Summer 2009 Race Reports

It's been a long time since I've reported out on my race progress for the summer so here it goes.

Culpeper Sprint - 8/2/09 | 1:33:21 | 10 Place AG | 99 OA

Culpeper was a maintenance race for me between Musselman 70.3 and Timberman 70.3. The race day was cold and rainy and the swim was a no wetsuit allowed race. Overall my race performance was fairly average with exception to the swim. I think between not having the extra speed from a wetsuit and going off course a bit it caused me to add an additional 3 minutes to my swim time. My bike has been steadily improving while my run has been drastically improving! I'm happy with my direction...

Race Details: 750m Swim - 18:02 | T1 - 1:20 | 16mi Bike - 49:47 | T2 - 1:22 | 5k Run - 22:51

Timberman 70.3 - 8/23/09 | 5:49:08 | 61st AG | 723 OA

Timberman was my 3rd and final 70.3 of the season and boy what a race! The race was located on beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hamphire and not only was this my A-race, this was also my A vacation! The race was an official Ironman 70.3 and it was definitely noticeable. There was 2000 racers so it was a larger race! I had a strong swim in a crystal clear lake while my bike was continuing to improve race over race. My run on the other hand was just below average for this race as I had posted a 15 minute quicker time at Musselman on the half marathon. Again, I am still happy with my direction but improvement is always my focus!

Race Details: 1.2mi Swim - 39:08 | T1 - 2:50 | 56mi Bike - 2:47:05 | 13.1mi Run - 2:17:27

Nations Tri - 9/13/09 | 2:32:41 | 80th AG | 536 OA

This was my second year racing in the Nations triathlon. The race this year was double in size to that of 2008 with 6000 registered and just under 4000 racing and finishing. My age group alone has 400 in it! My swim was slightly above what I was shooting for but I made up for that on the bike and run! The day was perfect with slight cloud cover, temps in the 70's and practically no humidity. This was drastically different from last year when temps were in the upper 90's with high humidity. My goal for this race was 2:30 or better and although that really meant I would have liked to hit 2:25 or better, I was still happy with my race results.

Race Details: 1.5k Swim - 33:49 | 25mi Bike - 1:08:10 | 10k Run - 46:56

Dc Tri Club Time Trial #1 - 9/19/09 | 16mi bike - 42:30 (22.5 mph)

General Smallwood Sprint Relay - 9/20/09 | 1:30:07 | 1st Place

This was a great race! Jess and our friend Zach are both giving a go at doing their first triathlon at Giant Acorn and I wanted them to get some exposure to a race as a relay before jumping into their own individual race. Not only did they get some great exposure to the sport but they felt what it's like to take first place! The competitive bug was planted in them! I'm hoping for some great things from thehm at Giant Acorn!

Ragnar 200 Mile Relay - 9/25/09 to 9/26/09 | 29 hrs | 6th Place

I participated in the 2009 Ragnar Relay with 11 other co-workers and friends. The race was a relay foot race where each of us had to run 3 legs over the course of the 200 miles. We started at 9am on 9/25 and ended just a little after 2pm on 9/26. For my legs I had some doosey's! My legs included a 6.2 mile very hard route which brought me up over 800 feet in elevation rise just outside Cuumberand, W.Va, a 8.4 mile very hard route with also took me up about 900 feet in elevation in the pitch black of night over the Boonsboro Mountain pass in Maryland and last but not least a 4.2 mile moderate route passing through Frederick at the but crack of dawn. In total I ran 19 miles in 2:29:00 for an average pace of 7:50 min/mile. Not bad for some brutal legs! The race overall was awesome (minus course logistic issues due to poor race organization and some rain that hit up Saturday after). Looking forward to the next adventure!

Musselman 70.3

Last weekend was my second half Ironman of the season, Musselman, in my hometown of Geneva, NY which is tucked away in the center of the Fingerlakes region of New York. An area known for it's great white wines and picturesque rolling hills.

The race itself is in it's 6th year in Geneva and what a great event both for the athletes and the town. The half ironman is held on Sunday while a very popular sprint distance race is held on Saturday. Both have turned larger pools of competitors both new and aged year over year since it began. This year there were about 800 racers in each race for a total of 1600 for the weekend. Not bad! The race itself features a very pleasant swim in the clean Seneca Lake, a bike ride like no other as you roll up and down some easy rollers through wine country with vista's of two magnificent lakes on either side of you and last but not least a historic run takes you through the city of Geneva, through Hobart & William Smith colleges and finally finished back at the State Park. What a race!

You might wonder about the name of the race, Musselman. A play on words as the lake, in the recent decade, has fallen victim to a breed of zebra mussels that were brought in from the St. Lawrence seaway and now live all over the rocks throughout the lake. We are talking in the millions if not billions! These little guys keep the lake clean yet they are like razor blades all of the bottom making the swim an un-nerving activity when in shallow water. All that aside, the race director has done a good job playing up these little creatures and everyone can say they are truly musselmen after they've conquered this course!

