Best of the US Championship/Leon's Triathlon

This past Sunday, June 2nd, I competed in the Best of the US Amateur Championship race which was held in conjunction with Leon's Triathlon in Hammond, IN. I have raced in the Best of the US Championship race three times before, finishing 9th in 2008, 8th in 2009, and 3rd in 2011. I hadn't raced Leon's Triathlon before though so I was excited to race what is dubbed the "Worlds Fastest Triathlon". I was also excited to race coming off of the American Triple-T and not having any other races planned until August.

With the race being in Hammond, IN (right next to Chicago), I was able to stay with my mom. Race morning rolled around and I headed to the race with my mom and sister. The drive into Chicago isn't all that bad on a Sunday morning at 6 am when there isn't any traffic. I had my usual banana and Cookie Dough PowerBar along with about 10 oz of coffee on the drive to the race. We got to the race site in good time and I decided to hop on the bike for a quick warm-up before taking the bike into transition. The forecast called for temps in the low 60's with dropping temps into the 50's. While I was warming up and setting up transition, the temperature was cool but not too bad (low-mid 60's). I ate a few PowerBar Cola Gel Blasts and sipped on some PowerBar Perform drink while setting things up in transition. Shortly after exiting transition, there was a big gust of wind and with it came much colder air, and the temperature had to have dropped 5 degrees almost instantly!

Pre-race photo, right before the temps dropped! 

Sporting the new FFT 2XU Distance Tri-Suit

I headed over to the stage where they were having an opening ceremony with the National Anthem and  a few other things. We headed over to the start of the swim and were able to hop in the water for a short swim warm-up. The swim wave included all of the Best of the US athletes along with all of the Leon's Amateur All-Stars which made for a pretty big swim wave and what would be some competitive head-to-head racing! Luckily we had quite a bit of room for the in-water start so it wasn't too chaotic. 

The gun went off and a few guys got out pretty fast and I wasn't able to hang with them. I ended up leading one of two groups. The water was a little choppy, but I felt good. I came out of the water in 6th or so, which was about what I expected. Toward the end of the swim, I could feel my feet were pretty cold and going a little numb. But that didn't stop me from a quick transition as I exited the water, made my way to T1, and grabbed my bike. 

I passed a few guys pretty quickly and then a few miles in, made my way to 2nd place. Adam Zucco was in 1st place at this point and I knew he was strong on the bike. I tried to keep him in sight and not let him get too far ahead of me. I continued to ride strong throughout the 2 lap bike course. It was a little chilly on the bike but really not too bad. The wind was pretty strong though and at times I would get blown side-to-side. With a few miles to go, I got passed by Matt Payne, who had previously won the Best of the US race in 2011 when I took 3rd. I knew he could bike and run strong so I just tried to stay near him the final couple miles. I entered T2 just behind him. 

Coming in off the bike, headed into T2 - in 3rd place

We came out of T2 together and made the move on Adam who was just a little ahead of us. I sat on Matt for a few strides, I felt good, and decided to make the pass and go for it. I came up on Adam and took the lead of the race. At this point, I was feeling great, but knew there were a handful of guys behind me that could run me down. My medial quads started to cramp a little bit before the 1st mile so when I got to the mile mark and there wasn't an aid station, I decided to take a PowerBar Orange Dreamsicle gel. I washed it down with some water when I got to the first aid station about a half mile later. I was feeling good and kept up the good pace to the turn-around. I made the turn and saw Matt, Adam, and Dan Stubleski all not too far behind. I picked up the effort slightly as I knew they were all trying to run me down. I made it to mile 5 still in the lead and still feeling pretty good. I wasn't really sure how far back the other guys were so I picked up the pace a little more. I made it to the final turn before heading into the park and through in another final surge to finish strong.

Right before the finish - Brooks T7 on the run!

Swim: 18:31 - 10th OA

T1: 1:20

Bike: 57:48 - 4th OA

T2: 0:57

Run: 33:27 - 2nd OA

Finish: 1:52:05 - 1st OA

Breaking the tape at the finish! 

Overall, it was probably the best race I've ever had! I handled the cold and wind to ride strong and run even stronger. Thanks to my coach Alex McDonald with Fast Forward Triathlon! It's great to see all of the hard work I've been putting in over the past several months (and years) come together at this race. Congrats to Matt Payne, Dan Stubleski, Adam Zucco, Mark Harms, and the other guys that were out there racing! 

A few articles from the race:

http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/recreation/outdoors/top-leon-s-triathlon-finishers-like-it-cold/article_e7b91f9f-5de9-5170-a40a-f4a37bece0dc.html (video post race interview too!)

http://www.trijuice.com/2013/06/colin_riley_and_kirsten_sass_crowned_as_new_best_of_the_us_amateur_champions_at_leons_triathlon.htm

http://www.bestoftheustriseries.com

There is also going to be a televised broadcast on Comcast Sports Net over the 4th of July weekend. I was interviewed before the race and they were filming the entire race. Should be fun to watch!

