Race Report -- REV3, Knoxville part the 1st

This weekend I travelled to Knoxville, TN for the REV 3 Olympic distance triathlon. 1500 meter swim, 25 mile bike, 6.2 mile run. The added twist is that when B moved to Texas, he didn’t quite manage to get everything into his shipping crates, and so he rented a one-way U-Haul, which I drove from DC to the race. The drive down was long but uneventful, and I picked B up at the airport late Friday night. The day had been hot, but forecast was for a cooling trend over the weekend. (In literature, that’s known as foreshadowing).

Saturday we got up and headed downtown to pick up our packets and scout the course. B had attempted to ride the course the last time he went through Knoxville, without much luck. Before we got on the bikes, though, we went for a swim in the Tennessee river – the race called for an open water start, about 300 meters upstream, turnaround, and 1200 m downstream. Several big-name pros were there, and because the water was in that range where wetsuits were legal for amateurs but not for pros, they were in speedos – grrrrowl! We got in, swam the course, and talked about sighting and strategy in the swim. Then, back to get on the bikes.

About 20 minutes into the ride, we run into Ritchie Cunningham, a pro who B knows pretty well, and we started riding together. This was not a great idea for me – I wasn’t feeling very strong, the course is pretty hilly, and eventually I just said to myself “no prizes for going hard today” and let them go. B came back to me, and agreed that it was just a scouting run, so we knocked the pace back a bit and followed the course out. Turns out there are quite a few hills around that part of Knoxville. We got to a point where we thought the course turned around, and headed back. This turned out to be quite mistaken, and not paying closer attention to the maps (or having better maps, or a guide) ended up hurting me a bit on race day. Even after slowing down I was still hurting some, so I sent B on ahead and limped back in, worried.

Some context – I had done a hard ride (60 miles with 7x seated climb out on McArthur Blvd) on Thursday – I didn’t expect to be hurting from that on Saturday, much less Sunday. Another factor is that my son, J, had been diagnosed with strep a week ago – but he got antibiotics, seemed fine, and I didn’t think I had anything to worry about. But maybe I had strep? I still don’t know, going to try to see the doctor soon though.

Anyway, after racking the bikes, we headed out to get some chow and catch IronMan2 on IMAX – woohoo! That was fun. Grabbed some pasta after the show, then to bed. A bit late, although I don’t expect to get much sleep the night before a race.

But 4 am came too soon the next day. Up, breakfast, coffee, and down to the racecourse. It was 45 friggin degrees. I didn’t have a fleece – just running pants and a long-sleeve technical tee shirt. We were on-site at 5:30 (for a 7:55 start for B, and a 8:20 start for me) and I did not much enjoy the next 150 minutes. This is not to say that getting there early isn’t the right call – if something had gone wrong with the bike, or I had forgotten something in packing, I would still have had time to figure it out, just to say that when it was 91 on Friday, I didn’t expect the race to be held at ~50 degrees. Taking several trips to the loo before race start isn’t unusual for me, but today, I was glad that I had time to get everything out of my system. By the time we were lining up and the pro race started, my teeth were chattering uncontrollably. I huddled in my wetsuit waiting for my wave to start, finally deciding shivering wasn’t a good way to warm up. So I ran along the promenade and in the parking lot for 15 minutes or so, looking quite the sight in my wetsuit I imagine. But my teeth stopped rattling, anyway, so that was a win.

The race itself – my swim wave consisted of men 40-49, women under 29, and “Clydesdales” – men over a certain weight, I think 200 lbs, but I’m not sure. 39 people in my age group, the men 40 -44. I came out of the water 10^th in my age group, a blistering 22:13 seconds later. When I say blistering, I mean, really, unreasonably fast. That is ~90 seconds for 100 meters, which is fully 16 seconds per 100 meters faster than I was swimming in the pool earlier in the week. Some of that probably came from the current (remember, downstream for 900 meters net!) but mostly, I think the course was short. This was the first open water swim where I felt pretty good about my sighting – no wild wandering off course, no getting kicked in the face. But I tell you, swimming in the pool just doesn’t get you ready for the adrenaline of swimming with 50 people, passing some, being passed by others. I kept having to fight to keep my heartrate down and my breathing steady – with not a lot of success. I swam hard, and came into T1 panting and out of breath. Overall, 99^th fastest swim of the day, out of a field of ~350.

