Race Report of the Yellow Creek Sprint Triathlon. Penn Run, Pa. (6/13)

I was excited to go back to where it all started three years ago and race the Yellow Creek Sprint once again.  After getting 7th place three years ago in what was my first triathlon, I was disappointed to only move up to 5th place last year.  If the same people showed up this year, I knew that going for the win would be difficult, but I was optimistic.

Another cause for excitement was that I was racing with my good friend, Steph for the first time in our two years or so of acquaintance.  Since the race is also in Mappleton's back yard, we all went together, although he was not racing because of an inflamed IT band.

The drive would have been uneventful save for the usual PCC-inspired shenanigans, but as we drew closer and closer to the race site, Mapple decided to stop at Sheetz for a Shmonster.  Apparently, a shmonster is like an egg Mcmuffin, but twice as big and twice as yummy.  To top it off, you can order it with either bacon, sausage or ham.  Mapple goes for the bacon, only to find out a few minutes later in the car that they actually gave

 him much reviled sausage patties.  He's obviously a picky eater, I mean, it's not like they come from the same animal or something.  More on the Shmonster later.

Registration and transition setup went well and were free of stress thanks to getting there in plenty of time.  After everything was set up, I zipped up my wetsuit and waded into the lake so I could pee...I mean warm up.  After the national anthem and a brief prayer, the gun went off.

The swim went pretty well.  I felt strong throughout and was happy to have a lot of room to work with.  I came out of the water fifth and was confident that my biking would bring me further up the standings.  The only problem was that the guy who came out of the water first used to swim for Pitt.  In other words, he was taking about 20 seconds per 100m out of me throughout the roughly 1k swim.  Doing the math, you figure he came out with about three and a half minutes on me.  That would be tough to pull bac

k on a course that was only giving me a 9.5 mile bike and a 3.5 mile run to work with.  He was obviously a gifted athlete to be that good of a swimmer so it would stand to reason that he would at least be a competent biker and runner.

The bike started and I knew that I couldn't hold back on such a short course.  If I felt like I was going to vomit out all of my internal organs, I was probably on the right track.  I passed #4 after about three miles and quickly put space between us.  However, I was more than irritated when I looked up the road and could see #2 and #3 blatantly drafting.  Cheater alert.  I hope you feel good about yourselves.  

So at the turn around, #2 accelerated enough that #3 couldn't get back on his wheel so it was fair game again.  I was still mad and praying for father Karma to send this guy a flat tire.  Just as I was thinking that, I saw him pull off

 to the side of the road!  Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.  As it turned out, the problem was a dropped chain and not a flat, but I'll gladly accept whatever was coming to him.  This put me #3 on the road.

At this point, the course was pretty windy and rolling so it was hard to get a stretch of road long enough to see #2, though I knew that he could not have been that far in front so I kept pushing to the end of the bike leg.

As soon as I started the run, I saw that he had maybe fifty yards or so on me.  During the first half of the run towards the turn around, I practiced the tactic of running normally for 30 steps and then going hard for ten.  This whittled his lead down to less than half of what it was by the turn around.  The expression I saw on his face when he saw me coming the other way was one that told me he knew he couldn't h

old on.

Not long after, I was right on his hip.  I stayed there for a minute, catching my breath and weighing my options.  I could go for it and hope to hold him off, or I could take him to the end and leave it to a sprint.  This whole process was an exercise in patience.  After a few short rises in the road, I was confident that I could out run him to the finish from where we were.  It was maybe three quarters of a mile to the finish.  I came past him and pressed hard to break his spirit.  I could hear his breathing slowly fading away, but I didn't want to look back.  I was definitely running like I stole something.

At the park entrance, about a quarter mile from the finish line, there was a right hand turn that gave me a chance to glance over to see where he was.  It looked like I had him for sure if I kept at it.  Nearing the line I took another glance or two just to make certain and finished strong.  The gap was maybe 15 or 20 seconds by

 the finish.

First place finished about two and a half minutes in front, which told me that my bike and run were faster.  If only it was an OD course, I might have been able to get him.  Damn swimmers.

If the result wasn't enough of  a bright light after last week's disappointment, I also beat my time of last year by almost three and half minutes!  Impressive considering how short the course was.

So back to the Shmonster.  I ate it after it had been sitting in the car for three and a half hours.  It was still good.  MMMMM!

