The 2015 race season as a whole started off great, my first age group win and other podiums in the 5K distance. A Boston qualification at the Newport News Marathon and large gains in the one discipline I have struggled in for the last two year, running.
So I was going into this tri season feeling confident that I was going to finally to have a breakthrough at the 70.3 distance. Since 2012, when I completed my first, I have gotten within 40 seconds of my personal best but I have not been able to break past it.
As the early season went on a few muscle related issues had started. Then a few weeks outside of what was to be my first race, Ironman Raleigh 70.3 at the end of May, I developed an injury. The injury involved my mid and lower back, hips, piriformis and glutes. Believe it or not it seems a leading factor was not doing yoga since late last November. Thanks to great support from my coach and doctors I was able to recover and hopefully become stronger. This along with a course of dry needling, practicing yoga daily and my masters swim coach who made a small change in my head position, which help relieve a lot of pressure from my low back I was feeling more confident each day.
All of this was leading up to what would be my first race of the season, Challenge Atlantic City half (70.3). Any time I get a chance to race back home in NJ and have my family on site, it’s a special opportunity. My last race in NJ didn’t go so well and coming into this race I had limited training in the bank and was worried how the race would go. Coach Adam and I had discussed a race plan that helped my confidence. Since I had been swimming strong throughout the injury, the plan was to attack as normal. The bike, he recommend lowering my watt range down to 80-85% of my functional power threshold and race within myself. This would be a big key to success as my last few races I burned too many matches pushing the pace too hard. Then for the run, start off slow and work to a faster pace. This is something outside of running race I have struggled with and for perspective, I had not only not been able to run the full distance in my last 4 races at this distance but I had not run longer than 4 miles in a few months.
One benefit of going to NJ early was getting to see Dr. Phil Crane. Dr. Crane has been helping my family for a long time and there is no one I trust more. I was able to see him a few times leading up to the race and as always amazed as what he can help with even in a short time frame!
The day before the race I drove down to Atlantic City for a practice swim and to check in my bike. While there I had the chance to meet two of my Snapple team mates, Leslie and Oliver Mellet. The both are amazing athletes and I really enjoyed the chance to talk with them. Once the bike was securely on its rack, I drove home, got in some yoga, tried to relax and get to bed early.
Race morning was an early wake up; we had a 40 minute drive to AC from my parents’
house. My father drove down which allowed me to focus and stay relaxed. It had been a while since I went into a race without putting a lot of undue pressure on myself and since I really had no idea what the day would hold, I was going in with the mindset that finishing and hopefully finishing pain free was what was important.
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| Moms traditional pre-race photo |
An interesting twist to this race was the night before a really bad storm has come through, pictures on Facebook showed that transition took a beating. I was worried how my bike and the rack of bikes around me held up, I was not sure what to expect when we got there. Well a mud bog for a parking lot, the tents and barriers were all back up, and my bike was exactly where i left her, just a wee bit wet. The Challenge Americas and Delmo sports race crews did an amazing job and had the entire course ready to go with only a minimal delay.
Once everything was set up in transition, it was time to head off to warm up. I went for a 20 minute run and felt good but and best of all no pain. I had also hoped to get some time in the water but thanks to the storm the race crews were still working right up until we started. So, I finished some Osmo pre-load and a package of sport beans, talked with my parents and tried to keep calm and relaxed.
Here is a PSA for everyone, no matter how warm the water temps are the week and days
Swim:
The swim was a time trial start, all the men for the half lined up, first come, first serve, walked out onto a pier and jumped in. The only other time I had a swim start like this was Ironman Louisville, that time I was almost a mile back in the line. This time I was lucky enough to be close to the front. Instead of a 15 minute plus wait it was more like 5 minutes. I crossed the timing mat, hit a button on my Garmin (so I thought) and jumped in; WOW, it was cold, see the PSA above!
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| Swim exit |
I was worried that I would have to fight through crowds and was pleasantly surprised to have clear water all the way the first turn buoy. Actually, throughout the swim the only time I was slowed up or had to fight through crowds was at the turn buoys. As far as the swim itself, it felt great! I thought I had a good rhythm and it seemed to me that my sighting was spot on, I passed every buoy very close or even bumped into it. There did seem to be a little current but nothing that seem to affect me at the time. I made the final turn kicked it up a bit as I headed to the finish. I took it easy up the ramp of the floating dock. I learned my lesson the day before at the practice swim, at that time I jumped out of the water and smashed my knee on the dock. It not only left a good bruise but a nice cut that I didn’t know was there until 30 minutes later when I went to put on socks and shoes to go for a run.
