Tag: run

The Marathon

The 2008 Chicago Marathon was yesterday. A number of acquaintances from the local Second Wind Running Club ran it, along with 40,000 others. Seven years ago I ran the Chicago Marathon. It was one of the most miserable experiences of my life.

To put things into perspective, I used to be a very good runner. I’m not going to say I’m bad now, but I used to be much, much better. My freshman year of college, when I was running cross country and track at the University of Illinois, I did a 20 mile training run in around 2h06m (6:20-ish pace) and it hardly phased me. The following day I did 5 x 1 mile intervals at 5:00 pace. If I had run a marathon when I was in this peak condition I probably could have done it in 2h45m or so.

I continued running even after my collegiate career ended. I ran relatively well, but I still foolishly held myself to the same standards as I did at my peak, so I was never really satisfied with my performances. My last year of college my friend Mike Perry decided to run the Chicago Marathon and I trained with him a couple times each week. He ran really well, finishing in a time of 2h55m.

Shortly after that I got a job. I worked insane hours for the first 6-8 months. I ran almost every day, but I was no longer walking 4 miles to and from class each day. I ran less. I sat more. I gained weight. By early summer 2001 I had had enough. I decided to run the Chicago Marathon. I roughly followed a training plan I found on the internet that lasted 14-16 weeks or so. I worked my way back up to running 17-18 miles.

As the race approached, I thought I was ready. People would ask how fast I thought I was going to run but I didn’t have an answer. I had no idea. I now realize this was a bad sign, but at the time I didn’t think too much of it. I thought I was going to cruise through this race, just like 100 other races I had previously run. I didn’t have the respect for the marathon distance that it deserves. And it bit me in the ass.

The morning of the race I was so nervous I couldn’t eat anything. I ate nothing. My stomach felt like it was filled with vomiting butterflies. I put an enormous amount of pressure on myself. After all, this was my marathon debut.

I started fast. The first 8 miles I cruised, exactly as I intended. One third of the way through the race I was on pace to run 3h00m. By mile 10 my stomach was growling (a lot). At mile 14 I ate a banana at an aid station, but it was too late. I stopped to walk for the first time. I was barely half way through the 26.2 mile race and I had bonked.

By mile 16 my hamstrings started to cramp up. I couldn’t run farther than a quarter mile before having to stop to stretch out. The last 10 miles of the race were truly miserable, and they lasted an eternity. I had to stop in the middle of the finishing straight in front of the huge crowd to stretch out a cramp in my calf. The calf cramped again about 10 meters from the finish but I couldn’t stop at that point, so I hopped the last 10 meters across the line. I finished in 4h18m, about an hour slower than my (somewhat unrealistic) worst case scenario estimate. I now have a much greater respect for the distance.

Rob, hobbling back to car, beaten

I ran a much faster time (3h50m) in my second marathon (which I ran in a snowstorm), but the experience was almost as miserable as the first. I have also run two 28.4 mile ultramarathons since then, both of which went much, much better. If my knees hold out I will probably run another road marathon next April at the inaugural Illinois Marathon. I think I’m due for a good one (i.e. enjoyable) someday.

The Glen

As a child growing up in Danville I used to love to go to the nearby county and state parks with my grandparents, aunt Marcia, and brother Travis. We would go hiking and fishing for hours on end. Kickapoo, Kennekuk, and Forest Glen were my favorites. As an adult living in nearby Urbana I still visit these same parks, though I forego the hiking and fishing in favor of trail running and occasionally mountain biking.

This morning I went with a group of local trail runners over to Forest Glen county park southeast of Danville. We ran the backpacker trail, which is somewhere between 10 & 11 miles (there’s so much elevation change the GPS I was wearing did a poor job measuring the distance). I’ve run this trail twice before and every time I come away thinking this is one of the hardest trails in the area to run.

The first third of the trail is deceptively simple. The middle third becomes challenging. The final third is brutal. The latter half of the trail follows the Vermilion river bluffs and the trail traverses many hills that are steep and/or tall. This most difficult section comes right at the end when you’re already tired from all the previous hills.

