- Specialized Prevail Helmet

- Sidi Ergo Pro 2 Carbon Shoes - Kook Keo Carbon 16 Blade Pedals

- Oakley Radar Path Jade Iridium

- Pearl Izumi knickers, gloves, toe warmers etc. Nike Full length Bib

- Planet Sun Sunscreen

- Chamois Butter

Run Gear: (unfortunately not used)

- Somnio Pacemakers

- Asics Cumulus

- Balega Socks

- Lululemon Athletica Shorts

- Body Glide

- Planet Sun Sunscreen

Nutrition:

- Spiz

- Cytomax

- Clif Shotbloks

- Hamer Gel and H.E.E.D

- Coca Cola

- Clip2

- Water

Pizza, French Fries, Pretzels and Bagels

All Photos by Colin Cross at Hawaii Race Photos

http://www.mikeflartey.com/post/15307175665/the-ep1cman-challenge-race-report