Did anyone race the Kennebunk Fire Tri this Sunday? If so, you may have seen someone there that looked like me, sounded like me but did not race like me. Yes, we're going to file this one under "what the hell was I thinking?"! I raced Timberman last weekend and threw down all I had on that course and came up big - for me anyway. A mere seven days later I watched a triathlon from a different point of view - the back! The swim wasn't too bad after I did my textbook "blow up in the first 200 yards, let everyone go, then spend the rest of the swim catching up" routine. Getting good at that.....imagine if I ever figure out the swim? I'll be something! Not sure what, but something....pretty sure the term "swimmer" won't be used in the same sentence as my name. Let me back up a second. For the first time ever I overslept on race day. Can you imagine? That's like sleeping right through Christmas for me. I got a new phone last week and used it for an alarm and well, I guess I need to have my daughter show me how to use it again. I woke up at like 5:35am or so to Jodi saying "hey - aren't you supposed to be gone by now? NINE minutes later I was ripping toward Kennebunk with a coffee in one hand and a bagel in the other catching a great draft off Chris and Tracy on the highway. Thanks guys! Made it to the venue by the skin of my teeth, checked in, hit the bathroom line, both 20 minute ordeals, racked the "alleged" Rocket and headed for the swim start. I have never been a bigger cluster before a race. This thing was doomed from the start, I just didn't know it yet.
I had registered for the "open" division this year thinking that it would get me out into the race field with less traffic in both the swim and the bike. This plan turned out to be a waste as they had us do a "mass start". So now I'm just the slowest guy in a yellow cap instead of an age grouper with a shot at some hardware. Anyway, I got through the swim and out onto the bike after what must've looked like my first time coming out of T1. I got going and the heart rate wouldn't even come down into the 160's. Hmmmmm. That was the first indication that something might be a bit "off". Imagine that. I have always been able to solve most issues on the race course by just going harder - pushing through it, so that's what I did. And it didn't do squat. I was working hard and going nowhere. Now, the bike is probably my strongest of the three disciplines and I pride myself on not getting passed in races. So you can imagine how I was feeling when people started whizzing by me like I was tied to a stump. I actually looked down to see what was wrong with my bike! I had given it to Josh Freeman when I got there to have him tweak it a bit and I was sure he must've done something wrong! Maybe let all the air out of the tires? It couldn't possibly be ME, I'm an All-Star! Hahahahah Well, Josh, thanks for the awesome tune - the bike was running great, it was the motor I was having a problem with. It got worse from there. My friend Stacy caught me and blew by me. As she passed she told me to get my act together and get moving. I tried. My legs just wouldn't go. Then I looked at my Garmin and it said 175bpm. Not so good. I caught her and went by then I coasted down an incline to recover and she caught me again. This time she really layed into me with a tirade I can't print here but I can tell you that she was not impressed with me catching a breather on the downhill. I passed her back and managed to stay ahead but not by much. Our friend Erin blew by me too - oh yeah, and Catherine...and the rest of the PBMC team. I think word was spreading fast and everybody was coming to get me!
I wanted to stop so badly but I couldn't quit - I never quit. Not an option. I tried to survive the bike and hope that I might feel a little differently on the run. I got into T2 and out on the run and was pleasantly surprised with my 7:20 pace for the first couple of miles. The wheels came flying off the buggy around mile three and the last few were ugly but I got in without hurting myself or someone else. I finished 52nd overall (3rd in the open division). Lots of people would be thrilled with that but I was thinking I should be in the top ten. Guess I was wrong.
I learned a lot (again) that day. I learned that you'd better be in some really crazy race shape to pull off a 70.3/Olympic back to back and do both well. I learned that no matter how crappy you race your friends are still at the finish ready to congratulate you. I signed up for this race because it was the "Club Championship". Hope I helped but not sure I really did. It was still fun to be out there though and I had to just laugh at myself....I was so trashed the few days before this race that I couldn't even get out the door to do a simple workout. You might say the writing was on the wall. I know better but I guess sometimes you just can't see the forest through the trees!
So back to the drawing board I go. I'll rest, recover and refocus. And I'll be back out there tearing it up!
-Signed, "Rookie for a Day"
Monday, August 30, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Timberman 70.3 Race Report
This past weekend I competed in the Timberman 70.3 (Half-Ironman). It was held at Ellacoya State Park in Gilford, NH. As I stated in my previous blog, I did not feel as though I was in top form going into this race so I had no idea what to expect. I was in the 7:40am wave and I waited around for a bit to get rolling. I saw Angela take off and absolutely blow up her wave right from the start. It was really cool. I was like "Yeah, I know her" hehehehe. Anyway, we got into the water and I decided I would move up to the front and try to get a jump at the start. The gun went off and I got into a good hard rhythm but couldn't hold it and began to feel like I might need to stop and breathe. Too hard too soon - again. My break cost me a minute or so and my goggles were leaking too so I had to figure that out. I kept my cool and was able to pull it back together for a half way decent (35:56) swim split but I know I was a lot slower than I should have been. No worries - get it back on the bike. I had a good wet suit peel and got out of T1 in short order. I was greeted by friends and family and was able to forget about the swim pretty easily as I settled into a good bike cadence. I had decided I would try to back off my '09 bike split of 2:28 in an attempt to set myself up for a sub 1:40 run. I did pretty well and was on track for about 2:34 or so but I felt so darn good out by the speedway I decided to just go with it and see what happened. I was rolling through the field at a heart rate of about 142 and felt like I was keeping it under control. I was trying to run down Angela before she got back to T2 so we could run together but she pounded me so badly on the swim I couldn't totally close the gap. I ended up with a 2:29 bike split which totally shocked me given I dragged ten more pounds around that course than I had last year. Of the bike and into T2, good transition and out on the run. 13.1 to go. I wanted to start with a couple of 8's but I looked at my Garmin and saw that 7:20 - 7:30 was feeling surprisingly managable so I went with it. I saw all my friends on the run and was able to cheer the boys from the Speed Lab on. It was great to see the first timers out there tearing it up and particularly good to see my old chum Mike Matheson out there having a great day. (My friend Pat Kelley was injured on Monday and raced with a bum leg, gutting out his first "half" in impressive fashion.) The first loop went very well and I was back to the venue in about 50 minutes or a little less. I took a little inventory and decided I was still feeling really good so I decided to try to push it hard for the second loop and make a run at getting in close to 1:40. With three to go I still had a shot but my pace was slipping to the 7:50 range and I just couldn't squeeze any more out of myself. As I made the final turn into the park to run the last couple hundred yards to the finish I had a guy slip by me and ask if this was the lane for the finish. I said yes, and he took off. Now, I had no idea whether or not he was in my age group but I wasn't going to wait until after the race to find out that I let somebody trim me up at the line. I turned it up a notch and drew even with the 49 year old Frenchman from Quebec City. I was hoping he would be gassed from the short burst he had already used to get ahead of me. I was wrong. Once he saw me to his left he took off on a full-on sprint and I was matching him stride for stride. The finish chute was lined with spectators and they started going nuts seeing what was going on. This was going to be a brawl to the line and they knew it. With about 50 yards to go I snuck a look to my right to see if he was cracking but he was locked in on the finish. I put my head down and gave it whatever I had left. I knew my friends and family would be at the finish and I wasn't going to let them see me get beat to the line. As we approached the line I thought I might just do a "Pete Rose" to make sure I got in before him but I decided against it. We broke through the line at the same time and I am pretty sure I got him by less than a foot. Then I just let everyting go and I fell forward into a full bodyslide in the wet grass ending up face down at Chrissie Wellington's feet - she was there putting medals on all the finishers. I staggered to my feet and looked to shake hands with the guy but he just walked off and I didn't really have the energy to chase him again. I'm not sure whether he was mad at me or came away with a healthy respect for somebody that refused to let him have it. As it turns out, he was in the next age group up and I had beaten him overall by about twenty minutes. I ended up running 1:42 or so and finished with a 4:51 time almost identical to last year. I can't explain it other than to say that I had a great day, the weather cooperated and I was very pleased with the outcome.
