ULTRA-LONG RACE REPORT
ULTRAMAN CANADA
By Ingrid “Irongrid” Hillhouse
August 10, 2011
Background to this race report: HRTC asked me to write a little summary of my
Ultraman experience for the newsletter to include some of the bullet points in this race
report like “Why an Ultraman”, “Training”, “Travel”, “Swim, Bike Run”, etc. Since I wrote
all that, I kept it in this race report and then added and extended the documentation of
the Stages of the race with more info on my planned stops, unplanned stops, nutrition,
stomach problems, silly obsessions, etc. It’s very long, but hey, this is an Ultraman
Race Report!
Why an Ultraman?
I have pretty much known since I started triathlon that I do not have a gift for speed in any of our
triathlon disciplines, swimming, biking or running. As I developed as a triathlete and started
attempting longer races, however, I found out I have a gift for going LONG! And then
LONGER! AND NOW LONGER!! I prefer Ironman distance races to the half Iron distance
and have run two Ultra-marathons including the Rocky Raccoon 100 mile trail run and now I‟m
an Ultraman! I swam a 10K, biked 260 miles and ran 52.4 miles in 31 hours and 22 minutes
over 3 stages in 3 days, July 30-August 1, 2011.
In October 2008, the seed for Ultraman was planted. I was training for my first Half Iron,
Ironstar 2008, when I learned that the boyfriend of a friend of mine was training for the
Ultraman. I figured it was just another Ironman or Half Ironman, after all there‟s “Silverman”,
“Eagleman”, “Mooseman”, “Vineman”, so it makes sense that “Ultraman” would just be another
one of these “X-Man” races, right? WRONG-O! Jeff, Heather‟s husband, looked up the
Ultraman online and we found out it was in Hawaii and it was a crazy, long, insane race in three
stages something like a double or triple Ironman and I instantly thought, “No way! There‟s no
way T. is doing that race. He looks so normal. You‟d have to be some kind of freak athlete to
do all that.” Well, I looked up more info on the race and went to the participant bios and there he
was, his picture and his bio was posted on the Ultraman World Championship website. It really
was T. and he really was signed up to do the race. As it turned out, however, T. didn‟t race that
year, but the seed was planted in my mind of a race longer than an Ironman, though at that time I
was saying I had no desire to do an Ironman. My, how things change…
Training for Ultraman
The Ultraman is an invitational race, so I applied for an invitation in December 2010 and I
received and accepted my invitation in February 2011. I have a coach, Alexander Hutchison,
Highlander Triathlon, and I have worked with him for over a year. He coached me with great
success for the Rocky Raccoon 100 and I had complete confidence that he would build a training
program for me that would ensure I was ready for the big day(s) of Ultraman! From February
2011 until May 2011, my training felt like Ironman training as I was preparing for Ironman
Texas, but I didn‟t really taper before the Ironman and the very next weekend I had a 3-day
block of Friday- Swim 2 miles, Saturday- Swim 3 miles, Bike 60 miles, Sunday- Bike 60 miles,
Run 10 miles. Game on!
Then, June and July 2011 were ultra-intense! My training volume during the week stayed
manageable, but my weekends ramped up significantly. I had a few weekends of 6-10 hour
training days back to back - a long swim (3-5 miles) and medium-long distance bike ride (90
miles) on Saturday followed by a long ride on Sunday (120 miles) or a long ride Saturday (120
miles) with a long run Sunday (30 miles). Two weeks out from the race I did another long 3-day
weekend with a 3 mile swim and 40 mile ride on Friday, 90 mile ride on Saturday and 31 mile
run on Sunday.
In addition to my regular training schedule, I often sought out events and training venues outside
of Houston to get some race-specific terrain simulation and to test myself at different distances
and in different situations. The Ultraman Canada bike and run courses were going to be hilly
and mountainous. I also threw in some events for “mental toughness” such as the La Vuelta
Puerto Rico (375 mile bike ride in 3 days) and the Rocky Raccoon 100 mile trail run on back to
back weekends, the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon (a 1.5 mile swim in 53 degree shark infested
water with a strong current for a girl who loathes the cold and doesn‟t like to swim, sure, why
not); a 10K USMS Sanctioned Swim Race in Ft. Myers Florida (nightmare); the Leadville Trail
Marathon (torture); and the Triple Bypass Bicycle Tour (3 mountain passes, 120 miles, 10,000‟
of climbing, sounds lovely…it was grueling!)
