co2legs

While I’ve title this post “Race Report” you’re gonna get a whole bunch more because without the supporting story this post just won’t be the same.  So hold on for the ride…literally.

At the crack of dawn on Thursday morning, the Annachrist and I packed up her Team Car and headed up meet up with John, Christine, John’s father, and the CREW Shovel.  8hr rode trips are so much better when done in a caravan with friends, so that’s exactly what we did.  It was the usual road trip with jokes, shannanogans, and plenty of coffee stops for those of us that were non functional without coffee in their hands while driving (they will remain nameless, but you know who you are!!).  As we were basically pulling into Sandusky I took a peak in the passenger side mirror only to see John’s car making a right turn into the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant.  I thought “That fucker!  Going for mexican and didn’t even tell me.”  oops, turns out his car overheated.  The drive to and from the mechanic turned his 8hr drive into 9.5hrs.  While he was handling that, Anna and I headed to Hotel Breakers to check in and get settled.

Hotel Breakers is definitely an old school hotel.  It’s been around for over 100yrs.  We stayed in the old section of the hotel and thankfully we didn’t have to pay peak rates (over $200 per night) because it was barely worth the $90 or so we paid.  The only good part was that it kinda felt like a dorm with the whole place filled with racers and their family.

As soon as we started unpacking the car and Kate came out of the building which was a totally awesome welcome party.  They had got there the day before and set up a mobile version of the HFWT.  Spot on guys!  You two know how to travel to a big race.  I was definitely taking notes.

It turns out John really did want mexican food after all and the CREW headed out for nice easy dinner Thursday night at a local mexican joint.

Friday brought a morning swim in some rough waters.  The wind was kicking on Lake Erie which make the lake swim feel more like an ocean swim.  Friday also brought the arrival of Bobby (IMB) and his gf Katie.  After some errands, lunch, registration, and a spin on the bikes thru the run course it was time for COASTERS!!!!!!!!!!  The race was located at Cedar Point Ammusment Park and all the racers, volunteers, and family got private access to the park from 6-9pm for $15.  There were only 6-7 rides open for us but the private access meant no lines.  If you wanted the front car, it was yours.  IF you wanted to ride again, sure!  You could even stay in your seat unless there was someone waiting for it.  If that was the case, they just asked you to choose a different seat.  On one ride they even asked us to run up to the departing car.  We sprinted.  We rode Top Thrill Dragster 3 times (daylight, sunset, and in the dark).  Very cool to be shot up 420ft at 120mph in the dark.  This was the greatest 3hrs of coasters I’ve ever had.  A highlight of the weekend.  A quick and deliscious dinner in downtown Sandusky at Water Street bar & Grille and then it was time to shut down the day.

Saturday we all met for a swim but decided that it was a bit cold and opted just to ride and run a bit.  Our warmup tunred into a photo shoot.  Then it was time to eat my face off!!!!  pancakes, eggs, potatos, whatever I could stuff in me.  Time to load up for Sunday.  After breakkie we dropped off bikes in trasition and started to pack up our transition bags.  This was the first time that I’d filled up plastic transition bags for ironman racing.  It was a different experience.  Thanks to Anna and Bobby for guiding me though the process (especcially Bobby for his desaster prevention advice).  With everything packed, we headed to a local Japanese steakhouse to load up on chicken and rice.  Yummy pre race dinner.

Sunday: RACE DAY

4am: Alarm.  Up.  Is anna up?  No.  Shit.  Is her sugar low?  I think so.  FUCK!  Wake up Anna.  crap, nothing.  Tried to force her to drink juice.  no, crap again!  3rd attempt.  Juice.  Chugg, sweet!  Phil and Kate’s room for coffee (first in over a week).  Damn that’s good.  Check on Anna.  Juice kicked in and she is alive, good.  2 gluten free bagels, a banana, and a bunch of peanut butter.  Pack it all up, let’s head out.

5:20am: in the car and over to transition.  Line for weigh in?  what is this?  why not yesterday?  patience.  body mark.  scale, 164.5lbs.  Damn you ate a lot in the last 24hrs.  hang transition bags.  load bike with bottles and fuel.  Take a crap.  relax. 

6:30am: Everything is set, let’s head to the swim start.  This right about where I got hit with the reality that I had 140.6miles to cover today.

7am: Swim starts in 10min or so.  relax.  Swim, bike, run.  One at a time.