Ok on to my race report. I set out with 3 things in my mind for this race. One this was a B race for me, two I wanted to have fun and enjoy myself and three I wanted to turn a time in the 5:30 to 5:45 range. Well as you read on I think I can safely say I conquered all of these goals or came very close to them!

The race morning started at 5AM for me. It was so nice being 5 minutes from the course sleeping ing my old bed at my parents house. I got a solid nights sleep with almost 9 hours of good sleep. I got up and followed my routine to a T. Had my usual race morning breakfast of a bagel with peanut butter, granola/oatmeal and a banana. I stretched out a bit and began drinking all sorts of water and Gatorade and mother nature even cooperated with me so I didn't have to use the nasty port-o-potty at race site. I absolutely hate those things and avoid them like the plague! So everything was going great! I got to the race site at 5:45 and wouldn't you know it that I got a parking spot right next to the transition area...awesome! I unloaded, put some air in my bike tires and made my way to markings, to pick up my chip and then on to set up my T-area. All was great...

1.2 Mile Swim 38:08 1:48 pace

So I can confidently say my swim is heading in the right direction, I shaved off over a minute in my 1.2 mile swim time since the last 70.3. The swim for Musselman was an in water start in shallow, sandy water. The swim course was a rectangle, counterclockwise to the shore for about 1000 meters and then the remaining 800 meters was in a canal with a slight current to our backs. The swim got off to an awkward start with almost all of the wave not hearing the horn go off. So ti was a free for all for about 50 meters with everyone diving, kicking, jumping, you name it for some open water to call their own. I finally got into my groove around 200 meters in and locked in my pace. Sighting was a little different for me because all the buoys were on the left hand side and I've been used to having them on the right for most races. All in all I was happy with my swim and look forward to seeing more improvement at Timberman in a month.

T1 2:11

56 Mile Bike 3:01:30 18.6 mph

So the bike leg cost me 15 minutes sadly enough. I started out the morning with a bad feeling about the bike leg for the day. I've been riding on the original tubes on my Orbea since I bought it and that was almost 2 years ago. No flats to date! Well that streak ended. Apparently while I was out on the swim my family informed me that there was an explosion from the transition area and that a tech crew frantically searched the bikes to find what was a flat tire on my bike. The flat was found...at mile 5 into the course by me! I came out of the transition area and kept feeling the bike getting side ways on me. I thought to myself that maybe I over inflated or maybe it was my back brake which had been previously rubbing the day before. Distracted by my adrenaline I pushed on and found it odd that I was putting in a ton of power but not getting my normal return with speed. Finally my dumb-ass decided to hop off the bike and take a look. Lone behold there was my tire, the back tire non the less, flat as a pancake and my heart just dropped into my guy. My hopes of a 2:45 finish time on the bike were slipping away second by second.

I got off the bike in a shit-storm and probably dropped a few F-bombs here and there. But then after about 5 seconds of that I told myself to calm down and I'll get through this. Luckily for me I choose a great place to stop. I was right across the road from an emergency stop and a paramedic came over to helped me hold up the bike while I covered myself in grease trying to pry my back tired away from the frame. Finally after about 3-4 minutes of messing around I got the tire off. By this time A good majority of the racer had gone by me. I zoned them out and after about 12 minutes of messing around I got my tire back on and ti was off to the races. I decided that my game time strategy of conservative biking was long out the window. From there on out I dropped to my absolute lowest gear and grinded out a steady 23 - 25 mph. I even sustained around 30+ on some straight aways. I must have passed 100's of riders who were shocked to see me come blasting by. I tore up the two big hills on the course and was leveling riders and not taking numbers. I was pissed!

As I approached the last 5 miles I quickly did the math in my head and realized I could at least hit 3 hrs. So I dug deep and road out the last 5 miles at time trial pace down hill and so I got 3 hrs and change!

T2 2:10

13.1 Mile Run 2:04:45 9:31 min/mile

My goal for the run was to finish it in 2 hrs or better. I was close. I came out of T2 feeling amped and surprisingly my legs felt fresh even after the bike. I had a mile by mile game plan for the race and I was determined to stick to it as close as possible. I started out at 7:30 min/mile pace and for 3 miles it was flat then as I began to hit some hills as the course went away from the lake I dropped down to around 8:30 pace and the original plan was to keep it there until I hit mile 8 which was the peak of all climbing for the day. I ended up dropping down the pace between mile 5 and 8 to around 9:00 - 9:30 and then from mile 8 and on I picked it back up to 8:30 pace to finish it off. All in all I was happy with my run and look forward to improving for the next half!

Finish Time 5:48:44 Overall 330/701 Age Group 29/55