Travel
I knew for sure by May 2010 that I was going to apply for the Ultraman Canada so when
Ironman Canada rolled around in August of 2010, I wanted to race it. The Ultraman starts just
South of Penticton which is the location of Ironman Canada and the first 90 miles of the
Ultraman bike course is the same as IM Canada. The swim, run and other 170 miles of the bike
are completely different, but still in the same general area. As it so happened, IM Canada was
sold out by then and all the charity slots were full. We had about 9 HRTC members racing at
Ironman Canada that year, though, including Shellie, who has been a great friend for a very, very
long time and inspired me to even think about trying to train for a triathlon long ago, so I signed
up as a volunteer for Ironman Canada and made the trip to Penticton with my bike, wetsuit,
running shoes, and Ultraman race maps! This worked out perfectly and made travel to the actual
Ultraman Event this year a snap.
I arrived in Penticton on Wednesday night, July 27. We had pre-race briefings on Thursday and
Friday and the race began on Saturday, July 30. When I assembled my bike Wednesday night,
two of the teeth on the big chain ring were damaged presumably during transit. I use an Aerus
soft bike case for travel and have never had any trouble in the past 7-8 trips I‟ve made with the
bike. Jeff who was on my land crew is also the manager of Performance Bikes in Austin and a
mechanic and he brought a whole case of tools and parts in case we needed anything. He was
able to fix the teeth without too much trouble and I took the bike for a test ride the next day and
it was operating perfectly. Jeff ROCKS!
How is the Ultraman Different from an Ironman other than distance?
The Ultraman is a special, unique event. There are currently three Ultraman Races worldwide:
the Ultraman Championship in Hawaii, Ultraman Canada, and Ultraman UK. As Ultraman has
increased in popularity, participants are now required to “qualify” for the Championship in
Hawaii by completing at least one Ultraman before applying. The race is in organized in three
“Stages” with a 12 hour time limit each day. There were 29 competitors in the Ultraman Canada
race this year. The field consisted of 18 men and 11 women representing six countries- personal
trainers, coaches, business/sales types, a lawyer, an art director, a student, a self proclaimed
vagabond who rode his bike from Alaska to the race, and me, a 38 year old petroleum engineer
from Houston, Texas.
The race organization provided little to no support on the course other than road markings, a start
line and finish line and a timing clock with manual record keeping (a person with a clip board
and a big white board). Each participant was required to have a swim escort (kayaker) and at
least two land crew members. There were no aid stations and no port-o-potties provided for the
participants on the bike and run routes. The crews were responsible for carrying all our nutrition
and hydration needs as well as basic medical supplies and back up gear/tools, etc. My Mom was
my swim escort and she was also on my land crew and Heather Herrick and her husband Jeff
were also on my land crew. Lucky for me they are all ultra-awesome and super patient!
Stage 1: Swim 10K/Bike 90 miles
In one word-Awesome! I‟d rather swim a 10K now than run one! The swim started at 6:45 AM
on Saturday. The morning was cool and the water was pretty cold but not „freeze-your-face off‟
Alcatraz cold! Weather: 60 degrees at the start, 90 degrees for the high. My Mom and I worked
out a communication system by hanging rubber placemats off the side of the kayak- green if I
was doing good and staying on course, yellow if I needed to stay closer and red if I needed to get
over to her right away. I never saw red, and I‟m pretty sure I only saw yellow if the wind blew
the green one over, except maybe once when I was straying off a littl. I was wearing a watch
with a timer set to chime every 45 minutes for a feed break to drink 4-6 oz of sport drink and
take a gel. Mom put a marker on the kayak 5 minutes before feed time so I would know to start
listening for the chime and she handed down the nutrition I needed and took the empties back.
