Thursday, Amanda and I headed to Chicago after she got off work to stay with my mom for the night. Friday morning came and I got in my usual pre-race bike/run workout before heading up to Milwaukee. We went straight to the race site to get in a short swim in the lake. The water felt great, nice and cold, but not too cold. I tried out my new Orca 3.8 wetsuit for the 1st time and it felt great! We went and got our race packets, went back to the car to get the bikes, and took them back over to transition before heading back to the hotel for a little downtime before dinner.
Amanda and I the day before the race
Race morning rolled around with a wake-up call around 5:15 am. The first wave was going off at 7:30 but my wave wasn't scheduled to go off until 9:08 am. This meant we had plenty of time before the race but also meant that I needed to adjust my usual nutrition plan as I wouldn't be getting done until after 11. So I had my usual banana, then had a Oatmeal Raisin Harvest PowerBar during the car ride over to the race site. The harvest bars have about 5 grams of fiber in them which was just enough to hold me over for the morning. We found a good place to park not too far away from the transition area and headed over. With the bikes being checked in the night before and not being allowed to be brought out for a morning warm-up before the race, I deeded for the first time, to bring a trainer into transition with me. There's something about getting in a bike warm-up that just seems to help me have a better race, especially when it comes to Olympics (and sprints) where you're going hard right from the get-go. Tommy and I set up the trainer at the end of our rack. He hopped on for 10 minutes and then I got on for 10 minutes, riding mostly easy with a couple short pickups. Transition closed at 7:30, we walked back to the car to put the trainer and a few other odds and ends back in the car, and I grabbed my coffee that I hadn't had a chance to drink before. The race was delayed about 15 minutes which pushed my start time back to about 9:23. Amanda, Tommy, and I found a place to sit in the shade for a while and I drank my coffee and had my usual Cookies N Creme PowerBar.
45 minutes before the start of the race, I went for a short 5 minute run warm-up with Tommy just to get the legs loosened back up after sitting for a while. We checked our bags and got our wetsuits on and headed over to the start area. I ate a pack of PowerBar Cola gel blasts just to get a little something else in during the hour before the start. They sent us down the ramp which meant we had about 10 minutes or so before the start. We were able to get in the water for a short swim warm-up. The time had come and it was ready to race!
My plan going in was to give it everything I had and not leave anything on the course (seems like an obvious strategy, I know). But, with the format of starting with your age group versus going head-to-head with the other age-group elites like most other races I do, you have no idea where you are amongst the other racers so all you can do is go hard and leave it all on the course.
Swim: 19:49 - 67th Overall
The swim went pretty well. I had pretty clean water right out of the start but saw a couple guys from the right and left getting out ahead. I didn't worry about that too much and stayed close to a couple guys most of the way. There was a slight head current coming back but nothing too bad. Overall the swim was pretty uneventful. I exited up the steep ramp and made my way to T1.
T1: 1:46
Bike: 55:13 - 1st Overall - 27 mph
My bike has been strong lately and I knew that's where I needed to really get to work and go for it. Right out of transition I started riding hard and quickly found a nice rhythm. I made my way up the first little hill and enjoyed the fast descent back down. The bike course was pretty well spread out and only a few times were there ever a group of people near each other. I continued riding strong, going through my aero bottle of Powerbar Perform relatively quickly and glad I had another half bottle on my frame that I ended up going through before the end of the bike. I came down the bridge and got ready to head into T2.
T2: 0:55 - coming up on my bike rack, there was only 1 other bike on my rack so it looked like I was sitting in 2nd place in my age division as I started the run.
Run: 35:09 - 19th Overall - 5:39/mi
I felt pretty good at the start of the run but wasn't sure how I would respond after the bike split. I started getting a slight cramp in my medial quad and decided to take a PowerBar gel before getting to the first aid station, a little before 1 mile into the run. This is something that I have incorporated into my racing this year that seems to really be helping. The run course was gorgeous, right along the lake for the first 1.5 miles before heading up to the main road, which was still right along the water. I found a nice rhythm and kept plugging away. I finally made my way to the final turnaround which was right around mile 4 and knew it was a straight shot all the way in. I wasn't sure if I had passed the guy in my age group or not until I came up on a guy and saw his race number around mile 4.5. At that point, I was pretty sure I was sitting 1st in my age group and started picking up the pace. I hit the 5 mile mark and just told myself to get to the last aid station, and then mile 6 and at that point I was still feeling good and through in another surge. I could finally see the finish and pickup up the pace even more to finish strong.
Finishing Strong!
All smiles after the race!
Me and my family after the race!
We went back to the hotel, showered, and relaxed for a bit before heading to the awards ceremony.
1st place overall!
After the awards, Amanda and I headed back to Chicago and decided to get a Lou Malnatis Deep Dish Pizza for a post race celebration!
Thank you so much to my family for being there to support me, to my coach Alex McDonald with Fast Forward Triathlon for helping me get prepared for this season and this race, my individual sponsors PowerBar for keeping me properly fueled all season long during training and on the race course and Brooks for the great running shoes and gear, as well as FFT sponsors Computrainer, Rudy Project, and TrainingPeaks. Also thanks to Bob Duncan's Go Fast Multisport for getting my bike ready to go for the race! Thanks USA Triathlon for putting on a spectacular event. The race course was perfect and the race venue was very well set-up and organized. I would definitely recommend this race to anyone for next year!
I'm letting my body recover for a few days this week before picking things back up for a week or so before tapering back down for the Hy-Vee Triathlon over Labor Day weekend in Des Moines. It will no doubt be another great test and I'm already looking forward to it! And after that, I'm excited to announce I will be guiding visually impaired triathlete Aaron Scheidies at the Paratriathlon World Championships being held in London in conjunction with the age-group and elite world championships being held there.
It was great seeing so many of you this past weekend at Age Group Nationals!
Thanks for reading!
Colin Riley, MS, RD (only because I can officially use it effective today!)