Transition wasn’t fast – you had to run up a ramp from the river, across a major street, around the transition area halfway before you got to your bike. I ditched the wetsuit and decided that I wasn’t going to put on my technical t-shirt, instead just opting to go with the armwarners that I had already prepared to put on once I was riding. I did put on socks, though, something that many veteran triathletes skip – but I skipped that step at the Rumpass, and my feet didn’t do so well, so I sucked it up and took the time to get the socks on. Total transition time, 2:10, and I passed 8 people in the process. Unfortunately, none of those people were in my age group.

And out on the bike. I got off the UT campus and out on the bridge that would take me out of town, when I saw the leader of the men’s pro race coming back the other way. Which was pretty exciting. The first half of the race I went aggressively through except for the big hills, which I did my best to spin up. I noticed during the swim that my throat hurt, and on the bike I tried to drink some Gatorade, but I wasn’t having much luck there. At least it was going to be a fairly short race, I thought. In the first ½ of the bike, I averaged 19.25 mph, and lost 3 places in my age group. When I got to the place where B and I had turned around, the course turned Left, and I was off on a stretch of road I hadn’t seen before. In the first 20 minutes of the race, I had been picking off dozens of people who had started in the swim wave before me – but here, 40 m inutes into the race, it was pretty barren. I rode pretty hard, but kept in mind that there was probably at least one big hill left. About which I was correct – a monster that reduced me to my smallest gear and a slow cadence to boot. Near the top, I heard a rubbing noise from my rear tire, and noticed that it had slipped out of its place and was out of alignment, causing tremendous friction. I got off the bike, opened the quick-release, adjusted the alignment, got back on the bike, rode 15 feet, realized I hadn’t fixed the problem, got back off the bike, and saw a pack of about 20 people grinding their way up the switchback below me.

I scowled, fought the quick-release open again, jammed the tire in the correct position, tightened the bolt, and got back on the bike just as the pack passed me. Now, drafting is illegal, but when you are climbing a big hill like that folks tend to bunch up – so, they weren’t exactly a pack. In any case, I crested the hill, got in my aerobars and crushed down the hill with, frankly, a reckless disregard for safety. I never had to cross the double yellow lines – which is good because the road was open to traffic – but it was a near thing. By the bottom of the hill I had passed all but two of the people who had caught me up at the top.

I played ring around the rosie with those two for the next 8 miles or so, until we got back to the bridge towards campus. At this point, I thought we were almost done, and started looking for the markers to go back towards transition. Unfortunately, I was mistaken, and there was another 5 miles left to go. Pretty flat miles, where I could have put the hammer down and maybe made up some time. Another reminder that you always, Always, ALWAYS need to ride the course or know it well enough to keep yourself focused.

I did notice that I hadn’t been drinking anything, and tried to gulp down some Gatorade, but it still really hurt my throat. But I wasn’t feeling great. Total bike split: 1:22:24. I averaged 16.4 mph on the back 8 miles, what with stopping and all, and my average bike speed for the day was 18.2. Very disappointing after going 21.5 mph two weeks before in Richmond. And, 6 people from my AG passed me, never mind the 16 other people not in my AG who caught me up.

T2 was also not fast – someone had thrown their wetsuit on my rack space, and I had to waste time getting it out of the way. 2:07 was a pretty terrible split there, but at least I didn’t lose any ground.

So, I went out onto the run course, which I hadn’t scouted at all. (Boy, going to see IronMan2 didn’t seem like so much fun NOW, did it?) I usually go out too fast, so I was trying just to take good strides, keep up a good cadence, and find my feet in the first mile. I wanted to run ~7:15 per mile, and so, when I got to my first marker, and saw 7:52, I was a bit shaken. No worries, I thought, just bring it down a little, and, sure enough, I ran the next mile in 8:02. Gah! I did manage to bring it down for mile 3 – back to 7:50. At this point, I was really feeling pretty unwell, getting water at every aid station and getting only a sip of it before I spit it out, unable to swallow. I forced half a gel-pack down at the turn around, and at the next aid station tried to get more water – I gagged, had to stop, and if I had had anything in my stomach, it would have hit the sidewalk. I managed to stagger into a run again, and hold it together to the finish – but just barely. I passed one and was passed by one Age grouper on the run, for a net of no gain (or no loss, considering!) and ran the 10k in 48:30. 110^th place over all, 16^th in men 40-44. 2:38:30.

Then, straight to the medical tent, where I had a loverly little lie down for 30 mins or so, with plenty of electrolyte fluids – no IV, they weren’t really set up for that, which seemed odd, and thankfully someone had a blanket, because I was still freezing.

