2103 Celebrating Heroes Triathlon: 3rd Place Relay

Yesterday my wife and I raced in the 2013 Celebrating Heroes triathlon as a relay team, placing as the third overall relay team.  As we have done in previous years, I did the swim and bike and she ran.  This was a really fun local race for us; it is really close to home, it is well organized, and we both went into it with a relaxed attitude.  Also, as a shorter distance sprint triathlon, there is less to worry about logistically; our kids wouldn't grow as bored

Race Morning

I had packed up the car with my stuff the night before, so all I had to do on race morning was wake up at 5:45, get in the car and drive the couple of minutes to the race and walk through the park to transition.  By this point I have my transition setup down  and can do it fast and on auto-pilot.  I had almost forgotten how great it is to do a non-wetsuit race, it is so much simpler not having to carry in one more bag with the wetsuit, timing when to put it on and walking around in it (mine is great in the water, but isn't so fun to wear on land). As I setup, I saw a friendly face from my masters swimming; she was doing the swim leg of a relay.  I think I was in a bit of zombie pre-coffee mode and in retrospect was probably not at my friendliest.  Sorry!  I finished up my setup within about 15 minutes, grabbed my iced-coffee in a water bottle a powerbar and walked over to the swim start to eat my breakfast.  I was expecting to take under an hour total for my two legs, so nutrition and hydration weren't going to be a big deal, but I still needed my morning jolt of caffeine.

Swim (16:20)

I used to complain in my blogs that they always put my wave last.  I'm not sure if some race directors read my blog or it is just a coincidence, but in my last few races I've instead started in either one of the first few waves or at least in the middle.  For this race I was happy to get to swim with the majority of the men's field, including my normal age group.  Since relays or aquabike are usually put in some random spot, this was the first time I'd get to swim with my normal peer group.  It would mean a lot more jostling than usual, but also a nice opportunity to see some fast swimmers.  Right before entering the water, I had the pleasant surprise of seeing my wife and kids and taking a quick photo with them.

After my photo, I entered the water last in my wave to get ready to start, so I had to fight a bit to get a front position.  The start was definitely crowded and as expected it was slightly rough.  I felt a bit bad for my female swim friend who had to start with this huge crowd of guys, some of whom are not exactly polite about swimming over you, bumping you, etc.  I managed to escape the start without any issues and started looking for feet to follow.  I was a little surprised to see just how many people seemed to be going really fast, but reminded myself that a big fraction of all the fast swimmers in the race would be in this wave, so I shouldn't expect to be able to hang with the very front guys.  After two races in a row where I had found great feet to follow, I was getting pretty used to the idea of drafting for most of the swim.  But in this race I never really found someone who worked for me; a couple of times I drafted for a little while only to have the person slow down too much whenever they were sighting.  On the plus side, the faster swimmers made a nice splashing path that made following a good line around the course relatively easy.  So I just concentrated on doing my own pace and following as good a line as I could to avoid swimming any extra.  By the end, I had passed a lot of the wave ahead, and had passed a number of swimmers from my wave (you can tell by the cap color) who had presumably started out faster.

Looking at the results, I think I ended up around 17th overall for the swim, but got 2nd in the relay by a big margin.  There was a young woman relayer who I found out swam almost two minutes faster than I did and had close to the fastest time of everyone in the race!  That was an awesome performance.

T1 (1:29)

The other part I love about a non-wetsuit race is how easy it makes transition.  My entire transition consists of jogging to my bike, taking off my cap and goggles (while jogging), putting on my helmet (darn buckle took an extra second), and jogging with my bike to the bike start.  The only challenge in all this is that "jogging" for me is not a great idea; I have to take that very easy and accept that it is going to cost a little time.

Bike (39:33, 24.3 MPH)

I've done this race before and really liked the bike course, it follows a bunch of roads near my house that I regularly ride on.  However, I found out much to my surprise (should have read the race emails more carefully) the week before the race that they were using a different course this year.  It also goes on familiar roads, but in the opposite direction that I usually go on those roads.  While it isn't a huge deal, knowing the course well is a distinct advantage; you know how to pace various hills depending on whether you can recover on a downhill after, etc.  I did a little recon the Friday before the race and got at least a general idea of the course and what kind of a time I might expect to do.  I figured under 40 minutes was about right.