Race Report of the Deer Creek State Park Olympic Triathlon. Mt. Sterling, Oh. (6/7)

Well, you know when only two people, including the 15 registered elite athletes, break 2:10 for an Olympic race, it probably wasn't the fastest course ever.  I was pretty excited going into the day because I had heard that it was a pretty fast course and I was anxious to put up a good time.  Instead I settled for putting up my worst time in an OD race.  Ever.  Maybe I can take that fact with a grain of salt though, because looking through the results from last year to this year told me that everyone's times were several minutes slower this year.  So what happened?

To save a little cash, it was my plan going into the race weekend to make the three and a half hour drive to Mt. Sterling the morning of the race instead of getting a hotel.  That would mean getting out of bed at two and being on the road by three.  It's early, but doable if getting to bed early enough the previous night.  To complicate matters, the Penguins were playing game five of the stanley cup finals Saturday night.  There was no way I was going to miss the game, especially since I actually had a night off of work to watch it.  It seems as though I've had to work nearly every playoff game this year.

So my plan was to go to bed when Kayla went to work at four and get up for the game at eight.  After the game, I would go back to bed for a few hours until it was time to get ready for the race.

Phase one of the plan happened seamlessly.  I got some good sleep before the game and unfortunately witnessed a complete thrashing of the Pens.  It got so bad that I turned it half way through the second period to watch Independence Day.

Commence phase two.  I said, commence phase two.  Not responding.  I'll try again.  Commence phase two.  Basically I rolled around in bed for about two hours doing everything but sleeping.  If I reached the shallowest of depths of sleep, it went unnoticed thanks to my alarm.  I wasn't tired, probably from sleeping earlier in the day, but it sure wasn't a good way to start the day.

There was  little pre-race drama thanks to the uber-huge registration lines.  I had to rush a round a little bit to get everything in order before the start, but it was really no big deal.  The pushed back the start of the race by fifteen minutes so that helped a little bit.

The swim was a bit of a melee.  I don't know if it was just the nature of the swim course, but there never really seemed to be too much room to maneuver.  I didn't seem to be going too badly, but it was hard to tell.  What I could tell was that on the home stretch of both of the two laps, the sun made it really hard to see the buoys.  The zig-zagging off course probably did more than anything to relegate my swim to a not-so-hot 23:51.  Disappointing.  Again, comparing last year to this year, maybe the swim was slightly long.  Times averaged well over a minute faster last year.

It took some time to get my legs under me on the bike, but a few miles into it, I felt fine despite feeling like I was going to vomit at the beginning.  The first five or six miles seemed to be tilted ever so slightly uphill.  Just enough to keep speeds between 22 and 23 miles per hour.  The back half of the course picked up nicely until two short climbs punctuated the run into transition for the start of lap two.  I'm not sure what happened, but the winds had apparently picked up quite a bit from the first to second laps.  I was passed by more people than I'm used to getting passed by on the bike, but I didn't feel too bad.  I was shocked to discover that my time was 1:07.  In last year's results, bike splits didn't start to get consistently over 1:10 until about 50 people deep.  This year, it only took about 35.  Maybe there was more wind this year or something.

I started the run feeling okay, but not too pleased to discover that the first mile was almost entirely on grass.  That mean the last mile would be almost entirely on grass.  Great.  Regardless, mile one went by in 6:20.  I didn't feel like I was pushing too hard so I had faith that I would hold that pace.  After two miles, the pace dropped to a 6:30 average and at the 5k mark, I was almost at 21:00.

I don't know if it was just me, but it felt like the run was uphill both ways.  All I could think about getting to the turn around was, "well, hopefully I can get a negative split because I'll be able to run downhill."  But after turning around and starting the run back, the road seemed to be tilted up even more.  To make matters worse, I was fighting cramps from about mile two that would last all the way to the finish.

The pace picked up for mile four, felt like it picked up for mile five as well, but actually slowed and sucked even more for mile 6.  I ended in over 44 minutes.  I'm sure it didn't help that I haven't been able to run normally since the beginning of May.  I realize how disenchanted I am about the race as I sit here writing this.

So what happened?  What happened to my 20-minute swims of last year?  What happened to my bike leg that I thought was my strength?  I've had stomach cramps in the past and if I am able to start running normally again, I don't think there is a problem there.  Yeah there might have been differences in the conditions and course compared to last year as the results suggest, but the fact is that was not a good race.  I ended in 2:18.  19th overall and 2nd in the age group.

Meh. 

OD Races and the Wonder of the Open Country.

First OD race in a week in Ohio.  It's the first race of the Wheelie Fun Series put on by HFP.  As the name implies, the series is super fun and incredibly well-run.  I definitely get out for HFP races whenever they can fit into my schedule.  They're very professional and if you register early, it's only $55 for an Olympic race.  You can't beat that, especially when you consider that the Olympic race here in Pittsburgh is over $100 and I'm not sure why.

