View of the Mountains outside C-ville.
Another perk of moving to Charlottesville is that my best friend and best man in my wedding, a 225 marathoner in his own right also lives here. After being here for a week it seems to me a good change so far...it will just take time to get used to as nothing is flat here at all!
Alright...now onto the race reports...
The start of my season opened up at Wildflower Triathlon long course at Lake San Antonio, CA! After a long off season, that included most rides on the trainer with my buddies Mike Hoffman and Scott Bradley, it was exciting to be able to race again. One thing that was going to be tough for me was the heat. With the highest temperature in Rochester to that point being 65 degrees I new the high 80's would present a challenge. Fortunately it was going to be a dry heat :). Not only were we able to compete in one of the most historic races but we were fortunate enough to visit Chelsea's cousins who lived in Danville, CA. After flying into San Fran and spending a few days in Danville we made the drive down to Lake San Antonio. We ended up getting put up in a house with 5 other pros who were our housemates for the next few days. When it came to race day I was sad to hear that because of the high temperature the race would not be wet-suit legal for the elites --if you didn't know it, swimming is not my strength but I am getting better (slowly!).
At the start there was the usual pushing and shoving but I got out well. It seemed as if my hard off season training had been paying off as I was hanging on the feet of many other pros. When I got out of the water(in 31:12) I looked back and saw I was part of pack that included IM Canada Champ Matt Russell and about 6 others.
I told myself I needed to stick to the game plan that was set by Coach Doug Bush and stay conservative the first 10 miles. After doing so I started rolling and was moving myself up nicely. After climbing Nasty Grade and then back to T2 I found myself in 20th place with a 2:28:20 bike. I was pretty happy so far and everything was going according to plan. Now to start the run ...I wasn't able to scout out the run course before the race but I had heard stories of the hills on the back side of the course. By mile 4 I had caught a few guys and put myself in 15th place. I soon realized that I didn't see anyone up a head. I ended up in no mans land till I finally saw someone up a head around mile 10-11. I decided to go for it and it paid off as I was able to catch him around 12.25 miles. After a nice downhill finish I was able to coast into the finish line in 14th overall Pro in 4:25:34.
Looking back I am pretty happy with the overall race and finish- Especially since it was my first race of the season and it was pretty hot. And here is a good laugh for some...even though I put on sun screen (50 spf) this is what happens when a Rochesterian who has not seen the sunlight in 6 months races in the heat of California...... All I have to say is ouch!
After the race I was happy to be able to relax and start on our way to Yosemite national park.
Beautiful is an understatement.
I have to give a HUGE thank you to Tri California and the whole crew at Wildflower for an amazing weekend. I can definitely say I will be returning to that race and I highly recommend this race to anyone....I would say a race for any triathlete's bucket list.
4 weeks after Wildflower I raced Rev3 Quassy Half. This race will always hold a special place in my heart as last year I won the amateur race there and earned my Pro card.
This year would be a different story as the announcer kept saying that this would be the best pro field ever assembled. With Last year winner Richie Cunningham, Joe Gambles, and Bevan Docherty as well as many other Ironman 70.3 winners there I was in for some fun. As race day approached the temperatures were in the low 90's and the lake was heating up. Once again, like wildflower the race would not be wetsuit legal for me. It is funny how every race I did last year was wetsuit legal while this year the first two races (and I know that Rev3 Williamsnburg will not be either) were not.
Sadly I didn't have my wonderful wife Chelsea at the race to take photos or keep me company but fortunately my dad made the trip with me. It is always that much easier when you have someone there for support. Chelsea stayed back in Rochester as it was our niece's 3rd birthday.
When it came to race morning it was a beautiful one besides being a little humid and warm...but hey...when is the weather truly perfect. As the race started I knew it was going to be difficult to sight the swim buoy markers as we headed east as the sun was just about rising. After the gun when off I felt pretty good and tried my hardest to stay on other competitor's feet. It was a difficult task but I managed to for the first few hundred yards. Just about after the first turn buoy I noticed that it was as I feared...the markers would be very hard to see. All I could do was try and follow others in front of me. In a few situations I even had to stop to sight. A little after 1.2k the pro women leaders had made up the 2 mins head start I had ...I tried hanging on with them. I was doing a pretty good job till the lifeguard signaled that we were going the wrong way ...I looked up and saw that we were going to miss the turn buoy. At this point I was so mad at myself but I tried to stay calm as that is a mistake that a Pro is not supposed to make. However I stayed focused and finished the swim to realize that there were still some men behind me still. As I look back on it, I only swam 14 seconds slower than last year...however last year I had a wetsuit and I didn't have a major sighting error....so I would say there was an improvement on the swim from last year for sure. Swim 30:39
After the run I new the bike was where I had to make up ground.....about at mile 14 I ended up hitting one of the many deep cracks/holes in the road and my aero bars dropped almost 30 degrees. I tried pulling them back up but feared that they would loosen so much that I would not be able to use them/they would fall even more. So for the rest of the ride I was pulling up on the aero bars so they wouldn't drop. I do have to say...my legs just didn't have it today and I felt like I was giving it everything I had but the legs were not responding/I couldn't get in a rhythm. The almost 5k feet of climbing probably didn't help. After more or less getting through the bike I knew I didn't have the bike I wanted as I only went 30 seconds faster than last year. Like the swim though...the bike was faster than last year even though I was dealing with the dropped aero bars the whole time. Bike: 2:28:15
After getting off the bike I was NOT going to make the same mistake I did last year and go out too fast. Last year my first 3 miles were in the 5:30's. This year I dialed it back to 6 min pace and it sure did pay off. Even though this year was hotter I stayed relatively even and ended up catching 3 guys over the course of the run. I felt surprisingly decent as I ran a 1:21:54. That time was over 3 mins faster than last year's death march.
Overall time 4:23:00
Overall place: 18th
I am truly amazed at the times some of the other pros and how fast they can go. Even though this is my first full season as a pro I want to be competitive. I know it just takes time. I know with doing things right (sleep, food, less work as a Doctor of Optometry) I believe I can continue to improve as I have over the last year or so. Now that I am settling into Charlottesville and work at Crozet Eye Care I am excited to get back into a routine.
Next up is Rev3 Williamsburg Half On Sunday June 23rd! I am actually planning on scouting out the race course tomorrow so there hopefully won't be too many surprises on race morning.
I want to give a HUGE thank you to my sponsors, Coach Doug Bush, my friends, family, God and my beautiful wife Chelsea as we take this adventure that life has presented to me. As always feel free to email me with questions or comments.
No comments:
Post a Comment