This marks the 3rd year in a row doing this event with my good friends Aaron Pierson and Sean Boyd. Sean, his wife, and their 2 kids came into town and stayed with Rachel and I. We had a good time catching up with them the night before and got to see their precious new addition, Finley. Sean, Aaron, and I were especially excited to do this race with one another, I think mostly just to have a brief reprieve from Ironman training.
Pre-race:
Sean and I woke up race morning and knew we were in for an incredible weather day. The weather conditions were perfect for a good race and we got up to the race site and began setting up our transition areas. Aaron met up with us in transition and once we were setup and ready to race the 3 of us headed out for a nice jog to warmup before the swim. We made our way down to the water and started filing in with our wave for the start. We've all been training hard for the Ironman and weren't really sure how that would translate to a sprint distance race since we haven't been focusing on speed, but it was time to find out.
500 Meter Swim: 7:34 *PR* (1:31 / 100 meters) 4thAG
We jumped off the dock, got positioned for the 500 meter swim, and took off side by side. My plan was to stay close to Sean and try to catch a draft on his feet for as long as I could...hopefully all the way to the finish. There's always contact in open water swims, especially near the beginning, but you usually don't expect it from your buddy. In my effort to stay with Sean, I kept inadvertently bumping into him and I'm sure he was pretty annoyed! Sorry Sean! I hung with him until right at the first buoy of the triangle course, but decided the pace was a bit too fast for me and didn't want to blow up, so I backed off. I couldn't believe how quickly the swim went by, which was very encouraging that the long sets I've been putting in at the pool are paying off. I came out of the water only slightly disoriented and in 4th place in my age group (out of 22).
T1: 1:25 (3rdAG)
I came up the ramp, unzipped my wetsuit and pulled it down off my shoulders to my waist. I hit the bike racks and saw that Sean was still there getting ready to head out and knew that was a good sign (Sean was a HS swimmer). I stripped the wetsuit off my lower body, slipped on my helmet and sunglasses, grabbed the bike off the rack and was on my way. Sean and I left transition together, so I was happy to have made up his advantage from the swim! As Sean and I were running out, we hear Aaron yell from behind, "Wait for me!!". Yeah right...Sean and I both know that we'd have a hard time keeping Aaron behind us on the bike.
12 Mile Bike: 32:13 *PR* (22.3mph) 5thAG
The course is 2 loops and starts off with a sharp ascent. I knew I didn't want to hammer up this hill, especially on the 1st loop. Sean went on ahead of me while I allowed my legs to get going by spinning up the hill. Once I hit the top, it was on and I started to pedal hard into a slight headwind. Next thing I know, Aaron is on my left and I'm thinking, "Oh crap! So much for that swim advantage I had on him!" Turns out, Aaron would be the only biker to pass me though, so I was encouraged that I was doing a lot of passing out on the course. The course is basically a square loop and once I hit the 3rd side of the square I knew there was a very slight downward slope and the wind would be at my back. I hammered this section really hard, but apparently so did Sean and Aaron because I didn't catch them. I came around to the end of the 1st loop and was feeling great. I checked my computer and was averaging 22+mph...sweet! I took the uphill to begin the 2nd loop fairly slow and kept the effort controlled into the wind. Once I made the turn so the wind was a crosswind, I started to crank it a little harder and then I hit the next turn with the wind at my back and pushed hard to get back to transition. I could see Sean not too far ahead of me coming into transition and was happy to have not lost much time.
