Square lake 69.3 mile race. (the bike mileage is off by a mile or so)
1.2 mile swim
55-56 mile bike (no one is really sure)
13.1 mile run
Signed up for the race last year (it is $40 if you sign up in advance). I signed up with the thought that it would be a “training race” to prepare for ironman AZ in November. It would be a good way to get in a long workout and have support (food and water) on the run and bike already laid out for you, plus it would allow me to work on my god awful transitions.
The forcast was for cold and rainy, high 50’s.
I got up, ate 4 eggs some toast, some OJ, a banana, and headed to Stillwater, stopped for an espresso and got to the race at 6:30.
Set up my stuff and was down to the water ready for the race….
I was in the front row for the swim start, the first group was 29 and under and the elites. I had a good start and basically swam the entire thing with clean water as the first place swimmer was GONE from the start, and the other faster swimmers and me were basically the same pace, I was a body length ahead of everyone else which was nice since I was not constantly running into people. Someone decided to hitch on to the krum train and was drafting off of me the entire time. (it is much easier to swim right be hind someone just like drafting in nascar). Normally it is not a big deal, but it is not good etiquette to continually hit the persons feet with your hands when doing this, I got so fed up that I tried to sprint ahead and lose this person, but they were on to me and sped up to follow, so then I would slow down thinking they would pass, but they didn’t, they were just going to draft the entire way. Luckily my mindset was that I was training for the ironman, so if I was doing more work than the rest of the people that was fine with me…better training, I almost succumbed to the veteran “stop drafting off me move” which is to almost stop, cock your foot, and then kick them in the head as they swim into you, but I decided to save that for another day. It was a two loop swim so the second loop was congested as we had to swim through the other waves….swim time 29min…karma (the person drafting off of me was a girl, so I am glad I didn’t kick her…sort of) 29 min swim, my swim coach Scott would be proud, and glad I didn’t kick a lady.
Got up to the transition area (ran up 40 stairs to get there), almost fell over into a rack of bikes since my balance was way off…must have swam to hard. I literally felt drunk, I was not going to sit down to put my socks on because my tri-dork friends always give me guff for it since it is not a timely thing to do, but balancing on one foot trying to put a sock on a wet foot after swimming for 30 minutes and running up stairs I don’t think would be doctor recommended. Luckily not many people were up there to see me in such a sad state… Got on the bike and started off, kept it easy for lap one, not many people out there, someone asked me to cheat (draft with them) which I declined. Said cheater stayed on my tail for the first loop and I really wanted to get away from him because he was annoying and cheating. I came to a large hill (not large compared to the ones we train on in Wisconsin but large enough) and just dropped him by speeding up it and hammering over the top. I really didn’t want to do this because it spikes your heart rate, which is a no no in a long race, but I felt I had to separate myself from this guy (saw him later lying on the side of the road holding his hamstring, so the drafting gods got him anyway). I was a good 500 yards behind this 47 year old guy for the entire first lap, and then on lap 2 was able to pass him when some jack ass in a Mercedes tried to cut us off around a corner, I took the inside route and he was stuck behind him, then I just pressed on the gas thinking he could not keep it up…I mean hell he was 47 right?, it was a pretty painful experience just churning for 56 miles, but I ate and drank what I could and luckily the temps were cool, so I was not a sweat monster like normal. The only choke was when my home made energy sludge bounced out of my jersey at mile 22, and I was yamless for the rest of the race (new roadie concoction of yams, peanut butter and honey stolen from sanfransico dietician). There was a more than usual amount of road kill on the bike route, which was mildly disturbing when you are trying to think happy thoughts. I was passed by one kid at mile 4 like I was standing still, but I kept my cool, and ended up passing him like he was standing still at mile 48ish. So it pays to race your own race and not get caught up in what is going on around you. My plan for the day was to swim hard, bike hard and then just jog the run, I have been having some ankle issues and have not been able to get in the run training needed to be a strong runner.
So I finished the bike in 2:26 at 23MPH average, and 5th overall bike split, which for my first season really biking was pretty awesome. It was my first race on a full Carbon Kuota Kueen-K bike that my friend John from Team Ortho let me use, so as lance should have said…”it is the bike” .If it wasn’t for my friends dragging me to Wisconsin for hellish hill rides since the spring I would not be anywhere near this sort of bike fitness. So thanks to the tri donkeys of the lowlands.
I transition to the run thinking this will be the furthest I have run since April and I should take it easy. Of course as I am telling myself this, I decide to ask one of the fans how far the other guys are ahead of me, he looks me in the eye and says “you are in second place, 2 minutes back” so now I am thinking…so much for a training run……what if this guy blew himself up on the bike, or is a slow runner? So I put down a few 6:30 miles before realizing I can’t do a 6:30 pace ½ marathon, so I back it down to around 7:00 and try to stay calm, I was about3 miles in when I got passed by some kid in tights and one of those lame water belts, the ego wanted to chase him down, but I knew that was a mistake (if he wasn’t wearing tights I would have seen that he was 22 and would have felt better about it…but passed by tights and a water belt…damn that hurt), and then at mile 5 by my buddy the 47 year old dude, who was obviously a good runner passed me, I knew from looking at him run that he was capable of a 6:30 pace, so I just tried to hold it together at my 7:00 pace and see what happens. At the turn (it is an out and back race) I saw both the guys that passed me as well as a new guy, some young kid who was in first but had just been mowed down by the other two, he was about 2 minutes ahead of me, so I set my sights on him, which is tough in such a long race as you can’t get too excited, you just have to tell yourself if you can run 7:00’s you will pass him by the end. I passed him about mile 8 and just tried to hold on, it had started pouring about mile 6 and my shoes were soaked and heavy, I was cooled by the rain which was nice, but things started to get really tough around the time I passed him. His dad was driving ahead of us and parking and watching the entire run, so I kept seeing this guy, at mile 10 he says to me “you have 3rd place locked up” I wanted to kick him in the balls, I think he was trying to be nice, but your brain starts saying, yeah, you can walk from here and be fine, so I was trying to not think about that the last 3 miles when I thought my hamstrings were going to pop and my blisters were going to turn the road red. I was so far behind #2 and pretty far ahead of #4 so my last 2 miles were probably 8:00’s but I held on to 3rd place without much trouble. 7:06 pace for a 1:33 half marathon
It was not that big of a race (and most of the studs were racing in the IM Wisconsin in Madison, or watching), but 3rd is still on the podium (not that I stuck around to see if there actually was a podium) the 47 year old ran 6:34’s and the other guy 6:35’s, and I was ahead of both of them after the swim and bike, so with some run fitness, maybe next year.
Total time 4:33 (PR by over 27 minutes….but it was a cooler day and an easier course than the California beasts from the spring)
Now it is training, sleeping, and trying to lower my intake of coke and icecream until nov. 22 when IMAZ happens….
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