Swim:
- I pushed the time between warming up and moving to the swim start to the last very moment. Last year I sat waiting at the start for too long. This year was perfect moving right to the beach and into the warm up area just adjacent to the swim start.
- I completed three- 25 - 50 yard sprints to get the heart rate up and lungs expanded. I felt good in the wave action and felt like it was not nearly as rough as last year.
- I found Andy at the start and lined up next to him. The horn blew and we were off. I did not get much of a draft off him as things were really rough for the first 50 yards or so. There was tons of climbing and smashing about from all sides.
- After things settled in, I was pushing the pace fairly hard but still felt comfortable by the first turn buoy. With the shortened swim, the first buoy came up much quicker than I anticipated, but fortunately I was not in a bad position to make the turn.
- After the turn, the sun was right in our face and it was impossible to get a good sight on the trees and tents that I had scouted out. I simply tried to stay in the herd and trust that we were all headed in the right direction. I clued in on the support kayaks to help sight.
- Mid-way through the long parallel leg to the shoreline, I had a problem that I never experienced before, I took a huge splash of water right when I was breathing. I have definitely swallowed water before, but this time, the water went right down my windpipe and choaked me. I tried to swim and cough it out, but it was not coming out. I had to stop completely to get it coughed up. In the meantime, I was ran over several times and nearly lost my composure. Fortunately, I took a minute to pray and keep my wits and get back to work.
- I slowly regained my stroke and focused on getting to the next turn buoy. From there, I just kept building on my pace and tried to finish strong. I knew the race wasn’t over, the swim was short and I could make up time on the bike.
- I swam in as far as I could before having to run out of the water… it was knee deep for a lot farther than I would have preferred.
- It was a long run to T1, so I simply settled into the jog.
- T1 was smooth and I made up a few spots passing some folks on the way out.
Bike:
- I mounted fairly well, but I need to work on this. Right out of transition was a steady climb up to the Shoreway. Racing this course again was very helpful because I knew to simply get up the climb with decent power and get the heart rate down.
- After the climb, I started to build but not really hard, yet. I recalled one more climb was coming to pass the football stadium. I decided on that downhill side of the bridges will be where I start to go. This was about 2 miles into the ride.
- As planned, I started hammering and was very happy with how I felt. I quickly passed a lot of packs of riders in my age group and reached a point where I could see another pack. They were really close together and I decided to match their speed but not become part of the group.
- It wasn’t long before an official moto came by really quickly and I knew that group was going to be broken up. Ultimately, I am convinced that two folks in that pack ahead of me were penalized and probably were the ones that allowed me to move up from 19th to 17th. I don’t know for sure, but it is a reasonable conclusion.
- We reached the decent at the museums and I just let it rip and had a lot of fun doing it. At this point, I was essentially locked in with another rider that was pushing as hard as I was. I had a blast!
- After the turn around, we had to climb the hill we just decended and I remember being surprised at how good I felt climbing and decided to keep pushing hard. I reached the top and made my move to pass the guy I had been riding with for a while. From there, I decided to keep going and made a ton of passes in my age group on the way back in.
- On the climb back up the bridges at the football stadium, I was traded places with three other guys in my age group. With only a few miles left, I took in a caffeinated gel to set-up the run. When we finally reached the top and the final stretch of hills home, I decided to push past them and go hard all the way in. I was feeling good.
- T2 was really smooth and I was off and running. I glanced over at my friend Andy’s transition spot and noticed he was gone, but I used it as a motivator to get moving at a good pace early.
Run:
- The revised run course was a lot better than last year, although it had several steady hills that made it respectable. As I made my way to the first aid station after 1 mile, I saw Andy running back after the turn around… I was really amped because that meant I was not very far from the leaders. I guessed at that point, that I might have been only five minutes down or less. A surge of adrenaline came and I just tried to relax into a good pace.
- I worked really hard to get water at every aid station, without stopping I was drinking one and dumping the other on me to stay cool.
- After the first turn around and passing the same aid station, I started getting a left side stitch. It was a significant one but I was determined to not let this stop me. I kept pushing up the climb back to the North side of the park. I reached another aid station, dumped water and sipped a little bit.
- At the top of the hill, I saw a guy dressed like Elvis cheering everyone on, I ran by him and gave him a high five and said, “give me some love Elvis!” Amazingly after that, my stitch disappeared!
- I had already taken one gel with caffeine by this point and was starting to contemplate taking another around mile 4. I followed through with this plan and mentally told myself that I was going to push it from there.
- The North side of the park had a lot of zig zagging paths and one steep little hill section that put a hurting on me. I was verbally yelling at the course and trying to will myself home with everything I had. With less than a mile to go, I was gassed but still running as hard as I could. About 50 feet from the downhill run to home, two guys in my age group passed me! It was the two guys that I was trading places with on the bike on that last climb past the football stadium. Unfortunately, those burnt matches might have hurt me.
- Anyhow, I let gravity do the work of pushing my pace up on the way home and did my best to keep the sprint up to the finishing chute. The pictures are pretty telling, but I was putting everything I had into the final chute. My outside right quad was cramping but I was still moving hard to the finish.
- As I crossed the line, my right quad seized up and I just slowly limped in and stood still as my timing chip was removed. I grabbed Gatorade and chugged it. In a few moments, my cramp was gone and I was ecstatic.
- I was teased a little bit because after announcing my name, the announcer indicated that I had made a podium spot! I was baffled but that was a promising comment.
- As I came out and saw my dad, he told me 19th and I was stoked! I met my stretch goal of top 20. I knew Andy was not going to take his worlds slot, so I knew I would be in! Fortunately, when the final results were posted two guys ahead of me were penalized and I moved up to 17th!
Overall Comments:
- Aside from the swim, this race was SO MUCH FUN!! I loved every minute of how it felt to push the red line. Even with the moment on the swim, I really felt good out in the water and felt like I was putting in a good effort there too.
- To put out a top ten bike split (9th) in my age group is really satisfying considering how my bike legs had been feeling the last few weeks. I was really worried that I might not have it on race day. The taper plan was spot on!
- The run measured short of a 10k. Andy confirmed the same at 6.09 miles. My pace of 6:47 was spot on with what I thought I was capable of, so I am very satisfied. I still have a lot of room to improve on my pace, but this is the area I am also most susceptible to injury so a slow and steady progression is fine with me.
- Having my mom and dad at the finish line and then having an old friend present for the qualification to Worlds was icing on the cake.