As for my finish line drama....I can only say that that's how I race. Plain and simple. If you pull up next to me near the finish I'm going to lay it all out there. I think people that know me understand that. Someone asked after the race why I bothered sprinting given I had no idea whether the guy was even in my age group. I didn't quite understand that - it's a race amd I'm racing. THAT guy was racing so why wouldn't I? PLUS, there were hundreds of people standing there along the chute (in the rain) that all were there to support a loved one or a friend. I figured if I have enough left in the tank to lay it out there and give them something to cheer for I'm going to do it. My friends drove two plus hours to watch me race, my family has endured many hours of training and travelling to support me. I'll be damned if I'm going to jog across a finish line. And that's all there is to say on that!
I went to the awards presentation and watched my friends Mary and Ange get their awards for being in the op of their age group. VERY cool - this is a HUGE race with lots of talent and they both got on the podium. Impressive.
I stuck around for the Clearwater rolldown and was rewarded with a slot to the 70.3 World Championships in Florida on November 13th. This was not even on my radar screen this year but now it is and I am excited about the race.
My friend Doug is racing Ironman Canada this weekend and I'd like to wish him the best! Leave it all out there Doug!
I am racing The Kennebunk Fire Tri this weekend....stay tuned.
As for my finish line drama....I can only say that that's how I race. Plain and simple. If you pull up next to me near the finish I'm going to lay it all out there. I think people that know me understand that. Someone asked after the race why I bothered sprinting given I had no idea whether the guy was even in my age group. I didn't quite understand that - it's a race amd I'm racing. THAT guy was racing so why wouldn't I? PLUS, there were hundreds of people standing there along the chute (in the rain) that all were there to support a loved one or a friend. I figured if I have enough left in the tank to lay it out there and give them something to cheer for I'm going to do it. My friends drove two plus hours to watch me race, my family has endured many hours of training and travelling to support me. I'll be damned if I'm going to jog across a finish line. And that's all there is to say on that!
I went to the awards presentation and watched my friends Mary and Ange get their awards for being in the op of their age group. VERY cool - this is a HUGE race with lots of talent and they both got on the podium. Impressive.
I stuck around for the Clearwater rolldown and was rewarded with a slot to the 70.3 World Championships in Florida on November 13th. This was not even on my radar screen this year but now it is and I am excited about the race.
My friend Doug is racing Ironman Canada this weekend and I'd like to wish him the best! Leave it all out there Doug!
I am racing The Kennebunk Fire Tri this weekend....stay tuned.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Catching up...
So I try to only "blog" when I have something to say that I think people will want to hear. I have not posted anything in two months. This has not been for lack of something to say but more for lack of time to say it. I have finally gotten to the point where I feel I can take a breath and actually put the last couple of months on paper so to speak. I like to write about my races and several of you have been asking for the updates. I've missed a few and will list them below but I don't think they'll have quite the same sizzle as they do when I do them right after the race. We'll see.
Those that know me well know that I was working full time for Bancroft Contracting in South Paris. I left in mid July. I spent 4 1/2 months driving almost two hours per day and I just hated the drive. I felt so unproductive and detached from my family. I was torn because I liked the job and the company but struggled with the commute and the time away from home. It was a tough choice but I decided to go back to my contracting business and make it work. I don't look at my time there as wasted. It showed me a lot of things that I think I was taking for granted - my time with my family, my ability to train and race in a sport that I have come to love and has become a big part of who I am, and my desire to be my own boss and run my own business. I came away with some close friends in the entire Bancroft and Small families and I am a better person for knowing all of them. I'm proud to call them my friends.
I have never been more excited and energized about having my own business. Since I started back up I have been busy, busy, busy looking at new work, writing proposals and contracts and getting jobs started. I couldn't have asked for a better start given that the day I drove home from South Paris I had no work lined up at all. I have given my wife a few reasons to be nervous over the years but this move was tough on her and I am thankful she had the faith in me to do what I said I could do. I've never worked harder in my life, and I've never been happier. So that's the scoop on "work". I should take a minute here to sincerely thank all of my Facebook friends and the entire "Triathlon" community for helping me get started again. I posted a short note on FB when I was getting started and the result has been tremendous. So THANK YOU everyone, it has been great!
As a result of the above you can imagine how far down the list "triathlon" has slid in the past two months. I have managed to cling to some early season fitness and throw up (no pun intended)some decent efforts on race day despite what I'd call intermitent(sp?) training. It's funny, when you reduce your priorities down to "OK, what do I need to do to make sure my family survives", things get pretty streamlined in a hurry. Triathlon and training goes out the window and you find yourself wondering whose stupid idea it was to only put 24 hours in a day. Anyway, I think the next race I did was the Black Fly Tri in Waterville Valley (7/9-7/11). This a three day event that did last year. Last year I lost overall on the weekend to Rick Durgin by something like 28 seconds. This year I did much better. I lost to Mike MacDonald by a mere ten seconds - ON THE WEEKEND! I can't remember too many of the details but I can tell you that I put it all out there on all three days and I got beat. Mike has really turned it up this year and it was nice to see him have a great weekend. Oh yeah, Durgin beat me again too. Seeing a pattern yet? No? Well stay tuned. I did do very well overall. I came home with some hardware but my friends kicked my ass. This was a tough pill to swallow as I knew I should be stronger but the fact is that I wasn't strong enough. I decided to bear down on the training and focus on the diet. This turned out to be pretty tough given I had just quit my job and needed to get some work going!
In July I was able to take a trip to Lake Placid to watch my friends compete in Ironman USA. We had a ball and did some great training while we were there. Rick and I rode up Whiteface Mountain on Friday and he beat me handily and I never felt good the entire way. It's an 8 mile climb that just never backs off and gets steeper as you go. It's like 4800' or something. Anyway, we rode the 56 mile Lake Placid loop after climbing that and I still didn't feel great. When we got back to the camping area and had a beer I got thinking about Lance Armstrong and his book that I had read. Lance was training in the mountains and did this four hour climb and was not happy with the results. He got to the top and told his coach "I'm going back down, and I'm doing it again". So while I was sitting at the picnic table, legs trashed, I looked at Rick and said "I'm doing it again tomorrow". He just looked at me and said "OK". And that's just what we did, and he kicked my butt again. But I felt better, much better and it showed me that I am stronger than I think. I'd be fine. Mike MacDonald and Mark Bancroft joined us for the second day up the mountain. Mike beat me by a couple of minutes but Mark struggled. We found out a couple of weeks later that he had done the climb with an 11/23 cassette on his tri bike. Whoops. That means he is one tough dude and a pretty darn good athlete. Most people would have thrown in the towel ut Mark didn't give up, he climbed that sucker and met us at the top. He did mention that he needed to find some new friends though!
Forgot to mention I jumped into the Pirate Tri at Point Sebago in June. I did well finishing 10th I believe. Tough little course. Angela beat me. She is having a tremendous year.
Before I knew it the Beach to Beacon was in my face and I was going "holy crap, I'm not ready for this...!" So I decided to make a training day out of it and bike to the race, run the race, run the race backward, and bike home. I saw Mark and Ange at the start as well as Josh "Off the Couch" Freeman and his wife Annie (she smoked me). I saw a bunch of other friends too. It was great. I thought I might be able to run 6:50's but I knew I'd have to dig deep to do it. I dug a bit deeper and ran 6:49's, I think it was a PR. Josh Freeman and several others were breathing right down my neck at the finish. (I give Josh a hard time because he literally got up off the couch last year and ran B2B with little or no training posting a 7:20 pace I think!) Most of my friends kicked my butt but I managed to beat 5200 or so of the 5700finishers. Not bad for a guy that has been having a hard time getting his training in. Rob Martin beat me by a few seconds too. He was pretty pleased and it occurred to me that I now have people that chase me and measure their effort and results against mine. That's a pretty cool thing and in a way it motivates me even more. So, Rob, welcome to the list of people I plan to beat - yes I am keeping track :). I ran the race course backward then bagged the ride home opting for a day at Pine Point with Jodi and Bailey, the (Pat) Kelley Family and the Bracketts.
Last Friday I jumped into the St Peter's Four Miler in Portland. This is a great little race with awesome door prizes. Brackett showed up thinking he was going to beat me. We ran the first mile in 6:15 - whoops. Mile two was slower but Dave slipped off the pace and I lost him. I finished in 27:01 (6:46 pace)- good for 3rd in my age group. Dave came in about 40 seconds later. He plans to beat me in the Pumpkinman Sprint next fall but he knows I'll be ready. We both had a great run and I think 27:01 was a PR for me. Strange, I'm ten pounds heavier than last year and running well with screwed up training. Not going to hang my hat on it, just an observation.