B had a good-but-not great race, and finished 12^th in the elite amateur group, which put him out of the “points” category for the Rev 3 series – he needed a top 10 finish to get any points. As he said, “a lot of fast people showed up.”

My takeaway here has been nebulous. Was I sick, or did I just have a bad day? Did I go too hard on Thursday? This wasn’t an “A” race, just a tuneup on the way to Eagleman. I have been alternately frustrated and angry about my performance. On Tuesday, I took it out on a 60 mile bike ride – riding race-hard for the first 30 miles, then turning around and realizing I didn’t know how to get back (riding in Texas, after driving there with B on Monday), and ended up going 70 miles utterly shattered instead. Punishment enough, I think! :P (and, update, I still have a scratchy throat, and B is full on sick -- so, maybe I can chalk this sub-par race up to illness after all.)

Some perspective. The winner of my AG went 2:10:21. Swam 19, biked 22.3 mph average, and ran 6:36 m/mi. He finished 37^th overall. The 10^th place finisher in my AG swam 22:30, biked 18.7 mph average, and ran 6:10 m/mi. He finished 70^th. The AG who came in 15^th swam 24:30, biked 19.2 mph average, and ran 7:40 m/mi. Finish = 97^th overall. I managed to hold off 3 other Age groupers who all finished LESS than one minute behind me. I was 5 minutes behind 15^th place, but 5 minutes behind me was 21^st place. So, all I had to do was crack, just a little, and I would be looking at bottom half, instead of top %40. I did swim in the top %25; On the bike, I had a mechanical failure. I ran about 4 minutes faster than I know I can run the distance.

My goal for this season is to finish in the top %25 of my age group, and I missed that mark. But, I think, if I had had a GOOD day, I would have been right about there. So, ok. Next up is the big race of the front half of the season, Eagleman, June 13th, one month out. Two more weeks of hard training for that, then we will try to rest up a bit and go in with a taper, instead of training through. Last year, there were 231 people in the men 40-44 age group. Winning time, 4:21:02. 57^th place was just under 5:00 hours, and 23^rd place 4:45. Supposedly the course is flat, so hills aren’t going to be an issue, but windy, which can make those times completely irrelevant. But the real difference between 23^rd and 57^th was the bike – 22.5 mph for one, 21.5 mph for the other. I think I’m going to try to get on some flats and push a big gear this weekend. Lets see if I can’t manage to build enough strength to push 22 mph for 2 hours at a go!

Part 2, containing more existential ruminations, to follow.

Race Report and Recriminations

Saturday last, I went downtown for the Nation's Marathon. This was my second time running the race, and my second marathon (my third, part of the Ironman triathlon, doesn't really count when considering "fresh" marathons) ever. As I expressed before the race, I felt prepared; I had run several 20/21 mile "long runs" and felt pretty good about them, my last training run of 15 miles was good, I pushed hard on the last half and kept a pace of 7:30.

The short of the story is that I did not go 3:30:00; I finished at 3:39:02. What follows is a . . . is my attempt to understand where those nine minutes went, and what I will try to do differently next time.

The morning got off to a good, if somewhat delayed start -- alarm at 4, oatmeal, english muffins with almond butter, coffee. M & J got up and we headed down to the mall, via the BW parkway. First mistake -- construction + race traffic meant we had to bail (at the last possible second) onto 50, and navigate through town. That meant that it was 6:30 before we got to the Armory, where we were stuck in traffic trying to park. M took the wheel, I grabbed my bag from the trunk and trotted over to the starting line -- in good time. But a bit nerve wracking nonetheless, I think getting there an hour earlier would have been worth the trouble.

So, I get into my assigned starting corral, and eventually find the Navy pace team. There are three squads in my area, for 3:30, 3:35, and 3:40. The gun goes off, and the race begins.

I start out feeling like the pace is way too slow. I want to go faster, but I am determined to hang with the pace team, who are chatting and having a good time. I miss the first mile marker, and when I see the second one, I freak out a little bit. Time for 2 miles? 19 minutes. Yes, the pace team ran the first mile at about 10, and the second at 9. Not twenty minutes into the race and we are 3 minutes behind the pace. The navy folks don't look best pleased either. I get the impression that one of them is pacing for the first time, and the other didn't want to be pushy. Maybe there was some rank involved or something? Anyway, they begin to ratchet up the pace. I talk to the more experienced of the two for a bit, and say, hey, if we chew away at this 12 seconds at a time, running 7:48 or thereabouts, we'll make up those three minutes in 15 miles or so. He says yes, that's the plan.