T2: 0:54 (6thAG)
As I came into T2, I saw Sean just ahead of me by maybe :20 and I saw Aaron's bike on the rack...and that's all! I sweetly realized that the 3 of us were 1-2-3 for our age group! We joked before the race about all finishing on the podium together, but I didn't think we were serious...and here we were with a chance to do it. I quickly racked my bike, took my helmet off, slipped on my shoes, grabbed my race # and Garmin and was off. Again, Sean and I ran out together. I waved to Rachel and could tell she was really excited and happy for me to be near the front of the field. She's used to being the wife who has to wait around for her husband to finish after all the other husbands. :)
5K Run: 20:11 *PR* (6:31 / mile) 4thAG
The first 1/2 mile or so of the run is pretty much all uphill, and being a veteran of this race, I knew not to go out too hard. Sean and I ran together patiently until our legs felt like they were back under us. We dropped down to an underpass tunnel and when we came out the other side I checked my Garmin and my jaw dropped when I saw we were only doing 7:45/mile pace. I told Sean we had to pick it up and I kicked it into another gear. Turns out, I didn't think about the watch losing sync to GPS due to the tunnel and we were actually running a good bit faster than that! At this point I'm running alone and come up to the 1st mile marker @ 7:22 according to my watch. I'm a little disappointed at this point because I was hoping to break 6:45/mile in this race. I used this as motivation and picked up my pace significantly. There were very few people on the course and I hadn't seen anyone coming the other direction yet (out/back course). I was getting closer and closer to the turn around and still nobody. Mostly, I was curious how far back I was from Aaron and about that time I see him. We exchange some encouragement and I realize he's only about 2 minutes ahead of me. I kick it up another notch and then all the sudden hear yelling from across the lake. Immediately, I recognized the voices of my mom and dad cheering me on from their back porch! I kept hearing geese honking on the lake but assumed my dad had his goose call and was blowing on it for me...turns out it was actually just the geese but I didn't figure that out until I talked to him afterward. I came up a small hill and hit the 2 mile marker @ 6:43/mile pace. Sweet! My plan was to run at a comfortable pace for the first 2 miles and then slowly increase my pace until the 2 1/2 mile point and then really dig deep all the way to the finish. I figured "it's now or never" and found myself continually running faster. I thought I was running about 6:00/mile pace but didn't look at my watch. I was in a zone. I heard some footsteps from behind and kicked up the pace a little more. The guy must have decided he liked my pace because he stayed right on my left shoulder and ran a step behind me. We were getting all kinds of encouragement from the runners still on their way out. I knew it was going to come down to a sprint and decided to wait until he made his move and then counter it with my own surge. We had about 3/10 of a mile left and he exploded into a hard sprint. I countered and gave it everything I had but he continued to run away from me. I held my sprint but he opened up a :05 gap on me and I couldn't close it. I was thrilled even though I got passed near the finish because I knew that I left everything out there and had nothing left at the finish. Turns out the guy was in my AG but he got a 2:00 penalty for abandoning equipment (he dropped a water bottle on the bike). Kinda lame, but it's the rules and that gave me the 2nd place finish. I ain't gonna argue with that!
Total: 1:02:20 - 2nd Age Group, 16th Overall
(Full results)
I was so thrilled at the finish line. I couldn't believe the race I had just run. I didn't know it at the time, but I PR'ed every sport! On top of that, I improved by 14 minutes from my time in 2010 on the same course. Sean came in less than 2 minutes behind me and we were all so excited for each other because we knew we all did really well. The results were posted and we realized we went 1-2-5. Not too shabby at all. I was so glad to be with good friends, but mostly I was glad that Rachel was there and got to see me so happy. It's been a long journey training for this Ironman race, and although she's not out there on my 6-7 hour workouts, she's making sacrifices so I can achieve my dream. I'm so thankful that she got to share in one of the small victories along the way!
We couldn't let a little sprint triathlon ruin a valuable Ironman training weekend, so after the awards ceremony, the 3 of us went out for a 50 mile ride. It was great doing a long workout with one another. We did a quick 3 mile brick run right after the ride just to see how the legs were feeling. What a great day with great friends!