So now I have The Timberman 70.3 (Half-Ironman)staring me in the face for this weekend. Am I ready? Who knows? Last year I did 4:51 and luckily had a Clearwater slot roll down to me. My goal this year is 4:45 broken out like this: 31:00 swim, 2:29 bike, 1:38 run. With transitions that should get me where I'd like to be. I am going to have to lay down a well executed race in order to do this AND the heat needs to NOT become a major factor. Why do I think I can go faster than last year given the training issues I've had and the additional weight? Because it's all about the run and I plan to gear my race to the second half of the run, AND I plan to turn myself inside out in the process. I have a bunch of friends coming to watch and cheer me on and I plan to leave it all out there. The winter is long in the Speed Lab and I am the leader (well, only because it's my house) and Leaders lead by example. I plan to give a good example for everyone to think about while we all train for Ironman Lake Placid 2011 - oh yeah, did I mention I signed up for that? More on that later.
So I think that catches me up a bit - sorry for the delay in getting something out...I'll try to be more active now that I have secured some work!. I'll close with some things I have observed and done this summer...
I watched my best friend lay down a 11:10 Ironman split. Pretty damn impressive.
I have watched a new friend kick the crap out of a bad (multiple) Pulmonary Embolism(s) and live to tell about it.
I helped Tommy Bancroft get up on water skis for the first time.
My parents have retired and are enjoying themselves after a lifetime of hard work.
I went to the Tri For Cure and realized that there are a lot more important things in life than who wins the race.
I learned that I can do anything I set my mind to.
I joined a Business networking group that meets every week.
My wife is a Zumba fanatic - she's into it. Good for her. She also gets mad when I mow the lawn. Imagine that.
I am now 41 years old - still don't have all the answers but I'm working on it!
My daughter is becoming a young lady and a pretty darned good dancer.
There are still only 24 hours in a day....
-BT
Those that know me well know that I was working full time for Bancroft Contracting in South Paris. I left in mid July. I spent 4 1/2 months driving almost two hours per day and I just hated the drive. I felt so unproductive and detached from my family. I was torn because I liked the job and the company but struggled with the commute and the time away from home. It was a tough choice but I decided to go back to my contracting business and make it work. I don't look at my time there as wasted. It showed me a lot of things that I think I was taking for granted - my time with my family, my ability to train and race in a sport that I have come to love and has become a big part of who I am, and my desire to be my own boss and run my own business. I came away with some close friends in the entire Bancroft and Small families and I am a better person for knowing all of them. I'm proud to call them my friends.
I have never been more excited and energized about having my own business. Since I started back up I have been busy, busy, busy looking at new work, writing proposals and contracts and getting jobs started. I couldn't have asked for a better start given that the day I drove home from South Paris I had no work lined up at all. I have given my wife a few reasons to be nervous over the years but this move was tough on her and I am thankful she had the faith in me to do what I said I could do. I've never worked harder in my life, and I've never been happier. So that's the scoop on "work". I should take a minute here to sincerely thank all of my Facebook friends and the entire "Triathlon" community for helping me get started again. I posted a short note on FB when I was getting started and the result has been tremendous. So THANK YOU everyone, it has been great!
As a result of the above you can imagine how far down the list "triathlon" has slid in the past two months. I have managed to cling to some early season fitness and throw up (no pun intended)some decent efforts on race day despite what I'd call intermitent(sp?) training. It's funny, when you reduce your priorities down to "OK, what do I need to do to make sure my family survives", things get pretty streamlined in a hurry. Triathlon and training goes out the window and you find yourself wondering whose stupid idea it was to only put 24 hours in a day. Anyway, I think the next race I did was the Black Fly Tri in Waterville Valley (7/9-7/11). This a three day event that did last year. Last year I lost overall on the weekend to Rick Durgin by something like 28 seconds. This year I did much better. I lost to Mike MacDonald by a mere ten seconds - ON THE WEEKEND! I can't remember too many of the details but I can tell you that I put it all out there on all three days and I got beat. Mike has really turned it up this year and it was nice to see him have a great weekend. Oh yeah, Durgin beat me again too. Seeing a pattern yet? No? Well stay tuned. I did do very well overall. I came home with some hardware but my friends kicked my ass. This was a tough pill to swallow as I knew I should be stronger but the fact is that I wasn't strong enough. I decided to bear down on the training and focus on the diet. This turned out to be pretty tough given I had just quit my job and needed to get some work going!
In July I was able to take a trip to Lake Placid to watch my friends compete in Ironman USA. We had a ball and did some great training while we were there. Rick and I rode up Whiteface Mountain on Friday and he beat me handily and I never felt good the entire way. It's an 8 mile climb that just never backs off and gets steeper as you go. It's like 4800' or something. Anyway, we rode the 56 mile Lake Placid loop after climbing that and I still didn't feel great. When we got back to the camping area and had a beer I got thinking about Lance Armstrong and his book that I had read. Lance was training in the mountains and did this four hour climb and was not happy with the results. He got to the top and told his coach "I'm going back down, and I'm doing it again". So while I was sitting at the picnic table, legs trashed, I looked at Rick and said "I'm doing it again tomorrow". He just looked at me and said "OK". And that's just what we did, and he kicked my butt again. But I felt better, much better and it showed me that I am stronger than I think. I'd be fine. Mike MacDonald and Mark Bancroft joined us for the second day up the mountain. Mike beat me by a couple of minutes but Mark struggled. We found out a couple of weeks later that he had done the climb with an 11/23 cassette on his tri bike. Whoops. That means he is one tough dude and a pretty darn good athlete. Most people would have thrown in the towel ut Mark didn't give up, he climbed that sucker and met us at the top. He did mention that he needed to find some new friends though!
Forgot to mention I jumped into the Pirate Tri at Point Sebago in June. I did well finishing 10th I believe. Tough little course. Angela beat me. She is having a tremendous year.
Before I knew it the Beach to Beacon was in my face and I was going "holy crap, I'm not ready for this...!" So I decided to make a training day out of it and bike to the race, run the race, run the race backward, and bike home. I saw Mark and Ange at the start as well as Josh "Off the Couch" Freeman and his wife Annie (she smoked me). I saw a bunch of other friends too. It was great. I thought I might be able to run 6:50's but I knew I'd have to dig deep to do it. I dug a bit deeper and ran 6:49's, I think it was a PR. Josh Freeman and several others were breathing right down my neck at the finish. (I give Josh a hard time because he literally got up off the couch last year and ran B2B with little or no training posting a 7:20 pace I think!) Most of my friends kicked my butt but I managed to beat 5200 or so of the 5700finishers. Not bad for a guy that has been having a hard time getting his training in. Rob Martin beat me by a few seconds too. He was pretty pleased and it occurred to me that I now have people that chase me and measure their effort and results against mine. That's a pretty cool thing and in a way it motivates me even more. So, Rob, welcome to the list of people I plan to beat - yes I am keeping track :). I ran the race course backward then bagged the ride home opting for a day at Pine Point with Jodi and Bailey, the (Pat) Kelley Family and the Bracketts.
Last Friday I jumped into the St Peter's Four Miler in Portland. This is a great little race with awesome door prizes. Brackett showed up thinking he was going to beat me. We ran the first mile in 6:15 - whoops. Mile two was slower but Dave slipped off the pace and I lost him. I finished in 27:01 (6:46 pace)- good for 3rd in my age group. Dave came in about 40 seconds later. He plans to beat me in the Pumpkinman Sprint next fall but he knows I'll be ready. We both had a great run and I think 27:01 was a PR for me. Strange, I'm ten pounds heavier than last year and running well with screwed up training. Not going to hang my hat on it, just an observation.
So now I have The Timberman 70.3 (Half-Ironman)staring me in the face for this weekend. Am I ready? Who knows? Last year I did 4:51 and luckily had a Clearwater slot roll down to me. My goal this year is 4:45 broken out like this: 31:00 swim, 2:29 bike, 1:38 run. With transitions that should get me where I'd like to be. I am going to have to lay down a well executed race in order to do this AND the heat needs to NOT become a major factor. Why do I think I can go faster than last year given the training issues I've had and the additional weight? Because it's all about the run and I plan to gear my race to the second half of the run, AND I plan to turn myself inside out in the process. I have a bunch of friends coming to watch and cheer me on and I plan to leave it all out there. The winter is long in the Speed Lab and I am the leader (well, only because it's my house) and Leaders lead by example. I plan to give a good example for everyone to think about while we all train for Ironman Lake Placid 2011 - oh yeah, did I mention I signed up for that? More on that later.