A few of the runners brought their dogs out. I was half expecting pandemonium, but it worked out pretty well. I only tripped on a dog one time :)

The End of September

I only ran 43 miles the entire month of September (up from a measly 29 miles in August). I really made them count though (two good races and two good fun runs). This is as far as Melissa runs in a week. I’m going to have to get some longer runs in the next couple weeks in order to have any chance of running 30 miles on my 30th birthday.

I also increased my swimming quite a lot to 18.9 km in September (up from 11.2 km in August). I have that to thank for the 3 minute drop in my swim time at the National Championship tri compared to Evergreen. Now that it’s getting dark so early I imagine this will continue to increase for the next couple months.

September 2008

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 72.46 Mile 12 6.03833 Mile
Big Red 45.33 Mile 3 15.11 Mile
Dahon 6.5 Mile 1 6.5 Mile
Pocket Rocket 190.505 Mile 12 15.8754 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 276.82 Mile 8 34.6025 Mile
Total 591.615 Mile 36 16.4337 Mile

January – September 2008

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 546.19 Mile 85 6.42576 Mile
Big Red 266.15 Mile 19 14.0079 Mile
Dahon 164.63 Mile 29 5.6769 Mile
El Fuego 23.02 Mile 2 11.51 Mile
Litespeed 334.465 Mile 13 25.7281 Mile
Pocket Rocket 827.635 Mile 40 20.6909 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 3034.76 Mile 85 35.7031 Mile
Total 5196.85 Mile 273 19.0361 Mile

The Wrong Turn

Ralphie: Oooh fuuudge!
Ralphie as adult: Only I didn’t say “fudge.” I said THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the “F-dash-dash-dash” word.

On Saturday I competed in the Charleston Challenge Duathlon. The race wasn’t very big, less than 100 participants. The distances (2 mile run, 19.2 mile bike, 2 mile run) suited me fairly well, and I was still near peak fitness from the triathlon national championship race so I liked my chances for success. On the other hand, I heard mixed reviews about this race from friends who have done it in the past. There are half a zillion turns on the bike course and (from what I heard) they are not always marked very well. I know two different people who missed turns on the bike course. One lost a little bit of time, the other lost enough time that he simply abandoned the race.

Charleston, IL is only about an hour away so I didn’t have to wake up unbearably early. I arrived at the race venue (an elementary school) with plenty of time to prepare. First they had a children’s race (actually three separate races based on age). They ran a lap around the circle drive, the bicycled around the school. It was entertaining. A number of the children still had training wheels on their bikes.

Next was the grownups race. I warmed up a little on the bike, trying to keep my eyes peeled for the orangish markings on the road that denoted the turns. I think I can handle this. I re-racked my bike and went for a short run. I needed to get used to running fast because I wasn’t going to have any time to warm up during a race this short.

The race began. I started at the front and went out with the leaders for the first half mile or so. At that point two guys started to pull away. I was in third place. I decided to let them go and keep my pace under control. The course was not marked and I wasn’t wearing my GPS, so I had no idea how fast I was going. Sometimes the adrenaline rush at the beginning of the race can mask the sensations you normally use to feel your pace.

My senior year in high school at the conference track meet I ran the first 400 m of the 3200 m run in 62 seconds. I had a 10 second lead on the rest of the pack at the end of that first lap. The rest of the race didn’t go so well. I somehow hung on to finish second place, but I really should have won. I learned a valuable lesson that day about starting too fast.

Anyway, I maintained my position the rest of the first run leg. By the end I let the two leaders gain 15-20 seconds on me. The next runners were another 10-15 seconds behind me. I entered the transition area and glanced at my watch, astonished to read 11:08. If the course was accurate I had just run my fastest two miles in 10 years.

I had a quick transition and began the bike a little winded, but feeling good. The road curved through a neighborhood before approaching a stop sign. I lost sight of the leaders through these curves. I race volunteer was standing at the intersection pointing to my left. Hmm. I didn’t see any markings on the road indicating this was a turn… I wonder why he is pointing. I looked to my left and saw a pickup truck (who had the legal right of way) coming to a stop. Oh, good. The volunteer was just alerting me to the presence of the truck. Now that the truck is stopped I can continue through the stop sign. The volunteer stared at me as I passed, though he didn’t say a word.