As I got up and looked at my Garmin, I was shocked to see the clock screen. I must have hit the wrong button as I went over the timing mat and turned the watch off. As I ran to transition I quickly reset the watch, started it in Triathlon mode and switch from swimming to T1.
In the distraction it had not hit me that I came out of the water feeling amazing, not only was I not tired but I felt refreshed, excited as well as I felt as if I crushed the swim and maybe, just maybe finally broke that 30 minute mark. Well later after the race I learned I was not even close. As great as a swim as it felt, I was very disappointed in my time. I really thought of all three disciplines the swim would have been my best of the day. Time: 0:35:37, 22ng AG, 108th Overall
The first transition flew by, I got my compression calf sleeves on quickly, this had worried as I had not worn them in a triathlon in over 2 years. I grabbed my Rudy project helmet and sunglasses, took a big bike of a Clif bar and was heading towards the mount line. Since I was feeling amazing I was dying to get rolling, a line from my last email with my coach hit me, “you have the endurance from years of training to draw upon, so it is there. You don’t lose that kind of strength in a month” I was starting to think today may be a better day than I was expecting. Also some more of his sage advice came to me; “be patient and finish strong!” I knew I had to stay within myself over the next two and half hours. Time: 2:36
Bike:
As I rode out of Bader field (it was pretty cool riding down a runway) I kept saying to myself over and over “be patient”. I have had a tendency to push the bike to hard and I was worried I would go all squirrel (you know, like a when a dog see one and must chase it down). A few minutes later as I rode up the on-ramp for the short 2 mile ride on the Atlantic City Expressway, knowing there was clean, flat, new pavement as well as a closed off lane, this would be a good test.
A bit of rain started to fall, that helped in my thinking to back it down a little. Ironically that smooth surface lead to some nice speed with little effort so as long as the watts were low, I went with it. About a mile down we got to ride through the toll booth. That was actually pretty cool; I am still waiting for the ez pass violation to come in the mail, LOL. Once off the Expressway at exit 4, I was time to get to work.
About halfway through, I had notice my power was in a nice low spot and I was holding a better than expect average speed. I soon hit a 5 mile plus stretch of road that as it turns out was a slight downhill. I also had a nice tailwind so I decided to jump up into my normal racing power ranges for that stretch. I was flying and it felt awesome, I caught a lot of guys that had passed me earlier and started to play tag with one gentleman. A few miles after I passed him he would pass me back and this would continue all the way to the finish. I never tried to ride him down or hold him off, it just kept happening.
After the third or fourth pass, about mile 40, he slowed up as he went by and told me that I was riding a hell of a ride for such a big guy. (I seem to be getting that a lot lately, the big guy part.) After that we kept chatting as we passed each other and he was in the same boat I was as far as going a little too hard over that middle stretch. Those conversations were the perfect distraction and really help me not over think what was going on.
I hit the Expressway again and this time had about a 15 mph tailwind, I took advantage of that and rode down a few more people. As I came down the off ramp I look at the running time on my Garmin and realized something was not right. It read about 2:30 and counting, based on the speeds I had been holding I should have been back in transition 3 to 4 minutes ago. Turns out the course was 2 miles long, they measured not from transition but from exit 4 on the Expressway. It is not a big deal but I wish I knew that beforehand, that said I am still super excited about this ride. Time: 2:35:14, 6th AG, 41st Overall
Transition 2 was a blur except for the fact that some inconsiderate athletes around me decided it was cool to hang their wetsuits on the rack. I had to move the wetsuits so I could
Run:
I started off well, I got to see my family on the way out and I felt good. Shortly after leaving Bader field, things changed. I started to up the New Albany Bridge and the inside of both my quads cramped up, bad. I stopped on the other side of the bridge and drove the palm of my hand in to both areas and tried to massage it out. As the cramp subsided, I got moving. This time I made it to the boardwalk entrance when the cramps came back. I started to have flashbacks of Ironman Princeton 70.3, the most painful 13.1 miles of running, cramping, walking, than repeat, I have ever experienced. I quickly popped a salt pill (which I had been taking two every hour since I got out of the water), this time, thankfully, after massaging with my palm and also pressing my thumb into the muscle, the cramp went away and this time for good.
