To make a long story short, I was very pleased with my race, and I finished in 5:08:19, a half-hour faster than my first effort at the distance last summer. My most important goal had been to get under 5:30, and 5:10 had been my fantasy time. That was based on 45 min for swim plus transitions, 2:45 on the bike (20 mph) and 1:40 on the run (about 7:30 pace).
The weekend started early. I was carpooling with 3 other guys and want to thank Rod Haws for driving. Left the house a little after 7:00 a.m. on Saturday morning to meet up with them. We then loaded my bike into Rod's truck and we were off. The drive down was fun - all of us talking with excitement and nervous energy.
We arrived at the site about noon and parked. We learned the hard way how far away we were from the site, walking up to check-in. The line was long, but not ridiculously slow. Met up with some other TRIracers and heard the pre-race talk while we got our packets. Then we had to hike back to the car to get our bikes for drop off at T1. I scored a few brownie points with Rod for remembering to bring electrical tape. Funny all the details to keep track of.
When we approached T1 for bike check in, we learned that they were doing body marking. I was wearing jeans. Fortunately, they were fairly loose, so I thought nothing of it. But then the guy decides he wants to mark my thigh, not my calves. My mother would be pleased to know that I was wearing reasonably clean underwear. I figured we lay it all out on race day, so what else was I going to do...
After returning to the hotel, I started obsessing over the weather. The reports were deteriorating and it looked like there would be rainstorms Sunday morning (race day). The other guys were all casual and drinking beers, and there I was doting over my iPhone, trying to figure out if we'd get to race. I guess we all react differently.
Eventually we met up with other TRIracers, (Nelson, Jass, et al.) and went for dinner at a nice little Italian place in the late afternoon. Nice conversation and a good time to relax. We stopped off at Walmart to get something to eat for breakfast, which was to be at something like 3:30 a.m. the next day.
I spent entirely too long "organizing" my bag back at the hotel, then hung around with TRIracers for a bit, before retiring early. I kept getting just to sleep when my son and wife started texting me. They had gone to Minneapolis for a race the next morning that he was going to do. I was using the iPhone for my alarm clock, so I couldn't turn the sound off. I kept waking up when they sent something and cursing before I replied. Eventually, I just said that I was going (back) to sleep, and so it was.
Race morning -
We got up early and I slapped on the first of 3 layers of sunscreen before getting dressed. I did NOT want to get burned again. I put water into my bottle of Perpetuem and ate the bagels and peanut butter I'd bought the night before. Out of the hotel and off to the race in the dark. We arrived a little before 5:00 a.m. and started the trek to T2. Rain still looked likely, so I left my shoes in a plastic bag. Then the hike in the sunrise to T1. When we got there, it was amazing how crowded the T1 area was. Narrow aisles and tight packing of the bikes. I again practiced getting to my bike from the swim area. Then a couple trips to the bathroom, a last layer of sunscreen and body glide in all the right spots. By this time, it was just a few minutes before the pro start at 6:30 and I was grateful to be nursing a bottle of gatorade I found.
The weather looked like it would hold out, at least for a while.
I was a little surprised by the start, where we waded out to deeper water and went from there. It wasn't a big deal, but I just hadn't been able to see well enough that this was what was happening.
And then we were off. I was very pleased by the simple course: ~900 m out, ~200 across, ~800 back. This made it easy for me to follow and know where I was in the race. I was surprised how physical the swim was. There was quite a bit of jostling, compared to what I'm used to. Aside from this, the swim was smooth for me. As I got out of the water, I glanced at my watch and saw 38 min. That was ok by me. A couple of weeks ago, I'd had a pretty bad swim at an Olympic race, so this "on par" time was ok.
T1 was not great. I knew what aisle my bike was, but I underestimated how far down, and I spent too long looking for it. Then, once I was ready to go, I heard Nelson's voice behind me, yelling me on. That encouragement was great, but it meant I had lost 8 minutes to him on the swim! Maybe my swim wasn't so ok after all, I was thinking. Then some guy stumbled or something in front of me, and I almost fell stopping while running down the narrow aisle with my bike...Nelson right behind me. Nelson started yelling some more - I thought he was yelling at me, but I learned later he was yelling at the other guy and trying to check on me. So much for me not being disoriented...
