Angills Can Fly

Well this race was definitely a challenge. I did not hire a coach this year though I was coached last year so I had my guidelines to follow. First off I’d like to thank my wonderful wife and daughter for their continuous support along with my mom and very good friend Stephi for coming out on this insanely hot day to cheer me on and welcome me to the finish line. Stephi made an awesome pasta dinner for us all on Saturday night before the race.

I got up at 3 am as I usually do, I stretched in the dark for about 10 mins and then ate my oatmeal for breakfast along with a cup of coffee. This time I neglected to eat my toast and a banana. There was a slight increase in pre-race stress as I was leaving from the race to go on vacation but not too bad (usual pre vacation inventory before leaving). Dan rode over with Jess and Steph and I (Mom and daughter came later). We left at 4:30 and got there around 5:15 and parked 1 block west of main st just off the first turn of the course.

Transition set up was business as usual, checked my bike, put my socks in my shoes, shoes in a plastic bag, gels in all the right places etc. The one thing I forgot to do was take my straw extension for my aero bottle out of my pack. (This was realized about 2 miles into the bike). We took the mile walk down the beach and then sat and waited for what seemed like an eternity.

Swim start was good, there is a long entry (shallow water) so I did a combination of 3 step dive, 3 step dive action until I was about waist deep then started swimming.  I swan to the first buoy mostly with my head up to gauge the other swimmers around me. At first most of my wave seemed evenly paced though after the 2-3rd buoy many of them fell off pace and I began passing people on both sides of me. Even though I take great care in not getting kicked in the face someone managed to get me in the forehead this time with a heel… Ouch! Luckily it did not slow me down but it still didn’t feel very good. My breathing pattern on the swim was stroke x3 glide and breathe which worked very well and I was comfortable the whole swim. The run from the beach to transition was pretty long but I used it to clear my head and prepare for the bike.

I came to the mount line with about 4 other people  but had my pedals staged correctly (left pedal forward) so I just hopped on with no problems and I was already in a nice low gear so I just spun up the hill (as I have done many times before). No sooner had I turned the corner out on to main I noticed two problems; my straw was in my bag under my seat, and there was a repetitive clicking sound like something was wrong. I figured out that the clicking was my cadences sensor which must have been bumped on the mount so that was a relief however I think it annoyed all the riders around me as it pretty much sounded like a turn signal the whole ride. As for the straw I managed to reach back, open the zipper, pull out the straw and close the zipper again but it was challenging and I’m sure it cost me some seconds. Next challenge I had on the bike was that I must have gotten gel in my right hand because it got extremely sticky and I had to fight with my water bottles to try and wash off both my hand and the aero bar but eventually got it to a tolerable point. It began to rain very hard for the last mile or so and I was getting pelted very hard and some guy came up next to me and said “kinda stings right?” I thought this was the universe smiling on me as I was dreading the run in the hot weather… yeah right! The guy in front of me at the dismount line fell down and I had to jump to not crash into him.

T2 was smooth, except that it was pouring rain and my shoes we soaking wet from the downpour so that wasn’t a good way to start the run, although it was still raining and overcast so I was hopeful! Fat chance though, the rain not only stopped about 1/4 mile into the run but the clouds parted and the sun came out BLAZING! (Car said 93 degrees after the race) So now it is KILLER hot and I have wet socks and shoes! My goal was a 10:30 pace and the heat made that absolutely impossible this time around. There we people cramping up, laying on the ground, stopping under trees all over the place; I was all too aware from my EFR training of heat exhaustion, stroke etc so grabbed as many cups of water as I could get my hands on at every aid station and dumped them on my head, down my back etc. I talked to several people on the course who have PRs in the low 5 hour range that were walking along side of me saying “I”m not even trying for a time at this point I just want to finish without passing out”. But as usual I just refused to quit and ran as much as I could while thinking to myself … it’s definitely time to get a running coach.

As I entered the finishing shoot I saw Jess and Morgan on the sidelines cheering so I reached out and ^5′d both of them and then unloaded everything I could muster up to cross the line. Last year at this race my legs cramped and I almost fell down to the ground but this year I felt nothing but relief to be done. I immediately took off my soaking wet socks and shoes (took my shoes several days to dry) and stayed barefoot for the rest of the day. I did some minor stretches and waited for Dan to come around for his first 70.3 race; we screamed and cheered for him as he came through the shoot and then I handed him his 70.3 sticker that Jess had ordered for him weeks in advance.

Swim: 40:45 (2:07)     T1: 2:57     Bike: 2:52 (19.5)     T2: 2:15     Run: 3:02 (13:57)     Total: 6:40

Full Gallery HERE

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 at 3:11 pmand is filed under Races. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.