So I think that catches me up a bit - sorry for the delay in getting something out...I'll try to be more active now that I have secured some work!. I'll close with some things I have observed and done this summer...
I watched my best friend lay down a 11:10 Ironman split. Pretty damn impressive.
I have watched a new friend kick the crap out of a bad (multiple) Pulmonary Embolism(s) and live to tell about it.
I helped Tommy Bancroft get up on water skis for the first time.
My parents have retired and are enjoying themselves after a lifetime of hard work.
I went to the Tri For Cure and realized that there are a lot more important things in life than who wins the race.
I learned that I can do anything I set my mind to.
I joined a Business networking group that meets every week.
My wife is a Zumba fanatic - she's into it. Good for her. She also gets mad when I mow the lawn. Imagine that.
I am now 41 years old - still don't have all the answers but I'm working on it!
My daughter is becoming a young lady and a pretty darned good dancer.
There are still only 24 hours in a day....
-BT
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Pirate Tri - Point Sebago
I jumped into today's Sprint Distance race at the last minute and didn't really tell anybody. Not sure why, just felt like flyng under the radar. I knew there would be a solid group at the top and was looking to go "top 5". My flying under the radar routine ended before I shut my car off in the parking lot when Mike MacDonald spotted me. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. I got geared up and went over the transition area, saw lots of friends and got ready to go at it. I had decided I was going to go really hard today (something new).
Swim was slower than I wanted but I was able to bike well, posting the fourth fastest time on the day. I never really felt super on the bike but I guess you never do in a sprint! My run was fueled by the presence on Steve Tenney nipping at my heels the whole way. I was able to hold him off but it wasn't easy - I had to run 6:53's to do it. I finished 10th overall (ninth male), and am pretty pleased with the effort. I won my age group!
It was interesting to see how I'd feel a week after a half-ironman race. Overall, I can't complain. Now it's time to crank it up for the Black Fly weekend in mid July.
Highlights for today:
My friends had a great day
My friend Pat Kelley came in second in his age group
My friend and athlete Meg realized she can compete with the best of 'em.
My friend Angela Bancroft won the women's race.
My friends Tim, Mike and Matt went 1,2 and 3 in their age group.
My friend Rob Smith won his age group
My original training partner and friend Mike M raced well - great to see him out there.
The Bancroft kids cleaned house at the kids races.
Great race venue, well run. Good time had by all.
See you at the races!
Swim was slower than I wanted but I was able to bike well, posting the fourth fastest time on the day. I never really felt super on the bike but I guess you never do in a sprint! My run was fueled by the presence on Steve Tenney nipping at my heels the whole way. I was able to hold him off but it wasn't easy - I had to run 6:53's to do it. I finished 10th overall (ninth male), and am pretty pleased with the effort. I won my age group!
It was interesting to see how I'd feel a week after a half-ironman race. Overall, I can't complain. Now it's time to crank it up for the Black Fly weekend in mid July.
Highlights for today:
My friends had a great day
My friend Pat Kelley came in second in his age group
My friend and athlete Meg realized she can compete with the best of 'em.
My friend Angela Bancroft won the women's race.
My friends Tim, Mike and Matt went 1,2 and 3 in their age group.
My friend Rob Smith won his age group
My original training partner and friend Mike M raced well - great to see him out there.
The Bancroft kids cleaned house at the kids races.
Great race venue, well run. Good time had by all.
See you at the races!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Mooseman 70.3 Race Report
Long before I changed jobs this year I had signed up for the Mooseman 70.3,a "Half-Ironman" race on June 6th in Bristol, NH. At the time an early season half seemed like a good idea and I liked the idea of increasing training volume earlier in the season to prepare for this race. I raced MM in '06 during my lead-up to my first Ironman in Lake Placid. I did quite well, finishing 90th or so (if I remember right)and posting a 4:56 finish time. My friend and training partner Mike Matheson had beaten me by like :19 or so that day. We had a blast. Looking back now four years later, I realize we really had done really well. This past year the World Triathlon Corp took over the Mooseman and made it an official Ironman event complete with 50 qualifying slots for the 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater, FLA. This change brought about a change in the bike course that impacted the race tremendously. It also attracted a lot of Europeans to the starting line. The bike course change reslted in the addition of a solid three mile climb that racers would need to complete twice.
So, now I'm looking back to my decision to race an early season half. I now work full-time 37 miles from home. This has had a major impact on my training. I simply have not had the time and sometimes when I do have the time I don't have the desire. I had some thoughts in May about steppng back to the Olympic distance race but then thought better of it. I never want to be one of those guys that doesn't toe the line just because they don't feel like they're in top form. So, to NH I went, to RACE the half.
After securing lodging with the best Aunt and Uncle a guy could ask for Jared and I headed over to NH ahead of Dave. Dave met us later that night and we had a great dinner, wrenched on the bikes and got to bed around 10pm. Race morning brought a red sky,(hmmmmm...) and the appearance that it would be a beautiful day. Then I remembered that old saying that goes something like "red sky at night, sailor's delight, red sky at morning, Sailor's take warning"......hmmmmmm.... As we approached the race venue the sky began to darken and I began to realize that we were going to be racing in the rain today. It didn't really bother me though. I like it when things get tough, I guess it makes me feel like I have to step my game up just a bit. I also feel like it thins out the crowd a bit. Takes care of the riff raff. hehehe. I got my transition area set up and headed to the water. The water this year was 69 degrees. That's a good 10 degrees warmer than it was last year so I was relieved that I would not have to swim with an ice cream headache. Jared, Dave and I warmed up, got loose and chatted with other Mainers as we waited to start. That was about the time the heavy rain began. Oh well, bring it on, we're wet anyway! I took a minute to revisit my race plan mentally before I headed over to the start. There were several goals today. First, I wanted to race smart. Given my intermitent training I was unsure what I was going to be able to do today so I wanted to play it smart. Another goal was to make that smart race transfer to a "win" over Dave and Jared. I was confident I could give dave a run and maybe hold him off but I was pretty sure Jared was and should be able to beat me. He's 32 and training hard for IMLP. Dave is training for IMLP too but he's my age, and hasn't beaten me yet so I figured today would be a good challenges with these boys. Jared was starting 4 minutes behind me so I wanted to try to hold him off until at least the run. I also wanted to beat Al Bugbee. He's a tough cat and also training for IMLP. He and I swim about the same, he's a phenomenal runner though so I knew I would have to try to put some time on him on the bike. And lastly, if things went right, I wanted to earn a slot to Clearwater. If I could do that it would mean I had done very well within my age group. So, a bunch of goals. Let's see how it played out.
I saw Bugbee at the swim start and lined right up with him in the front. It was beach start with a run into the water. I decided that even though I'm not the fastest swimmer I'd start in the front and try to push out ahead to avoid the boxing match. It worked perfectly. The gun went off and I sprinted into the water, dove in and got right into a groove. No traffic for about 200 yards, then just the best swimmers went by and I was able to settle in. Good execution. I had hoped to be down around 30 or 31 minutes for the swim but I popped out in 34 minutes. Pretty slow but I had a great swim and was set up well for the bike. I was certain I had beaten Brackett out of the water and heard them announce Bugbee's name when I ran into T1 so I knew he was around and that I'd be seeing him on the bike. I headed out onto the bike with one thing in mind, DON"T BLOW UP! This was not a time trial and I knew there were a ton of hills so I had to keep it under control early. I weaved my way through a bunch of riders and settled in feeling pretty good that I wasn't going to have to try to run Brackett down on the bike. As I came up on about mile five I spotted a Midcoast shirt in front of me and almost died. It was Dave! Holy crap! I really felt like I had a great swim and now I know he swam better. I didn't get too excited, I just fell in and rode the next two miles or so behind him without him knowing I was there. He was riding strong but I figured once we got to the hills I could get him. That's what happened. I went by him during the first major climb. He stayed for a bit and then backed off. I got through the first set of nasty hills and then had to worry about the downhills. They are NASTY fast and are very dangerous, especially when the pavement is soaked. I braked hard the whole way and made it safely. After the hills I was able to get aero and feel like I was making some time. I wondered where Bugbee was and how long it would be before Jared caught me. I got to scratch one thing off that list when Jared caught me in the middle of the hills on my second time around. He looked strong. I muttered to myself that the day wasn't over yet and I still needed to put some time on Dave because I know he's running strong right now. About twenty minutes later I came upon Jared on the side of rt 25. He had flatted and was trying to change his tire. I offered help, he declined, and I went back to work. Bummer. Dave would get by him before he got it fixed. I spent the remainder of the ride trying to be efficient and reminding myself that I wanted to run strong off the bike and not have to suffer for 13.1 miles. It occurred to me that I had disposed of just about everybody I had been jockeying with for the past 50 miles. "Aquaphor" guy was gone, "Army" dude was gone, 26 year old "Specialized" guy was no longer re-passing me, and it had been awhile since I'd seen any of the all-stars that passed me in the first loop only to be doing switchbacks in the hills of the second loop. So I felt pretty good. I felt like I had ridden it strong but hadn't overdone it. The run would show whether I was right or wrong. I wrapped up the bike in 2:43 or so. I was happy with that. I had driven the bike course with Jared on Saturday and came away feeling like I'd be lucky to get in under three hours. I just hoped I had put enough time on Dave in the process. I knew Jared would ride out of his mind after repairing the flat so I hoped I could hold him off on the run. Truthfully though, I no longer consider things fair once a guy has a mechanical issue. It's not like he fueled wrong, or paced poorly. He got a flat. Same could've happened to me. So he and I will square off again and I'll see how long I can hang with him.