As I rode the next couple blocks I began to second guess myself. The road got narrow. I still couldn’t see the leaders. Did I just make a wrong turn? I looked back behind me and saw a steady stream of cyclists turning left at that intersection.

Oooh fuuudge!

I slammed on the brakes and turned around as fast as I could. As I reentered the course the same volunteer again stared at me, and again didn’t say a word. I was mad. Furious. On the plus side I unleashed that anger on my pedals and rode the next few miles like a man possessed. I quickly passed a slew of riders, nearly everyone who had passed me while I was off the course. I saw one more rider off in the distance and I chased him for miles, over half of the course. We were going almost the exact same speed and I wasn’t gaining much. The course turned. We went uphill, downhill, uphill, downhill.

About halfway through the bike I could tell he started to slow down and I regained a little motivation as I slowly reeled him in. I made the pass convincingly, but then slowed down a bit. He passed me back on the next downhill. I passed him back on the next uphill. He stayed just a few seconds behind me the rest of the ride. I couldn’t see anyone else in front of me and I was beginning to wonder whether I was leading the race. Could it be so?

I finished the bike leg in 53:48, averaging 21.4 mph. I should have ridden faster, even with all the hills, but the numerous turns made it really difficult to maintain a high speed. I reached the second transition with the other guy hot on my heels. I overheard a friend of his tell him he was in 4th place. Crap. I never caught back up with the two leaders. Oh well.

I pulled away from the guy on the run and finished a couple minutes ahead. My second run split was 12:22. My finishing time was 1:18:25, good enough for third place overall.

From studying the results I estimate I lost about 45 seconds from the wrong turn. A shame indeed, but the second place finisher was far enough ahead that it wouldn’t have made any difference. So I let it be. I was also second place in my age group, for which I won a major award (er, a large trophy). Frankly, I’m kind of glad I didn’t pick up the 1st place trophy… it was way too big.

The Elite National Championships

After last Saturday’s Age Group National Championship race were the Women’s & Men’s Elite National Championship races. I stuck around to watch because I had never seen triathletes of that caliber (i.e. professionals) compete live (and also because the road back to the parking lot blocked off).

It was fascinating to watch, even though I didn’t know much about the competitors. All I knew is that most of the U.S. 2008 Olympic Triathlon team would be racing. The highest placed U.S. triathlete in Beijing was Laura Bennett, who finished fourth. Apparently my mother-in-law knows her mother. Neat.

Nearly all age group competitors wore wetsuits for the swim, whereas none of the elites wore wetsuits. Their transitions were just so ridiculously fast they would lose major time taking a wetsuit off. They’re all so good at swimming that they don’t really need them anyway.

The biggest difference is that the bike portion of the elite race is draft legal. This means the elite triathletes can work together on the bike, but the Age Group triathletes have to ride alone. This totally changes the dynamic of the race. The race leaders at the start of the bike have a huge advantage over those who are a little bit behind. Both the winners of Women’s & Men’s races were in the first group out of the water and the first group onto the bike. They both worked together with other competitors to stay in front of the chasers on the bike.

The bike & run courses for the Elite race were different. Instead of two long loops on the bike or a long out and back on the run, they did shorter loops (8 on the bike, 5 on the run) and came back through the transition area every few minutes. This made the race much more spectator friendly. We could stay in the same place and see the competitors a dozen times.

The women went first. I watched the race unfold from the top of the hill coming out of the transition area. On the bike one woman was chasing the leaders all by herself (and making up big time) when she crashed right in front of me. She took the corner a little too fast and slid out. She was able to get back up and finish the race. It was sad, but the crowd really cheered her on after she started riding again. Here is some of the video footage I took during the race.

The men started as soon as the women finished. The interesting thing about this race was there were two leaders on the bike and a chase group of around ten. Conventional cycling wisdom says ten working together are always faster than two. However, in this race the ten chasers were not very well organized and the two leaders pulled farther away every lap. One of these two eventually won. As a person who has ridden in a few cycling races (and watched a hundred on TV) the apparent lack of tactical knowledge by the ten chasers was painful to watch.

