The Pre-Race Jams
So how's the new In Flames album Sounds of a Playground Fading? Silly question dumbass... it rules. Just like every In Flames album.
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| In Flames we trust. Still. |
So for anyone not familiar with the Tristar series, the race consists of a 1K swim, 100K bike and 10K run. In non-metric terms -- a swim that's little more than a warm-up, serious business on the bike, then a run that's long enough to matter but not so long that it kicks the crap out of you for several days afterward. In other words, a race that's pretty much tailor made for my strengths. Sweet.
Waking up and getting ready to leave the house on race morning was weird. We were required to check in our bikes as well as all of the gear we'd need during T1 and T2 the night before, so my carefully rehearsed packing routine was shot to hell. I ended up leaving the house with nothing but a plastic bag containing my wetsuit, swim cap, goggles and timing chip. The entire way there I had this nagging feeling that I was forgetting something important, but once I got to the race site and looked inside my various transition bags I realized it was all there and relaxed a little.
A couple minutes after I arrived I heard the announcement that the water temp was 77F, meaning that the age groupers could wear wetsuits but the pros could not. On one hand I was glad because I swim like a turd, but on the other hand, it's not every day that I get to do a race with a legit pro field, and it would be kind of cool to see where I stack up against those guys head to head on a level playing field. I mean, I know I'm going to get my shit handed to me by guys like Macca and Maik Twelsiek, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be DFL against the entire pro start list either. At any rate I'd sure as hell make anyone who was going to beat me work for it. Oh well, whether or not I could've beat some of the pros will have to remain unresolved, because I'm not allowed in their wave and I'm sure as hell not spotting the minute or so I'd lose by going suitless to guys like Alex Hooke and Josh Riff, so on with the suit and into the lineup for the 2nd wave it was.
Because the field was so small, the swim start was probably the least violent of any non-time trial start swim I've ever done. I jumped on Alex's feet for the first minute or so and was totally busting ass to stay there when I had a rare moment of clarity. I could either continue busting my ass to try and hold his draft, probably lose him somewhere along the line anyway, then come out of the water totally shelled with 3+ hours of racing still ahead. Or I could let him go, swim on my own at about 80% effort or so, lose maybe 60-90 seconds, but hit the bike course fresh. I chose the latter and hit the beach a touch over 15 minutes, which was slower than I was hoping for, but feeling good and ready to hammer it out on the long bike.
T1 was just comically bad. First I had trouble locating my bag on the rack, then I spent 15-20 seconds standing there scratching my ass looking for my bike. I'm so accustomed to picking out my bright yellow transition mat when running down the bike rack that I was utterly lost without it. Instead I'm standing there looking up and down the rack thinking it's the black one with the black wheels, why is it so hard to find!?! News flash genius... they're pretty much all black with black wheels. Eventually a volunteer pointed me in the right direction, I found my bike and I was off.
After making the turn out of the park and getting strapped in I saw Alex a good bit up the road ahead of me. I was hoping I could ride fast enough to catch him by the end of the first loop. I was also hoping that doing so would keep Josh behind me (I knew I got out of the water in front of him but I had no idea by how much).
By mile 5 or so I had almost caught up to Alex, which was surprising. I was expecting a much longer chase. I heard after the race that one of his brakes was rubbing for most of the first loop. Bummer.
I was surprised as hell when right about the time I caught Alex I looked over to my left and saw Josh pulling around for the pass. I thought I had way more time on him coming out of the water. And no sooner had he completed the pass then I hear another bike approaching, look over and see Sean Cooley going by. Damn. I was not expecting that much company on the bike.
Of course, I'm not going to take getting passed by two guys lying down, so after dropping back and collecting myself I kicked it up a notch and went for the re-pass. I rode pretty hard for a couple minutes hoping to put some sort of gap on them, but the second I let off the gas they went right on by again. It wasn't just Josh leading the charge either. Sean was riding aggressively as hell and looked perfectly comfortable mixing it up with me and Josh. It seems like Sean's getting stronger every race and it won't surprise me a bit if he's a serious contender in the big local races next season.
That was basically the pattern for the next 20 miles or so. I'd get to the front, ride unsustainably hard for a while, then the second I settled back into a more distance-appropriate pace I'd find myself sitting third-wheel again. The whole time this was going on I was thinking about the Chisago half last year, when Josh and I came into T2 together and he proceeded to absolutely murder me on the run. Granted, this was going to be a 10K run instead of a half marathon, so I think that tilts it a little toward my favor, but I still figured I needed to come into T2 with a minute-plus lead, so I was going to keep the hammer down until somebody broke.
At one point Josh rode up along side me and said something along the lines of, "You remember what race we're in, right?" I'm sure I grunted something unintelligible as a reply, but I was thinking: yes, I'm doing the I-don't-want-to-end-up-in-a-foot-race-with-you-so-I'm-going-to-ride-away-from-you-or-die-trying distance.
Somewhere around mile 25 or so the elastic finally snapped and I pulled away. It was a blast battling it out with those guys, but it was nerve-wracking at the same time. All in all I was glad to be off on my own.
The rest of the bike was pretty boring. The only other Tristar racers I saw for the remainder of the ride were Macca, who was soft-pedaling back toward transition after dropping out for some sort of mechanical issue, and pro Chris Boudreaux, who I passed while he was on the side of the road apparently serving a drafting standdown somewhere around mile 55. My legs were feeling pretty ragged by now from all the action on the first loop and my pace was slowing considerably. Luckily the ride was coming to an end and there was only a 10k run between me and the finish line.
T2 went considerably better than T1 and I got out onto the run course without incident. The first thing I noticed on the run was that my legs were absolutely gone. It felt like my heart rate was under control and I was barely breathing hard, but my legs were just screaming for mercy. I suppose that makes sense given that I'd just completed the longest bike race of my life. The only thing I could do now was set off at the fastest pace I could manage and hope for the best. I was shocked after the race when I saw my run split was 37:33. I would've bet my bankroll during the run that I was on my way to a 40+ split. It's always good to be pleasantly surprised by a split like that. Usually it works the other way around.
When I hit the line I was announced as the first amateur finisher, but it turned out there was another racer who actually crossed the line in front of me, 42 year old Jeff Fleig from LaCrosse. It turns out he made a wrong turn somewhere out on the bike course and accidentally cut some of the distance. He reported himself to the officials and ended up taking a DQ. A tip of the cap to Mr. Fleig for being a stand up guy. Honesty is refreshing in this day and age.
I capped off the day by recording this interview with Nick from TriJuice (a very cool website BTW) in which I twitch around like a nervous crackhead and accidentally refer to Sean Cooley as his brother Jake. Sorry guys. I'm normally not that big of a spaz. I think. Hopefully.
Next up is a long weekend of rest and relaxation followed by the Best of the US Championship on September 10th.