I transition rather slowly due to the mud and general conditions of the race. I wanted to be sure I was all set to run before I took off. Thirteen miles is a long way if you don't have your act together. As I headed out I reminded myself that I wanted to limit my pace to 8:00/mile for the first three before I tried to push any harder. This proved to be a very hard thing to do but I was able to hold it to around 7:50's or so. I have started runs before - particularly in Half Ironmans WAY too fast and I wanted to be sure to run strong throughout the race, not just the first few miles. It seemed to work very well. I felt strong and I wasn't suffering at all. I knew when I got to the first turn around (3.2 miles) that I would be able to see where everyone was. As I approached I saw Jeff Small running toward me coming back. I guessed he had a couple of minutes on me. I think he started in an earlier wave. At the time, I didn't think I'd be catching him but I kept it in the back of my mind that he was out there. At the turn-around I checked my watch and made a note of the time so that when I saw dave I could do the math and get a good grasp on what I was dealing with. It was only about 45 seconds before I saw him so I figured I had a minute and a half on him. Not a lot in a half Iron run. And considering I had to go to the bathroom it might prove to be inadequate. Back at the race vanue turnaround I hit the outhouse and was out in about 15 seconds. Cool. I saw Dave and judged I had held my gap. Now for another 10k. I saw Jared closing on Dave and he was not happy. I looked up early in the second lap and saw Jeff Small ahead. I put a target on his back and switched my focus from holding off Dave and Jared to now running down Jeff. I saw Owen Lisa and Brett Hellstedt. Both of them were absolutely crushing the course. They are going to hammer Ironman in a couple of weeks. I kept looking at my watch and seemed to be holding 7:20-7:30 pretty well. This was excellent, I was having a tremendous day. I caught Jeff about halfway out to the turn-around. I thought we might run together for a bit but it was obvious as I went by that Jeff was going his pace. I was pretty pleased to be able to still be running strong this late in the race. I started having some gassy issues and jumped into the outhouse again and took care of that. Without sharing too many details I can tell you that if that stop was part of the race or an event of some sort, I'd have won my age group!. No time to waste so I hit it fairly hard the last three miles to make sure the boys didn't reel me in. I came across the line in 5:01 running 1:40:45. Slower than my '06 time but a better finish overall. I was extremely happy with that! Excellent race, good execution of realistic expectations. I am getting better at this stuff! I finished 13th of 66 in my age group and 72nd overall. I waited for Dave Jared and Jeff to come across the line and didn't waste much time getting into some dry clothes. We all got a bite to eat and then went to the roll down meeting and awards presentation. I never did see Bugbee on the run and found out later that he had some issues and decided to stop after the bike. He's OK I guess and I'm sure he'll be ready to go when Lake Placid rolls around next month.
I had told Dave that if I got a slot to Clearwater I was going to pass on it so he'd have a shot at it. He was 23rd in our age group so it was going to be a long shot. The fifth and final slot in our AG did in fact roll down to me. I passed on it (that was tough!) and it kept rolling down. They got to about 20th and a guy grabbed it. Damn! Dave just missed. I would have loved to have seen him go enjoy that race like I did last year. Well, it wasn't meant to be so we'll try again another time. All things considered I came home from NH feeling more confident that even though I am not quite where I want to be this year regarding my race weight and overall fitness, I can still compete at a high level. And I am going to continue to do just that!
So, now I'm looking back to my decision to race an early season half. I now work full-time 37 miles from home. This has had a major impact on my training. I simply have not had the time and sometimes when I do have the time I don't have the desire. I had some thoughts in May about steppng back to the Olympic distance race but then thought better of it. I never want to be one of those guys that doesn't toe the line just because they don't feel like they're in top form. So, to NH I went, to RACE the half.
After securing lodging with the best Aunt and Uncle a guy could ask for Jared and I headed over to NH ahead of Dave. Dave met us later that night and we had a great dinner, wrenched on the bikes and got to bed around 10pm. Race morning brought a red sky,(hmmmmm...) and the appearance that it would be a beautiful day. Then I remembered that old saying that goes something like "red sky at night, sailor's delight, red sky at morning, Sailor's take warning"......hmmmmmm.... As we approached the race venue the sky began to darken and I began to realize that we were going to be racing in the rain today. It didn't really bother me though. I like it when things get tough, I guess it makes me feel like I have to step my game up just a bit. I also feel like it thins out the crowd a bit. Takes care of the riff raff. hehehe. I got my transition area set up and headed to the water. The water this year was 69 degrees. That's a good 10 degrees warmer than it was last year so I was relieved that I would not have to swim with an ice cream headache. Jared, Dave and I warmed up, got loose and chatted with other Mainers as we waited to start. That was about the time the heavy rain began. Oh well, bring it on, we're wet anyway! I took a minute to revisit my race plan mentally before I headed over to the start. There were several goals today. First, I wanted to race smart. Given my intermitent training I was unsure what I was going to be able to do today so I wanted to play it smart. Another goal was to make that smart race transfer to a "win" over Dave and Jared. I was confident I could give dave a run and maybe hold him off but I was pretty sure Jared was and should be able to beat me. He's 32 and training hard for IMLP. Dave is training for IMLP too but he's my age, and hasn't beaten me yet so I figured today would be a good challenges with these boys. Jared was starting 4 minutes behind me so I wanted to try to hold him off until at least the run. I also wanted to beat Al Bugbee. He's a tough cat and also training for IMLP. He and I swim about the same, he's a phenomenal runner though so I knew I would have to try to put some time on him on the bike. And lastly, if things went right, I wanted to earn a slot to Clearwater. If I could do that it would mean I had done very well within my age group. So, a bunch of goals. Let's see how it played out.