We then proceed to keep picking up the pace. Mile 4, 7:44. Mile five, 7:38. Mile six, 7:37. I missed marker for mile 7, but at Mile 8, 15:41. Mile 9, 7:24.

This is where I say "whoa! Whoa! Whoa! 7:30s are my 1/2 marathon pace, and although I feel pretty good now, I know I can't hold this pace forever. The plan, I thought, was to grind off some of that deficit and then settle into 8 minute miles, but the pace guys show no sign of easing off, and indeed, continue to increase the tempo. Mile 10, 7:21, and I decide I've had enough. I let them go, and try to ease back down to 8s. Mile 11, 7:36, Mile 12, 7:45, Mile 13, 7:54, and my 13.1 mile split is 1:44:12.

Now, 1 hour, 44 mins, 12 seconds is a good split for the half way point. My average pace is 7:57 -- Right bang on target. The Problem is that during miles 5 - 11, I went much faster than I wanted to. The reason being is that its just takes more energy to run 30 second per mile faster; When I did the 1/2 marathon in december, I ran 7:30s the whole way and was absolutely shattered at the finish line. When I did the 10 mile run in January, I ran 7:00 for a couple of miles and it damn near killed me. I KNOW I'm in trouble. But I see M & J cheering for me as the race goes past RFK, and that picks me up a bit. Still, by the time I'm at the other side of the stadium, I've nearly talked myself into walking off the course, and quitting -- it was very tempting. I was pretty damn demoralized.

But I managed to talk myself out of it -- I figure, what the heck. I've gone to all the trouble to train all winter, and I've tapered for two weeks, I might as well do a legitimate long run, go out to mile 20. Maybe I won't fall apart. Only one way to find out.

About this time I catch up with one of the people who was running with the Navy pace team early on - there were about six or seven of us who were doing the full marathon (there was also a 13.1 mile race at the same time) -- I catch his eye and say hey. "Do you think we'll catch them up if we just keep running eights?" He shakes his head. "Yeah, I let them go around 11. I knew I couldn't run 7:20s and finish." He grimaces. "I stayed with them longer, but when they ran mile 12 at 6:45 -" I am aghast. 6:45!?! "Yeah." He says. "They said the plan was to hold that pace and walk through the aid stations." I can only shake my head in disbelief. He is hurting, and can't hang with me. I'm hella glad I let them go when I did, and wish I had the wisdom to let them go sooner.

I crank out some 8 minute miles from 14 - 19. Down on the waterfront was where my knee started hurting me last year, and lo, it begins to give me the same kind of signals again. This year I am ready -- I have ibuprofen in my belt pouch, and I pop two. The knees don't bug me again. However, other problems await.

One complaint I have about this marathon is that the aid stations are run by volunteers who don't always get the proper training. So, the aid stations are very uneven - -some are great, some not so much. I got a bad cup of powerade at about mile 5 -- not enough water in the mix -- and I didn't think about it, but I had been avoiding the powerade at the aid stations since then. My right calf starts to cramp up on me, and I think, duh. Maybe its because you are sweating out your electrolytes, dummy! I start pounding the powerade at every aid station, and walking through them, in the hopes of fighting off full-on cramping in the legs. My twenty mile split is 2:41:54 -- now my average pace is 8:06 -- if I can hang on, I can salvage the day and maybe finish sub- 3:40.

Through the tunnel to Anacostia, one of the nicest stretches of the run, and the one where I really fell apart last year. Now, the calves are both in rebellion, and I take 40 seconds to stop and stretch -- 20 seconds each, then back to the grind. That mile is 8:50, and I think, ok, as long as it has an 8 in front of it, we're going to call it a win. the next mile the same thing happens -- cramping, I stop and stretch for .40, and then walk the aid station -- 9:15. I decide that's enough of that, and stop worrying about stretching. There's a turnaround out here, and I see that I am halfway between the 3:35 and the 3:40 pace group, and I grimace and decide to try to catch the 3:35s. I don't think the calves cramping will prevent me from moving forward, and indeed, they don't. But I'm no longer running 8 flat -- more like 8:30, and I can't pick up the pace. But I'm not slowing down, either.

