Heading into this race, the plan was to not lose too much time to the runners on the first run leg, hammer on the bike with the aim of coming into T2 first or second (hopefully with some breathing room) and try and hold on for a top 3 finish in the final run leg. I knew I could get in the top 10, probably top 5, but I felt top 3 was possible if everything went right.
The wait at the starting line was a bit nerve wrecking to be honest. I looked around and there seemed to be a lot of runners in the front group. Don't ask me why I thought that, but it just seemed like they were all runners and I knew the run was where I would be losing time.
The gun went off and a group of 5 shot out ahead. Within a few minutes they were at least 20 yds ahead of the next 'group', I had initially hoped to be in that crowd, but reality hit and I had to hang back a bit. I snuck in at position #8, behind two guys from the same club. It was working out great cuz we were running into a head wind, and it was helpful to have a wind block. Half a mile in, a couple guys passed me and my wind blockers. I knew that I couldn't afford to lose any more positions so I moved around to hang on to those guys. Unfortunately, they were too fast for me and I watched as they pulled away gradually.
At the turnaround mark I see the leader- he's this young kid, probably no more than 20. His form seemed perfect and effortless. I think he had about a 1 minute on me. I was falling a bit behind schedule... I had hoped to get into T1 no more than 90 seconds back. I decided to turn it up a notch to keep within striking distance of the leaders. There were no more position changes in the run.
While unracking my bike in T2 I hear Maggie yell "2 minutes and you're 9th!!!". So I was pretty close to where I predicted I was going to be. I got a bit more good news as I pulled out of T2. A guy yelled out that I was in 6th position. That means I gained 3 spots in transition... SWEEET. Took my time putting my feet into my shoes. Got a good slurp of gu from my gu flask, and downed a gulp of water and I was ready to roll.
I started picking guys off pretty quickly. 5th position. 4th position. 3rd position. 2nd position. Then heading into a turn I saw the young kid at the lead. I passed him and looked down at my computer - 6 miles in. 5 to go. I was in the lead wayyy earlier than I expected. This was good news since it will allow me to (hopefully) build in more time. This was when I noticed my police escort on a motor bike. How cool is that? I knew that I wanted to take the lead at some point, but when it actually happened I actually was a bit dumbfounded
Heading into the last turn I looked back to see a guy right on my tail. He was legally spaced behind me, but I had no idea anyone was so close. When he realized I saw him, he turned it up and passed me. We were about 500 yds from transition so I slowed down to slip my feet out of my shoes. He heard my free wheel spinning and he turned around to see what I was doing. When he realized it, I saw him unstrap his shoes... which to me was a bit wierd. I had no idea what kind of clipless pedals he was using but it was a rather odd action. I took that opportunity to push pass him and get into T2 in position #1.
In T2, he was racked literally 2 bikes to my side. I saw him throw his bike on the rack and run off. He was biking on his running shoes. I ended up leaving transition about 10 yds behind him.
I suddenly realized I was in a unique situation. I had always raced strategically, and it worked well for racing against the clock. But now that I was close to the lead and vying for a podium spot, tactics had come into play. The first thing I had to do was catch up to the guy. I believe that there is a big difference (mentally) between having someone run right on your shoulder vs having someone run about 10 yds back. If I could stick to him like glue, that might put enough pressure on him to start questioning himself. And I knew that he wasn't one of the 8 guys who beat me in the initial run leg, so there was a good chance my run was better than his.
Within 500-600 yds, I had closed up the gap to a few yards. For the next mile, I ran right on his shoulder. When the turnaround cones came into sight, I picked it up the pace a bit and told him 'good job'. I started pulling away at the 1 mile (halfway point) turnaround. About 150 yds after the turnaround, I pass the young kid running the other way. He's in 3rd, with a guy in a red jersey right behind him at 4th. I recognize the both of them as far superior runners to me. At this point I knew that the cyclist dude was out of the race. I didn't believe he had enough to catch me. However #3 and #4 were probably going to gain on me fast. I realized that if I got passed, it would be by both of them. So my choices were win or 3rd place.
I decided that this was it. Do or die. Lift knees, relax shoulders, and GO. The last mile was a blur. I had a lot of people running the other way wishing me good luck and telling me good job. I wasn't trying to ignore them but I was in a world of my own. Form, form, form, form. I saw the final right turn and for the first time I realized that I had a shot at winning the race. That moment of epiphany was like another shot of adrenaline.
