Celebration Triathlon 2011: Lookout Susan Lucci

Yesterday I did the Celebration triathlon as a relay.  As usual,
I'm responsible for the swim and bike and get a pinch runner; for
the second time this year my wife.  Celebration is a "sprint" triathlon,
which in this case meant a .62 mi swim, 17.5 mi bike and 3.4 mi run.
Celebration is very convenient for us; it is in Centennial park where
we did the Columbia tri and is just down the road from where we
live.  As a local sprint race, the field is notably less competitive than
Columbia or Eagleman.  It is intended to be friendly to newcomers
to the sport and thus has a field largely comprised of less experienced
triathletes.

To skip to the end, we ended up in second place in all the relays
by about 27 seconds.  This second place by seconds thing
might eventually get old, but for now I'm pretty happy with the result.

Celebration 2010
Last year we also did Celebration and got 4th place mixed relay,
but it wasn't exactly the highlight of my season.  It was my first
non-wetsuit open water swim and I wasn't happy with my
gear choice (bike shorts and a tight tri-top).  The top chaffed and
dragged.  I just didn't have it that day on the bike and frustratingly
did the course 3 minutes slower than I rode it two days after the
triathlon (3 minutes is a long time on a 17.5 mile course!).  I even
got into an "accident" where I grazed some dude who had stopped
in the middle of the bike lane and bent over to examine his bike.  I
saw him at the last second, swerved and knocked him over.
Fortunately it was on an uphill part of the course, so it wasn't really
bad for either of us, but I think we both came away thinking the
other guy was a jerk.  So while this wasn't exactly a redemption
race, it was definitely one I was hoping would go better.

Race Morning
Guess when my wave went off.  Last.  Don't worry, I'm used to that.
My wave is supposed to leave at 8:22 and I'm supposed to be there
by 6:30 to get body marked.  The race morning was pretty much a
clone of Columbia, minus having to carry around a wetsuit.  I got up
at about 5:30, made some coffee and went to park at my super secret
local spot and walked to transition.  We went one better than Columbia
and I body marked my wife the night before, so I didn't even have to
call home to tell her what to do.  I setup my gear and was ready pretty
quickly.  I had some friends who were less experienced doing a relay, so
we killed much of the time chatting about triathlons.  We took our time
and wandered over to the start after having spent most of the long wait
hanging out in the transition area (it was nice not to be kicked out).

The Swim: (16:55)
At the swim start, I saw a number of friendly faces, which is always nice.
I recognized a girl from Columbia who I've seen at the last couple of
relays.  I said hi to a friend who had just done Eagleman and was also
doing the first two legs of a relay here.  I walked in to the nice warm
water with my friend who I had hung with in transition.  As we treaded water
waiting to start, I'm trying to eyeball who I'll follow.  So the gun goes off
and I start pretty hard.  After the first hard push, I lookup to see if I'm on
line and try to find who I'm going to follow.  Much to my surprise, there
isn't anyone.  Looks like I'm the big dog here, which is certainly a first.
I swam very comfortably in my new tri-suit as I did at Eagleman.  It is
certainly a big upgrade over last year's chaffing.  I was basically on my
own till about half way when I started passing the wave ahead.  It was
largely uneventful, with some very minor congestion at one of the turn buoys.
I was really happy with my open water navigation.  Every time I looked up I
was right on line.  I think having done a couple of other races recently has
definitely helped with the open water technique.  I believe that I came out of
the water first in my wave, but as of this morning the splits aren't posted in
the event results.

T1: 1:21
T1 was pretty good, but not flawless like Eagleman.  I got to my bike, put
on my helmet and ran off.  Halfway through transition, my sunglasses fell
off the place I had stuck them on my bike and I had to go back and get
them.  Not a big deal, but felt stupid.

