Witch City Triathlon
Salem, MA
Swim - 1/2 Mile (actually closer to 2/3 - 3/4 of a mile)
Bike - 13.3 Miles
Run - 3.2 Miles
Results
Swim - 12:46
T1 - :36
Bike - 35:07 (22.2 mph - though my Garmin Edge 500 computer says 23.6)
T2 - :32
Run - 18:28 (5:47/mi)
OVERALL - 1:07:25.7
PLACE - 1st Overall
Heading into today's race, I had no idea how my body would respond. After DAM, the intensity in my training skyrocketed as I entered the final phase of preparation for USAT Sprint Nationals. My workouts this past Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday left me physically and mentally exhausted. Twice this week I was left hanging on the edge of the pool gasping for air at the end of a hard set, able to feel my arms and legs throbbing with every beat of my heart. Once, I found myself collapsed on the track in exhaustion after finishing the final 400 of the day. And, on the bike, my leg muscles almost burst through my skin while my lungs were being set on fire. All this work, of course, will pay dividends as I head into biggest races of my season. It made me question, though, what I'd have in the tank for Witch City. The only way to find out, I figured, was go out hard and hang on as long as possible.
The swim was advertised as a half mile. Good, I like longer swims in sprint races. As it turns out, today I was given a gift of something closer to two-thirds or three-quarters of a mile. We hadn't even started yet and things were already turning in my favor! And then the gun went off. That's when my luck ran out, at least momentarily. Two strokes into the swim the guy to my left decides he's going to swim in the total opposite direction of the first turn buoy and directly into me. This isn't anything new, the first few minutes of a swim can be a contact sport. A lot of people take off way faster than they are actually capable of swimming and cause chaos in the field. Normally I'm decent at positioning myself around guys I know and guys that are decent swimmers. That wasn't the case today. This guy smacks me in the face once, twice, and then a third time. From his stroke and the angle of his body, I could tell he had no business being on the front line of the swim start. But, he was and I had to deal with it. I was literally pushing him away with one arm and stroking with the other. Then, as his arm came around again, he knocked my goggles into my eye socket. Fortunately, they stayed on my face and didn't come off completely, but it was very painful. It's actually still painful as I sit here at my computer hours later. Twenty five yards after this incident, I was in clear water and by myself. Once at the front of the race, I made a strong move and went extremely hard to the first buoy. I wanted the move to be decisive and make it so nobody could go with me. Success. As I made the first turn I had 75-100 yards on second place. I backed off slightly during the short stretch at the top of the triangular swim in anticipation for my next move. During my warmup over the course I'd noticed a bit of a current as you approach the finish. It subtle, but I knew it could provide another chance for me to accelerate away from the competition. So, for the final 300 yards I opened up the throttle and continued to extend the gap back to the rest of the field.
The only thing of any note in the first transition was that I fell. It had been raining and the ground was pretty slick. This most graceful of maneuvers happened as I rounded the corner at my bike rack, but I bounced right back up and kept going. I was still out in 36 seconds, so really it didn't matter.
The early minutes of the bike were sloppy. I couldn't get my feet into my bike shoes for at least a half a mile. Eventually I got myself onto a straight section of road and sorted things out and started applying power to the pedals. The road conditions were fairly treacherous as rain and mist had been failing making the roads just slippery enough to cause concern. Making matters worse, visibility was poor behind the lenses of my sunglasses. I hate riding without them as my eyes quickly become irritated, but I had to pull them to the tip of my nose so I could see ahead. With these early details worked out, I got down to business and set out to end the race before the run even began.
Things were going well at first, and my Garmin Edge 500 had me averaging 24 miles per hour. I had a solid ride going given the course conditions. Then, the potential for disaster appeared. At an intersection a Police Officer had traffic stopped for me and the volunteer was waving his flag. Unfortunately, he was doing so rather indiscriminately and it was impossible for me to tell which way I was actually suppose to go. I yelled out asking left or right, but couldn't hear anything in response. Trying to imagine the course map, I picked right. Wrong. I made it 40-50 yards down the road when the Officer screamed for me to turn around. I did, as quickly as possible on the slick pavement, and continued on my way. I probably lost 30 seconds in total, but I didn't let it bother me. I knew I had a decent sized lead and I just got back up to speed and worked on extending my lead. The rest of the ride was okay. I rode well, but it seemed that the volunteers were not expecting me or not yet at their stations during my trip to and my first lap on Marblehead Neck. Fortunately, the Police Departments did a fantastic job and had the intersections controlled, making things safe. The second and third laps went much more smoothly and the return trip was well-staffed.
You can see the file from my ride here. Clearly I didn't hit start until I was a mile or so into the ride and then failed to hit stop at the end. The milage is off and my final segment looks awful based on the fact that my bike sat still in transition for over an hour. However, what it does show is that I was holding 23.6-24 miles per hour for the ride. Much better than the 22.2mph stated in the official results that includes the run to the mount line, et. If you look closely at the map you can also see where I went off course very briefly. It was on a left hand turn, but you can see a little bump off to the right where I was momentarily diverted.
Having exchanged my bike and helmet for my racing flats, I took of running. I'm really starting to enjoy running off the bike as my ability has been totally transformed this year. My confidence level is higher than ever and I'm not afraid to run hard. I know my legs and lungs can handle the effort and that has completely changed my style of running. I'm much more aggressive now and attack the run. That's the approach I took today on this out and back course. I felt incredible the entire way. Despite all the training I did early in the week, my legs just kept turning over at a high rate and I was moving with speed and efficiency. As I neared the finish there was one final hiccup waiting, though. As I made my way into the park, the crowd and volunteers all began to scream that I was going the wrong way. But I wasn't. I'd studied the finish before the start of the race and knew where to go. It did make me glance around for a second, though, before realizing I knew what I was doing and just kept moving on. Fortunately, a few volunteers confirmed my instincts and I made it toward the finish unimpeded and crossed the line in first by more than 3.5 minutes. I was thrilled to have averaged 5:47/mile off the bike. I have worked with great focus and determination to better my run and the results are coming rapidly.
Today was a solid race. It wasn't my best and there were parts that were sloppy on my part. But what I'm taking away is that I can race well on days when some things don't go perfectly. There are going to be things that happen during the course of an event that could derail your day. But that only happens if you let them. If you trust in your training and ability level, you can find success. It's a great thing to know that it doesn't have to be a perfect day with perfect circumstances for me to win, or at least compete at a very high level.
After the race I had the chance to catch up with Marty, Vince, Kevin (and Brendan, not racing but on duty), John (who I'm excited to see race the Pumpkinman Half & the NYC Marathon this year!), Brian, my dad, and many many more friends (and a number of spectators, too!). Congratulations to all of you guys and thank you for all the support out there on course today. Fit Werx, again, had a great showing and snagged a ton of age group spots on the podium, including both overall wins and male 2nd place overall.
Up next is USAT Sprint Nationals in Burlington, VT. It's there that I hope to put all of this training together and come up with a special result...
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