Swim: relax.  Find a rythm. Be aggressive.  Stop touching my feet!!!  Get outta my way!!!!  It’s getting choppy out here.  I think the wind is picking up.  Out of the water and on to lap 2.  Danm, still choppy out here and getting worse.  Will the guy in front of me swim a straight line please?  Tired of pushing you out of the way every time you cross in front of me.  Ok, done!  Don’t lally gag.  get to the bike.

Swim 1:13:36

T1 3:43

Bike: easy does it.  it’s gonna be windy so get you’re head around that.  relax into the wind and then ride the wind when it’s in your favor.  your speed will all average out in the end.  99miles to ride on my bike, 99miles to go, take one down, toss it around, 98miles to ride on my bike.  yes, I did sing that once I was under 100miles to go.  25mile in I taught myself to pee on the bike.  gross, I know, but peing at 13+mph is so much more efficient than stopping, getting off the bike, going to the bushes, geting on the bike, get back your momentum again.  At mile 50 was special needs (which was a lot earlier than I had wanted it).  reloaded the bike and headed out again.  I didn’t take in as many calories as I had wanted on the back have of the ride as the wind started to rock me and I needed to keep the hands on the bars to keep the bike from blowing off the road.  This made the last 30mi really rough, but I managed to keep myself from a bonk.

Bike 5:55:30 (18.90mph)

T2 3:49

Run: I headed out on the run trying to take it easy but that’s not what happened.  I took a split at mile 1 that was 8:17.  WAY too fast.  I backed off a bit and found a groove which I guessed was around 9mi/miles.  I hit the half way turn at around 2:08-2:09 which was right on target.  I knew things were headed south, but it was just a matter of when.  If I could run the 2nd loop in around 2:20 I’d have a 4:30 marathon and stay under 12hrs.  I didn’t realize what was really ahead of me.  Around mile 16 I realized that I was getting parched.  I had to start walking aid stations to make sure I got plenty of fluids in me.  Walking was the last thing I wanted to do because I knew it would be like breaking the seal when you are out drinking.  But this was necessity.  I started thinking “did I ride too hard into T2 and skrew myself on the run?  did I bike race in the heat of the moment?”  The answer was clearly “no”.  I ran the first half marathon spot on target and just hit the wall around 16.  I shuffled my way to mile 20 and then the wheels really came off.  I started walking.  I’d run a cone, walk a cone, repeat.  I forced myself to keep some sort of constant run/walk formula.  My the time I hit mile 25 I could basically see the finish line so I decided to give it a go and run my way in.  To my surprise my legs felt a little better than they had just 2 miles back.  As I came through the finishing shoot I started to see all my friends out there chearing me on.  I crossed the line and held the finish line tape high above my head (totally cool touch from Rev3).  There were a bunch of volunteers in the finish shoot but the only person I really saw Coach John snapping photos.  He was right in the middle of the shoot waiting for me with my finisher medal.  thanks dude, that meant a lot.  The next few minutes are a blur of hugs, high 5s, congrats, are you ok’s?, do you need anything?.

Run 5:05:16 (11:39min/mi)

Total 12:21:56 (145th overall, 20th in age group)

I’m not really sure how to sum this all up.  Honestly, not sure if there is really much to say.  The whole was an out of body experience.  It hasn’t sunk in yet and I’m not sure if or when it will.  I’m not sure if I want to sink in.  But, I can tell you I do have a great sence of accomplishment.

Rev3 Full Rev Cedar Point Finish

Yesterday Team Continuum and I ventured out to Oyster Bay Long Island to compete in a local sprint distance race. This was Team Continuum’s first real foray into the multisport world. We had a total of 5 athletes competing. Should have been 6, but one had to bail due to a dual stress fracture in his right leg (speedy recovery Steve). There were 2 first timers and they did a fantastic job. All this couldn’t have been done without the help and leadership of Coach John Hirsch.

As for my race:
After getting the newbies registered, body marked, and set up in transition I started to focus on my day. Had a little time for a warmup run to get the junk out of my legs. Grabbed my wetsuit, cap and goggles and headed to the water. Wetsuit on, cap on, goggles…OH SHIT they broke! Thankfully I travel with 2 pair. I turned on a dime and took off for my transition bag, which, of course, was on the furthest edge of transition from the swim start. By the time I got back to the water I was dripping with sweat. Not the calm start to the day, but rolled with the punches.