I had a strategy of dedicating miles of the swim to my friends who have inspired me in
swimming and in life. Mile 1 was for Shannon. Mile 2 was for Lauren. Mile 3 was for Heather.
Mile 4 was for my Momma! Mile 5 was for God and Mile 6 was for ME!!!!!!!! It‟s funny the
things that go through your head when you have that much time in true silence. When I got to
Heather‟s Mile, I said in my head “Heather‟s Mile, then Heather‟s SMILE”; I got a big kick out
of that and it took me another quarter mile or so to figure out that it worked for everyone else
too!! “ShannonSmile” swim swim swim, “LaurenSmile” swim, swim swim, “MommaSmile”
Hahaha. Swim swim swim…
For the first mile, I was ok, body-wise but then from miles 1-2 and 2-3 I was pretty cold. My
Mom had a thermos of hot chicken broth in the kayak, as I anticipated I might get very cold, but
I really didn‟t want to stop and deal with that so I reminded myself that the sun was rising and
the top of the water and my black wetsuit would be heating up and that I was getting warmer! It
worked. By miles 3-6 I was just fine temperature-wise, but my stomach started giving me some
trouble. I knew I should‟ve taken a preventative immodium!! Oh well. I really stressed out
about what I would do if I really had an emergency and absolutely HAD to go, but I managed to
work through that too and I made it without a stomach blowout. Not sure what set it off; maybe
gulping air while I tried to chug down my sport drink while treading water…
Miraculously I finished the swim in 4 hrs 43 minutes!! My personal goal was to do it in less than
5 hours and the course cut-off was 6 hours. I‟m really proud of my Mom and me for doing such
a good job, especially considering there were only two buoys in the water- and the first one was
at the 8K point!!!!! And second one was at the final turn. My Mom was told to sight on the “V”
shape that two particular mountains made on the horizon! Crazy! I was really happy to see very
even mile splits and our course was pretty good, though I actually swam 6.47 miles according to
the Garmin, a little more than 6.2 (10K).
Immediately after the swim, I ate a half pb&j, chugged my magic potion of First Endurance
“Pre-Race” and made a quick transition to take off on the bike. Unfortunately for me, I started
the bike ride right around noon as the winds went from less than 3 mph to 5-10 mph. I was
riding south, winds were from the south, thus, HEADWIND.
I knew this part of the course from my preview trip to Canada in 2010 and it went great but was
a little slow with the headwind. If you‟ve done IM Canada, this is the part that goes from
Penticton to Osoyoos, up the infamous Richter Pass, around and up to Yellow Lake then back to
Penticton. My crew “leap frogged” me every 10km or 6 miles, stopping on the shoulder as I
passed by and gave them the thumbs up and a big smile and we planned for a stop at 50 miles to
change out my camelback and restock with anything else I needed for nutrition. I made an
unplanned stop at a fruit stand for a bathroom approximately 10 miles into the ride and another
unplanned stop off the side of the road for my stomach at 33 miles in.
Later in the ride, one of the race officials came by me on the motorcycle when we still had 2
hours to go before the 12 hour time limit and asked me if I was doing ok. He was worried I was
not going to make the cut-off I guess. He came by a little later and told me to “push it”. This
really annoyed me and stressed me out a little. I had plenty of time! What was he talking about.
Then another official came by, but I didn‟t know it was not the same guy and before he even said
a word to me I yelled at him, “I know, I know, I need to pick it up”. This was the Head official
and he did not appreciate my tone and I think he was a little annoyed with me! Whoops. After 5
hours and 48 minutes of transition and riding and a total time for day 1 of 10 hours, 31 minutes
(well under the 12 hour time cut-off), Stage 1 was complete and I was on my way to becoming
an Ultraman! I talked to the Head official after I came in and he explained to me that he was
checking on me to make sure I wasn‟t becoming “irrational” and he was going to tell me I didn‟t
need to “push”. He just wanted to make sure I was ok because a competitor in a previous year
did not manage her hydration during the run and became “irrational” on the course and later
divorced her crew! Wow. Drama. I apologized profusely for my reaction to him on the course
and assured him I was fine and hydrated, and just a slow swimmer and a little stressed out by the
other official.