I saw Bugbee at the swim start and lined right up with him in the front. It was beach start with a run into the water. I decided that even though I'm not the fastest swimmer I'd start in the front and try to push out ahead to avoid the boxing match. It worked perfectly. The gun went off and I sprinted into the water, dove in and got right into a groove. No traffic for about 200 yards, then just the best swimmers went by and I was able to settle in. Good execution. I had hoped to be down around 30 or 31 minutes for the swim but I popped out in 34 minutes. Pretty slow but I had a great swim and was set up well for the bike. I was certain I had beaten Brackett out of the water and heard them announce Bugbee's name when I ran into T1 so I knew he was around and that I'd be seeing him on the bike. I headed out onto the bike with one thing in mind, DON"T BLOW UP! This was not a time trial and I knew there were a ton of hills so I had to keep it under control early. I weaved my way through a bunch of riders and settled in feeling pretty good that I wasn't going to have to try to run Brackett down on the bike. As I came up on about mile five I spotted a Midcoast shirt in front of me and almost died. It was Dave! Holy crap! I really felt like I had a great swim and now I know he swam better. I didn't get too excited, I just fell in and rode the next two miles or so behind him without him knowing I was there. He was riding strong but I figured once we got to the hills I could get him. That's what happened. I went by him during the first major climb. He stayed for a bit and then backed off. I got through the first set of nasty hills and then had to worry about the downhills. They are NASTY fast and are very dangerous, especially when the pavement is soaked. I braked hard the whole way and made it safely. After the hills I was able to get aero and feel like I was making some time. I wondered where Bugbee was and how long it would be before Jared caught me. I got to scratch one thing off that list when Jared caught me in the middle of the hills on my second time around. He looked strong. I muttered to myself that the day wasn't over yet and I still needed to put some time on Dave because I know he's running strong right now. About twenty minutes later I came upon Jared on the side of rt 25. He had flatted and was trying to change his tire. I offered help, he declined, and I went back to work. Bummer. Dave would get by him before he got it fixed. I spent the remainder of the ride trying to be efficient and reminding myself that I wanted to run strong off the bike and not have to suffer for 13.1 miles. It occurred to me that I had disposed of just about everybody I had been jockeying with for the past 50 miles. "Aquaphor" guy was gone, "Army" dude was gone, 26 year old "Specialized" guy was no longer re-passing me, and it had been awhile since I'd seen any of the all-stars that passed me in the first loop only to be doing switchbacks in the hills of the second loop. So I felt pretty good. I felt like I had ridden it strong but hadn't overdone it. The run would show whether I was right or wrong. I wrapped up the bike in 2:43 or so. I was happy with that. I had driven the bike course with Jared on Saturday and came away feeling like I'd be lucky to get in under three hours. I just hoped I had put enough time on Dave in the process. I knew Jared would ride out of his mind after repairing the flat so I hoped I could hold him off on the run. Truthfully though, I no longer consider things fair once a guy has a mechanical issue. It's not like he fueled wrong, or paced poorly. He got a flat. Same could've happened to me. So he and I will square off again and I'll see how long I can hang with him.
I transition rather slowly due to the mud and general conditions of the race. I wanted to be sure I was all set to run before I took off. Thirteen miles is a long way if you don't have your act together. As I headed out I reminded myself that I wanted to limit my pace to 8:00/mile for the first three before I tried to push any harder. This proved to be a very hard thing to do but I was able to hold it to around 7:50's or so. I have started runs before - particularly in Half Ironmans WAY too fast and I wanted to be sure to run strong throughout the race, not just the first few miles. It seemed to work very well. I felt strong and I wasn't suffering at all. I knew when I got to the first turn around (3.2 miles) that I would be able to see where everyone was. As I approached I saw Jeff Small running toward me coming back. I guessed he had a couple of minutes on me. I think he started in an earlier wave. At the time, I didn't think I'd be catching him but I kept it in the back of my mind that he was out there. At the turn-around I checked my watch and made a note of the time so that when I saw dave I could do the math and get a good grasp on what I was dealing with. It was only about 45 seconds before I saw him so I figured I had a minute and a half on him. Not a lot in a half Iron run. And considering I had to go to the bathroom it might prove to be inadequate. Back at the race vanue turnaround I hit the outhouse and was out in about 15 seconds. Cool. I saw Dave and judged I had held my gap. Now for another 10k. I saw Jared closing on Dave and he was not happy. I looked up early in the second lap and saw Jeff Small ahead. I put a target on his back and switched my focus from holding off Dave and Jared to now running down Jeff. I saw Owen Lisa and Brett Hellstedt. Both of them were absolutely crushing the course. They are going to hammer Ironman in a couple of weeks. I kept looking at my watch and seemed to be holding 7:20-7:30 pretty well. This was excellent, I was having a tremendous day. I caught Jeff about halfway out to the turn-around. I thought we might run together for a bit but it was obvious as I went by that Jeff was going his pace. I was pretty pleased to be able to still be running strong this late in the race. I started having some gassy issues and jumped into the outhouse again and took care of that. Without sharing too many details I can tell you that if that stop was part of the race or an event of some sort, I'd have won my age group!. No time to waste so I hit it fairly hard the last three miles to make sure the boys didn't reel me in. I came across the line in 5:01 running 1:40:45. Slower than my '06 time but a better finish overall. I was extremely happy with that! Excellent race, good execution of realistic expectations. I am getting better at this stuff! I finished 13th of 66 in my age group and 72nd overall. I waited for Dave Jared and Jeff to come across the line and didn't waste much time getting into some dry clothes. We all got a bite to eat and then went to the roll down meeting and awards presentation. I never did see Bugbee on the run and found out later that he had some issues and decided to stop after the bike. He's OK I guess and I'm sure he'll be ready to go when Lake Placid rolls around next month.
I had told Dave that if I got a slot to Clearwater I was going to pass on it so he'd have a shot at it. He was 23rd in our age group so it was going to be a long shot. The fifth and final slot in our AG did in fact roll down to me. I passed on it (that was tough!) and it kept rolling down. They got to about 20th and a guy grabbed it. Damn! Dave just missed. I would have loved to have seen him go enjoy that race like I did last year. Well, it wasn't meant to be so we'll try again another time. All things considered I came home from NH feeling more confident that even though I am not quite where I want to be this year regarding my race weight and overall fitness, I can still compete at a high level. And I am going to continue to do just that!
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Polar Bear
I raced today. When I arrived at the race venue I heard some words I hadn't really expected. "Kurt is doing the Du". G-r-e-a-t...... I won this race last year and was looking forward to defending the title so now I was going to be chasing a rabbitt. Super...... It didn't take me long to decide I would try to keep Kurt in my sights for as long as possible. This would accomplish two things. 1). It would be fun to see how much pain it caused me to try to stay with him while he tried to crack me. 2) I would use the process to in turn "crack" the guys I knew were chasing ME.
It all went down about how I expected. Kurt hadn't been feeling well (hence the DU) so I was hopeful he might have a little mercy on us on the first run loop. He decided instead to take it out fast and "see who wanted to play". When we hit the woods about 1/4 mile into it I glanced at my Garmin and saw a number I haven't seen before. We were running a 5:00 pace and I knew my time at this pace was very limited. I said screw it and kept on trucking. As Kurt started to pull away I looked at my pace again and saw I was running 5:49 pace. Now what am I supposed to do with that? Hahahah!!!! He was flying! So I backed it off to a 6:00 pace hoping I could hold it for the rest of the two miles and I really had a hard time dong that. I had effectively "Blown-Up" and was now scraping myself together for a tough rest of the race. My focus turned from keeping Kurt in view to keeping the chase pack at bay. I knew Tim Keene and Jared Buzzell were coming fast so I needed to get my act together in a hurry or I was gong to get shot out the back. I heard some footsteps and was quickly caught by two guys I didn't know. OK Boys, now we're gonna find out whatcha got! I decided to let these guys have it because I knew I could get them on the bike. I came into T1 in 4th place. Fast transition got me riding my bike before the two guys so now I was in second - again. I had an OK bike - faster than Kurt but slower than last year. I never felt great on the bike due in part to my effort on the first run. No problem, I wanted to push really hard today and see how I responded to a near blow-up. I got off the bike and tore out onto the second run. I wasn't wearing socks today - bad choice and I immediately knew that I would be shredding my feet. Nothing felt right but I still busted out of there. The run was slower than last year with some of the chase pack out splitting me. I got to the finish 22 seconds ahead of Jered Buzzell. He simply ran out of real estate as he was closing fast. So I was second, behind Kurt and ahead of Jared. I was pretty pleased overall even though I was slower than last year. It was nice to get out and tear it up. I learned a few things and will become better because I raced today. There were a ton of us there from the Midcoast Triathlon Club and it felt great to have had a part in growing such a great club. It's a great group of people just interested in having a good time and supporting each other at the races.
Mike Caiazzo won the tri. My friends Owen Lisa and Brett Helstedt were 2nd and 3rd respectively. These two guys go at each other every single time they race. I respect that, but what I really like is that they are the best of friends and no matter which one of them comes out on top you can still find them hanging out together after the race. They are doing Ironman CDA next month and you can bet I'll be watching online an rooting for both of them.
Doug Welling was 4th and it sounds like he was right on Brett's heels. Good stuff all the way around. A big shout out to my athlete "Meg". I have been coaching her and she kicked butt today. She trains hard and races hard - I like it!
Thank you to my wife for taking so many pictures today. I know people really like being able to snag a few shots without having to pay for them. She got some great shots today!
That's about it....not usually the way I race but you gotta shake things up now and then and she whatcha' get. Today I got my butt kicked but I kicked a lot of butt too. Comes around, goes around ya' know?
Giddy Up!