Mile 24 was where I planned to make my move -- now, I am just grinding it out to the finish. I've been dancing with a group of three runners, two of whom are in good shape, just running easy with their buddy who is clearly hurting. They are running about 9 flat, and every time I walk an aid station, they go past me, and then I run them down a 1/4 mile out. I finally drop them. A group of three women is doing the same thing, but the two who are in good shape are actually putting their hands in the back of their friend and pushing her up the hill. I wonder if they would mind giving me a push, because going up hills is killing my calves, but I manage to drop them as well. I pass another runner who was with the Navy pace team early on -- he's clearly hurting but not walking. I come up to the last hill to RFK, and I just haven't got any kick in me -- I am usually good for a sprint to the finish, but I have spent the last 15 minutes using every ounce of focus I posses to keep my quads from cramping, repeating my mantra of "Light. Easy. Smooth. Relaxed. Relaxed. Relaxed." Trying to get my calves to stop seizing up. I come across the tape with the race clock at 3:43:ish, by my watch 3:38:40, and the timing machine says my final time from tape to tape was 3:39:07.

So, I beat last years time by 13:46, running better than 30 seconds per mile faster on average -- 8:22. But, again, my 20 mile split last year was 2:43:22 -- only two minutes slower than this year. The difference this year was that I didn't completely fall apart in the back 6 miles.

As much as I want to beat myself up for not running the 3:30 I was training for, I am forced to admit that there is a lot of win here. If I have a strength in racing it is the ability to know when I am pushing too hard, and back off so that I can keep it together to finish. I am not crazy about this strength, but there you are. Should I have stayed with the Navy team and either gutted it out for a 3:30 finish or cracked hard and had to walk, with a finishing time of 4 hours plus? I don't know. There's nothing on the line here for me -- I mean, even if I was trying to qualify for Boston, I would have had to go 3:20, and that wasn't going to happen, so its only pride and meeting goals. But coupled with my troubles on the job front, this hit me pretty hard for a couple of days.

Having worked through that, I am finding some up sides. I now believe that the secret for me to getting below 3:30 is to work on running faster at shorter distances. I think my body is adapting to the distance work, steadily, and if I can get my short-course time down to 7 minute miles, or even sub-seven for 5k distances, then I should be able to get the marathon pace to an easy 3:30. Baltimore marathon is in the fall, and if we're still in the area I will probably aim for that and possibly Chesapeakman, an Iron-distance Tri.

I've got lots of other stuff I want to write about, but lets keep this focused on the race. It was a beautiful day for a run, I finished with a much better time than last year, and I feel good about the next steps I need to take to continue improving. Many thanks to my Coach B who got me to this point, and for teaching me that going out too fast was a mistake. It turns out going out too slow is a mistake too! :)

520 59/229 (10k) 50:55 8:12 / (13.1) 1:44:12 7:57 / (20 mi)
2:41:54 8:06 / 3:41:54 3:39:07 8:22

Race Report -- 1/2 marathon in Richmond; goal setting.

Hello and welcome back to the Rundown! Its been a couple of months off of blogging for me, reflecting my general easing off of the training after IMW. A big picture update, first:

The Rundown got a big boost in October when B was hit by a car while in Hawai'i, just days before the race. Tough guy that he is, he actually started the race, but, unable to run a step, DNF'd at mile 16.5, having walked that far on what turned out to be a broken hip. B is taking this philosophically, taking the opportunity to work on his swimming, keeping the legs fit by running in the pool 5x a week.

After taking four weeks pretty much off, I began running 20 mins a day in October, getting geared up for a 1/2 marathon November 14th. An inauspicious timing, it turns out, as I had lost most of my IM fitness without having built up a new base for racing, but I figured I could leverage my endurance and gut out a better performance - I was feeling FAST. I was regularly running 7:20s on the short days, and occasionally faster. I decided that this would be a race where I could really test myself, try to go out and run 7 minute miles and see how long I could hold on.

Getting to Richmond to pick up my packet was a pain in the Arse. I don't recommend trying to get to Richmond from DC at 5 pm on a rainy friday. It sucked, the expo closed at 9 pm, and if I didn't get there, I wouldn't be able to race. It should only be a 2 hour trip -- I got there at 8:30!

The rain was mostly gone in the AM, just very very humid and occasionally misty, but 50 degrees or so, just the right temp for me to run in. I wasn't feeling great, but I took off at the start near the front of the pack of 5000, and ran my first mile in 7 flat. So far so good!

Or, not so much. I was allready breathing hard! I just couldn't find it in me to cowboy up, bear down and hold the 7s. Mile 2, 7:15, Mile 3, 7:26, and there I stayed for most of the race, slowly giving ground, finishing in 1:38:02. Average pace, 7:29.

I ended up 27th out of 376 in my age group; 229th out of 4,578 finishers overall.

