Pre-Race: I had a big training weekend after DeWitt, and my body was beat up. I took an unplanned rest day Wednesday before Ohio, so my legs felt the most rested since the full taper going into Tulsa.
I felt very good going into this race and was expecting a favorable result. With predicted thunderstorms on Sunday, this felt very similar to Des Moines. I was happy to have had that experience and prepped as if the race wouldn't be altered.
Swim (30:16 - 45th OA): My fastest swim to date, finally putting my new Zone3 swim skin to the test. Having just knocked out a 5K swim on Friday at the Delaware YMCA (nicest facility I’ve ever been in), I was feeling good about my swim. I seeded myself at the back of the 27-30 minute group, and this ended up being perfect. I only passed around 10 people, and was enjoying catching/drafting/overtaking throughout most of the swim. I swam even harder than at Des Moines, and really feathered the “this is too hard” mentality.” As I am finding out, I can cross that line and still have enough in the tank for the remainder of the race. All in all, my best 70.3 swim, but it still cost me the AG win. More to come :)
T1 (2:15): My transition was great until I got too excited and ran past my bike… I think I went wrong by not having a clear way to identify my spot (rookie move). This was also my first race back where the bikes were on top of each other again. Not rubber banding my shoes had been working as of late, so I opted to put on my clips at my bike.
Bike (2:13:17 - 24th): This was probably the highlight for me. The bike course was one of the fastest I’ve ever ridden with two 10 mile straights to start the ride. The first straight was one of the smoothest roads I’ve ever ridden and was averaging a little over 26mph. Now, I apologize for dellwing on this 1 mishap, but it’s been bothering me. I am meticulous with my setup and always check for brake rub/gearing/etc. After settling in that first mile, I noticed my bottle cage was completely loose. It was tight before leaving transition, and within a mile was all sloppy. I have never had my downtube cage loosen, ever. To remedy it, I held the bottle in my mouth while leaning over to tighten the screws. I was losing time and didn’t want to risk crashing, so I gave up on it and at mile 20 my cage gave up too. I lost 200 calories of tailwind as the bolt fell out, bottle slid into my cranks and rear tire launched it into the ditch. The empty cage then dangled into my cranks as I pedaled, so I had no choice but to break my cage and hang it on my aero bars until the next aid station 15 miles away. Not ideal, and I seriously question if someone messed with my setup… Without a bottle cage I had to improvise with adding Gatorade to my aero bottle and grab additional aid as needed. Nonetheless, I averaged just over 25mph for my fastest bike split yet.
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T2 (2:08): I thought I was pretty quick running with my bike, but I discovered I need to be faster. My Dynamo teammate Thomas came off the bike seconds behind me and BLEW by me going into transition. He put 20s into me just like that! It didn’t help that I once again ran past my rack… Need to add some color to my transition bag.
Run (1:23:22 - 4th): I had been waiting for the run all day, and was ready to hammer down. Starting off, I checked my overall time and saw I could break 4:10 with a 1:22. Out of T2 I was told 3rd AG and 5:30 back from 2nd. Not getting too excited, I stuck to my HR for the first 3 miles focusing on settling in. I really had to hold back as it was taking forever to overtake each runner in front of me. By the time I started loop 2, I was in 2nd. I held a steady push until mile 11 and then made my final move. I gave everything I had those last 2 miles and soaked in the crowds. I received a ton of encouragement from the athletes just starting their run as I suffered that last mile.
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| Always playing catch up |
Post Race: In the end I landed 6th overall and 2nd age group with a PR of 4:11:25. My goals were to be top 5 overall and take the age group win, but I am still very happy with the result. Now, when I said the swim cost me the race, here is why. The athlete that won my age group and took 5th overall swam 5 minutes faster than me, and I was only able to close about 1 minute of that. This is not to say that I need to swim a 25, but I know what I need to work on so I don’t lose the race on the swim.
Bringing my guy home
Adding a shameless plug down here at the bottom. As the expenses for my trip to Kona are coming, we will be hosting a little Fun Run to raise money in East Moline.
Time: 7:00AM on August 15th.
Location: QC Running Club at 733 15th Ave, East Moline, IL 61244.
Donation Page: GoFundMe