The next race I have planned is USA Triathlon Age-group Nationals August 10th in Milwaukee, WI. I may try to hop in a race before then but I'm not 100% sure yet. 

American Triple-T Ohio Race Report

The American Triple-T Ohio is a very unique triathlon experience. The "race" consists of 4 triathlons over 3 days. There is an option to race as a 2 person team, which I did, with Jared Milam.

Race 1: Super Sprint Triathlon - Friday Evening
The first race is a very short 250m swim, 6k bike, 1 mile run. It's a fun little race to kick off the weekend. I like to push the pace a little but not get carried away as there is a lot of racing the rest of the weekend. The splits for all of the races didn't get recorded unfortunately as their was a malfunction with the timing system. This is supposed to be fixed for next year.

Finish: 21:00 - 2nd OA

Race 2: Olympic Triathlon #1 - Saturday morning
The 2nd race is an Olympic distance triathlon with a slightly longer run (6.55 miles verses 6.2 miles). The race features a 2 lap swim, a tough bike course with the famous and dreaded Thompson Hill, and the same challenging rolling hill, rocky, trail course that we run all weekend long.

Finish: 2:08:03 - 3rd OA

Race 3: Olympic Triathlon #2 - Saturday afternoon (about 5 hours after finishing the first Olympic)
This race is unique in that the order is switched up from the traditional swim/bike/run and instead is bike/swim/run. This is the first race where if your doing it as a team, you get to draft on the bike together and have to finish together too.

Finish: 2:13:33 - 1st OA with teammate Jared

Race 4: Half Ironman - Sunday Morning
This is a challenging half ironman course with many hills and 2 loops on the tough run course from Saturday. Jared and I had a pretty good lead going into the male team competition, but anything can happen. I ended up getting a flat somewhere on the 2nd loop. Luckily, it wasn't an entire tire blow-out like I have had happen twice before during this same half-ironman race. I was able to fix it in about 5 or 10 minutes. I had a new Co2 adapter that I had never used before and didn't know how it released the Co2 into the tube. That cost me a few minutes until I finally figured it out (lesson learned).

Finish: 5:04:19 - 11th OA with teammate Jared

We held on for 1st place team, despite the flat on the bike. A great weekend of racing/training. If you are looking for a challenge or just a great weekend of training, I highly recommend the American Triple-T Ohio! Thanks Shannon Kurek and HFP for putting on a great event! Thanks to Bob Duncan for the quick break fix prior to the race and Tom Swallow and Swallow Bike Works for the quick tune-up right before the race!

St. Anthony's Triathlon Race Recap

It's a little late but I wanted to write a brief recap about my first 2 races of the season. After finishing my dietetic internship from Western Kentucky University on Friday April 26th, Amanda and I began the drive down to Florida. We stopped in Atlanta Friday night and stayed with my Aunt Kim. Saturday morning we got up early and met Lauren for some coffee and a local Starbucks before getting back on the road for Florida.

We went right to the race venue, picked up our packets, got in a quick swim, bike, run workout, and headed to our friend John's house who let us stay with him for the weekend. Race morning rolled around, we headed to the race site, and got set up in transition. Bikes had to be in transition the night before which makes for an easy race morning, however, I also prefer getting a bike warm-up in when possible. There's something about spinning the legs on the bike before the race starts that seems to help me have a better race. No bike warm-up though, so I got in an easy 10 min run with some light pick-ups. I headed over to the swim start, got in a short swim warm-up and was ready to go. The pros went off and we were getting ready to start when the race director came up to us and said the swim was going to be shortened. I wasn't totally surprised as it had been really windy all morning and some of the waves were pretty big out in the bay. So the swim was shortened to a 750m swim or so with a long run over to T1 (this is also what happened 2 years ago when I raced St. Anthony's). The swim went well and I came out in probably 5th or 6th. I passed a few guys early in the bike and was able to see that I was sitting in 3rd behind Adam Webber and Jake Ryner, 2 guys I have raced before. A handful of guys came up behind me on the bike around half way through. I came into T2 in 5th and was hoping I could put together a good run. Unfortunately, the run didn't go so well and I came up pretty flat coming off the bike. I got passed by a few guys out of T2 and then a few more along the way. Around mile 2 or 2.5, things started feeling a little better and I thought I was going to be able to close in the handful of guys that were not too far ahead of me. I felt good for about a mile before I things started to unfold again. At that point I was sitting in 10th place or so. I did what I could over the final 2 miles and came across the line, happy to be done. (no pics from the race)

Swim: 9:59 (~750m)

T1: 3:16 (long run to T1 included)

Bike: 58:57

T2: 0:52

Run: 37:30

Finish: 1:50:32 - 11th OA Elite Amateur

This was not where I wanted to be and thought going in I should have been right near the top 3. It was good to get one race under the belt though and move forward on to the rest of the season. 

After the race, Amanda and I got some Starbucks iced coffees and went and walked along the beach and then went to Crabby Bills (Amanda's go to restaurant in St. Pete from when she lived there) for dinner!

American Triple-T Ohio and Leon's Triathlon Race reports to follow soon!