It wasn't the race I wanted to run, but I can't be too dissapointed with the results. In the spring I ran 1:40 in a 1/2 marathon, so this is a good sign that the general level of fitness is improving. I'll plan on doing a few more footraces in the spring, gearing up for a marathon in March or so.

In the meantime, I've gotten back in the pool, and set an impressive mark -- 34 seconds for 50 yards. That's not too shabby for a non-swimmmer -- pity that the shortest race I am likely to do is 8x that distance!

Some goals for Year 2 of the Rundown:

1/2 Ironman in June, Swim sub-30 minutes, Bike 2:30; Run 1:35.

Get the average speed of my 50 mile rides to 21 mph.

Run a 3:30 marathon.

Other than that, building a good base for year three, when I am going to try for a 10 hour IM. Long-term goal -- 9:15 IM in 2013, qualifying for Kona before I turn 45!

Rundown Progress Report: Year 1, T-7 days

Madison, Wisconsin. B and I rolled into town last night about 9:30, driving up from the DC area (overnighted in PA, stopped in Chi for a ~15 mile run around 4:30). Checked into the hotel, and this morning went out and rode the bike course. Well, the 44 miles of the loop. Check it out for yerself. I imagine we'll drive the whole thing at some point this week, just to get a feel for the move from downtown into the hills.

And hills there are. Honestly, though, I think I had in my mind that this was going to be like a stage in the Pyrenees, and really its just some rolling hills. The training I've been doing out in MoCo will get me through this, if I'm smart. 2 bigger hills, 1 monster downhill, a couple of steep climbs coming right after 90degree turns, but nothing that will be too debilitating, I think. A lot of my training rides had hills that were steeper, though they also all had stretches that were generally flatter. The plan is the same as it always has been -- ride easy for 80-90 miles, then see if I can bring it up a peg on the back stretch. Ride 6:20 - 6:30 ISH (with no expectations, really -- just ride, baby), and get out onto the run course hydrated, well nourished, and with a lot left in the tank for the marathon.

We found a nice bike shop on the course, which was good because I popped a spoke (on the same wheel I popped a spoke on LAST week, thanks conte's of bethesda for getting the tension right NOT) and so we stopped for coffee and a wheel fix. I thought B was going to go nuts at the midwestern chill attitude of the guy running the shop -- but it was all good, he clearly knew his stuff (even to B's high standards) and I'll probably go back there if I decide to spring for a new front derailleur. Which I probably ought to, dammit.

Lots of stuff to do this week besides prep for the race -- I've brought my research materials and need to start hacking away at chapter 4, I've got TA stuff, I've got prep to do for the class I'm taking. But I am really glad to be out here early, getting settled in for the race. 9 months of work, all coming to a point in 7 days. I'm going to try to do smaller updates daily, just to keep track of my state of mind and the process, with the thought of writing something up for a tri magazine at some point. Today, I am tired but I feel good! Right ankle is a bit tweaky, by which I mean it keeps sending me signals that its due for an overuse injury, but it isn't there yet. So, taking THAT very easy, ice and all. Good form will be key, esp. in the last miles of the marathon.

Oh, and got a new racing jersey -- UMD Tri club. Very cool, I am just hoping it wont chafe too bad on the run -- was ok today on the Brick, but thats only 30 minutes, going to have to see how it does on a longer run . . . pictures to follow!

Race Report: Musselman 1/2 Ironman

Back from beautiful NY state with my first 1/2 Ironman under my belt. Everything went well! I raced as planned, and for those of you who just want a quick rundown, I came in 113th out of 870 overall, 22nd out of 95 in my age group. I finished in 5 hours, 10 minutes, and 19 seconds. Breakdown follows, skip if you want more existential musings which will follow.

Arrived in Geneva on Saturday at 12:30, just in time to get to the race meeting. B was biking in from Binghmanton, where we had crashed the night before, so I was just checking things out. Every thing was extremely well organized, and I didn't have any problems getting reg'd. The race director pointed out some tough spots on the bike course during the walk through, which was useful. After, I got checked into the hotel and rode my bike through the first section of the course, an easy 16 mile loop that got through the start and the finish. B arrived about then, so, after a quick bite to eat, we drove the car out to check out a nasty hill on the bike course that ended in a sharp T intersection. As the race director said, "If you overshoot that turn, you end up in the lake, so don't do that." I rode down the hill a couple times, to get a feel for how fast I could take it and where I would need to break, assuming I wasn't in a pack of riders at that point.