Pre-race:
Sean and I woke up race morning and knew we were in for an incredible weather day. The weather conditions were perfect for a good race and we got up to the race site and began setting up our transition areas. Aaron met up with us in transition and once we were setup and ready to race the 3 of us headed out for a nice jog to warmup before the swim. We made our way down to the water and started filing in with our wave for the start. We've all been training hard for the Ironman and weren't really sure how that would translate to a sprint distance race since we haven't been focusing on speed, but it was time to find out.
500 Meter Swim: 7:34 *PR* (1:31 / 100 meters) 4thAG
We jumped off the dock, got positioned for the 500 meter swim, and took off side by side. My plan was to stay close to Sean and try to catch a draft on his feet for as long as I could...hopefully all the way to the finish. There's always contact in open water swims, especially near the beginning, but you usually don't expect it from your buddy. In my effort to stay with Sean, I kept inadvertently bumping into him and I'm sure he was pretty annoyed! Sorry Sean! I hung with him until right at the first buoy of the triangle course, but decided the pace was a bit too fast for me and didn't want to blow up, so I backed off. I couldn't believe how quickly the swim went by, which was very encouraging that the long sets I've been putting in at the pool are paying off. I came out of the water only slightly disoriented and in 4th place in my age group (out of 22).
T1: 1:25 (3rdAG)
I came up the ramp, unzipped my wetsuit and pulled it down off my shoulders to my waist. I hit the bike racks and saw that Sean was still there getting ready to head out and knew that was a good sign (Sean was a HS swimmer). I stripped the wetsuit off my lower body, slipped on my helmet and sunglasses, grabbed the bike off the rack and was on my way. Sean and I left transition together, so I was happy to have made up his advantage from the swim! As Sean and I were running out, we hear Aaron yell from behind, "Wait for me!!". Yeah right...Sean and I both know that we'd have a hard time keeping Aaron behind us on the bike.
12 Mile Bike: 32:13 *PR* (22.3mph) 5thAG
The course is 2 loops and starts off with a sharp ascent. I knew I didn't want to hammer up this hill, especially on the 1st loop. Sean went on ahead of me while I allowed my legs to get going by spinning up the hill. Once I hit the top, it was on and I started to pedal hard into a slight headwind. Next thing I know, Aaron is on my left and I'm thinking, "Oh crap! So much for that swim advantage I had on him!" Turns out, Aaron would be the only biker to pass me though, so I was encouraged that I was doing a lot of passing out on the course. The course is basically a square loop and once I hit the 3rd side of the square I knew there was a very slight downward slope and the wind would be at my back. I hammered this section really hard, but apparently so did Sean and Aaron because I didn't catch them. I came around to the end of the 1st loop and was feeling great. I checked my computer and was averaging 22+mph...sweet! I took the uphill to begin the 2nd loop fairly slow and kept the effort controlled into the wind. Once I made the turn so the wind was a crosswind, I started to crank it a little harder and then I hit the next turn with the wind at my back and pushed hard to get back to transition. I could see Sean not too far ahead of me coming into transition and was happy to have not lost much time.