It all went down about how I expected. Kurt hadn't been feeling well (hence the DU) so I was hopeful he might have a little mercy on us on the first run loop. He decided instead to take it out fast and "see who wanted to play". When we hit the woods about 1/4 mile into it I glanced at my Garmin and saw a number I haven't seen before. We were running a 5:00 pace and I knew my time at this pace was very limited. I said screw it and kept on trucking. As Kurt started to pull away I looked at my pace again and saw I was running 5:49 pace. Now what am I supposed to do with that? Hahahah!!!! He was flying! So I backed it off to a 6:00 pace hoping I could hold it for the rest of the two miles and I really had a hard time dong that. I had effectively "Blown-Up" and was now scraping myself together for a tough rest of the race. My focus turned from keeping Kurt in view to keeping the chase pack at bay. I knew Tim Keene and Jared Buzzell were coming fast so I needed to get my act together in a hurry or I was gong to get shot out the back. I heard some footsteps and was quickly caught by two guys I didn't know. OK Boys, now we're gonna find out whatcha got! I decided to let these guys have it because I knew I could get them on the bike. I came into T1 in 4th place. Fast transition got me riding my bike before the two guys so now I was in second - again. I had an OK bike - faster than Kurt but slower than last year. I never felt great on the bike due in part to my effort on the first run. No problem, I wanted to push really hard today and see how I responded to a near blow-up. I got off the bike and tore out onto the second run. I wasn't wearing socks today - bad choice and I immediately knew that I would be shredding my feet. Nothing felt right but I still busted out of there. The run was slower than last year with some of the chase pack out splitting me. I got to the finish 22 seconds ahead of Jered Buzzell. He simply ran out of real estate as he was closing fast. So I was second, behind Kurt and ahead of Jared. I was pretty pleased overall even though I was slower than last year. It was nice to get out and tear it up. I learned a few things and will become better because I raced today. There were a ton of us there from the Midcoast Triathlon Club and it felt great to have had a part in growing such a great club. It's a great group of people just interested in having a good time and supporting each other at the races.
Mike Caiazzo won the tri. My friends Owen Lisa and Brett Helstedt were 2nd and 3rd respectively. These two guys go at each other every single time they race. I respect that, but what I really like is that they are the best of friends and no matter which one of them comes out on top you can still find them hanging out together after the race. They are doing Ironman CDA next month and you can bet I'll be watching online an rooting for both of them.
Doug Welling was 4th and it sounds like he was right on Brett's heels. Good stuff all the way around. A big shout out to my athlete "Meg". I have been coaching her and she kicked butt today. She trains hard and races hard - I like it!
Thank you to my wife for taking so many pictures today. I know people really like being able to snag a few shots without having to pay for them. She got some great shots today!
That's about it....not usually the way I race but you gotta shake things up now and then and she whatcha' get. Today I got my butt kicked but I kicked a lot of butt too. Comes around, goes around ya' know?
Giddy Up!
Monday, May 3, 2010
DNF Revisited....
True to form, I have been battling a chest cold for the past week while my first race of the season inches closer. I have rationalized that it isn't a big race, it's the first one of the year, it's only a "DU", bla, bla, bla. But the fact is I won this race a year ago and I consider it my duty to show up and put myself out there. So, as I've begun to "come around" in the last day or so I am now rationalizing again, but this time it's more like, "well, maybe the break was a good thing", "well, I needed to taper (for a sprint DU?)", and my favorite, "I'll just train really hard for the next few days and make up for last week". And so it goes. Bottom line? There's a race Saturday, I'll be there and I'll give it everything I've got and not make any excuses. I can't stand it when people race and then stand around and talk about how they should've done this or that....SO DO IT! Don't tell me about it...DO IT! Give me your best and that's it. End of story. Anyway, I'm starting to rant so I'll switch gears to the real reason I am blogging tonight, my 2008 experience in Lake Placid.
There are a couple of reasons I have decided to reduce this episode to writing, the biggest one being I have a poor memory and it's getting out there aways. Another reason is that I have several friends Racing the Lake Placid Ironman this year and several other friends racing other Ironman races and I want to give them a little motivation for their training ahead and their big day coming up this summer.
We headed to Lake Placid on Thursday before the (Sunday) race. This was to be my second Ironman and I was planning on RACING this time. The first time my goal was to FINISH and I did so in 2006 in fine fashion for a first timer clocking 11:39:39. SO, in '08 I was coming to race, to tear it up, to leave it all out on the course as they say. I had an excellent winter of training and everything was on track until May 16th. We were stripping shingles off a house in Portland that day and I stepped on a nail. I drove a rusty old roofing nail dead center into the ball of my left foot. This injury lasted ten months. I had x-rays, bone scans, you name it. There was nothing wrong structurally with my foot BUT it continued to hurt and hamper my running right up to race day. In the last few weeks leading up to "Placid" I revised my race plan to "swim hard, hammer the bike, try to hang on on the run depending on the foot". Not the best way to go into an Ironman but hey, it was what I had to work with, had to go with it. When we arrived in Lake Placid and checked in to "The Pines" we discovered we were on the fourth floor. No biggie in most places but this is an OLD hotel/inn and there was no elevator. We hit the stairs and (at the time) I didn't really suspect anything was wrong. But looking back I remember how tired I felt climbing those stairs. I should have known something was up. I did all my race prep in the next two days and hit the sack early after a chicken dinner at the hotel. I awoke on race morning a little before the alarm, not because I was ready to go but because I was SICK. I staggered to the bathroom in the dark and then layed down on the nice cool floor. I knew I was in trouble and felt like I was going to pass out so I crawled to the foot of the bed and tugged on my wife's foot to wake her. I then crawled back into the bathroom in time to empty the contents of my body several times (both ends, eeewwwww). This went on for about twenty minutes before I could get back to bed and lay down and assess the situation. Jodi was smart enough to just let me figure out on my own that I would not be racing today. This was not an easy pill to swallow given I had just put my family through eight months of committed training and was watching it go up in smoke at 4am in a hotel room. I sat up on the bed after a few minutes and tried to eat a bagel. It seemed to hold so I layed back down and eyed my wetsuit and special needs bags hanging on the door while I sipped some water. It was about that time that I decided the game wasn't over just yet. I sat up, slid my crocs on, grabbed my wetsuit and kissed my wife goodbye. I told her I was going down to the race in the event I felt better. Sounded like a good idea at the time. I hopped the shuttle and headed for the "Peak" tent when I got intown. The first person I saw was my coach Rob Smith and he took one look at me and said "Dude, you do NOT look good at all". I told him what was up and took a seat to try to figure through things. I was glad to be there even if I WAS sick because I was around people who understood how badly I wanted to race that day. Tim Keene was there and offered his support, that was great.
I'm not sure when I decided that "I'd just do the swim" but by the time my family got to the Peak tent I was in the water at the starting line refusing to take part in my own little nightmare. I figured I would do one loop and see how I felt. Couldn't hurt right? Looking back I'm pretty sure I was running a solid fever at the starting line. The gun went off and I was swimming up front getting pounded into submission when it occurred to me I may have made a mistake. "So what, keep it goin' , see what happens, keep your options open", and so on. I was just taking it easy and was able to swim the first loop without too much trouble but I knew when I got out of the water to start the second loop that it was over. I was feeling worse and there was only one thing left to do.....so I SLAMMED MY GOGGLES ON AND DOVE BACK IN THE WATER!!!! THAT'S WHAT I DID!! BECAUSE I WAS PISSED AND I WASN'T GOING TO LET ANYBODY TELL ME I WAS DONE - NOT EVEN ME!!!!! (I would have loaded that up with the f-bomb for you but my mother reads this and I try to keep it clean)
So, it was only about 100 yards before I REALLY knew I was DONE so I decided I would just swim easy, staying to the outside. About half-way down I couldn't see because my goggles were leaking (I thought), nope, the water was coming from the inside. I hit the beach and stayed to the right. A volunteer immediately identified that something wasn't right with me and asked if I was OK. I told her no, well yes, but NO..."I'm sick , I need to drop out or I'm going to hurt myself".....she told me to step over to the side and asked for my timing chip. It was tough to do I but reached down and tore the velcro strip off, hesitated a minute and then handed it over. DONE, day over, Ironman hopes dashed. I stepped around the competitors and had to work my way through the wetsuit stripping area. As I walked, wondering how things could be worse, I was whacked in the head by a stripped wetsuit. The thing wrapped right around my head and slapped me like a wet towel. When they unwound it I just broke out laughing and kept walking. As I walked trought the chute I could see the Peak tent up on the hill and my wife and daughter scanning the crowd for me. They spotted me and I continued to make my way out of the chute. Not fun.