At this point I was running close to all out. 400 yds out from the finish, my bike escort looks behind and tells me that I'm in the clear. That there's no one behind me. I think he just wanted to let me know that I didn't need to keep killing myself. For a split second, I considered slowing down, but the concept seemed too foreign. I have never crossed a finish line easy before, and I probably shouldn't start now. Besides, I have the end of my pain in sight. I cross the finish line first in 53:xx, and everyone's cheering. The moment was absolutely surreal.
It turns out that I actually got second and that the overall winner came from the wave behind me. I looked at our times and realized that he was significantly stronger than me and that there was no way I could’ve beaten him even if I knew he was leading. Either way, I’m humbled by the experience of crossing the finish line first. What a great race!
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Tri-Shark Race Report (from 6/5/2010)
Another race report from earlier this year:
Pre-Race
Maggie and I stayed about 20 minutes away from the race site. Woke up at 5:00. Had two bananas in the morning at the hotel then we drove down to the start. While I was setting up my transition, there was a downpour soaking me to the bones. Since there was another hour till start time I decided to not leave my stuff out there, hoping that the rain would stop soon.
Announcers said that due to thunderstorms in the area, they may have to delay the start by a few hours. Maggie gets antsy, and so do I. 30 minute before the original start time, I decide to fully set up my transition. Even though the roads are a bit slippery I decide to clip my shoes on to me pedals. Gotta be consistent.
15 minutes to start time they announce that the storms have moved away, and we're set to start on schedule. "All athletes please get to the start line!". I down a gu, take a s-cap and scramble to put on my wetsuit, I managed to get in a 10 minute swim before they clear out the lake. Water temperature is a balmy 73F.
Swim
Oddly enough, no nerves. Wave 1 (elite) takes off. Wave 2 (29 and under, M and F) takes off. Our wave moves up to the front lines. I sorta stand to the side hoping to get into the 2nd or 3rd row, but no one moves up. Seems like everyone in my wave (30-39 M and F) are timid on the swim. 30 seconds before the horn goes, one dude comes along side me. I inch back behind him. BOOM! The gun goes off and a mass of humans dive in the water. I keep this guy to my left since I'm better breathing to that side. He's not too bad so I stick to his hip. After a few hundred yards I'm still stuck to his right hip and he seems to be drafting off the feet of the lead swiimer. Slowly the three of us pulls away from the group.
At the first buoy the lead swimmer surges and gaps my man. I had to make a decision on the spot. I decided to ditch my guy and try to catch up with the leader. I figured this is a sprint and I could afford to swim hard for a bit. After about 10-20 yds I managed to catch up with my new feet. He's going strong, but I still inadvertently run into his feet a few times. This is the second race in a row that I've been in the front pack of the swim.... I was feeling pretty good.
Heading into the swim finish the guy surges again and this time I let him go. I want my HR to come down a bit before T1. As I slow down, a girl from my wave comes out of nowhere and squeezes by me. 3rd out of the water in my wave. I'll take it.
Result: 13th of 436
T1
Struggled a bit with getting my top zipper up this time. Told myself to calm down a bit. As I run into the transition, I see Maggie yelling and pointing at my bike. "There!!! THERE!!" :) I was worried I was going to get penalized for outside assistance.
My sunglasses were soaked so I decided to not wear them. Grab my bike and ran with it. Stumbled a bit on my first flying mount, but got on on my second go. Passed 3 people clipping in.
Bike
Road with one foot in my shoe and the other foot out of the shoe for a few minutes due to the way the course started. Once both feet were in, I started to roll. Like at Galena I was picking off people left and right. 10 minutes into the bike I take 2 s-caps and a shot of gu. Look down at my power and I'm seeing borderline 290-300 watts. Wooo... I"m flying!
At this point I'm pretty sure that I'm leading my age group. I keep looking back to see if anyone is catching up with me, but I don't see anyone. I keep passing and I keep looking back. This is when it occurred to me that I have a good shot at podiuming in my AG. I'm a bit nervous about the run since that's usually where I lose spots.
Ended the bike leading my age group!
Results: 8th out of 436.
24.3 mph.