As the gun went off I took off in a full sprint on the out and back swim course. Didn’t feel good at all in the water till the turn buoys. Couldn’t find a rhythm. Came out of the water and was not feeling great after such a salty swim and was off on a relatively long run to transition. (I would later learn I was still about top 20 in my swim wave)

Swim 15:46
T1 1:48

I wanted to hammer the bike just for shits and giggles. The beginning of the bike was through the park on walking paths. Tight corners and it was not fun. I found a spot to get my left shoe on. Went for the right shoe and CRAP!…I’m on the grass Lance Armstong style. Thankfully there was no curb and I kept it upright. The rest of the bike was rolling with one steep climb. I hammered the whole way except the climb which I paced a bit not knowing what was after it. I still managed to pass a few people up the hill. The last mile of the bike was FANTASTIC! It was on a narrow tree lined residential road that was closed to traffic. Hammered to T2, it was awesome.

Bike 28:10 (19.9mph)
T2 1:39

I found my run legs pretty quickly but was passed by someone in my age group right out of transition. Considered trying to match his pace but he was moving. Decided to run my own race and push hard. As soon as I settled in to a groove the road kicked, hurt. At the mile marker I looked ahead and didn’t like it. The road went up and didn’t look like it stopped until the turnaround. That’s exactly what it was. I chugged but it felt ugly. At the turn I let the legs go and tried to fly downhill. It was downhill all the way to the awesome flat and long straightaway finish. I took one quick peek over my shoulder to make sure no one was charging. Nope. Solid finishing kick.

Run 22:49 (7:21 pace)
Finish 1:10:10
10th in my AG (65th overall)

I’m stoked with a top 10 AG finish, but slightly frustrated as well. I think I was 5th coming out of T2 and got schooled by 5 guys on the run. I’ve never been the strongest runner so I anticipate being passed. Still super happy I held on to 10th.

Pics: The TC Tri Team post race (yes, there was free beer after the race) & me heading out on the run

The annual AHA Wall Street Run 3M is a great NYRR event that takes over the streets of the Financial District for one night every summer.  The race used to be called “Running with the Bulls” because my employer, Merrill Lynch, was the title sponsor for so many years.  Being a proud member of “The Thundering Hurd” myself, me and many of my colleagues still refer to the race as such.  unfortunately, our new partners at Bank of America have chosen not to support the race or its “associates” participating in this year’s race. 

Well…we showed them something last night.  I, and a few others in my office, helped coordinate participation in our office.  In the end we had 98 runners/walkers registered and raised over $4,500 from our office alone.  As a firm, Merrill Lynch raised over $10,000 had the 4th largest corporate group of participants (the largest number of participants of all the banks).   Merrill was 3rd in the Corporate Team competition behind Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan.  My friend Serge was the fastest of all Merrill runners with a time of 19:13 (6:25min/mi).  I’m proud to say that I came in second on the Merrill team with a time of 20:05 (6:42min/mi).  Now that’s a statement to management if I’ve ever seen one.

The race was SUPER hot!!  Holly balls hot.  Weather:  87 Degrees, 57% Humidity, Wind 15MPH, Clear.   These certainly were not ideal conditions, certainly not with a 6:45pm race start and an entire day at my desk.  I started up at the very front of the race in the usual clusterf**k that this race starts in.  It was totally cool being in the mix with all the crazy fast people going into the first turn.  Loads of fun.  I made the first mile in just a hair over 6min and the 2mile mark in 13min.  Mile 2 was hard with a few little inclines and some potholes thrown in there.  Mile 3 was in the sun and almost directly into the wind, YEAH!!!  Did a little drafting here and there and managed to pull off a time that I’m really happy with.  Then I stupidly passed up free beer and food to go swim for a bit.  After the swim I met some friends for a few brewskies, but of course I had to pay for those.  I’m an idiot sometimes.

After Rev3 last weekend a bunch of us really wanted to race again, especially Holisticguru (check out her blog to find out why).  JH, Guru, Miss Murder, and I all decided to venture to Staten Island for the Flat as a Pancake Triathlon, a very well known sprint distance race.  having wanted to do this race in the past but never making it, I was excited to race this one.  Even only 6 days post Rev3, I still wanted to give this a big effort.

Swim: 11:19

The swim was a ocean swim which was just off the beach with the Verranzano Bridge just in the background.  Great backdrop for a swim.  The combination of the salt water and my awesome XTERRA wetsuit led to much more float than I expected.  So much so that it almost rendered my kick pointless and out of the water.