After the men’s race ended the road was reopened and I rode the Pocket Rocket back to the parking lot. Of course, I couldn’t find my car when I got there. I was driving a rental and it was completely dark when I parked. After a few minutes of walking in circles I realized I had already walked past it. I ate dinner at Pizza in Paradise before heading back to my hotel and falling asleep rather quickly.

The Age Group National Championships

I travelled to Portland, OR this past weekend to participate in the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championship race. The Olympic distance triathlon (1500 meter swim, 40 km bike, 10 km run) took place at Hagg Lake, just southwest of Portland. The race venue was absolutely gorgeous. Even after this, my third visit to the Pacific northwest, I am still in awe of the region’s beauty.

The race venue can be seen across Hagg Lake

I arrived in the early afternoon on Friday, the day before the race. I had to pick up my race packet and check in my bike before 7 pm. My flights, car rental, and hotel arrangements all went off without a hitch. As I drove on part of the bike course on the way to the race venue my initial feeling of awe and wonderment for the beauty of nature around me slowly turned into a feeling of uneasiness as I saw how hilly the race would be. I live in central Illinois, quite possibly the flattest place on Earth. I trained long and hard for this race, but I simply didn’t have access to this type of terrain. History has shown that I’m surprisingly good at riding uphill for a flatlander, but would I be good enough?

The bike course curved through the woods around the lake

I picked up my packet and was quite pleased with the swag, both in terms of quantity and in terms of quality. Many races typically hand out some crappy 100% cotton t-shirt and a few small trials of some company’s products. This packet had two high quality technical shirts, a nice hat, a nice towel, good race shoelaces, a poster, and (after the race) a nice jacket. I swear half of the Portland airport was wearing that jacket the next day.

I unpacked and assembled my Bike Friday Pocket Rocket (including aerobars and Speedplay pedals) before taking it out for an easy spin on the 20 km loop around the lake. I was eager to see exactly how difficult the course was going to be. Did I mention it was really hilly? At this point I was glad I chose to bring a bike with drop bars rather than my TT bike with bullhorns. I knew I would spend a lot of time with my hands on the brake hoods while going uphill, and a lot of time with my hands in the drops going downhill.

The Pocket Rocket in a Zipp Disc wheel sandwich

After the ride I checked my bike into the transition area with all the other (bigger wheeled) bikes. As I was walking in a complete stranger wanted to take a picture of me with my “cool” bike. This was just the beginning. I must have talked to at least 20 different people at the race about the Pocket Rocket. There was a lot of fascination with it. Even during the race several people made comments. As I was passing a woman uphill I heard “Oh wow, that’s cool!” Or as some dude blew by me downhill he’d look over and say “Nice bike, man!” Now imagine how that sounds with a Doppler Shift.

It was a long day of travel and race preparation. Back at the hotel I loaded all my race gear into my backpack while watching my favorite pre-race movie, American Flyers (once you get past the cheesy 80’s veneer it is a really great movie).

I woke up at 4:15 am the next morning and headed back out to Hagg Lake. Of course, it was completely dark at this point. The 1200 race participants and spectators all had to park in a grass field outside the park boundaries because the roads were all closed for the race. They had school buses hauling everyone from the parking lot to the transition area. I arrived with plenty of time before the race started so I was able to properly prepare everything. It was a nice change from being been way too rushed in all my previous triathlons this year.

The swim course went clockwise around the yellow buoys

The air was cool, in the low 60˚s. The water was slightly warmer, but it sure didn’t feel that way. It was no San Francisco Bay, but it was no temperature controlled swimming pool either. Swim waves started every four minutes. My 30-34 age group was the 10th or so wave. 44 of us lined up in the water next to the dock and before I had time to take it all in the starting horn sounded and I was swimming like crazy. Fortunately, it wasn’t very crowded, so I wasn’t getting kicked or elbowed (or hit with a stick).

The group split up pretty quickly. About 2/3 of the pack pulled away from me, while the remaining 1/3 fell behind me. I spent most of the swim by myself in between these two packs. About halfway through I found another guy and tried to swim with him for a little while. I was swimming hard, but well within myself. I’ve been doing a lot more swim training recently, so I felt more comfortable in the water. I knew I was going to improve on my time of 28:10 from the Evergreen Tri, but I didn’t know by how much. I checked my watch as soon as I exited the water and I saw 25 something something (officially 25:17), which was about as good as I could have hoped.