As I walked up the road toward the tent, wetsuit peeled halfway, I spotted Bailey running toward me. She gave me a big hug and I said "ya' know how I always tell you "don't expect life to be fair?"....."this is what I mean". I carried her up to the tent and I sat down to begin accepting what had just happened. I saw Tim Keene again and I remember him being close enough to let me know he was there but far enough away to respect the fact that I was in the middle of swallowing a big pill and needed a little space. Everyone at the tent was great and I am fortunate to have them as friends. I'm glad I started this race. It wasn't the smartest thing to do but I learned a lot during those two swim loops. I learned that in the end, it's just a race. I learned that I never give up. I learned that it's possible to do the dumbest thing ever and the smartest thing ever in the same day. I learned that I care less about a DNF than I care about a "did not start". I learned that life isn't always about who gets there first (or even at all), it has a lot more to do with how you conduct yourself along the way.
So I settled into my big fat "Did Not Finish" and I accepted it with pride. Proud that I tried, proud that I trained hard and proud I that toed the line with some world class athletes. I headed back to the room for most of the day (101 temp) and followed the race online checking in on my friends every 5 minutes. Around 4:30 my fever broke and I was able to go back down to the tent and cheer on my friends and was fortunate enough to see Dave Brackett complete his first IM. I was thrilled for him. He is one of the people that will be doing Placid this year and I wish him the best. I hope all my friends have a great day, and if for some reason, things don't go as planned, or you hit a bump in the road, give this story a thought or two. Pull it from the back of your mind and ask yourself if YOU are ready to give up yet. I know your answer will be NO and that you will press on. I'll be pulling for you. As I always say - Lace 'em up tight, take no prisoners.
BT
There are a couple of reasons I have decided to reduce this episode to writing, the biggest one being I have a poor memory and it's getting out there aways. Another reason is that I have several friends Racing the Lake Placid Ironman this year and several other friends racing other Ironman races and I want to give them a little motivation for their training ahead and their big day coming up this summer.
We headed to Lake Placid on Thursday before the (Sunday) race. This was to be my second Ironman and I was planning on RACING this time. The first time my goal was to FINISH and I did so in 2006 in fine fashion for a first timer clocking 11:39:39. SO, in '08 I was coming to race, to tear it up, to leave it all out on the course as they say. I had an excellent winter of training and everything was on track until May 16th. We were stripping shingles off a house in Portland that day and I stepped on a nail. I drove a rusty old roofing nail dead center into the ball of my left foot. This injury lasted ten months. I had x-rays, bone scans, you name it. There was nothing wrong structurally with my foot BUT it continued to hurt and hamper my running right up to race day. In the last few weeks leading up to "Placid" I revised my race plan to "swim hard, hammer the bike, try to hang on on the run depending on the foot". Not the best way to go into an Ironman but hey, it was what I had to work with, had to go with it. When we arrived in Lake Placid and checked in to "The Pines" we discovered we were on the fourth floor. No biggie in most places but this is an OLD hotel/inn and there was no elevator. We hit the stairs and (at the time) I didn't really suspect anything was wrong. But looking back I remember how tired I felt climbing those stairs. I should have known something was up. I did all my race prep in the next two days and hit the sack early after a chicken dinner at the hotel. I awoke on race morning a little before the alarm, not because I was ready to go but because I was SICK. I staggered to the bathroom in the dark and then layed down on the nice cool floor. I knew I was in trouble and felt like I was going to pass out so I crawled to the foot of the bed and tugged on my wife's foot to wake her. I then crawled back into the bathroom in time to empty the contents of my body several times (both ends, eeewwwww). This went on for about twenty minutes before I could get back to bed and lay down and assess the situation. Jodi was smart enough to just let me figure out on my own that I would not be racing today. This was not an easy pill to swallow given I had just put my family through eight months of committed training and was watching it go up in smoke at 4am in a hotel room. I sat up on the bed after a few minutes and tried to eat a bagel. It seemed to hold so I layed back down and eyed my wetsuit and special needs bags hanging on the door while I sipped some water. It was about that time that I decided the game wasn't over just yet. I sat up, slid my crocs on, grabbed my wetsuit and kissed my wife goodbye. I told her I was going down to the race in the event I felt better. Sounded like a good idea at the time. I hopped the shuttle and headed for the "Peak" tent when I got intown. The first person I saw was my coach Rob Smith and he took one look at me and said "Dude, you do NOT look good at all". I told him what was up and took a seat to try to figure through things. I was glad to be there even if I WAS sick because I was around people who understood how badly I wanted to race that day. Tim Keene was there and offered his support, that was great.
I'm not sure when I decided that "I'd just do the swim" but by the time my family got to the Peak tent I was in the water at the starting line refusing to take part in my own little nightmare. I figured I would do one loop and see how I felt. Couldn't hurt right? Looking back I'm pretty sure I was running a solid fever at the starting line. The gun went off and I was swimming up front getting pounded into submission when it occurred to me I may have made a mistake. "So what, keep it goin' , see what happens, keep your options open", and so on. I was just taking it easy and was able to swim the first loop without too much trouble but I knew when I got out of the water to start the second loop that it was over. I was feeling worse and there was only one thing left to do.....so I SLAMMED MY GOGGLES ON AND DOVE BACK IN THE WATER!!!! THAT'S WHAT I DID!! BECAUSE I WAS PISSED AND I WASN'T GOING TO LET ANYBODY TELL ME I WAS DONE - NOT EVEN ME!!!!! (I would have loaded that up with the f-bomb for you but my mother reads this and I try to keep it clean)
So, it was only about 100 yards before I REALLY knew I was DONE so I decided I would just swim easy, staying to the outside. About half-way down I couldn't see because my goggles were leaking (I thought), nope, the water was coming from the inside. I hit the beach and stayed to the right. A volunteer immediately identified that something wasn't right with me and asked if I was OK. I told her no, well yes, but NO..."I'm sick , I need to drop out or I'm going to hurt myself".....she told me to step over to the side and asked for my timing chip. It was tough to do I but reached down and tore the velcro strip off, hesitated a minute and then handed it over. DONE, day over, Ironman hopes dashed. I stepped around the competitors and had to work my way through the wetsuit stripping area. As I walked, wondering how things could be worse, I was whacked in the head by a stripped wetsuit. The thing wrapped right around my head and slapped me like a wet towel. When they unwound it I just broke out laughing and kept walking. As I walked trought the chute I could see the Peak tent up on the hill and my wife and daughter scanning the crowd for me. They spotted me and I continued to make my way out of the chute. Not fun.
As I walked up the road toward the tent, wetsuit peeled halfway, I spotted Bailey running toward me. She gave me a big hug and I said "ya' know how I always tell you "don't expect life to be fair?"....."this is what I mean". I carried her up to the tent and I sat down to begin accepting what had just happened. I saw Tim Keene again and I remember him being close enough to let me know he was there but far enough away to respect the fact that I was in the middle of swallowing a big pill and needed a little space. Everyone at the tent was great and I am fortunate to have them as friends. I'm glad I started this race. It wasn't the smartest thing to do but I learned a lot during those two swim loops. I learned that in the end, it's just a race. I learned that I never give up. I learned that it's possible to do the dumbest thing ever and the smartest thing ever in the same day. I learned that I care less about a DNF than I care about a "did not start". I learned that life isn't always about who gets there first (or even at all), it has a lot more to do with how you conduct yourself along the way.
So I settled into my big fat "Did Not Finish" and I accepted it with pride. Proud that I tried, proud that I trained hard and proud I that toed the line with some world class athletes. I headed back to the room for most of the day (101 temp) and followed the race online checking in on my friends every 5 minutes. Around 4:30 my fever broke and I was able to go back down to the tent and cheer on my friends and was fortunate enough to see Dave Brackett complete his first IM. I was thrilled for him. He is one of the people that will be doing Placid this year and I wish him the best. I hope all my friends have a great day, and if for some reason, things don't go as planned, or you hit a bump in the road, give this story a thought or two. Pull it from the back of your mind and ask yourself if YOU are ready to give up yet. I know your answer will be NO and that you will press on. I'll be pulling for you. As I always say - Lace 'em up tight, take no prisoners.
BT
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