After getting a good night sleep, I got up, had my usual pre-workout breakfast (banana, Powerbar, and cup of coffee) and got in my usual pre-race workout. I rode for about 25 minutes with some race pace pickups, ran a mile with some light pickups, and hopped in the nearby Copper Creek Lake for a few minutes. Overall, I felt good and ready to race! We stopped at Hy-Vee to grab a few things for dinner before heading to the mandatory race briefing. After the meeting we dropped off the bike and went back to the house and got dinner going. I had some pasta and marinara sauce with some sautéed kale and spinach that the girls were having with their pizza. After dinner, I got everything organized and ready to go for the morning including putting on my race numbers.
Earlier in the week, I had been checking the weather and it was looking like the race could potentially be much hotter than some of the other races I've done this year (Best of the US was in the 50's and Age group Nationals was in the 60's-70's) so I began developing some strategies that would help keep me cool. The really hot weather ended up not being an issue and instead there was a 30% chance of rain/storms all morning. I woke up race morning and checked the radar to see a pretty big front moving through the area with some possible storms mixed in too. I began thinking, will the race be delayed, changed to a sprint (like it was a few years ago), or cancelled all together! It was looking like there would be some storms from 5-7 but then it would clear up. I had a feeling there would be a delay and had a little extra breakfast to hold me over. With bikes being in transition the night before and athletes not allowed to bring them out on race morning and also no trainers allowed in transition, I decided to bring an extra bike (unfortunately I personally don't have a road bike so I brought a mountain bike my mom had). I had planned to hop on the bike for at least 10 minutes just to get in some biking before heading over to the race. I find I race best after a good solid bike warm-up and when I don't get a bike warm-up in, I come up a little flat on the bike. I only ended up biking on it for about 5 minutes as it was raining and we were ready to head to the race.
On our way over we were checking Facebook/twitter and the weather and found out the race was delayed 45 minutes and it looked like it was clearing up and the rain was going to stay south of the race. We got parked around 5:30 and transition was now open until 7:20 so I had plenty of time and decided to wait in the car for about 10 minutes before heading over to transition. I got everything set up in transition and eventually made my way over to the other side of the lake where the swim start was. I got in the water for about 5 minutes to warm-up. The pro men and women started and then we had about 10-15 minutes before our wave started. I hopped in the water for another minute or two and lined up for the start.
Male Age Group Elite: Right before heading down to the water
Swim: 20:24 - 11th in division
The swim wasn't neither good nor bad. I new there were a couple of guys that would be out in front and that I just needed to swim as hard I could to minimize the distance between us. I found some feet early and ended up just sitting in on a couple guys. In years past I have gotten out with the lead guys only to fall off after a few hundred yards and end up leading a 2nd pack. The top few guys swam in the 18:40's so I was about 1:40 down from them and only about 20 seconds back from the next main group that trickled in. I came in 11th out of the water and made my way up to transition.
T1: 1:37
Bike: 58:34 - 25.4 mph - 7th in division
My bike has been very strong this year so I new I needed to get to work and try and close the gap on the guys ahead of me and try and put some distance on the good runners. Coming out of the park, there were a bunch of volunteers telling us to slow down so I listened to them as I made the turn out of the park and saw 2 guys had gone down. The course was slick with the rain from a few hours earlier. I pushed hard and made my way to the 1st turn-around and could see I was in 8th place or so. I passed a couple guys and was sitting in 6th. We made our way into the windy part of the course. I made a right hand turn and felt my back tire almost skid out. From that point on, I took most of the turns pretty cautious. I'm sure I lost some time on the turns by taking them overly cautious but to me it wasn't worth going down. There was another sharp turn coming up and more volunteers telling us to slow down. As I made the turn, there was another guy down on the ground. Apparently 8 or so guys and gals, including some of the pros in front of us, had gone down on that turn. I was now in 5th place and new the 4 guys in front of me. We got out to some more open roads and I was hoping I could not worry about the turns and just focus on riding hard and close the gap on the guys in front of me. I pushed hard but just couldn't seem to close the gap on Justin, Brian, Davide, and Adam who all out rode me. I made my way into transition and knew I had some work to do to hold onto a top 5 finish.
T2: 1:07
Heading out on the run
Run: 35:18 - 9th in Division
I came out of T2 and headed toward downtown. I could see Justin in front of me and knew that there were at least two guys behind me that could out-run me and were coming. I passed the 1st aid-station and grabbed a bottle of water, took a few sips, and poured the rest of it on me to stay cool. It wasn't that hot but I still wanted to stay cool. I kept plugging away and made my way to the 2.5 mile turnaround mark. I could see I was still in 5th place but the good runners behind me were closing in. About mile 4, I was passed by Steve Mantell, who finished 2nd at Age Group Nationals, 8 seconds behind me. I wasn't sure if I would be able to stay with him but was going to try the best I could. He passed me and I hopped right on his heals. We were definitely running faster that I was alone but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. I felt smooth and relatively comfortable as we slowly made up some ground on Justin. We made it to mile 5 and I was still feeling good. We passed near the finish area which meant we had about a half mile to go, a short out and back on the bike path/road. We made it to mile 6 and I felt good and decided to make a move. I put in a big surge, passed Steve, and shortly after passed Justin. At this point I was in 4th and just needed to hold on. At one point I thought I maybe had gone too early but I made my way to the blue carpet and held on to 4th place!
Finish: 1:56:59
From left to right: Me (4th), Brian Duffy (2nd), Adam Webber (1st), Davide Giardini (3rd), and Justin Metzler (5th)
Overall, I'm happy to finish top 5. This is no doubt one of the, if not the most competitive olympic distance age group race in the country.
I'm currently in Seattle, WA training with visually impaired para-triathlete Aaron Sheidies for a few days. We rode yesterday for a couple hours on the tandem bike which took some getting used to. This morning we ran about 6 miles with a couple 800's on the track at race pace. I'll definitely be documenting the rest of my trip here and our trip to London for the Paratriathlon World Championships! Stay tuned for a full recap from our trip in a couple weeks!
Thanks for reading!
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