I am back in KY and not happy about it. The weather in Florida was amazing and it would have been nice to stick around for a few days to get in a solid training block before this 70.3 that is now less than 2 weeks away. I ran yesterday morning before hitting the road and it was 65 degrees at 5:15AM. When I got into Lexington at 6:30pm last night, it was 36 degrees and we drove through a little snow close to the KY/TN border which did not make either Kevin or myself happy.
Anyways, it was great to be in Florida. We left Wednesday afternoon and headed towards
Atlanta where we would be staying overnight with a friend's brother. He welcomed us with open arms and provided us with some very comfortable couches. We woke up and headed South from there. We rolled into Clermont around 4pm on Thursday and went straight to the National Training Center to get in a swim. Luckily, they had it set up for long course and the pool was outside so this was a GREAT change from the usual indoor, short course swim for me. We swam a little over 3000 meters and shared a lane with Michael Raelert (whom you may have heard of). The highlight of the swim was Kevin going to the bottom and "blossoming" Raelert. It was a little dissapointing that he gave no reaction what-so-ever. I guess he isn't used to seeing the underside (just to clarify, Kevin was not naked, he was in his speedo) of people whom he has never met. Anyways, we grabbed some dinner from Outback after the swim and stayed with an ex UK swimmer, Eric, who was gracious enough to allow us to stay with for the whole weekend. Thanks Eric.
Friday we woke up, had a little breakfast, then headed out to the race course to check it out. It was sunny and 65 and I wished I had 2 days before my race as I wanted to ride for 2+ hrs. After a nice little 45 min. bike ride, 15 min run, and then a little swim to check out the swim conditions, we were headed back to the apartment for a nap and some relaxing. I had a Pro meeting at 5:30, hit the Olive Garden with two other former UK swim and dive team members, then hit the sack for the evening.
Saturday, Kevin raced at 10:30 and I took off at 1:30. I'm not used to racing in the afternoon so I had a normal breakfast, then a small lunch at around 10:30 to insure I wouldn't feel it during the race. I got everything ready, and was ready to roll at 1:30. I got a good warmup swim in by swimming the whole swim course, but I wasn't sure how the swim would play out due to the shallow water. I was able to run for over 100 meters in the water, and then could dolphin dive for at least another 100 meters. The first buoy was only 350 meters from the shore so that would only be 150 meters of actuall swimming before making the first turn.
I made it back to the beach for the introductions and the start. The cap size of the field was 75 and we had 73 guys on the start list, with many of them being Americans who were biting at the bit to get a chance to race an ITU race, like myself. Sure this was going to be less than an hour of racing when I'm used to racing for around 4 hours, but this would be fun, right?
At 1:30, the gun went off. Just like I had thought, I ran for 100 meters or so, then started to dolphin dive for another 100 or so. I was towards the front of the pack, but the pack was really tight. We hit the first turn buoy, and I went under water. With about 60 guys all hitting 1 turn buoy at the same time, it doesn't make for an organized swim turn. I had at least 4 or 5 guys grab me and push me under (at least I could still touch bottom, right?). I lost a little bit of time at that turn but was able to fight back and get going again. I made the 2nd turn and was still sitting pretty on some feet that were in the middle off the pack. We hit the shallower water, I started to dolphin dive, and then I was running out of the water. I could see a huge pack of guys just about 10 seconds up, so I knew it was crucial for me to sprint up the beach and have a fast transition. I did so, but fumbled with my helmet a little (I don't like it that much but it was my only road helmet) and was off. I came out of T1 (probably had my best bike mount of my life) and was sitting behind about 7 - 8 guys as we started the bike segment. Unfortunately, there was a 10 - 15 sec. gap in front of those guys to the main pack and I knew it was crucial to catch the pack before they started pulling away. I got my feet in my shoes fast, then took off. The guys I was with all decided to put their shoes on at the same time and I dropped them and was in no man's land for about 1 minute or so. I was ALL OUT but not making much ground on the main pack and not really dropping the pack behind me. I decided to sit up and wait so we could all work together and maybe catch the pack. Well, this never happened. We worked together, but not really well, so we ended up losing about 45 seconds or so over the course of the 20k bike course. We came into T2 about 1 minute or so down from the leaders and knew there was no chance of catching most of them as they are all phenominal runners. No problem, I would just run my best anyways. I had a good T2, and was out running. My legs felt like bricks due to all of the sprinting and ALL OUT efforts that I had put forth during the bike segment. It took me a minute or so to start feeling decent but I never really felt great. I was in no man's land and I pretty much stayed there the whole time. I crossed the finish line way back from the winners but in front of a small group of guys so I wasn't last, haha.
I knew that this type of racing isn't my forte so I didn't have any expectations except to have fun and get in a solid first effort of the year. I was happy with the effort, just not the result. I was hoping to be apart of the main bike pack coming into T2 and my fumbling with my helmet and getting caught behind the guys that I did coming out of T2 cost me this position. Sure I should have swam 10 - 15 seconds faster and I wouldn't have had to worry about it. But it just goes to show you how 1 - 3 seconds at a critical point in the race can end up costing you several minutes later in the race. I may have lost about 1 minute during the bike portion, and then another 30 seconds or so on the run since I wouldn't have exerted as much energy on the bike. I would have had a better draft and only had to sit in and not have to push the pace.
In the grand scheme of things, I did swim(run) under 8 minutes for the swim, biked a 28:something for the 20k bike segment, then ran 16:18 for 3 miles (course was a tad short) so it wasn't a terrible day. But when the top guys biked 27:30ish and then ran under 14, I have a long way to go, haha.
But it was a great experience and fun to compete at a distance like that against some of the top names on the ITU circuit. I now have San Juan 70.3 less than two weeks from now and then a month before New Orleans 70.3.
Back to training.
T-Bird
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