GRTri - Olympic Distance

Woke up to pouring rain. Lovely. Sound familiar? Same race last year, same story. A soaking rain was coming down as I sat at my computer, sending out emails that our new system for work was back on-line. Nothing like a work fire the night before/morning of a race. Not sure if that helped or hurt my race, but the distraction from the rain was welcomed. Lots of text messages flying around about the weather, where we were all meeting pre-race, and whether the race would go on. Thankfully, we were house/dog-sitting for Kristin's parents who live about 5 minutes from the transition area. Nice to be able to wait out *most* of the rain there while having breakfast and drinking coffee. I finally loaded up and headed down to the race.

Timmy and the VanderWalls each pulled in and parked right behind me, perfect timing. By the time we had our stuff out of our cars, we were already soaked. Adjusted attitude: we're going to get wet anyway, don't stress about it. We stopped at the covered bridge, dried off our arms and legs, and did some impromptu body marking for the race. Pretty cool that while we were stopped, several Michigan Awesome teammates and other friends also stopped and asked to be marked, too. Nice way to boost camaraderie before the race. We got to transition and set up our stuff. I've learned to be pretty lean with what I have in my transition space, and luckily had some good bike rack-mates who alternated directions like you're supposed to. Knowing I'd likely be one of the first ones out of the water, I stressed a little less about how little room I actually had to put my stuff down. We tried to find a dry spot for our gear bags, but with the rain it was a lost cause. Our stuff would be soaked through by the end of the morning. We socialized with the other MA athletes and headed down to the water.

My goal for the swim was simple: stay with the lead group. With the collegiate conference division, there were some fast swimmers present. It presented a great opportunity to practice swimming in a group at a fast pace. The gun went off and we flew. The first 200 meters were a scrambled, grabby, bumpy mess. By the time we settled in and sorted out, we were almost to the first turn. From there, the pace quickened and the group stretched out to single file. The course measured a little long based on GPS data, but we all had to swim the same distance. I made it in just under 22 minutes for the 1500 meters (more like 1600m). [Strava Swim]

The wetsuit peelers (great perk of this race!) were really close to the water, so there was no time to pull the suit down far enough. Thankfully they were able to adapt and efficiently pull off the wetsuits for people anyway. I took advantage and my T1 times show for it, no struggling to get the suit off around my ankles while dizzily trying to stay upright. Ran the long carpet stretch to my bike rack, quickly got my shoes and helmet on, and off I went.

The ride started reasonably well. It was still sprinkling, so the visor on my helmet had to stay up. Typically I like to have some sort of eye protection, but I'd survive. A few miles in Todd Kennedy (a super fast guy) rolled past me. He was racing the aquabike due to an injury. Before I could clear the draft zone, I heard the one noise that's just dreadful on the bike: "ppppfffffffsssssssssssssssttttttt". I quickly looked down, hoping it wasn't me. Guess I was lucky, it was Todd. Sorry for the bad luck! You can't do much to help your competitors, but I wanted to make sure he had what he needed. From then on, it was pretty quiet, just focusing on keeping my head down and dodging potholes. Finally, the Jimi Minnema rocket rolled by. I managed to hold him off for the first 11 miles, not bad! From the turnaround on, it was just hammer down and try not to get caught by anyone else. I would make it, with a 23.5mph split. Not bad given the conditions!

T2 was quick. Off the bike, run to the rack, socks on, shoes on, and grab everything else. That can get put on/consumed while running. I shot out of T2 with a Berry Blast PowerGel in my had and targeted a 6:20/mi average.

That target average started to fade around 2 miles. I was not feeling it, too much standing around pre-race, maybe the work stress, definitely swimming way too fast. A couple guys blew by me like I was walking. Turns out one was a relay and the other was a collegiate racer. At that point, I figured I was still top in the 30-34 AG and fought to keep it that way. The next few miles went slowly, and I adjusted my goal to nothing slower than 6:50/mi. Shortly after the run, I saw PowerBar rep Ryan Guiliano just ripping it on the half-iron run. He was seconds from taking over the lead and wouldn't turn back. Crazy fast! With 2 miles to go, I put my head down and just suffered to the end. Finally the last stretch to the finish chute was upon me, and I strained to smile as I crossed the line.

My HR would end up being over 165 average for over 2 hours, quite the high rate for me. Something to learn from as Ironman Wisconsin approaches: I have to keep my HR down on the swim. There's two ways to do that: swim harder in training and/or swim easier on race day. Taking that insight, I'll be applying that to the remaining training days!

"PowerBar Ryan" would end up winning the half and looking no worse for wear. 4:02 total time and he "jogged in" a 1:14 half marathon at the end. Congrats, Ryan, you're an inspiration! Hope you come back next year and repeat the clinic of a race you put on! Mama Hoogs also had a good race despite ear issues.




Overall, I'd end up 10th (9th if you exclude the relay that beat me), 1st in the 30-34 age group! Very happy to represent Michigan Awesome and PowerBar so well. Thanks as well to Kristin, who despite me not noticing she wasn't there until the finish, still comes out and cheers me on in the crappy weather. Turns out she was searching for Sully, who decided he wanted to try to find me at the race. She'd spent 2 hours running around in the rain looking for him. Thankfully, a nice family had taken him in from the storm and flagged her down. We returned after the race to personally thank them again and give them a gift card to a fro-yo place. So nice of them and we're glad Sully was safe!