At the end of the day, the race provided some “body work” (assisted stretching, light massage)
for me and my swim escort, Mom, then we went to the apartment for a simple, plain dinner of
grilled chicken and baked potato and I prepared for Stage 2. I was in bed by 8:30 PM and up at
3:30 AM the next day.
Stage 2: Bike 170 miles
Amazing, Exhilirating, Unbelievable! Notable features of the bike course were “the Wall” and
the last 40 miles which includes a 20 mile slow climb to Allison Lake into the wind. The
reward, of course, is a thrilling 20 mile descent with tail wind. Wooohooo! The Wall comes up
62 miles into the ride and it is approximately ½ mile of 15% grade switchbacks with a straight up
climb at the tip-top that then sets you on your way to another 12 miles of climbing. I did a
practice ride of 10 miles up the Wall and beyond on the Thursday before the race and it was
tough, but certainly do-able.
The race organization provided one very important person on the course in addition to two
officials on motorcycles, the Voice of Ironman Canada, Mr. Steve King! Presumably a Brit,
everything just sounds better when he says it! When I finished Day 1, he complemented me on a
strong bike split and said it was a good indicator for a good Stage 2. On Day 2, every time I
passed one of his check stations he made me feel like a SUPERSTAR! The first time I passed
by, he noted that I had already moved up several positions in time. The second time he said that
I was in my aero bars more than any other racer he had seen all day and it was certainly paying
off for me. The third time he actually called me the “Supergirl” of the day!! I was giddy and
having so much fun!
On Day 2, I had planned 3 stops for food and sport drink refills which I pretty much kept as
planned. I dropped my chain while riding into the wind from Keremeos to Princeton, I had to
make an uplanned bathroom stop at a roadside park (Bromley Rock) and I pushed my second
planned stop 10K past the plan because I felt like I had a lot of momentum going and when I
turned the corner to stop at our van, I thought I saw the van moving. I didn‟t think the crew was
ready for a very quick stop so I rolled on. At the first stop, 50 miles, I changed out my
camelback and picked up some extra gels. At the second stop, 96-ish, I ate ¼ turkey sandwich
with a swig of Ensure shake and took ½ PB&J to go. I was breathing pretty hard and didn‟t
chew the turkey sandwich very well, so although I had practiced eating a turkey sandwich during
a rest stop on previous rides, I didn‟t really “rest” at the stop and the sandwich set pretty heavy in
my esophagus (?) for a while. Not a good feeling…
I took a scoop of Pre-race before I started this ride, too, and then each camel back refill I picked
up had a scoop of pre-race diluted in 50-70 oz of sport drink. Pre-race is an interesting
supplement. For me, it gives me extra energy, drive and “focus”. “Focus” is a nice way of
saying that I can totally start obsessing about whatever it is I think I need to focus on. On Day 2,
it was time cut-offs. For some reason, I was worried about making it half-way in a certain
“time” and making it to Princeton (approx 130 miles) by a certain “time”. The RD suggested
that when you made it to Princeton, you still have 2-1/2-3 hours to ride before finishing so if you
don‟t think you will make the 12 hour course limit you can stop in Princeton and not do the
climb to Allison Lake, take a DNF and save your legs to run the next day…There were actually
no official “cut-offs” or time gates to meet other than the overall 12 hour time limit to finish. I
had set my watch timer to chime every 15 minutes to remind me to drink so I did not have the
time of day showing on my watch. The time of day on my bike computer was wrong and though
the total elapsed time and miles were correct on the bike computer, all the numbers were garbled
in my head like this: I thought it took me almost 6 hours to ride the first half, then I had the
following conversation with myself, ”I‟m stopping for a refill at 90 miles. Wait is halfway 90
miles, no halfway is 85 miles because the total is 170 miles, 90 miles times 2 is 180 miles, but I
rode 90 yesterday in 5:48 and it just now took me 5:46 to ride 80 or was it 5:46 to ride 90? Did I
ride 85 in 5:46? Focus, focus, focus. 85 was half way…I‟m stopping at 90. Do I need to stop at
90? Maybe I don‟t need to stop. It‟s not as hot as I thought it would be and I have plenty of
fluids, maybe I won‟t stop. Well, let‟s just wait and see. If it‟s a good time to stop, I‟ll stop,
stick to the plan…” I didn‟t stop at 90 but stopped around 96.