T1: 0:56

Bike: 33:25 (21.5mph avg)

As the name suggests, the bike is 3 laps of a flat 4mi stretch of road (2mi out – 2mi back).  The road was flat, so flat that my Garmin had 10ft of vertical on it and I think those 10ft came from lifting my bike on and off the curb in transition.  The way out was into the wind and was MUCH slower than the way home.  I pushed the whole way here and tried to make it hurt bad.  It worked and I put down a bike that I am very proud of.  The new ISM Adamo Road saddle was perfect.  I need to dial the angle in a bit, but very happy with the new saddle overall

T2: 0:42

Run: 22:36 (7:18/mi)

The run was just as flat as the bike which made it an all out sprint for 5k.  The first part was on the concrete bike path, then we went to onto some stone pavers.  The way home was on the wood planked boardwalk and was a beautiful finish along the beach with the bridge in the background.  I’m super stoked with the pace I was able to keep.  All the work that I put in running over the winter has certainly shined both last weekend at Rev3 and this morning.  Stoked.

Finish: 1:08:56 (40th overall, 7th out of 42 in M24-29)

Pic: Coach John taking his place at the top of the podium and bringing home a win and some hardware

Yesterday was the Rev3 Quassy Half Rev race.  A half ironman distance race and my first triathlon of the season.  Being that this was the first tri of my season (I usually get in a shorter distance race first) and a HARD course, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect for a result.  I know I’ve done a ton of work and certainly improved both my bike and my run, but where that would settle out was a big mystery.

The weekend started with a early morning drive up to the HFWT on Saturday morning.  We picked up some bagels and murdercakes to share with the rest of the CREW that was at the house.  Hung out, eat, cleaned and lubes bikes, and the loaded the team blue XTERRAs and headed to race check in and bike drop.  It was obvious from the moment we pulled into the parking lot that these guys know how to put on a race.  Everything was top-notch and organized.  Registration was quick and then we headed down to the water for a quick swim in some perfect water.  It was cool at the water as a bunch of pros were kicking around.

Race morning started nice and early as usual, but I was a total mess this time.  I got to transition and started setting up only to realize that I left my helmet in the car.  Thanks to Anna for going back and getting it for me.  Then I left transition only to realize that I didn’t put any Body Glide on.  Thanks to Anna again for her transition bag and Body Glide being so close to where we were.

The swim start was a bit crazy than normal.  I can usually find clear water pretty quickly.  Yesterday I felt like I rarely had clear water and was constantly in a small crowd.  My swim was right where I thought it be, 34:44.  Pretty happy with that being that my shoulders felt really tight and tired.  Plus, I beat Dave out of the water by 12sec (that was the last time I saw Thunder & Lightning as they powered into the distance).

This bike course was HARD.  It never gives you much of a chance to recover.  Luckily I had preview the course a few weeks back and I had a game plan going in.  I took it relatively easy for the first half to make sure I had some legs.  At the top of the big climb about half way I felt like I had good legs so I let myself push just a little bit.  I did this just because I’ve never really pushed the bike leg of a tri and I knew my legs were good from all the work I’ve been doing and SLB.  The risk was big but I made sure not to push the climbs too much and just hold the flats strong.  I’m very content with a 3:05:05 bike on that course.

The run is just like the bike, relentless.  The bike/run combo is like a one-two punch to the nutz.  There are some big hills on the run course, specifically miles 3.5-4.5, 7-8, and 12-12.5.  The just take all the life out of your legs.  After the first one I was able to keep a decent turnover for a bit.  But the second big hill just took my legs from right under me.  That was mile 8, so from there on in was a little bit of HTFU to keep the spirits up.  There were lots of people reduced to a walk on this course but I refused to let that happen.  I’d rather death shuffle than walk.  My run was 2:01:05,  a personal best for a half ironman run.  Super stoked for that, and especially on this run course.

Total finishing time of 5:44:20

I think there is still some room for improvement on the bike run combo.  I’m not sure if it’s fear of cracking or skill/training that is keeping my splits from where I want them.  I could tolerate skill or training keeping me from where I want them as both of those can be worked on with some focus.  If it’s fear I’d be really pissed as that is just unacceptable.  Regardless, this is not the course to be worrying about ideal splits.  This is a course of survival and proper pacing. 

Rev3 puts on a great race for both racers and supports crew.  I really felt at home, safe, and well supported through the entire process.  Thanks to all involved.  Made us all feel like pros for a few days.

Flatted on lap 1 but was in the lead pack marking every move until then. Had to walk 2+mi back to the car. Not much more to say.

NYC Spring Series tomorrow in Central Park at 6:30am for redemption.