Then we went and drove the run course, or the back half of it -- there was a hill at mile 7 on a dirt road I wanted to look at, and generally get a feel for what the second half of the course looked like.

Having B along to coach me was pretty damn invaluable for this prep -- it isn't that we did anything that I wouldn't have probably done anyway, but he's done that kind of scouting hundreds of times, and having an extra pair of eyes to check the map or look for the turn arrows made a big difference. We went through my T1 drill, since I had muffed the transition going from swim to bike in the last two races, and all seemed cool.

4 am Sunday, the alarm went off, and I got up and ate. B is a big believer in having 3 hours to digest anything before the race, and it works for me, too. The race area opened at 5 am, and we were among the second dozen or so folks loading in. My bike rack had the following printed on it:

#543

You've come a long way, Purplestate.

Make J proud!

Damn, I wondered why they asked about family on the website reggo -- just so they could twist my heartstrings! Worked a treat, too.

My swim wave went off at 7:12, and I felt very good about the swim, knifing through the water in the wetsuit. I didn't swim very straight lines, but neither did I get way off course. Hours in the pool doing laps paid off here, as I never got really tired. However, I begin to see why when racing people tend to breathe on 2 strokes, rather than 3 -- it was choppy out there, and one side was easier to breathe on than the other. Also, I found it alot easier to sight for the next buoy from my left stroke than my right. I want to work on more bilateral swimming in racing, though, because that's when I felt really very fast, high in the water and getting some momentum going. Not swimming in straight lines, of course, makes that less good. Still!

1.2 mile Swim split = 32 minutes, 8 seconds. That is nearly 8 minutes faster than I had anticipated! B thinks the course was about 150 meters short, so, maybe add 2 minutes to that time. 181 overall, 26th in my age group. Winner of my age group swam in 23:25!

Out of the water and into the chute to the bikes. I had gone back and forth on whether or not to wear socks on the bike. I always wear socks when I train. But, the grass in the transition area was wet, and I didn't want to run 200 meters to the mounting area and then have wet, squelchy socks for the bike. Ultimately, I decided not to wear socks on the bike.

T1 split = 1 minute, 11 seconds. 7th overall, 2nd in my AG. I continue to be a 4th sport specialist.

Out onto the bike course. B loaned me his "racing wheels" for this event. Racing wheels are like regular wheels, but they have a much larger rim area and less spokes. They are more aerodynamic as a result, and boy howdy I could tell the difference. Pre-race plan was for me to average 20 mph over the race course, which rolled slightly up and slightly down pretty constantly. So, I was trying for 22 mph on the downs and 18 on the ups, and that was pretty much where I stayed. I did have some very nice downhill sections in the first half of the race where I was going 26 or so, but what I focused on was maintaining the same easy effort, and not trying to mash a bigger gear to get more speed, especially early on.

That proved to be to the good, because the middle of the course, miles 28 - 38, were kinda tricksy, with short sharp hills and sections that went straight into the wind. Which was not inconsiderable. I felt I handled this part of the race fairly well - possibly I could have been a tad more aggressive here, pushing harder instead of spinning up the hills. Many riders would stand up and use their weight to turn the pedals at this point, while I geared down and spun -- going about the same speed or sometimes a little faster. The thinking being that I was saving energy for the run, instead of spending it going one or two mph faster over short, steep hills.

Around mile 42 the bike path went through what was functionally a gravel road -- a very well maintained one, but it was slow nonetheless. I definitely took the first bit of this section too easily, witnessed by the fact that several folks passed me going hard. I cowboyed up and prayed I wouldn't get a flat tire (since I dont know how to fix a racing wheel, I wasn't carrying a spare), but I lost some valuable time here.

After that section, the race must have spread out a lot -- I barely saw anyone but the person about 1/4 mile ahead of me, and no one passed me as we came through miles 45 - 54. In the last 3 miles I started picking people off again, including a bunch of folks who slowed down to go into transition. I was going about 19 mph when I jumped off the bike at the "dismount" line and ran like hell into T2.

56 mile Bike Split = 2 hours, 49 minutes, 4 seconds. 139th overall, 28th in my AG. Average speed, 19.9 mph. Winner of my AG rode in 2 hours, 30 mins, averaging 22.4 mph.

T2 was a blur. I decided that I would carry liquids with me on the run, in what is called a"fuel belt," as well as my own gel-packs for food on the run. The race was sponsored by Hammer, and I haven't been training with any of their products. So, I had to get into socks, shoes, hat, and two belts. Actually, I grabbed the belts and put them on while I ran, but still. I think, in the future, I am going to train with products from the different major fuel brands, so I don't have to do this -- it wasn't a problem, but it wasn't ideal, I think. IM Wisconsin is sponsored by Powerbar, and that + Gatorade is what I am training with. Stuff to think about for next year.