Bike: 45:09 (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/95204622)
Once again I did a flying mount.  Getting on was fine and I planned not to
put my feet into the shoes till a flat section, which meant a minute or two
riding with feet on top of the shoes.  I'm still not as fast as I'd like getting
my feet in while riding, but nothing went dramatically wrong.  I think I had
gone out pretty hard on the swim and felt it a bit at the start of the bike.
My heart rate was at 184 or so for the first minute, which was pretty similar
to Columbia, but this time felt a bit worse.  I had done a fast dry-run of the
course on Friday with a time I would have been happy with for the race, so
I had a good idea of what sort of splits I wanted at various points.  I was a
bit behind my Friday pace at the turn around, but not by much.  After the turn
around it is net downhill, which can be a lot of fun since you really fly.  Sunday
it was fun, but also frustrating at times.  I kept getting blocked by cars on the
course that were getting blocked by bikers who were not far enough to the
right.  There is nothing more frustrating than being forced to use your breaks
during a race on a long straight downhill.  This happened to me two or three
times.  In the end I finished strong and was relatively happy with my time.  It
was slightly frustrating to be slower on race day than my Friday ride of the same
course, but given the added up front swim and the traffic issues, I really can't
complain.

T2: :38
T2 is just handing off the chip and saying "Go go go".

Kid Retrieval
As with Columbia, I did have a third leg that needed to be done at race pace,
only I had even less time since the run is half as long.  I had about 30 minutes to
get home, get four kids in the car, drive back to the park and get setup for
pictures of my wife finishing.  I grabbed my back pack of stuff, got back on my
bike, and headed off to where our car was parked.  I think I got to the door in
about 15 minutes from when I came in to transition, which was good, but cutting
it a bit close.  I stashed my gear, put some clothes over my tri-suit and got
everyone in the car.  We were at the park with what I guessed was about 5
minutes to get in position.  I hustled the kids up the quarter mile or so from the
parking lot to where we could see the race and we quickly setup to watch.
Within about two or three minutes, we saw my wife from a few hundred yards out.
I got some video of her running and some stills and we cheered as she went by.
We were setup maybe half a mile or less from the finish, so she still had a little way
to go till the finish.  Shortly after she passed us, we saw some tall lanky kid scream
by like he was being chased by a lion.  Turns out that kid was on the winning relay
that passed my wife not long after we saw her.

Run: 33:35
My wife seemed pleased with her race.  She told me how much better she
felt this year than last and how easy this seemed compared to Columbia (it
is half as long!).

Post Race
We got our medals, said hi to a few folks and took off.  We were hosting a
small get together of friends at our house after the race, so we had to go home to
shower and setup.  I did run into the overall female winner on the way out and
congratulated her on her race.  I had seen her at masters swimming on Friday
and we had briefly talked about triathlons.  It was nice to see someone that I
(sort-of) know win.

Summary:
There was no "big mistake" that cost us the race this time.  To win we just needed
to have been a bit faster (or to have tripped that kid running by).  Still, I improved
on both my swim and bike times for this same race from last year and my wife
improved on her run time.  My cumulative time up to T2 would have put me in
third overall place for the race.  Can't ask for much more than that.  I'm looking forward
to a bit of a break from racing for a few months.  My next race is not till the first
week of October.

Eagleman Aquavelo 2011: Pretty close

This morning, I did Eagleman Aquavelo.  This is a great category for me and seems to be a growing category based on the number of folks in my swim wave.  Eagleman is a pretty big time 70.3 Ironman race.  They have a bunch of Kona (Ironman 140.6 championship) qualifying slots and even more 70.3 championship slots.  Fortunately, they also have an Aquavelo category for those of us who want to skip the run.  This year it was chosen as the Mid-Atlantic championship for Aquavelo (whatever that means).  As far as I could tell that wasn't exactly a big deal, but it is on their website.

To cut to the quick, I got second place and had a good race.  But there are some interesting details...

Eagleman 2008: A brief history
I did Eagleman Aquavelo in 2008 as my first longer than Oly race and always viewed it as a bit of a failure.  I bonked about midway on the bike and had various fun issues.  The night before the race, we got into our B&B very late without having had dinner yet.  The only place to eat was some hole in the wall bar that had shrimp salad sandwich as the only substantial food.  I took my chances and lost.  My clip-on aerobars slipped about 20 miles into the ride and I couldn't really lean on them right.  My shirt wasn't pulled down all the way to my shorts, giving me a vicious burn on my lower back.  It got to the high 90s that day and just totally killed me.  For various reasons, I haven't done it again the last two years, but I did complete another long aquavelo, giving me some confidence that I can actually do that distance.  I signed up for this year hoping to show I could do well.  Since 2008, I have a new bike, new wheels, and many more miles of training and racing.