T2: 0:54 (6thAG)
As I came into T2, I saw Sean just ahead of me by maybe :20 and I saw Aaron's bike on the rack...and that's all! I sweetly realized that the 3 of us were 1-2-3 for our age group! We joked before the race about all finishing on the podium together, but I didn't think we were serious...and here we were with a chance to do it. I quickly racked my bike, took my helmet off, slipped on my shoes, grabbed my race # and Garmin and was off. Again, Sean and I ran out together. I waved to Rachel and could tell she was really excited and happy for me to be near the front of the field. She's used to being the wife who has to wait around for her husband to finish after all the other husbands. :)
5K Run: 20:11 *PR* (6:31 / mile) 4thAG
The first 1/2 mile or so of the run is pretty much all uphill, and being a veteran of this race, I knew not to go out too hard. Sean and I ran together patiently until our legs felt like they were back under us. We dropped down to an underpass tunnel and when we came out the other side I checked my Garmin and my jaw dropped when I saw we were only doing 7:45/mile pace. I told Sean we had to pick it up and I kicked it into another gear. Turns out, I didn't think about the watch losing sync to GPS due to the tunnel and we were actually running a good bit faster than that! At this point I'm running alone and come up to the 1st mile marker @ 7:22 according to my watch. I'm a little disappointed at this point because I was hoping to break 6:45/mile in this race. I used this as motivation and picked up my pace significantly. There were very few people on the course and I hadn't seen anyone coming the other direction yet (out/back course). I was getting closer and closer to the turn around and still nobody. Mostly, I was curious how far back I was from Aaron and about that time I see him. We exchange some encouragement and I realize he's only about 2 minutes ahead of me. I kick it up another notch and then all the sudden hear yelling from across the lake. Immediately, I recognized the voices of my mom and dad cheering me on from their back porch! I kept hearing geese honking on the lake but assumed my dad had his goose call and was blowing on it for me...turns out it was actually just the geese but I didn't figure that out until I talked to him afterward. I came up a small hill and hit the 2 mile marker @ 6:43/mile pace. Sweet! My plan was to run at a comfortable pace for the first 2 miles and then slowly increase my pace until the 2 1/2 mile point and then really dig deep all the way to the finish. I figured "it's now or never" and found myself continually running faster. I thought I was running about 6:00/mile pace but didn't look at my watch. I was in a zone. I heard some footsteps from behind and kicked up the pace a little more. The guy must have decided he liked my pace because he stayed right on my left shoulder and ran a step behind me. We were getting all kinds of encouragement from the runners still on their way out. I knew it was going to come down to a sprint and decided to wait until he made his move and then counter it with my own surge. We had about 3/10 of a mile left and he exploded into a hard sprint. I countered and gave it everything I had but he continued to run away from me. I held my sprint but he opened up a :05 gap on me and I couldn't close it. I was thrilled even though I got passed near the finish because I knew that I left everything out there and had nothing left at the finish. Turns out the guy was in my AG but he got a 2:00 penalty for abandoning equipment (he dropped a water bottle on the bike). Kinda lame, but it's the rules and that gave me the 2nd place finish. I ain't gonna argue with that!
Total: 1:02:20 - 2nd Age Group, 16th Overall
(Full results)
I was so thrilled at the finish line. I couldn't believe the race I had just run. I didn't know it at the time, but I PR'ed every sport! On top of that, I improved by 14 minutes from my time in 2010 on the same course. Sean came in less than 2 minutes behind me and we were all so excited for each other because we knew we all did really well. The results were posted and we realized we went 1-2-5. Not too shabby at all. I was so glad to be with good friends, but mostly I was glad that Rachel was there and got to see me so happy. It's been a long journey training for this Ironman race, and although she's not out there on my 6-7 hour workouts, she's making sacrifices so I can achieve my dream. I'm so thankful that she got to share in one of the small victories along the way!
We couldn't let a little sprint triathlon ruin a valuable Ironman training weekend, so after the awards ceremony, the 3 of us went out for a 50 mile ride. It was great doing a long workout with one another. We did a quick 3 mile brick run right after the ride just to see how the legs were feeling. What a great day with great friends!
AWESOME race report! I love reading the run portion. Sounds like you really pushed into a place you haven't been :) Enjoy it and keep reaping the benefits of IM training!
ReplyDeleteJacob, that's a great description of how I felt during the race. Not only have I never run like that in a race, but it was my first real chance to think about race strategy and a true sprint finish against another athlete. I guess I should just always train as if I'm doing an IM for all my sprint races!
ReplyDeleteNice job! You really played big at the Tut!
ReplyDeleteDad
Babe... I was proud of you even when you weren't finishing at the top! But I love seeing you proud of yourself now :)
ReplyDeleteBrian,
ReplyDeleteGreat report! Really enjoyed reading it.
Looks like things are really coming together this year.
Nathan