Next I had two challenges almost as daunting as the swim. No, not biking & running (not yet, at least). I needed to get out of my wetsuit and run up a long hill to the transition area. You see, I’ve only worn my wetsuit in one other race in the past five years and it didn’t quite work out the way I planned. I had a really difficult time taking it off and I lost probably 45 seconds just fighting the neoprene cocoon. I practiced two or three times at the pool recently, and steadily improved. Luckily, I had no problems getting it off during the race.

I ran up the hill, perhaps faster than I should have. By the time I mounted my bike after the first transition I looked at my watch and noticed my heart rate was 180, which was a bad sign. I feared this would be a repeat of the Dairyland Tri (Racine, WI) in 2003. In that race my heart rate started too high on the bike, I never recovered, and I had a terrible run. So I intentionally started the bike a little slowly to allow my heart rate to drop. The whole first lap was a bit of a struggle for me. Five miles into the bike I reached the big hill. I ascended at 8 mph. 8. miles. per. hour. And as slowly as I was going, I was actually passing people.

By the end of the first bike loop (of two) I was feeling much stronger so I was able to pick up the pace a little on my second loop. I ascended the big hill at a whopping 9.5 mph the second time, again passing people. I got into the habit of passing many people on the uphill sections and then getting passed by a few of those same people on the downhill sections. And I wasn’t going slowly on the downhills (max speed 38.6 mph).

I finished the bike in 1:08:38, somehow managing to average 21.7 mph on a very difficult course. Again, it was really as good as I could have hoped. The Pocket Rocket performed amazingly well.

Finding the correct transition area out of 1200 proved more difficult than I anticipated

My second transition should have been super fast, but it was almost a complete catastrophe. I ran down the wrong row and became slightly disoriented when I couldn’t find my transition area. I ended up wasting close to a minute. My slow transitions were the one aspect of this race that clearly needed improvement.

This photo doesn’t do this hill justice. It was steep.

Heading out on the run there was a short, steep hill. Then another. Then a longer hill. Etc. The run course was hilly as well, and again, I don’t train on hills. Like the bike, I started out a little slowly. I could tell right away that I felt better at the beginning of this run that I did at Evergreen Tri, but the hills were going to be challenging. Still I was able to slowly ramp up the pace to run negative splits. My first mile was around 7:00. Next was 6:55, then 6:58, 6:47. I really picked it up and ran the fifth mile in 6:20 and finished very strong. My run split was 42:24… faster than at Evergreen Tri (which was completely flat). Again, it was the best I could have hoped to do.

My final time was 2:20:34. I finished 28th place out of 44 in the 30-34 age group. My time was 20 seconds faster than it was for the same distances at Evergreen, but this course was much harder and it had longer swim->bike transition. Individually, compared to Evergreen, my swim was 3 minutes faster, my bike was 1 minute slower, and my run was 30 seconds faster. All things considered, I had a great race.

This photo sums it up pretty well

About 20 minutes later my friend Martin (who started later than me) crossed the finish line. We’re generally a pretty good match for each other, but he said he had a bit of an off day. He had some troubles breathing on the bike & run and that slowed him down a little bit. He finished in 2:23:41. His swim was 6 minutes slower than mine (ouch!), his bike was 5 minutes faster, and his run was 3 minutes slower.

Martin & Rob post-race

Competing in the Age Group National Championships was a fantastic experience. And now that I know there’s an Age Group World Championship race… I guess I’ll need to figure out how to drop 13 minutes off my time in order to qualify for it :)

The Preparation

At the Evergreen Tri (Mideast regional championships) in July I apparently qualified for the Age Group National Championship race. I say apparently because I was only vaguely aware that such a thing even existed, and it simply wasn’t on my radar. I had just returned to triathlon after a 5 year hiatus. I had a couple decent performances earlier in the summer, but the only previous time I raced the Mideast regional championships (in 2002)… I got my ass handed to me. Fortunately, I had a good race at Evergreen. I finished 5th in my (30-34) age group, which qualified me to compete in the national championship race.