T2
I run into T2 and get ready for the run. Nothing goes wrong until I started heading for the run exit. Suddenly, I realized I didn't scout the run out!! WTF. I knew I was pretty chill about this race but this mistake is just unacceptable. dumb dumb dumb. I start running one way and yell out "Is run out this way??", a girl yells back "no! its the other way!!". I do a 180 and head out.
Grrrr... I kept thinking that if I lose positions by seconds, I'll be kicking myself for this later.
Run
Right off the bat, I know I've got a dude right behind me. For the first half mile he stays there, then he finally overtakes me. As he passes, he points behind him and tells me to stick to him. "Come on! Come on! Right here!" I take up the offer. At that point I was already hurting but I saw that he had a "33" on his calf! Crap!!!! I knew I had to hang on for as long as possible. Unfortunately he was a stronger runner than me. I finally couldn't hang on any longer and told him that I was done. I couldn't match his pace. He nods and slowly pulls away. When hes about 15 feet ahead of me, this kid out of nowhere blitzs past the both of us. I look at his calf.... 25-29 ... phew. He started 3 minutes ahead of me... so no big deal. But boy could that kid run. He passed me and blew past the guy ahead of me as well.
On the half-way turnaround, I get to see how far my other competitors are. There is no one within a minute of me. Thank god. At this point I'm second in my AG... the podium spot is still secure. About a minute behind me is Scott, the guy I met at Galena earlier in the year. We nod at each other as we pass.
Then in the last quarter mile, out of nowhere, I got struck with intense paranoia. I keep hearing someone gaining on me. I sneak a glance and think I see someone in a white shirt a bit behind me. Uh-oh. I can't drop another podium spot. I'm already on the verge of redlining and can't really push anymore... but somehow I do. I'm pretty much frothing at the mouth at this point. I see the finish line. 400 yds. 300 yds. 200 yds. 100 yds. MADE IT! I turn around and see that there is absolutely NO ONE behind me. My mind is playing tricks on me, man. Just like the Geto Boy song.
Result: 11th out of 436
Got my 5k PR in the process with a 20:00:09!! So close to breaking 20 min!! 6:27 min/mile pace.
Again, I'm pretty happy that my run ranking was decent again.
Pre-Race
Maggie and I stayed about 20 minutes away from the race site. Woke up at 5:00. Had two bananas in the morning at the hotel then we drove down to the start. While I was setting up my transition, there was a downpour soaking me to the bones. Since there was another hour till start time I decided to not leave my stuff out there, hoping that the rain would stop soon.
Announcers said that due to thunderstorms in the area, they may have to delay the start by a few hours. Maggie gets antsy, and so do I. 30 minute before the original start time, I decide to fully set up my transition. Even though the roads are a bit slippery I decide to clip my shoes on to me pedals. Gotta be consistent.
15 minutes to start time they announce that the storms have moved away, and we're set to start on schedule. "All athletes please get to the start line!". I down a gu, take a s-cap and scramble to put on my wetsuit, I managed to get in a 10 minute swim before they clear out the lake. Water temperature is a balmy 73F.
Swim
Oddly enough, no nerves. Wave 1 (elite) takes off. Wave 2 (29 and under, M and F) takes off. Our wave moves up to the front lines. I sorta stand to the side hoping to get into the 2nd or 3rd row, but no one moves up. Seems like everyone in my wave (30-39 M and F) are timid on the swim. 30 seconds before the horn goes, one dude comes along side me. I inch back behind him. BOOM! The gun goes off and a mass of humans dive in the water. I keep this guy to my left since I'm better breathing to that side. He's not too bad so I stick to his hip. After a few hundred yards I'm still stuck to his right hip and he seems to be drafting off the feet of the lead swiimer. Slowly the three of us pulls away from the group.
At the first buoy the lead swimmer surges and gaps my man. I had to make a decision on the spot. I decided to ditch my guy and try to catch up with the leader. I figured this is a sprint and I could afford to swim hard for a bit. After about 10-20 yds I managed to catch up with my new feet. He's going strong, but I still inadvertently run into his feet a few times. This is the second race in a row that I've been in the front pack of the swim.... I was feeling pretty good.
Heading into the swim finish the guy surges again and this time I let him go. I want my HR to come down a bit before T1. As I slow down, a girl from my wave comes out of nowhere and squeezes by me. 3rd out of the water in my wave. I'll take it.