Travel/Racking/Lodging
Eagleman is in Cambridge, MD.  Just about nothing else of interest is in Cambridge, MD.  We booked a couple of rooms at a much cheaper hotel that was near the quite expensive host hotel.  Driving out to Cambridge was pretty uneventful as was the race registration and bike racking.  We then went to our hotel and realized that it was pretty crappy.  We don't have very high standards, but the place smelled of smoke, the pool was closed and in a weird state of disrepair, the public bathroom was shared with a liquor store, etc.  After dropping off our stuff, we drove back to Easton (about 20 minutes away) which is a bit larger and nicer for dinner.  We went to a "Ruby Tuesdays", thinking that safe was better than good for me and the kids.  This was surprisingly successful.  I got some pasta with their heavy cream sauce on the side and ended up with a nice safe pre-race meal.  The kids got stuff they liked.  We went back to the hotel, gave everyone showers and put the kids to bed.  We had an interesting arrangement, me in one room with the 2 yr old in the bathroom and Sylvia in the other room with the other three.  This left me with good sleep, but poor bathroom options.  I had to use the fun shared liquor store bathroom in the middle of the night.  I went to sleep early after getting my race stuff ready.

Race Morning
In case I didn't mention it before, my wave goes last, always.  In this case, it started at 8:30, but we would get kicked out of transition by 6:45, so I figured I needed to get to transition at the latest at 6am.  The key problem to surmount was how to get from the hotel to the race.  Our fairly brilliant plan was to let Sylvia and the kids sleep in and for me to make my own way to the shuttle bus that would go from the main parking lot to the race site (you can't park right at the race).  Initially, I thought I would bring a second bike and lock that up, but we then realized that I could roller blade instead.  I spent a good bit of college and post college commuting on roller blades, so this isn't that crazy an idea.  That is how our hero finds himself roller-blading with a backpack, an aero-helmet, a bike pump and a bagel at 5am on a dark back country road.  I actually was too embarrassed to wear the helmet on roller blades, so I just carried it.  Believe it or not, this part went very smoothly, took 15-20 minutes and was probably a nice little warm-up.  I got to the shuttle fine and got to the transition area in plenty of time to setup my stuff.

Race Belt, What Race Belt
For some weird reason, they required everyone to wear a race number while on the bike that I've only seen runners wear before.  So I wasn't prepared for this and didn't have a race belt.  They seemed quite serious about the rule, so I went in search of a solution.  Fortunately, after searching around for a bit, I found a place where they were selling race gear (shirts, etc).  The people there were crazy nice and ended up just giving me a race belt.  After getting the race belt it was pretty clear how it was supposed to work and ended up not being a big deal, just buckle the thing around you in T1.

Hurry up and Wait
So we get hurried out of transition at 6:45 and then need to wait till 8:30 to start.  Sat around and tried to relax while staying hydrated.  At about 8:00, Sylvia and the kids showed up.  We had a nice little picnic breakfast together before I had to run off to the swim start.

The Swim: 34:42
The water was warm.  Really warm.  About 82 degrees.  This made the race a non-wetsuit race.  We had gotten forewarning from the race director, so I ended up buying a tri-suit that I was very happy with (Desoto's Liftfoil).  I started the race at the far buoy to avoid traffic, and had what I thought was a pretty uneventful swim.  I felt like I sighted ok, but probably swam a little bit extra.  The one funny thing was that the water level was so low that you could have put your feet down the entire way.  Toward the end, there were people walking in from a long long way out.  That didn't seem like a very good decision to me; they were going very slowly walking.  I knew I wasn't first out of the water in my wave, but I thought I did a decent pace.  When I got on my bike, I was surprised to see the time of day was 9:05 on my bike computer.  That gave me some idea that I swam in 35 minutes; I was expecting closer to 30.  Afterward, I found out that a number of people seem to think the race was "slow".  With current, and setting of buoys, I guess there is a lot of variation.  My time corresponded to 1:49/100m pace, which sounds snail slow, but my time was 192 out of something like 2000, and I was 13th of the Aquavelo's, so it must not have been that bad.

