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.
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.
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