Result: 13th of 436
T1
Struggled a bit with getting my top zipper up this time. Told myself to calm down a bit. As I run into the transition, I see Maggie yelling and pointing at my bike. "There!!! THERE!!" :) I was worried I was going to get penalized for outside assistance.
My sunglasses were soaked so I decided to not wear them. Grab my bike and ran with it. Stumbled a bit on my first flying mount, but got on on my second go. Passed 3 people clipping in.
Bike
Road with one foot in my shoe and the other foot out of the shoe for a few minutes due to the way the course started. Once both feet were in, I started to roll. Like at Galena I was picking off people left and right. 10 minutes into the bike I take 2 s-caps and a shot of gu. Look down at my power and I'm seeing borderline 290-300 watts. Wooo... I"m flying!
At this point I'm pretty sure that I'm leading my age group. I keep looking back to see if anyone is catching up with me, but I don't see anyone. I keep passing and I keep looking back. This is when it occurred to me that I have a good shot at podiuming in my AG. I'm a bit nervous about the run since that's usually where I lose spots.
Ended the bike leading my age group!
Results: 8th out of 436.
24.3 mph.
T2
I run into T2 and get ready for the run. Nothing goes wrong until I started heading for the run exit. Suddenly, I realized I didn't scout the run out!! WTF. I knew I was pretty chill about this race but this mistake is just unacceptable. dumb dumb dumb. I start running one way and yell out "Is run out this way??", a girl yells back "no! its the other way!!". I do a 180 and head out.
Grrrr... I kept thinking that if I lose positions by seconds, I'll be kicking myself for this later.
Run
Right off the bat, I know I've got a dude right behind me. For the first half mile he stays there, then he finally overtakes me. As he passes, he points behind him and tells me to stick to him. "Come on! Come on! Right here!" I take up the offer. At that point I was already hurting but I saw that he had a "33" on his calf! Crap!!!! I knew I had to hang on for as long as possible. Unfortunately he was a stronger runner than me. I finally couldn't hang on any longer and told him that I was done. I couldn't match his pace. He nods and slowly pulls away. When hes about 15 feet ahead of me, this kid out of nowhere blitzs past the both of us. I look at his calf.... 25-29 ... phew. He started 3 minutes ahead of me... so no big deal. But boy could that kid run. He passed me and blew past the guy ahead of me as well.
On the half-way turnaround, I get to see how far my other competitors are. There is no one within a minute of me. Thank god. At this point I'm second in my AG... the podium spot is still secure. About a minute behind me is Scott, the guy I met at Galena earlier in the year. We nod at each other as we pass.
Then in the last quarter mile, out of nowhere, I got struck with intense paranoia. I keep hearing someone gaining on me. I sneak a glance and think I see someone in a white shirt a bit behind me. Uh-oh. I can't drop another podium spot. I'm already on the verge of redlining and can't really push anymore... but somehow I do. I'm pretty much frothing at the mouth at this point. I see the finish line. 400 yds. 300 yds. 200 yds. 100 yds. MADE IT! I turn around and see that there is absolutely NO ONE behind me. My mind is playing tricks on me, man. Just like the Geto Boy song.
Result: 11th out of 436
Got my 5k PR in the process with a 20:00:09!! So close to breaking 20 min!! 6:27 min/mile pace.
Again, I'm pretty happy that my run ranking was decent again.
Galena Race Report (from 5/17/2010)
Ok. It's been too long since I've updated the blog. I'm going to make a committment to better document this process, starting off with posting race reports that I wrote for my friends from awhile back.
Pre-Race
Water temp mid 60s. Couldn't expect it to be any better. Took 1 gu and 1 S-cap 15 minutes before the race. Warmed up in the water for about... ~200-300 yards maybe?
I was in wave #6, the last of the 30-34 age group, so I knew I was going to have a lot of people ahead of me. Fun fun.
Swim
Rank: 47/822
Last year's rank: 22
The goal of this year's swim was to keep my HR down so that I wouldn't need to waste any time in T1 or the beginning of the bike for recovery. My expectations were that I would do better or as good as last year's rankings even though I put less effort in due to the technique improvements I've made.