The strategy had always been to start slow over the first few miles and as I hit the boardwalk I kept telling myself to slow the pace down. The next couple of miles went fairly well, the course took us to the south end of the boardwalk, turnaround and run to the north end. The south half of the route was a bit tight, the boardwalk is not as wide as it is on the northern side and I spent a good amount of time dodging people walking or on bikes. It was not terrible but I was glad I was on that section of course before it got crowded with racers and folks on vacation.
Mile 3 passed by and fatigue was starting to set in, each mile was starting to tick off slightly slower than the last. I was walking aid stations which is part of my normal race strategy but that bit of rest was not helping me recover as much as it should. Around mile 4 I passed on of my Snapple team mates Oliver Mellet going the other way, he was looking strong, I saw Oliver a few times on the course and his high fives and encouragement inspired me to dig a little deeper. Shortly after that I saw my family just after mile 5, this really brought my spirits back up. I was holding a good pace until shortly after miles 7. At that point I had to walk; I was using small things to work towards and gauge how long I would walk. If I hit any shade or cover, I would walk that distance until I hit sun again. If I was in between aid stations and felt as I had to walk. I would take as as long as it took to hit the top of the next minute, sometimes it was 10 seconds sometimes 40 but I was happy to see my overall average pace was not falling off too much. Also, thanks to another spot on weather report occurrence, it was getting much hotter than reported. At each aid station I was dumping ice down the back of my top, down my shorts and filling my bottle with ice to cool off the Osmo Active as well as the palm of my hand carrying it.
Miles 10-12 were tough, after mile 11 the guy I was chatting with on the bike caught up and we talked for a while. I finally told him after we hit mile 12 to go on; I would meet him for a beer shortly.
Mile 13, I dug deep, went primal as I was determined to run that last mile. Shortly after this point the entire race changed, as I approached the finishing chute I had wish that I had told my family about Challenges policy on running with me to the finish. I decided at that point if I could grab anyone, I would and as I got close there was my Dad, standing between the fence and the start of the chute. I started to yell to him to come with me and he yelled back “won’t I get you disqualified!” I yelled no, Challenge encourages this and grabbed his arm. The next few minutes were by far the most memorable finish to a race I have ever experienced. I think the pictures below tell the story the best. To Challenge, thank you!! Time: 1:52:18: 7th AG, 65th Overall
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| Congrats to Leslie and Oliver on their podiums |
For a race that I had no expectations for going thanks to an injury and lack of training, this turned out to be an amazing day. My final time was 5:07:18, I am a bit disappointed in going over 5 hours but had the bike course been 56 miles or I had been able to run the entire course I would have been under. Oh well, it is a triathlon, if it was not tough and curve balls not thrown your way, everyone would do it. LOL.
I want to thank Primal Sports Mud, I am very proud to be an ambassador for your company and was thankful to have a some mud to put on those quads. It has really helped speed my recovery.
Snapple tri club and their amazing sponsors, Osmo Nutrition, Clif bar , Rudy Project, Xterra wetsuits and SweatVac. Also I want to send a very big thank you to Point2 Running Company and Bike Beat of Newport News.
Thank you to my coach, Adam Otstot, my swim coach Steve Hennessy, who made a small change to my head position recently that has made a big difference. Dr. Michael Potter my orthopedist and my Physical Therapist Cory Newman (also an Ironman), for helping get me back to training. To Dr. Phil Crane, who helped take care of a some lingering issues once I got to NJ and really helped get me ready to race.
To my family in VA and NJ, thank you for your support, encouragement and well everything. Also thank you to the endurance sport community as a whole, there are not many sports where you see the type of camaraderie, encouragement and support for fellow competitors as I see and experience all the time. It truly is an honor to be part of this sports and to race with such amazing athletes.
Next up is Challenge Pocono Mountain Half distance; I am excited to get back to normal training schedule.