I thought about it for a couple weeks then decided what the hell, I’ll do it. I mean who knows when (if) I’ll ever get a chance to do something like this again. I didn’t race again the rest of the summer. Instead I focused myself singularly on preparing for this race.

Prior to Evergreen I was only swimming twice per week, totaling about 2400 yards. In August I started swimming more frequently, longer distances, and faster. Olympic distance triathlons have a disproportionally long swim (1500 meters), so a little improvement to my swimming could result in big time gains. In an Olympic distance Tri in 2002 I swam a little over 25 minutes, whereas at Evergreen in 2008 I swam a little over 28 minutes. I really wanted to get back down to 25 minutes again.

My bike workouts stayed mostly the same, but I did add a long ride on Saturday mornings to my routine. This ride had been going on for months, but I spent most Saturdays early in the summer doing various races, so I usually missed it.

The other addition to my bike training was the PCC Tuesday time trials, held every other week. I didn’t like the idea at first because I usually run on Tuesday evenings, but I eventually decided to take part. And I’m glad I did. The short, intense efforts really helped me improve my time trialling, even after only four tries.

The other thing the TT series helped me do was evaluate my performance on different machines. I rode three different bikes in my four tries and I was able to quantify how much slower the Pocket Rocket is compared to my Litespeed TT bike and my Trek road bike: surprisingly not much, maybe one mile per hour. The night I rode the Pocket Rocket in the time trial was the night I decided I would be taking it to the national championships. It travels so much easier and cheaper than the bigger bikes, and it’s really not much slower. Now, in fairness, I knew I had no chance at winning the national championships, or even finishing in the top 16 in my age group (top 16 qualify for world championships). Had I intended to be truly competitive, I would have ridden a big wheeled bike.

As far as running goes, I kind of slacked off a little. Mainly I did this to allow more time to train on the bike and in the pool. The thing is, I don’t think it mattered. I’m so much better at running than I am at biking and swimming that I really only need to run once or twice per week. As long as I maintain my fitness biking and swimming, I am able to keep my speed on the run.

The long hours I spent training July through September left me fatigued on a daily basis. I successfully tapered last week before the race. I was able to show remarkable restraing by taking it easy when everyone else wanted to go hard. In the past I haven’t handled tapering that well. I guess I’ve matured… and it only took 29.9 years. Anyway, the preparation worked, as I felt fresh and strong as race day approached.

The Qualifier

Ever since successfully talking me into the Mattoon Beach triathlon two weeks ago, my friend Martin has been trying to talk me into doing the Evergreen triathlon today. I was on the fence about it. The Evergreen tri is an Olympic distance race, which is about twice as long as the two sprint triathlons I have done this summer. An Olympic distance triathlon consists of a 1500 meter swim (that’s almost a mile), a 40 km (25 mile) bike, and a 10 km (6.2 mile) run. I was not worried about the running and biking, but the swim was going to be a challenge. Up until this past Thursday, the longest I had swum non-stop this summer was 800 yards (i.e. less than half the race distance).

Unfortunately, Martin was one of the many people who was involved in the nasty crash last Wednesday. He had already registered for the race, but was now unable to compete in it (doctor’s orders). On Thursday he kindly offered to transfer his registration to me. I accepted.

Next, I needed to prove to myself that I could actually swim 1500 meters. I have been swimming on Thursday afternoons most of the summer so that day I did a long swim, and ended up going 1760 yards (one mile) nonstop. That evening I took a spin on my triathlon bike, which I hadn’t used in almost two weeks. It checked out okay. I was as ready as I was going to be with two days preparation.

I packed the car last night. We woke up at 4:20 am, packed a few remaining items, and headed over to Bloomington. We encountered heavy rain on the way. Crap. I really should have checked the weather. The race was to start at 7:00 am. Registration was fairly smooth, despite having to explain the registration transfer situation.