Unlike some races, I felt pretty good at the start of the bike.  I guess my swim fitness must be coming back a bit.  I managed to get my feet into my shoes within the first couple of minutes and was ready to go.  The most interesting thing to me about the bike leg was the progression of bikes I passed as the race went on.  During the early miles, I was mostly passing people on regular road bikes.  As the miles ticked on, the bike got progressively more fancy till by the end of the ride I was only seeing people on TT bikes with high end race wheels, etc.  I also had the fun of passing one of my local buddies on one of the steeper climbs on the course, giving plenty of time to give him my version of "the look" as I passed. Overall, this was a pretty fun course although I still think I like the old course better.  While there are not a lot of big climbs, there are a surprisingly large number of fast downhill sections; I think I hit 35+ mph half a dozen or more times on descents.  By the end of the ride, the course joined on to familiar territory and I knew based on my time to that point that I should beat my 40 minute goal time and just concentrated on keeping a good effort all the way into the finish.  

Looking at the results after the race, my bike split placed 4th overall, with the three overall race winners all beating my bike split time.  I recognized the name of each of those three guys from previous races and was by no means disappointed to be behind any of them.  Unlike some other longer races where it is quite unfair to compare my bike split against guys who do the whole race and are saving energy for the run, in a sprint these top guys can go very close to all out the entire time, making the comparison a bit more fair.

T2 (:27)

The bike to run relay transition was easy.  Transition was pretty empty when I got there, so it was easy to spot my wife waiting for me.  We handed off the timing chip and she ran off.  I was a bit disappointed to discover another bike already racked right next to mine; I had been hoping to give my wife a bit of a lead on the run.  After chatting with the young man who owned the bike, I realized he trained with one of my biking buddies, so at least we were losing to friends.  His relay partner was the woman who crushed the swim, and they had another fast young man doing their run, so I had no delusions that we were competing for anything other than 2nd place at that point.

Run/Kid Wrangling (33:41)

My wife brought my kids to the race, but obviously couldn't watch them while we transitioned.  A good friend who's husband was doing the race volunteered to watch our kids during the small window when my wife would wait for me in transition and before I could come out of transition to start watching them myself.  I was happy to not have to hunt for them when they showed up at the edge of the transition area and we exchanged hugs.  I quickly packed up my stuff and got changed into street clothes so that we could walk over to the finish line to cheer my wife at the finish.

We got to the finish in time to watch the top overall winners finish and as expected watched the first place relay team fly by.  There was then the slightly nervous wait as we watched for any other big numbers (the relays were all 3000+ numbers).  The kids whiled the time away playing at the edge of the lake.  Apart from worrying about where we placed, I was worried that my wife would hurt herself.  In the last race we did together, she hurt her knee and limped painfully to the finish.  I really didn't want to see that again.  I spotted her coming over the hill and immediately started trying to catch her on film and cheer her on.  Without realizing it at the time, I captured this great shot showing her being passed by the 2nd place relay team within sight of the finish line!  Much to my relief she did not re-injure herself, although she admitted she had to take it a bit easy to prevent her knee from hurting.  I suppose that may have cost us second place, but is a compromise I'm very relieved to hear she took!

2013 Eagleman Aquabike: Almost Perfect till I Pulled a "Lightning McQueen"

Here's the scene from yesterday.  I'm a bit under a mile away from the finish line for the 2013 Eagleman Aquabike.  I've been leading for about the last 40 miles and haven't seen anyone apart from riders going the other way for 10 to 15 miles and haven't seen any hint of anyone behind me when seemingly out of nowhere a guy blows past.  I try to respond and manage to keep the gap from growing too big.  On the home stretch I try to get up out of the saddle, but I have nothing.  I watch from about 10 feet back as my fellow competitor crosses the line first, breaking the ribbon and gets congratulated on first place.  I slog myself through the muddy finish line, coming in second by 11 seconds after almost three hours of racing and collapse in a heap on the ground to rest.  As I'm lying there all I can think is that I was so close to having a perfect day and somehow it slipped through my fingers...