T1: 1:13
I was excited about this transition.  No wetsuit, plus flying mount should mean a fast transition.  Plus, I got lucky and had my bike right on the end of the row.  All I needed to do was put my glasses and helmet on and strap on my race number.  Then I was on my way.  Just for comparison, the overall pro winner of the whole race had a 1:11 T1.

Bike: 2:16:51 (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/92023560)
The flying mount didn't go quite as cleanly as at Columbia.  I got on the bike fine, but took a little while to get me feet into the shoes.  In fact, one of my shoes came unclipped as I was getting it on.  I don't think this cost me that much time, but you can see in my garmin data that it took a minute or two to get up to full speed.  My plan for the race was to keep a reasonable heart rate and try not to blow up in the first half like last time.  I wasn't actually sure how fast that level of exertion would translate on the pancake flat course that is Eagleman.  I hadn't ridden my new bike or race wheels on anything so flat before.  After about 10 miles, I felt pretty good that a high 160's heart rate was giving me 24-25 MPH.  I had figured from previous years that a 24 MPH average had a good chance of winning the race.  My first challenge came at mile 11 or so.  My plan was to carry one water bottle and exchange at the aid stations as needed.  Turned out just fine.  At the first aid station, I threw them my bottle and grabbed a Gatorade that fit just fine in my bottle holder.  By the halfway point, my average speed was at 24.5 MPH and I was still feeling strong.  It was great to pass the point I had blown up at last time and still feel in good shape.  I managed to keep a pretty steady pace, using passing all the other folks out there as good motivation.  I remembered from last time that at the furthest point the biker's starts to thin out, same thing this year.  The funny thing is that it starts to get crowded again as you make your way back.  Not sure what accounts for that phenomenon, maybe the timing of the waves.  I passed a couple of other people in the Aquavelo category and figured I was out in front by the halfway point.

The Error that Cost Me
The bike is going just fine, I'm at like mile 40 or so, passing people like usual.  After passing a couple of people, I follow a couple of bikers turning, figuring the course turns.  Oops, that wasn't the course turning, that was them both deciding to go to the porta-potty at the aid station.  So I then have to turn myself around (which is pretty hard on a narrow road on a tri bike when you were going 25MPH), go back to the course and get back in the grove.  I figure it had to have cost me at least 20 seconds.  Little did I know that this would matter.

Finish
My plan had been to raise my effort for the last 10 miles or so.  I tried to do that, but didn't really have much left in the tank.  I managed to get my pulse above 170 for most of the time, but didn't feel like I was going much faster than the rest.  Still, I knew I could keep up my pace for the remaining time.  That was a good feeling to know I was going to finish without bonking again.  When I got back to transition, the Aquavelo section looked empty, and I thought I had won.  As I racked my bike, I saw that there was one dude already there.  Damn!  I went over and talked with him.  Turned out he had "just finished".  I congratulated him on his race and we briefly chatted about the race.  He swam faster, but was a bit slower on the bike.  Seemed like a nice guy.  Shortly later, the third place guy came in.  Took a bit longer before another dude showed up.

Going Home
My wife and kids were tired and ready to leave.  I told them that if I didn't win, we would skip the awards, so they were very happy with second place.  I gathered my stuff, got picked up by my wife and we drove home.

11 Seconds!
After I got home, I looked up our times.   Turns out I lost by 11 seconds.  Are you kidding me.  I know that I lost fair and square.  Knowing the course is my job.  Not following some idiot off course is my job.  Still, it burns to know that one mistake cost me the race.  So many things went right in this race that I can't be upset, but darn.  I wish that I knew he was ahead of me.  I'm pretty sure I had 11 seconds more in my legs had I known I was chasing someone.  I just assumed that since I hadn't seen anyone in my wave in so long that I was all alone.  Oh well, lesson learned.