3rd Annual Hoogie Half-of-a-half Backyard Tri

Grand Haven, MI -- July 14, 2013

Once again, my parents graciously opened up their home to host the 3rd Annual Hoogie Half (of-a-half) Backyard Tri. Again, free PowerBar products for everyone this year, which is always nice to be able to do. Had some new products and also an assortment for everyone to try new things.

We headed down to the Lake Michigan beach and started walking the 1km or so to where we would start swimming. My dad had already gone out and fixed up a buoy for us to sight, which was great. After a day of very strong east winds, the big lake was freezing cold. Very glad I had a wetsuit! Once we were all in the water, we wasted no time getting started. Everyone wanted to get out as soon as possible. My dad kayaked along with us, and JR was long gone. I swam in on the sandbar most of the way, under the mental game that the shallower water would be warmer. Ha! Ultimately, it ended up meaning more time in the water since the buoy was back out in deeper water. On well. Glass-like conditions are rare, so no complaints here.

After climbing back up the dune, I made a quick transition, told Kristin thanks for watching the bikes while we swam, and took off after JR, who was easily 2 minutes ahead.

I quickly realized that I did not have the power in my legs to fully pursue JR, but I wanted to at least make up some ground. I ended up averaging 21mph on the way out, which I was pleased with. The 2 hours I spent the day before battling the wind back from Grand Haven definitely taxed my legs. After the turnaround to head back north, I saw how close Phil, Matt, Tim, and Jeff were. I thought about sitting up and letting them catch up so that we could work as a group (the HHH is "draft legal"), but this is part of my training and I decided to see how long I cold hold them off. Turns out, that was another 4 miles. When we grouped up, I had been solo for 18 miles at 21.1 avg., which I was happy with. We grouped up and chased after JR. It took a lot of short pulls at high pace, but we finally managed to pull him back with 1 mile to go. This meant I would be battling Tim for the win on the run.

After another quick transition, we were off running. Tim closed the 5 second gap in no time, and we ran together for the rest of the way, both trying to concede to the other. Tim had run 25km the day before, so his legs were just as tired as mine. Why do we do these things to ourselves? We hit up the cooler my folks kindly placed out on the run course, waited for Phil and Jeff, and headed off for the last 4 miles. Phil and Jeff dropped off again, so Tim and I ran it in together. In the end, Tim would win the battle of conceding and I would take the win by a couple strides.

All in all, a fun race. I was very glad that my legs held up on the run! Just 19.5 more miles for an ironman marathon! Sigh...

Post race festivities were great as always fun for all the families and significant others to get to relax, eat, swim in the pool, etc.together. Makes the triathlon world smaller and smaller.

A huge thanks again to my parents for hosting, for everyone who came, and to PowerBar for being an awesome sponsor.

Next up: Lumberman 70.3 in Cadillac,MI.

Bear Lake Sprint Triathlon

Two days after the criterium in Zeeland, it was time for the second triathlon of the season. The day brought us to North Muskegon, MI for the Bear Lake Sprint Tri. In order to drum up some friendly competition amongst teammates, this is the second race in the point series we created. With potential do get on the overall podium, we showed up ready to rock.

Bear Lake Sprint Tri, June 23, 2013
Race morning came very early, after spending most of the previous day traveling to my niece's 1st birthday party. Couldn't miss that, so take the travel fatigue and put it aside. Tim and I had plans of opening up a big gap on the swim and trying to lead the race wire to wire. We were successful, after a few weeks of panic swim training, we were out in front after the first buoy. Unfortunately, the swim is only 750m. We had approximately a 30 second gap out of the water.

My transition was fast, and I was out on the bike in first place. What a cool feeling that is, following the lead motorcycle escort. Unfortunately, it didn't last long. After approximately 3 miles, I was passed by 2 athletes. Soon after, a third. None of these were Tim though, so from a point series perspective, I felt okay. I also recalled that one of the guys was over 60 and had done the same thing last year. He doesn't run well (he told us that last year), but he sure is a strong cyclist! There is one big hill on the bike course that you climb and descend right before the turnaround. You then go right back over. At this point, all four of us were very close. Tim was close behind as well. My hope was that we would get a little relief from the wind on the way back, but it was almost worse. My legs were zapped from training, but I kept my head up and pushed home, coming into T2 in 4th.

After another quick transition, I was out on the run. I had no idea what the gap was to Tim behind me, but I knew if I held him off that I could finish 3rd overall. But, the gap wasn't that big. A half mile in and I heard footsteps. Tim was flying. I would later find out that he ran 6:09 avg/mi, while I struggled to get under 7. That was okay though. I moved back into 4th and cruised home. There are much bigger goals for me this year, and I was relatively satisfied with the race. Given my issues with quad injuries, finishing the run without any pain was a success!

After the race, I would head out for 40 more miles on the bike. Have to keep doing work and keep my short-term goals in check, there's a world championship in Hawaii to qualify for!

(A huge thanks to Jason Lavelle of Absolute Photography for taking pictures for the 2BContinued team!!!)

2BContinued Zeeland Criterium

Okay, I know I may have said that I wouldn't do one of these races again. But when your good friend is a key player in organizing the event and wants the team to have a good showing, you take some risks and go for it.

Downtown Zeeland, MI, June 21, 2013...
I had to rush out of work to make it to the start in time, as this was a Friday evening race. Fortunately, Kristin got out of work early and had all of my stuff ready and a snack prepared. She is the best. We hit the road and made it on time. We delivered the two boxes of PowerBar product to the race table and I headed out to warm up. One of the cool things that PowerBar does for Team Elite is sponsor "small" events in order to grassroots market their products. Pretty cool deal.
 

After a few laps on the course, I had made note of the tight turns and potholes and was ready to go. Since the were several of us racing, I thought we would stick together and work as a group. But, when the race started, a lot of the guys held back and didn't try to make the main group. I saw an opening and stood on the pedals to latch onto the back. The first turn was chaos. It was probably the second tightest turn on the course, and with everyone battling for positioning, there was A LOT of braking (in this type of race,where you ride maybe one or two blocks before turning, you need to. Keep your speed up though the turns). This caused a lot of slinky action on the back of the main group: sprint, brake, sprint, brake, etc. The first lap went by very quickly, I didn't have my garmin, but I was told we were going 26-27 on the straights.

I started to get dropped because I couldn't find space to pass some riders and thought about sitting up and waiting for the rest of the group. Then, CRASH. Not me, thankfully! But ahead in the main group. My groupetto caught back up with the back and at this point most of the braking culprits had fallen off. So, clean riding, which was nice. I decided to go for it and see how long I could last. I didn't last long, but after 3 laps I saw most of my teammates on the sidewalk. I was worried that one of them had crashed, but there wasn't any way I could find out. Turns out they were almost ready to be lapped and had to retire from the race.

So I was out in no-mans land looking for a group to share the work with. Finally I caught up to one and they latched on to my wheel. I wasn't exactly looking to do all of the work, so I sat up and moved over so they would pull ahead. I rode with two or three of them for most of the race, one of them was a big guy and took his turns into the wind, meaning we all got a nice break. Lap after lap, the race coordinators said they would keep us out for as long as possible. With about a tenth of a mile to go on our third to last lap, the group caught us. The race coordinators apparently called the lapped riders off the course, but we were long gone and focused on not getting run over. So, I technically did not finish, but official results say that I finished 18th out of 65 or so. Not bad for a CAT4/5 mixed race on a steel framed bike!

So maybe my crit racing days aren't over...?