Started off at the right edge of the wave, about 3 deep. When the horn went off, I went to the outer edge and actually entered the water close to the first row of swimmers. Unlike the previous years, I didn't go all out in the first few hundred yards, preferring for someone to take the lead so that I could hop on his feet. About 50-75 yds in, I noticed that the first line of swimmers were slowing dropping back. By the time I hit the first turn buoy (~100 yds in), I was pretty much half a body length ahead of anyone else. This was not a position I expected to be in, but I definitely was pleasantly surprised.
Heading to the second orange buoy, I gained even more time since the rest of the swim group sort of veered off further to the left to hit some of the yellow buoys that were set out of line. I ignored those buoys and went straight for the orange buoy. I knew I wasn't the only one since I knew there was a guy who had clung on to me by the constant tapping on my feet. But halfway through that stretch I began to have some doubts cuz there was a HUGE pack in my wave that was veering off towards the yellow buouy. For a second I started heading in that direction as well, but then decided that if I misunderstood the rules, then it was already too late. As a result, I was the first from our wave to reach the second buoy as well. However, by this time the water wasn't as clean since we had caught up with a bunch from the earlier waves.
At the last buoy I tried to hug it tight again but caught up by even more slower swimmers. That was when the guy who was drafting me swam wide to take the lead into the finish line. I decided not to give chase feeling that being second in my wave (I actually was 3rd, but I didn't notice one other guy pass me) wasn't such a bad accomplishment especially in light of the fact that I managed to keep my HR way down this time.
I got into T1 feeling pretty great about myself.
I have to admit that I didn't expect my rankings to hit that badly, but in retrospect, it probably made sense. I really didn't go anywhere as hard as I did the prior years. I probably could've gained about 30 seconds if I had gone all out (get myself to a top 20-25 rank) but would've been struggling with an elevated HR for the duration of T1 and part of the bike.
T1
Wetsuit off.
Put wetsuit in bag.
Put pill box in pocket.
Put 1 gu in pocket.
Glasses on.
Helmet on.
Towel and the rest of the crap into bag.
Tie up bag. (I shouldn't have done this, I bet the volunteers wouldve done that for us)
Walk bike to mount line.
Flying mount and off I go.
Bike
Rank: 30/822
Last Year's rank: 58
I felt that the bike was where I was going to make the biggest impact this year. Not only do I have much better equipment, my watts/kg are at a different level from last year. I've also been doing a lot of over-distances and nutrition experimentation to fix my cramping issues.
I started off riding on my shoes up the hill, and past some other riders who were somewhat bottlenecked at the starting stretch. It was probably about 45 sec - 1 min into the leg did I start working on getting my feet into the shoes. I'm glad to say that I didn't lose any positions while doing that. At this point I wasn't sure whether I was in front or behind the guy from my wave who had drafted me. (Turns out that he had a faster transition, and took off on the bike. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was actually #3 in my wave at this point. At the time I still thought I was leading my wave).
Bike felt strong. I don't know how many people I passed, but it was a lot. I was picking off groups left and right, and I didn't get passed once. No muscle twitching at all. It was greeeaaat. Headed into T2 feeling pretty fresh.
Nutrition: 4 S-caps, 3 gus
Totals: 330 calories, 1400mg NA, 120mg K
Run
Rank: 42/822
Last Year's rank: 78
I was unsure about how I'd do on the run. I felt that I had made huge leaps over the winter, and I really wanted it to reflect in the results.
There was a hill right off the bat, and that really pushed me into redline territory. I tried to tell myself to calm the f!@# down, but I kept pushing. My legs have never felt this fresh (and cramp free) heading into a run before, and I felt that it was my opportunity, nay- my DUTY to push my legs. Unfortunately, my heart wasn't hearing any of it. Before I knew it, I was deep in the red zone and I felt like I couldn't bring in enough oxygen. A side stitch was creeping up on me, which forced me to exhale really hard in an effort to control it. People I was gaining on could probably hear me exhaling from 10 paces back :)
But at that point I didn't really care how I sounded, I just wanted to push, push, push!
At about the 2 mile mark, I came upon this tall dude in a Get-A-Grip tri kit. Seeing that it was just the two of us, and that I wasn't exactly blowing past him, I decided to make conversation. I said something like "can't believe we're only halfway there", or something equally silly. He got philosophical and said something like "well, thats the glass half full". He probably meant "glass half empty" but I'll excuse his mistake cuz we both weren't thinking very straight at that point. I finally pulled away and he shouted some words of encouragement, and I think I said "you too!"... or something. Those memories are fuzzy now.