I started worrying that the second half with the 20 mile climb was going to take longer and that I
might be at risk for not making it to Princeton with plenty of time to finish. In my head, “Now
I‟m 20 miles from Princeton and total elapsed time is 7:46. It‟s going to take me longer than 1
hour to ride 20 miles in this wind so say I get to Princeton by 8:15… UH OH!!! Then I only
have like 3 hours to finish!! (but not really, I did the math on the fly wrong, thinking I had 2:45
and I had 3:45 still)”… Pre-Race is an interesting supplement. The climb to Allison Lake was
really the only part of the course I had not previewed or seen in advance and I was anticipating a
climb like the ones up to Loveland Pass or Vail Pass in the Triple Bypass ride I did – 8-10 mph
all uphill for 20-30 miles! I was riding like a woman possessed and my crew could sense it. My
pit stops were frantic, but at least when I was riding I was smiling! I made it to Princeton with
plenty of time to spare and was surprised the climb to Allison Lake was easier than I expected I
maintained a speed of 14-15 mph getting up to the campground and the scenery was some of the
prettiest of the whole ride. At the turnaround I sensed relief. The “focus” or obsession with time
had passed and now I was obsessed with swooping past as many competitors as possible in the
final 20 miles!
I love to ride my bike and occasionally my competitive side kicks-in and I have fun chasing
people down! I was a little worried that I might have had a little too much fun, possibly in
denial that there was still a double marathon to run the next day, but I decided to worry about
that later and enjoy the success of completing Day 2 to lots of cheers, which by the way was in a
completely different city from where were started. It was a great bike ride with beautiful
scenery, and my amazing crew was there for me every mile. And I love them for telling me that
I didn‟t have to worry about time! We had packed our overnight bags and moved into two hotel
rooms at the end of Day 2, so after dinner provided by the race we were off to bed around 9:30
PM and I was up the next morning at 3:30 AM on Monday.
Stage 3: 52.4 Mile Run
This ain‟t no baby double marathon! From the race maps, it looked to me like the first 20 miles
were pretty much uphill and that the second marathon, though it had a couple tough spots, would
probably be “easier” if you can say that… At the pre-race meeting, however, the race director
said the first marathon was the easy one and the second one was the dreaded one. Hmmm.
First 30K mostly uphill
60-70K had “the Mountain”. I don’t see a Mountain on the profile. Where’s the Mountain?
It was 41 degrees when we started at 6 AM in Princeton and I was one of the competitors
wearing the least clothes- a tech t and running shorts, running gloves, an ear band with a cap over
it, and a fuel belt with 2x 8oz bottles. Come on, I‟m the girl from Texas! I should be the coldest
one here. Funny. We would run 52.4 miles point-to-point ending at the Ultraman Finish Line in
Summerland and the high temp for the day reached 83 degrees. At the start line I was bopping
around, my legs felt surprisingly great and my 5-hour energy shot had kicked in. I was happy,
smiley and ready to run.
Once again I laced my sport drink with Pre-race so when I got to mile 20 and noticed I was
ahead of schedule, I got very focused on finishing the first marathon, finishing the first marathon,
finishing the first marathon. There was a gentleman with a cabin on the course who made a non-
race sponsored aid station at mile 22. Apparently he‟s very nice and had lots of goodies for us
but I was so focused on finishing the first marathon I wouldn‟t stop. I asked my crew if they
could grab some watermelon to go and I kept on running. I ran the first marathon in 4:43. To
put that in perspective, my all time marathon PR is 4:10 when I trained hard and ran the fastest I
could possibly run on a flat course in Phoenix in January 2010 and an “average” marathon for
me is 4:30 and my marathon time for IMTX was 5:20. I was elated with the 4:43 time for the
first marathon at Ultraman. It felt better than any 12-15 mile training run I had done in the
searing heat and humidity of Houston or Austin in the previous month!