Driving home from the race, I told my kids that I took a gamble and lost, much like Lightning McQueen in the first race of the movie "Cars" that they are very familiar with.  Just like Lightning kept refusing new tires at pit stops, I kept refusing to take on hydration at the water exchanges.  And just like Lightning almost made in to the finish line before his tires blew and almost limped in to win even after that, I almost made it.  Still, I can't help thinking that I should have been a lot smarter than a kids cartoon car who is the example of racing stupidly!  This one may sting for a while, especially since I made a mental error to lose this race the last time I did it in 2011 by a similarly slim 12 seconds.

Setup for a Perfect Day

The night before the race I was really excited about this race.  The weather conditions were shaping up to be ideal.  The water temperature was comfortably in wetsuit legal range so that I didn't have to prepare for two different contingencies.  Race morning was forecast to be high 60s to mid 70s be mid morning with light winds.  On a flat course like Eagleman it was ideal conditions for a fast race.  Finally, the race organizers put the Aquabike wave right at the beginning in the wave immediately after the pro waves.  That would mean instead of having to fight through crowds on the bike I would get a wide open course with the potential of tracking down a few of the back of the pack pro women.  The timing on race morning was ideal.  After my family dropped me off, I walked to transition, setup my bike in transition, made my way over to the bathroom line, put my wetsuit on and walked over to the swim start just in time to see my family and get in the water.  No time wasted, no need to wait around.  It was great.

Swim: 32:22

As we waited between the start buoys, it was evident the swim was going to be a bit longer than average.  Whenever you would start to tread water, you would notice that the current was slowly pulling you back away from the start.  The course is shaped with a long outbound leg and then a short inbound leg bringing you back to a different spot, this meant we would be fighting the current for most of the swim.  As the swim started, I tried to find a comfortable pace and a group to latch onto.  I found myself with a pack of four or five who all seemed to be doing about the same pace and latched myself on to the back.  After a few minutes and a couple of buoys, I settled into a comfortable third slot behind two other guys.  We swam the entire outbound leg to the first turn buoy that way and I was feeling good about my positioning and strategy so far.  A bit after we turned, things broke up a bit and I ended up having to find some new feet, bridging a small gap to a guy going at a slightly faster clip.  That worked well until the next turn where he started breast stroking while trying to find the next buoy to swim toward.  At that point I swam past him and found myself swimming solo for a bit.  I could see a swim cap about 10-15 yards away and a few more beyond that and put in a little bit of effort to see if I could bridge that gap.  After seeing that I wasn't making up ground fast enough, I just tried to find my own pace and a good line back to the swim finish.  Toward the very end of the swim, a couple guys who I assume were on my feet started to come around and I latched on one last time to get pulled into the swim finish.  While the weather on race day was perfect, it had rained a lot the days before, so the transition area was a wet muddy sloppy mess.  Given that, my plan was to walk or very slowly jog in transition to avoid problems.  This gave me a bit more time to spot my family and have my wife yell out that there were five or six guys ahead of me so that I would know how much ground I needed to make up on the bike.

T1: 1:52

My transition from swim to bike went smoothly if not lightning fast.  I walked or gently jogged through the slog and found my bike without any problems.  I had to sit to take off my wetsuit and took a moment to chat with a fellow competitor who came out right with me.  After putting my helmet on and grabbing my bike I trotted off to the bike start.