The series consists of six races in Ohio throughout the year.  Points are awarded after each race based on your placing within the age group.  Only your top five races will count towards the point total, allowing you to have a bad race if you show up to do all six.  At least four races must be completed and one of them must be the series championship in September which is worth double points.  The strange thing is, since points are awarded based on your finish within the age group, the series winner could potentially not be the one who finishes most consistently overall.  For instance the series winner could be a guy in the 60-64 age group who wins his age group in every race, even though a guy in the 25-29 age group finishes considerably higher in the overall in every race, but not first in his age group.

It appears as though I'll only be able to show up for four of the races because two of them are all the way on the other side of Ohio.  But who knows; if after the first two races, I find myself really high up in the points standings, maybe I'll make the sacrifice to get to one of the two that are far away to keep the possibility of winning alive.  As of now, the four that I'm scheduled to do are:  Deer Creek State Park, June 7th; Maumee Bay State Park, June 21st; Vermilion Harbour, August 16th; Portage Lakes State Park, September 13th.

Anyway, I'm pretty excited for the race.  I didn't do this one last year because I really wasn't aware of it or the series.  HFP races always have some really good people show up, so it seems as though if I have a good race, I can probably hope for a top five finish.

Last weekend was Memorial Day weekend so I got to go home for a few days.  Day one was spent almost completely on the road.  Driving from Pittsburgh to home, home to New York for a Yankees game (to celebrate Dad's fiftieth) and from New York back to home.  

Day two was one that I was really looking forward to because I was planning on riding a century before heading over to Dad's for more birthday bash fun.  The road at home are a dream.  Well-paved country routes with the bare minimum of traffic.  To top it off, pretty much everyone there is really nice too.  It is the middle of Pennsylvania so there is still a fair share of people in pick-up trucks that look at you like you have three heads if you wear spandex, but it sure beats the rude, city hicks of Pittsburgh who try to run you over with their pick-ups just because you're wearing spandex.  Is it just me or does anyone else find it ironic that football players also wear spandex, yet if one of these gun-toting rednecks saw Roethlisberger on the road they would stop, push out their wife from the passenger seat and offer him a ride?  Who knows.  Don't try to confuse my with all your fancy book-learnin',  son.

Wow, who got off track there for a second?

Well seeing as how I didn't get to Mom's house until after midnight and didn't get to bed until about one, my hopes of getting out the door for my ride at 8 were dashed.  I settled for getting up at 8 and getting out at 9:30.  I started out with an out-and-back that totaled about 43 miles so I could stop back at home and refill my water bottles.  I went out for another hour and a half and arrived at Dad's at the predetermined time of one o' clock with 71 miles under my belt.  Had a great lunch and some Q time with the family before heading out to finish up the century.  When I got to Dad's, I didn't know how much I felt like putting in another hour and a half in the saddle, but I was feeling recharged and ready to go after some great food.

I started back towards Mom's house and passed it at about 75 miles.  Perfect, I thought.  I'll head out for about 12 miles or so and come back and that should put me at 100.  Well, I only got a few miles and and the wind started to howl like crazy.  It was probably a steady 30 mph and gusting even harder.  The sky clouded over and got dark.  A storm was definitely coming.  I wasn't deterred though. I hadn't been riding all day to not finish what I started.  I held this mindset until I saw a couple bolts of lightning in the distance that signaled it was time to pack it in and live to fight another day.  About two miles from home, the skies opened up and I got drenched.  I finally arrived home after 87 miles and got a shower just in time for the skies to clear up again.  Oh well, it was a good day.

Monday I put in an easy thirty miles with Mom and my brother, Ryan before heading back to Pittsburgh.  Not happy to go back to work.  Not happy to be back where it's crowded.  Happy that I get to run and swim again.

Not sure if it was from putting in so much on the bike and so much in general last week, but I've been so tired after all of my runs this week.  I think today is just going to be a yoga day.  I haven't done that in a while anyway, so I should get back to it.

Well, stay tuned for a race report in about a week and a half or so.  June 13th, I'm going back to where it all started.  That's right, it's Yellow Creek time!  I was telling myself last year that I wouldn't do the race again after realizing how short the season really is.  I didn't want to use one of my weekends on such a small race that doesn't have all that much importance, but it turns out that there really aren't any other races for me to do that weekend.  But it's a fun race and I'm sure I'll always enjoy going back to the place where I started this crazy triathlon career.

Cheers!