I passed Steve King at various check points and he said I was doing great and continuing to
move up in my position for the day. Then when I passed him at the marker for the first 26.2
miles completed he said something like, “and there she goes to begin the brutal second
marathon.” Brutal? Really? Was he serious? Was it really going to get BAAAADDDD??????
Well, it went to dirt road and it was quite curvy but so pretty and then eventually, I got to the
Mountain. I was warned there was a Mountain but it didn‟t look too bad on the elevation profile.
It was a mountain indeed, but it wasn‟t a mountain at 12,000-13,000‟ altitude like the one I ran in
Leadville Colorado that went uphill for 13 whole miles. It was just a little mountain! A
manageable mountain.
The crew got me through once again leap frogging with me every mile changing out my fuel belt
bottles with sport drink and water, feeding me gels, pb&j‟s, bananas, immodium, 5-hr energy,
and veggie chips and keeping me entertained with very creative antics. At one point during the
run, the van came driving by with a huge orange balloon smiley face held out from the window.
Another time when I was coming around the mountain, Mom and Heather were dosey-do-ing
with ballons singing, “She‟ll be coming round the mountain when she comes!” A few times,
Heather ran/walked with me especially in the 40-45 mile section. At that point I was still feeling
fine, no aches or pains or blisters, but I started to feel like I was tired of running! I really
appreciate Heather hopping out and talking to me and reminding me how great I was doing.
That was just the lift I needed! Our van was decorated with blue painter‟s tape and I enjoyed
seeing the miles marked by blue tape sticks getting tallied up on the side of the van. I was
running 52.4 MILES for crying out loud!!!!! That‟s a lot of “sticks” to tally!
For my hydration and nutrition during the run, I finally got tired of drinking my sport drink,
Amino Vital after 3 days and 18 scoops so for the second marathon I used more water with
electrolytes (Hammer Fizz) and a little more solid food. I completed the double marathon in 10
hours 10 minutes including running the first marathon mostly uphill and a mountain on dirt roads
in the second marathon. THRILLING!!!!!!
Finish
Surreal! I always believed I could do it but when I finished and really thought about what we
just did, it was hard to believe! I did it, WE did it. This was a “team”, individual, ultraendurance event. During the final two months of training for Ultraman, I trained alone a lot and
I felt the constant pressure of getting one weekend done and then planning and preparing for the
next, bigger, longer one and trying to manage all that while working 40-50 hours a week- where
am I training this weekend? what routes am I riding/running? where will I stage my fluid refills?
what do I need to pack? how much nutrition do I need to take? what will I need for
breakfast/dinner? when do I need to go to bed? when do I need to get up? when am I going to
get on the road? how early do I have to start to not end in the heat of the day, etc.
Many factors contributed to my success and enjoyment of Ultraman Canada including the
beautiful weather and the wonderful scenery and the thrill of swimming in cool, flat, clear water,
and riding and running and not knowing what would be around the next corner, but the number
one thing that touched my heart during the Ultraman was doing the event with my Mom and
Heather and Jeff. The burden of loneliness and the stress of training was lifted right off my back
and there was a renewed lightness in my body and soul. I never had to worry or stress about a
thing during the event. They had me covered 100% all the time. Anything I wanted or needed,
they did for me. They gave me more than water, sport drink, gels and food on that course. They
gave me a reason to smile and so much more than they‟ll ever know. During my Ultraman
training weekends, sometimes I had to yell at the wind or plead for a hill to end or beg myself to
keep running, keep running; during the race, though, I never went to a dark, lonely place in my
head and I never pleaded for any part to end because my Mom and good friends were there every
step of the way and I knew they had my back and all I had to do was enjoy the day and hope that
they were having as much fun as I was.
I love my crew and will be forever grateful for their help and support and love during the race
and during the journey to the start line as well.
Words of wisdom:
Dream Big and Believe, always Believe.
Do what you say.
Love and be Grateful. Love your family, love your friends and love all around you.