At the 3 mile to about 3.75 mile mark, the course wrapped back on itself. I go down this hill and see Chris running up it. He yelled something at me, I wasn't sure what, but I asked him how far it was to the turnaround point :) I don't think he replied. I know I was surprised to see him in this race at all, since he had a 15 minute head start. This is payback for putting the fear of god in my at Evergreen! :) That little encounter gave me a bit more pep in my strides. Went down to the bottom of the hill, turned around, and promptly about blew up running back up that hill. I wish I had a HR monitor on cuz I don't think I've ever hurt that much (actually, I have... at the pumpkin 5k racing to the fniish line with chris at my back 2 years ago was just as bad). My heart was basically telling me to lay off... or else. I started feeling some vomit rise up to my throat, which was as good a sign as any to ease off the pedal a bit.
I forced myself to relax a bit, and managed to hold form into the finish line. It was rough but I made it.
Post Race
When I was catching my breath, this dude came up to me and told me how great my feet were, that I was the only one going in a straight line, and unfortunately, some other dude passed the both of us at the last buoy where I got caught up at the cramped turn. I was like "DUDE! you were tapping my feet the whole time!!!". he said that he did it let me know he was there, or something like that. it didnt sound like a very good excuse, but he seemed like a friendly enough fella and I didn't think it affected me that much so I didn't pursue my accusations. He told me that I was 3rd from our wave in. Looking at the results, it seems that he was right. I have to say that his presence of mind is pretty impressive. I was lost in my own personal count of who was who in my wave, and what position I was.
Either way, I'm pretty happy with the results. I really was secretly hoping for something closer to a top 20 finish... oh well. I have my suspicions that this field was a bit stronger than last years, but I'll have to do more data analysis to confirm that.
Pre-Race
Water temp mid 60s. Couldn't expect it to be any better. Took 1 gu and 1 S-cap 15 minutes before the race. Warmed up in the water for about... ~200-300 yards maybe?
I was in wave #6, the last of the 30-34 age group, so I knew I was going to have a lot of people ahead of me. Fun fun.
Swim
Rank: 47/822
Last year's rank: 22
The goal of this year's swim was to keep my HR down so that I wouldn't need to waste any time in T1 or the beginning of the bike for recovery. My expectations were that I would do better or as good as last year's rankings even though I put less effort in due to the technique improvements I've made.
Started off at the right edge of the wave, about 3 deep. When the horn went off, I went to the outer edge and actually entered the water close to the first row of swimmers. Unlike the previous years, I didn't go all out in the first few hundred yards, preferring for someone to take the lead so that I could hop on his feet. About 50-75 yds in, I noticed that the first line of swimmers were slowing dropping back. By the time I hit the first turn buoy (~100 yds in), I was pretty much half a body length ahead of anyone else. This was not a position I expected to be in, but I definitely was pleasantly surprised.
Heading to the second orange buoy, I gained even more time since the rest of the swim group sort of veered off further to the left to hit some of the yellow buoys that were set out of line. I ignored those buoys and went straight for the orange buoy. I knew I wasn't the only one since I knew there was a guy who had clung on to me by the constant tapping on my feet. But halfway through that stretch I began to have some doubts cuz there was a HUGE pack in my wave that was veering off towards the yellow buouy. For a second I started heading in that direction as well, but then decided that if I misunderstood the rules, then it was already too late. As a result, I was the first from our wave to reach the second buoy as well. However, by this time the water wasn't as clean since we had caught up with a bunch from the earlier waves.
At the last buoy I tried to hug it tight again but caught up by even more slower swimmers. That was when the guy who was drafting me swam wide to take the lead into the finish line. I decided not to give chase feeling that being second in my wave (I actually was 3rd, but I didn't notice one other guy pass me) wasn't such a bad accomplishment especially in light of the fact that I managed to keep my HR way down this time.
I got into T1 feeling pretty great about myself.
I have to admit that I didn't expect my rankings to hit that badly, but in retrospect, it probably made sense. I really didn't go anywhere as hard as I did the prior years. I probably could've gained about 30 seconds if I had gone all out (get myself to a top 20-25 rank) but would've been struggling with an elevated HR for the duration of T1 and part of the bike.
T1
Wetsuit off.
Put wetsuit in bag.
Put pill box in pocket.
Put 1 gu in pocket.
