Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Stamford KIC IT Triathlon

Here is what I liked about this race:
  • Raised over $140K for Kids in Crisis charity... very impresive.
  • Fastest bike split of the day was done by a 37 year old mom... amazing.
  • This cool Black and White photo (thats me #6)
Here is what I didn't like:
  • The swim, and there only being a foot of water over about a third of the course. The bottom was rocky, sharp, and dangerous. Numerous foot injuries occured, many went to the hospital, some people seasons are completely over.
  • The whole two different transitions thingy... just too much of a hassle.
  • The heat. But thats nobody's fault... I just can't run fast in the heat.
Here is photo of the Elite Wave start. That's me on the right, and Kristin 3rd from the right kind of hunched over. We had to run all the way to the first buoy before it was deep enough to start swimming.
Same on the way back out of the water. Here is a good photo of Kristin running back to the beach.

Ended up having a decent bike split, I was holding back a little because of the heat so I could have something left for the run. It didn't work. As soon as I started running I realized that I had nothing. I gave it all I had, but was still miserably slow (7:34 pace per mile). I came off the bike in 5th place, and dropped back to 21st place overall by the time I crossed the finish line.
Results HERE
Immediately after the finish line I went to the misting station to try to start cooling down, and watched the medic tent slowly start to overflow with bloody feet and shoes. I knew my feet were in bad shape, but I didnt feel like dealing with the mob scene going on there. So I just kept my shoes on until we got home.
Once home, Kristin started performing a little "home surgery". Opening multiple cuts with tweezers, flushing them out with water, scrubbing them with a toothbrush, applying alcohol. Disgusting and very painful. Had to bite on a towel at one point. My left foot in particular was pretty shredded. Fortunately nothing was too deep. I could have probably used stiches in two spots, but the butteryfly strips and bandaging seemed to be holding... So we just went with that. Here is what my foot looked like the next day.

Going stay off my feet for a while to get this healed up. Tossing around the idea of swiming across the Great South Bay of LI this weekend. From Fire Island (Davis Park) to Sayville, about 4-5 miles. We'll see if I can figure out how to do it safely and with a support crew, and if the body is up for it closer to the date. Like 50/50 right now.

Friday, June 25, 2010

XTERRA East Championship

This was one of my "A" races of the year... I'd had my mind on this race for a long time, and was the first race of the year that I really wanted to do well at. Unfortunately the weather was too warm and humid for me to be my most competitive. Heat has never been my freind, and being a bigger guy, my body can't cool itself like the majority of skinny guys I compete against. I've learnt about my body in the heat the hard way, like DNF'ing at last years Florida 70.3, and Darkhorse 40 in 90+ degree temps... Both big learning experiences. So I threw away my original strategy, and just went for one of survival. My goal was just to finish, not have to visit the Medic tent, and be coherent enough to drive the 7 hours back home immediately after the race... solo.

Here is a map of the race course... The transition area is basically in downtown Richmond! This is one town I would not mind living in at all.

Coming out of the water at the end of the 1K swim leg... Was fun swimming in moderate current and dodging river rocks, but not the best swim time for me. I'm still not swimming that well this year. No wetsuits allowed because of the warm water temps, but I did wear booties on my feet to protect from debries on the river bottom, the 100 meter trail run at the halfway point of the swim, and the long run back up to T1. (I did a test in the pool earlier in the week, swimming in booties slow me down by about 20 seconds per 500yds... small price to pay to ensure your feet are still intact at the end of a swim like this!!!)Heading out of T1 and on to the 25K bike course... the trails are awesome, never a dull moment on the bike. I went through my 100oz camelbak, and large frame bottle, and could have still used more water... (was also taking salt/electrolyte blocks, and a gel)
Back from the bike in T2, I swapped hydration packs for the 10K run , this time using my Nathan 2 liter running specific pack, with 10oz of perpetuem, and more salt/electrolite blocks. Finished the contents with about a mile to go in the race... It was getting really hot, and there was no shade for the first half of the course... I've never drank this much in any race before, but it worked for me, and actually could have used more. I was probably abouty 10lbs lighter at the finish than at the start!!!
Mission accomplished. Finshed strong, no medic tent, and ready to tackle the drive up I95.
I ended up 7th in my Age Group with a time of 2:29:15. Earned a bunch of qualifying points towards XTERRA Nationals, and still ranked 2nd in the Northeast, after David who's in 1st, had a great race here, qualified for Worlds in Maui, but most importantly, made is debut in one of my many pointless videos (see below)...
I took this video with this camera standing in the middle of the James river. Awesome.



This race is definately going on the calendar next year. Who's coming with me?!?!

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Ironclad Triathlon


K and I saw that this race was close by, and had a pretty nice cash prize for top 5 males and females... So we thought we'd give it a try. We both raced in the Pro/Elite Wave which was nice. It was a wave of 15 people that started a few minutes ahead of the Age Group waves. Which were several waves of 100 plus people in each.

I was expecting to be able to stick with the lead pack on the swim, but I saw pretty quickly that wasn't going to happen... Maybe if I had been in the water more than twice this year I would have had a chance. I lost over 2 mins to the lead pack, which is pretty significant over a 1000yd swim. I was 8th out of the water.

A steep run up to transition, then out onto the bike without any issue. The bike was two loops totaling about 12 miles... I had the 8th fastest bike split of the day, passing 2 people to put me into 5th place, and into the money. (avg. speed 22.7)

Then came the run which was very xterra style, tight twisty single track almost the whole way. I felt better and better every mile, and posted the 13th fastest run split of the race (including relays), and fastest in my age group... Very exciting for me. I got passed 100yds from the finish putting me back into 6th place and out of the money... But was so happy with my running, that I didn't really care.

Kristin suffered the same fate. The prize money brought out all the female sprint specialist, and she finished in 6th place... No doubt she would have chased most of them down in a longer event.

Team PowerShot = 1st overall relay. and first time James Racer X Brittan has had a faster swim split that me. Don't worry James, I've been in the pool twice a week since this race, and that will not happen again.