Finally, I cleared from the bike aisles. After all that mess, I decided to run well past the mount line before mounting. I did, and mounted cleanly. I could hear Nelson still behind me, so it must have been reasonably fast, too, since he was right behind me. The other advantage was that I got a great, smooth bike start.
I had resolved not to consume anything for about 10 minutes or pay much attention to my speed for that time, as well, just taking it a little easy. So when I finally did look down at my computer, I was glad to see I was on target, between 180 and 200 W, and over 20 mph on a little flat. There were guys zooming by, but I decided to stick to the plan: 180 W ave target and up to 190 if I felt really good. All the people passing was disturbing, especially since there were some it looked like I could keep up with, but I stuck with it. I started to consume my Perpetuem on 15 minute intervals.
My only unfortunate bad spot of the race was somewhere in that 30-50 min range into the bike. I didn't feel right, and the power seemed low. But soon enough it was over, and I started counting the miles until halfway. The rolling hills went up and down constantly. Shift, shift, shift, shift. Started coasting when I hit about 35 and sitting up out of aero when under 15 mph and needing 250 W for a hill. Anything to make those relatively high wattage efforts easier and take some pressure of the quads for the day. I tried to keep the max to about 260 W except for an incidental stroke or two.
Something happened for me psychologically at the half way point. Somewhere around there, we turned such that we were going into the wind, which was pretty strong - maybe 20 mph. Suddenly, the course seemed just like home, and I was in a zone. Just kept going. Felt strong but under control. I figured out that my "feeds" would cost me about 1 minute of modest discomfort each time, usually ending in a belch and then a good spot for a while. It was all good.
There was a great psychology as I started catching back a lot of people that had passed me early in the race while going into the wind. Surely, it wasn't all of them, but it was enough. I knew the wind was hurting my speed (like everyone), but it looked like I might bring in 20 mph. More good psychology that made it easy to ramp up the power just a little bit, maybe 10 W. Ran into David Jass along the way and cheered each other a bit. It was a good day.
In the end, the only thing that really bothered me during the bike was some annoyance over a lot of unnecessary drafting. This wasn't just packs from the course being crowded, but blatant drafting. There was a little bit of rain, but it ended and the roads stayed essentially dry.
Soon enough I was coming into T2 and wondering if the rest of the race could possibly stay this easy. I was in a great mood. I saw my watch, and that I had come in under my target time, and that gave me another boost.
I hadn't seen many TRIracers on the bike, partly from focus, partly from limited out and back sections. But I knew I'd start to see them now, because the run was a two loop course with lots of two way traffic.
I ripped the bike computer off (with GPS), and put it in my back pocket. I grabbed a gel to eat at mile 1. Just like the bike, I had resolved to run easy the first few miles and just see how it was before firming up plans. So I did that. Just ran easy and comfortable. Saw Chrissie Wellington, who just looked like she was on a run in the park. Unbelievable. After that, I focused back on myself and saw I was doing 7:30 pace. Incredible.
I did a little math and knew I was in for a sub-5:30 time unless I just crashed. I thought 5:20 was reasonable. I realized that being able to do math was a good sign. (I guess the picture proves I'm still an inveterate heel-striker.)
Started seeing TRIracers and sharing little cheers and high-fives. Tami passed me easily. Oh well! Saw Nelson again for the first time. Always fun - he's a great teammate. I ran by the TRIracer tents in the camp ground and yelled something stupid like "sub-5:30" as I went by. But it was what was on my mind.
The whole psychology was great. My mantra turned into "all day pace". As in I was running a pace I felt like I could run all day. Started ticking off the miles. Everything was good. I didn't stop once. Not for anything.
Right around mile 9.5 or so, the one killer run hill came up again, shortly after the sun had broken through and it had warmed up. That hill did hurt and I realized that the previously "all day pace" would be harder to keep up. Also, I was developing a painful blister under my left arch.
But I did some more math. If I could just keep it up anywhere near 8:00 miles, I was looking at 5:10! And so I did. Miles 11 and 12 were a bit tough, but I knew it was going to be over soon. When I could see the finish, I had enough left to sprint.
5:08:19! Wow!
I got my medal and some water. Eventually an ice bath, then started looking for friends. But that's the subject of another post. Great celebration. Lots of great times. Great day.
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