Rob rushing around pre-race

I always intend to arrive plenty early to triathlons so I don’t have to rush my preparation, but for some reason this summer it just hasn’t worked. Today was no exception. The prerace meeting was underway while I was preparing my transition area. I still needed to pick up my timing chip, get my race number marked on my arms & legs, and get my swim cap I gave to Melissa for some reason. This was about 10 minutes before the race started. It was raining the whole time. This was one of the most stressful race preparations I’ve had, second only behind the half Ironman in 2003 where I got a flat tire warming up on the bike about 20 minutes before the race start. Somehow it worked out this morning. I got myself to the starting line, and before I knew it we were off.

Rob lined up at the start of the swim

The swim was loooong, as expected. I had a hard time seeing the course markers so I had to trust other people to know where they were going. Shortly before the halfway point the first person from the wave after me (started three minutes later) passed me. A moment later I passed the last people from the wave before me (started three minutes earlier). That indicated I was probably doing about average.

Rob exiting the water after a 28 minute 1500 meter swim

The transition area was fairly long and was littered with small rocks on the asphalt. Running on rocks doesn’t feel good with bare feet.

Rob in the wet (and somewhat gravely) transition area

Rob starting the bike

I got off to a good start on the 40k (25 mile) bike leg. I passed several people fairly quickly. A few people passed me, but not nearly as many as I was passing. I could tell I was having a good day. There was a light headwind and steady rain. There weren’t very many corners, but I navigated them all safely. I reached the half way point still feeling fresh. There was a bit of a tailwind on the way back and I was really able to ramp up the speed (over 30 mph at times). I ended the bike leg with the same average speed as the Indianapolis triathlon series June race, and this bike leg was 2.5 times as long. I felt great the entire time. This really was one of my best bike rides in a triathlon.

Rob finishing the bike after averaging 22.1 mph for 25 miles

Rob starting the run

The 10k (6.2 mile) run started out pretty well. My first three miles were all around 6:40-6:45. I could tell I was getting a little dehydrated. They had ample water stations out on the course, but I find it really difficult to drink when running that fast. I bit the bullet and grabbed a cup at 3.5 miles. My fourth mile was a few seconds slower, but I was still feeling okay. There was a turnaround after 4 miles and for the first time in the run we faced a headwind. The wind, combined with slight dehydration, combined with general fatigue from 2 hours of hard racing really made the last 2 miles difficult. Fortunately, the struggle lasted less than 15 minutes and I crossed the line in 2:20:56, after averaging 6:55 miles for the run. I would have liked to run a little faster, but I’m content.

My only previous attempt at this exact same distance was in August 2002, where I had a pretty good race and ended up in 2:27:46. I’ll take a 7 minute PR any day. Looking back at my splits from that race, my swim was almost 3 minutes slower today, while my bike and run were both several minutes faster. In those days I was swimming 3000 meters 4 days a week. This summer I’ve been swimming 1000-1400 yards 2 days a week. So the slower swim was no real surprise.

After standing out in the rain for 2.5 hours Melissa’s teeth were chattering and her lips were blue so she went back to the car to try to warm up. I packed up my (by this time soaking wet) gear and headed back to the car. I did manage to find a dry tank top and pair of shorts I left in the car. Melissa had only my race t-shirt to put on.

I hadn’t been expecting an age group award because this was a longer race with tougher competition. I did have a good race though, so I decided to go check the results to see if I would get an award. The preliminary results had been posted and I finished 5th in the 30-34 age group. Some races only do age group awards to the top 3, others to the top 5, others go even deeper. I checked the race information packet which I had printed out (but not read) and it indicated they would give awards to the top 5. Then came the surprise of the day. Since this was the Regional Championship race for the Olympic distance, my top 5 age group finish qualified me for the National championship race in September. Not bad for an unplanned race.

Great, so I get an award. Crap, Melissa is cold, wet, tired, & hungry. She graciously agreed to wait for the award. The award was a cowbell, which was unique and interesting. It was particularly ironic that Melissa just purchased a cowbell a week ago for my bike race. They also handed out nice embroidered jackets to everyone who qualified for the national championships. Score.

I received a unique cowbell award for finishing 5th (out of 27) in my age group

I also received a nice embroidered jacket for qualifying for the national championships

The Run Split

My friend Martin suggested a few days back I do the Mattoon Beach triathlon. This morning I took him up on that (yes, I ran a 5k race yesterday). This race was in many ways very similar, yet very different from my last triathlon in Indianapolis. Both races covered similar distances and both were quite well organized. The last race had several hundred competitors, whereas this race had several dozen.