T2 split = 1:24, 68th overall, 10th in AG.

And out onto the Run. I came out of T2 with three people, and we all kinda worked at finding our stride together. I knew I would probably come out too fast, so I was really taking it easy, trying to let my legs get adjusted to the different effort of running. Mile 1, 7:50 -- too fast. I planned on running 8:15s for the first half of the race, and then at about mile 7 trying to bring it down to 8 flat. I have been training with my 15 mile runs on 8:30s, plus or minus, so I thought what with the race and all that I could bring it in somewhere in that neighborhood. Mile 2, 8:45. Too slow! After that, there was a bitch of a short hill -- almost straight up, on the grass or up steps -- which made mile 3 slow as well, 8:34 -- but after that I settled in. The mile with the big hill, mile 7, was my slowest, at 9:00 flat, and after that I started bringing them in around 8 flat, still running pretty easy on the downhills, which are really hard on my knees. In planning for the run, knowing what happened at the marathon, I had 400 mg of ibuprofin in my fuel belt, and as I came through the downhill on mile 8, I took them.

That seemed to do the trick, as I never felt as wobbly as I did just then. The final two miles were in the park by the lake, and I had been running with another guy from my AG for a while -- he put on some speed at mile 10, but I kept him in sight. I dropped the last two miles down, 7:58 and 7:45 to finish, but just missed catching him. I did run a bunch of people down, though, and had enough kick to sprint hard for the finish line.

13.1 mile run: 1 hour, 46 minutes, 32 seconds, average of 8:08 per mile. 134th overall, 25th in my AG. Winner of my AG ran 1:27, on 6:38 per mile.

After the race, I got in an ice cold kiddie pool to ease my aching joints, got a nice 10 minute massage -- a local massage school was donating time, so 16 tables were set up -- got some food, and got my stuff together and headed out. B was on hand at several points during the race to cheer/egg me on. He did his long run (17 miles) while I was out on the bike. Showered, changed, and in the car by 2:30, we limped back to DC, stopping for food and ice cream. B can eat more icecream than anyone else I know, and I know some world champion eaters.

The worst part of the whole trip was the drive back, for me. Sometime last weekend I threw out my back -- I trained through it all last week, got a massage on tuesday, and tried to take it pretty easy, but sitting down for any length of time still hurt, and that 7 hours in the car was pretty brutal. I had an awesome time at Musselman, they run a fantastic event, and I plan on coming back next year, July 10th weekend. There is a sprint race the day before, and lots of stuff for family, so we'll probably make it the family vay-cay, though we shall see, it could be a tumultuous summer.

I remain somewhat nonplussed by my race results. Perhaps somewhere out there, there is someone who is prepared to be pretty darn happy with 113th place. That someone, however, is not me. I know that I ran a good race, and that this wasn't the focus of the training season for me, more of a prep race. I am very happy with how I executed the plan. I can only conclude that I won't be satisfied until/unless I am coming in the top 20 of this kind of race, and if I am not much mistaken, even that won't satisfy me for long. :) No, that's not fair. First time out, 5:10 1/2 ironman is a hell of an accomplishment, and I feel good about it. I feel like I did everything that I could to prepare for it, and now I have a much better idea how the full ironman is going to go -- though, given the difference between a 1/2 marathon and a full marathon, I am probably still underestimating the difficulty by about 40%. Heh.

Nine weeks to go to Wisconsin. I don't have a race in August, saving $$, so I will do some time trials instead. Train like hell for the next several weeks. An 11 hour Ironman now doesn't seem SO crazy. CW says double your 1/2 IM time and add 4o mins; with hard work I may even manage a sub-11 hour first effort.

And that has to be the focus, the standard for success -- I didn't really have one for this race, I had hoped to go about 5:15, and I bettered that. Now, I somehow need to convince the competitive nature which drives me to be happy with THAT measure of success, rather than a list ranking the results of all the other competitors. Easier said than done, perhaps, but that's going to be the mental focus. Run my race, this year, do what I can, and don't worry about what anyone else can do. Hey -- B finished his 1/2 IM in 4:13 (more than 10 minutes faster than the winner of Musselman), which means that I gave him a good deal less than a minute per mile -- and THAT is a win I can put in the bank.