Glasses on.
Helmet on.
Towel and the rest of the crap into bag.
Tie up bag. (I shouldn't have done this, I bet the volunteers wouldve done that for us)
Walk bike to mount line.
Flying mount and off I go.
Bike
Rank: 30/822
Last Year's rank: 58
I felt that the bike was where I was going to make the biggest impact this year. Not only do I have much better equipment, my watts/kg are at a different level from last year. I've also been doing a lot of over-distances and nutrition experimentation to fix my cramping issues.
I started off riding on my shoes up the hill, and past some other riders who were somewhat bottlenecked at the starting stretch. It was probably about 45 sec - 1 min into the leg did I start working on getting my feet into the shoes. I'm glad to say that I didn't lose any positions while doing that. At this point I wasn't sure whether I was in front or behind the guy from my wave who had drafted me. (Turns out that he had a faster transition, and took off on the bike. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was actually #3 in my wave at this point. At the time I still thought I was leading my wave).
Bike felt strong. I don't know how many people I passed, but it was a lot. I was picking off groups left and right, and I didn't get passed once. No muscle twitching at all. It was greeeaaat. Headed into T2 feeling pretty fresh.
Nutrition: 4 S-caps, 3 gus
Totals: 330 calories, 1400mg NA, 120mg K
Run
Rank: 42/822
Last Year's rank: 78
I was unsure about how I'd do on the run. I felt that I had made huge leaps over the winter, and I really wanted it to reflect in the results.
There was a hill right off the bat, and that really pushed me into redline territory. I tried to tell myself to calm the f!@# down, but I kept pushing. My legs have never felt this fresh (and cramp free) heading into a run before, and I felt that it was my opportunity, nay- my DUTY to push my legs. Unfortunately, my heart wasn't hearing any of it. Before I knew it, I was deep in the red zone and I felt like I couldn't bring in enough oxygen. A side stitch was creeping up on me, which forced me to exhale really hard in an effort to control it. People I was gaining on could probably hear me exhaling from 10 paces back :)
But at that point I didn't really care how I sounded, I just wanted to push, push, push!
At about the 2 mile mark, I came upon this tall dude in a Get-A-Grip tri kit. Seeing that it was just the two of us, and that I wasn't exactly blowing past him, I decided to make conversation. I said something like "can't believe we're only halfway there", or something equally silly. He got philosophical and said something like "well, thats the glass half full". He probably meant "glass half empty" but I'll excuse his mistake cuz we both weren't thinking very straight at that point. I finally pulled away and he shouted some words of encouragement, and I think I said "you too!"... or something. Those memories are fuzzy now.
At the 3 mile to about 3.75 mile mark, the course wrapped back on itself. I go down this hill and see Chris running up it. He yelled something at me, I wasn't sure what, but I asked him how far it was to the turnaround point :) I don't think he replied. I know I was surprised to see him in this race at all, since he had a 15 minute head start. This is payback for putting the fear of god in my at Evergreen! :) That little encounter gave me a bit more pep in my strides. Went down to the bottom of the hill, turned around, and promptly about blew up running back up that hill. I wish I had a HR monitor on cuz I don't think I've ever hurt that much (actually, I have... at the pumpkin 5k racing to the fniish line with chris at my back 2 years ago was just as bad). My heart was basically telling me to lay off... or else. I started feeling some vomit rise up to my throat, which was as good a sign as any to ease off the pedal a bit.
I forced myself to relax a bit, and managed to hold form into the finish line. It was rough but I made it.
Post Race
When I was catching my breath, this dude came up to me and told me how great my feet were, that I was the only one going in a straight line, and unfortunately, some other dude passed the both of us at the last buoy where I got caught up at the cramped turn. I was like "DUDE! you were tapping my feet the whole time!!!". he said that he did it let me know he was there, or something like that. it didnt sound like a very good excuse, but he seemed like a friendly enough fella and I didn't think it affected me that much so I didn't pursue my accusations. He told me that I was 3rd from our wave in. Looking at the results, it seems that he was right. I have to say that his presence of mind is pretty impressive. I was lost in my own personal count of who was who in my wave, and what position I was.
Either way, I'm pretty happy with the results. I really was secretly hoping for something closer to a top 20 finish... oh well. I have my suspicions that this field was a bit stronger than last years, but I'll have to do more data analysis to confirm that.
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