Mattoon Beach Triathlon

There were actually two different races, one sprint (1/8 iron distance) and one international (1/4 iron distance). I chose to do the sprint race which consisted of a .3 swim, followed by a 14 mile bike, followed by a 3.25 mile run.

We awoke at 5 am this morning, loaded our stuff into Iris, and departed for Neoga, IL. We arrived with plenty of time before the race started. I’m not sure how I passed the time, but before I knew it the race was about to begin. I didn’t have time to warm up on the bike, which had some unfortunate consequences later.

before the race

After the wetsuit fiasco in my last race, I opted to forego the wetsuit in this race. It was short enough that it wouldn’t have helped me much and I likely would have wasted time again taking it off in the first transition. Luckily the water was quite warm, so it was all the more unnecessary. Since this race was much smaller I was able to get a much better starting position for the swim, right in the front row near the outside edge.

The swim went really well for me. Unlike last race where I practiced twice, this race I practiced five times :) Though it doesn’t seem like much it made quite a difference. During the last race I was just trying to transport my body across the water. This time I actually raced the swim. There was one guy out front. I was in a chase pack of five people a short ways behind him. I exited the water at the back of the chase pack in 6th place, a placing with which I was thrilled.

exiting the water

The first transition went very smoothly, in fact I think it was the 2nd fastest transition split of all competitors in the race. As I mounted my bike I immediately noticed something was wrong. My right foot slipped off the pedal twice and I couldn’t get my shoe to clip in. After much confusion I eventually looked down to notice I had accidentally left the plastic cover on the cleat of my right shoe. Whoops. I took the left one off before the start of the race and apparently forgot to take the right one off as well. So I reached down, pulled it off, and tucked it into my shorts rather than discard it on the side of the road. Despite my frustration I really did want to keep it.

the first transition

starting the bike

It only took a few hundred meters into the bike to notice my bike seat was too low. How did this happen? My triathlon bike only fits into the back of Iris if I take the seat off. When I reassembled the bike upon arrival I thought that I had it at the correct height, but apparently I didn’t. Since I didn’t warm up on the bike I didn’t actually notice until the race, at which point it was clearly too late to do anything. So I rode the 14 miles with my seat too low. Now, it wasn’t that bad, but when you spend as much time on a bike as I do you notice little differences (somewhere between 1/2″-1″) like this pretty quickly.

Despite the early difficulties I had a decent bike ride. I passed two people early on and one more a little later. Around the half way point one guy passed me. I finished the bike in 3rd place after riding the 6th fastest bike split.

finishing the bike

changing shoes in the second transition

starting the run

My second transition also went fairly well and before long I was out on the run. I started fairly conservatively in an effort to avoid the side stitches I encountered in the last race. One guy passed me early on, though he never got very far away from me. After about a half mile I hit the gas and picked up the pace, passing two guys pretty quickly. I could see the race leader a few hundred meters ahead of me. It was quite a distance, but not insurmountable. That’s when I really started moving. I ran the last mile and a half with my eyes fixed on his back. I got closer to him, but not enough. I ended up finishing 2nd place (1st in my age group) after posting the fastest run split in the race (6:14 pace). Not bad after yesterday’s 5k. I’ve done fast run splits in triathlons before, but there’s always been people faster than me. It was a good consolation for not catching the leader.

finishing the run

the finish line

Here’s a recap of my race:

I had a pretty darn good race. After I finished I was able to watch Martin’s progress in the longer race (twice the distance of my race). He had an okay swim, a spectacular bike (at over 25 mph he had the fastest average speed of all competitors in both races), and a solid run. He was 3rd overall in the longer race, 2nd male, and 1st in his age group.

Martin finishing the bike

Martin finishing the run

We stuck around for quite a while for the awards ceremony. The organizers were very generous with the age group awards, handing out 5 for each division. This allowed many many competitors to pick up age group awards, including many first time racers. This was a nice touch to a well organized, fun, small race.

I was 1st in the 30-34 age group (I turn 30 in October)

Update: The results have been posted for the sprint & international races.