Bike: 2:17:58

I had high hopes and expectations for my bike at Eagleman.  I had done a lot of preparation and felt like I was in great shape with my equipment and physically.  The weather as we started was perfect, a bit overcast and probably low 70s with no significant wind.  I was expecting that I would ride a time significantly faster than my time from two years ago and had vague hopes of averaging 25+ mph.  That all seemed to be coming true for most of the race.  I knew from what my wife told me after the swim that there were probably just a half dozen or so guys from my wave in front.  As I mentioned previously, ahead of them by ten minutes or so would be the pro women and then the pro men.  This meant that in sharp contrast to previous years when I probably passed 500 people on the bike, I would be lucky to see ten.  As I settled in to the bike, I concentrated on keeping a good aero position and putting out power numbers that I thought I could sustain.  Whenever I looked down at my cycling computer it would show 24-26 mph which seemed right on target.  By 15 miles in to the ride, I had comfortably passed all the guys in my Aquabike wave and was still feeling great.  By around the halfway point, I caught and passed the first pro female and noted that I was just about on target for hitting my 25 mph goal.  

Let me take a brief break from the narrative to discuss nutrition/hydration.  My plan at Eagleman in 2011 was to ride with one bottle of gatorade and to exchange at the on course support stations (I think there are three or four).  In 2011 that worked fine and nutrition was not a major issue despite it being a fairly warm day.  This year I had the same rough plan, but for some reason I convinced myself that I was doing fine without any exchanges.  I was figuring that I had been plenty hydrated at the beginning of the race and that it wasn't that hot.  I've done plenty of two hour plus rides this year where all I drank was a single water bottle.  So I went the entire race waving off the support station staff.  In retrospect, I can't believe I didn't just go with my original plan.  I could have just grabbed a water or gatorade, drank some and thrown it away without exchanging at no risk/overhead, but I guess I wasn't thinking straight.

Miles 25 to 45 or so were still going pretty well, although in retrospect, I think I was starting to feel the effect of dehydration.  By that point, I had passed a few more pro women and was trying to talk myself into upping or at least maintaining the pace for just 10 more miles.  The only eventful bit was when I noticed as the course turned that a pro that I had passed a couple minutes before and had assumed was long gone was sitting about two or three bike lengths back.  I don't know how long she had been there or how close she had been, but I yelled at her to get off my wheel and tried to up my pace a bit to drop her.  I had a pro women friend in the race up ahead and the last thing I wanted was to drag one of her competitors up to her, especially someone who didn't appear to be following the letter of the rules.  I was happy to see that the next time I checked she was no where to be seen.

The last ten miles was hard both mentally and physically.  My glutes started to hurt, making sitting on my seat quite painful.  This wasn't the usual my saddle is bothering me sort of issue, it was that those muscles were getting very unhappy.  I also started getting some cramps in my right hip flexors.  I suppose I could have seen the signs earlier, but it became obvious over the course of a short span of time that I was suffering from some combination of bad pacing and/or dehydration.  Every time I looked down at my cycling computer, I would see that my speed wasn't what it should be and my wattage output was very low for my perceived level of effort.  I was well past the last aid station, so I knew I had to just try to hold on till the finish.  Still, I figured I could hang on to the lead for the last ten miles.  I might not hit my best time, but I should still win.  It was a bad sign over those last ten miles that I wasn't catching up to racers ahead of me anymore; that was a sure sign that my pace had dropped off substantially. 

As I mentioned in the opening, the pass happened within the last mile or so of the race.  The guy did a good job of making a strong pass and quickly had a big gap.  At that point I didn't see how I had a chance and was kicking myself for blowing it.  I tried to up my pace to match his and managed to keep him in sight.  I knew my family would be waiting to watch me go by on the finish stretch and wanted to look good and show some appreciation for their support by finishing strong.  I managed to stand and give one last effort and narrowed the gap a bit, but it was too little too late and was only enough to give me a great view of him crossing the finish first.  I crossed the line and went to congratulate the winner.  I then collapsed into a pile in the mud and hoped I would be able to get up after.  I could feel my glutes crying out and could see my calves twitching as they were preparing to cramp.  Everyone at the finish was super supportive and congratulated both of us on a great close race.  The winner told me he was shocked when he passed me; I had been flying at the beginning of the race and he assumed he had no chance.  Yup, me too!  

It hurt to be so close to both a win and a well executed race.  But at the end of the day I still had a good time and was grateful to be healthy enough to race and to have my family come support me.  I found out afterward that they had a fun morning at the race and were excited to come back next year and try again!