I left Cincinnati Friday after doing my usual swim, bike, run pre-race workout and made it to the race site in good time. I picked up my packet, called Olive Garden to place a to-go order, picked up my order, ran into the grocery store to grab some bananas and a few other snacks for the night, and headed to the hotel. The rest of the night I relaxed and waited for my mom and George to get to the hotel so I could get to bed. It's always nice having my family at races to cheer me on.
Race morning rolled around, I had my typical Banana, Cookies 'n Creme PowerBar, and a cup of coffee and headed to the race site. I got set up in transition, took the bike out for a nice 15 minute warm-up with a few pickups to race pace and made sure everything was good to go in transition. There was apparently a swim warm-up that I missed while out doing my bike warm-up so I did a few arm swings to try and get loose. It was a non-wetsuit swim so I had on my Xterra Speed Suit that I got a few years back.
Just before the start of the swim
Swim: 21:21 - 5th OA
Pros Brian Rhodes, Brooks Cowan, and Thomas Gerlach were racing as well as Adam Zucco and Fast Forward Triathlon teammate Mike Pelechaty. I knew Rhodes, Brooks, and Mike were all good swimmers and Adam and Thomas had similar swim abilities. We were all lined up and took off at the start. I was behind Adam and Thomas initially before making a move to try and swim with the other 3 guys. Unfortunately, they got out too quick and I wasn't able to close the gap and hold on to their feet. This is something that has happened multiple times before. If I can just get my top end speed a little quicker and be able to hold on with these top swimmers, I would be in an even better position coming out of the water! I'm definitely making progress though as I didn't lose too much ground on them compared to previous years. About 1/4th of the way through the swim, I got passed by collegiate champ Michelle Mehnert so I tried hopping on her feet only to get dropper after a few strokes. I held my position the rest of the way and came out of the water in 5th overall (4th male).
Coming out of the water, headed to T1
T1: 0:52 - Pretty quick transition, had to get my speedsuit off which cost a few seconds but definitely worth wearing it!
In T1 getting the helmet on
Bike: 55:31 - 1st OA
I knew I was going to need to bike hard to try and close the gap from the swim and maybe even get some time going into the run. I passed Mike and Michelle pretty quickly, and closed in on Thomas. I passed him and could see the other 2 out in the distance. I stayed calm, rode hard, and slowly closed in on them over the course of the next 5-10 miles. I eventually passed Brooks and then Rhodes. Thomas was close behind me and he, Rhodes, and myself went back and forth a few times over the final 5-10 miles and came into T2 all together. Thomas got out of T1 ahead of me so I out split him on the bike by 2 seconds to claim the fastest bike split.
T2: 0:39 - Quick transition and ready to pop out of T2 in 1st until I dropped my gel and decided to turn around and grab it.
Run: 35:26 - 3rd OA
I came out of T2 right behind Rhodes and Gerlach and quickly passed both of them. I knew I needed to get going as Brooks and another competitor, Justin Roeder, could likely out run me. I felt good early on and tried to stay relaxed while keeping up a good solid pace. I grabbed a cup of water going through the 1st aid station took a small sip and poured the rest of me. It wasn't overly hot out but it was sunny and beginning to warm up so I knew keeping the water on me would help me stay cool. I took my gel shortly after that, around 1.5 miles in, and shortly after got passed by Brooks. I tried to stay with him but he opened up a nice lead over me. The course features 2 out and backs so you are able to see where you are and where the other guys behind you are. I made the first turn of the 1st out and back and could see Gerlach not too far behind me along with Rhodes, Roeder, and Zucco. It's always hard to tell how much time you have on them and how hard those guys behind you are running. I knew I needed to keep running hard to hold off the attack behind me. I trucked along and started feeling some fatigue around mile 5. I knew I was close so I just kept up the pace, getting water at the aid stations and pouring it on me to keep cool. I was starting to close in on Brooks a little bit but I think he was starting to let up as he had another race the next day and knew he had it wrapped up. I held onto 2nd place and a very solid performance.
Nearing the finish!
Finish: 1:53:51 - 2nd OA
Right after the race
Adam Zucco and I chatting after the race
FFT Teammate Mike Pelechaty and Me after the race
Top 3: Thomas Gerlach (3rd), Brooks Cowan (1st), and Myself (2nd)
I've got about 3.5 weeks until USAT age-group nationals which means about 2.5 weeks of good solid training before tapering down the week of the race. I haven't raced nationals for a few years so I'm definitely looking forward to it.
Thanks for reading and happy training!
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