Plan:
· Swim: Go out reasonably hard and get some separation, then settle into fast-but-not-ludicrous pace. I expect to be the fastest swimmer there unless some mid- to high-level pro from out of town shows up or a college swimmer w/ weak bike & run shows up.
· Bike: Take the first 5 minutes a bit easy. Get into my shoes and start eating/drinking right away. Then settle in and shoot for my goal time of sub-2:30. Stand up frequently to keep muscles loose. Get water or Gatorade at each of the three aid stations. Eat at least one of the two clif bars that I'm carrying along.
· Run: Go out relaxed for the first 1-2 miles. Eat gel as soon as possible to prevent the same situation that I had at Wildflower (a bit of bonking in miles 3-6). Get water/ade at every aid station. Stay cool.
Execution:
· Swim: I went out at the front of my group and quickly had a gap. As I moved through the 7:06am wave (I was in the 7:09am wave) somebody came around me from my wave! I got on his feet for awhile but he eventually got a gap and I let him go. It is a long race and I don't need to win the swim. I'm glad I let him go - he turned out to be Luke Bell. My split was 25:12, second overall behind Luke's 24:03.
· Bike: I was relaxed for the first few minutes, got some accelerade in and started passing the guys from the waves ahead of me who had managed to hold me off in the swim. I tried to stay relaxed and aero as I cranked up the watts. I was passing guys like they were standing still - kind of a new experience for me on the bike as I'm usually in the first wave. My first few time checks told me that I was going in the neighborhood of 24mph, but the spacing of those mile markers on the course can be off, and it may have been downhill. The third check was closer to 20mph and the third was closer to 30, but that stretch was hilly.
As I hit mile 14, I saw a penalty tent and what I assumed was the aid station. I yelled "Water?" and two volunteers grabbed 500ML plastic water bottles from a can and held them out. I didn't get close enough to them and only succeeded in knocking a bottle to the ground. I still had a bit more than half of my initial 1 accelerade + 1 gatorade so I figured I could hold out until mile 28.
Around mile 21, Ryan Milton of Australia passed me going up a hill. I worked a bit harder to stay near him before losing sight near the end of the first loop. I grabbed a fresh bike bottle full of water from the end-of-lap aid station from an excellent volunteer who ran alongside me during the hand-off. I checked my watch and saw roughly a 1:12-1:13 first lap. Excellent.
I started the second loop feeling a bit depleted from the chase. I guessed I was 1-2 minutes behind my first lap pace at the 5-mile mark. And it got worse in the hills. I'd lost sight of the Aussie (who I figured was my big competition at this point) and was getting kind of down. But I rallied a bit near Lake Roessinger thanks to a descent, passing a few folks to boost my morale, and knowing that my parents would be on the side of the road up ahead.
I got a bottle at the third aid station (mile 42), saw my dad on the side of the road, and sped down Dubuque… I actually saw Milton again on the mile-49 hill and realized that I could win this race. It was a bit intimidating to have that knowledge, but I went after it.
I got passed by a new guy on Machias and headed to the Machias Cutoff hill with some work to do. But halfway up my right hamstring started cramping. I had already fought off a few wannabe-cramps but this one kicked in and locked up my leg. I was barely able to clip out and get off my bike to stretch it out. I climbed on again and tried to baby it a bit. It almost-cramped a time or two and then was okay. I'd lost the two guys ahead of me, but I kept to a moderate-to-strong pace to set up my run. On the final approach, I mixed up some relaxed/aero position and some standing. Then I undid my shoes and it was go time. Bike split was 2:29.
· Run: Going into T2, I was told that I was in roughly 5th-7th position, depending who I believed. But I knew that many of those were from the 7:00am wave. I went out smooth, relaxed, and fearful about leg cramps. I'd finished all my liquids on the bike (40oz water, 20oz accelarde, 20oz Gatorade) but felt I probably needed more salt on the hot day. Coming up on the 0.5 mile left turn, I saw my two tormentors from the bike joining up and starting to run together. It felt like I was gaining on them but I tried to stick to a relaxed, fast pace. I grabbed a gel at mile one, drank a sip of water and dumped the rest over my head. During the second mile, I did two time-checks and saw them drop from 40 seconds up to 20 seconds up. I turned down a gel at mile 2 ('cause I'd just finished one) but drank Gatorade and dumped water - something I did at almost every aid station the rest of the way. I passed the pair of 20-something runners around mile 2.5 and kicked it up just a little to keep them from grabbing on. I went by mile three around 19:00 and was happy with how things were going. I still feared cramps and was a bit fatigued, but I was plugging away at a good pace without feeling like I was pushing too hard.
The second half of the loop was an out-and-back, so I was looking for 70.3 competitors amongst the crowds of International Distance racers. It was pretty easy to pick 'em out - the first I was an incredibly relaxed- and comfortable-looking Luke Bell. I timed 5:10 between him and the turnaround, so assuming he was in the 7am wave (I hadn't recognized him as Luke) he was 1:20 ahead of me. The second guy was 1:30 behind me, based on the same math, plus Steve Bailey at 6+ min behind me. So the leader looked tough to catch but I was holding second. Woohoo!
I finished the first loop at about 42 minutes. Excellent! But I was continuing to run near the red line and just hoped that I could pound out another 6.55 miles. I came upon a guy who looked a lot like Ryan Milton and wondered if I'd mistaken him the time before. But I caught this guy over the course of a mile and saw that he was 35 years old - somebody else. I started seeking gel at aid stations but didn't see any. I kept drinking Gatorade at each station, plus a little water, and dumping water on my head. I think that I started the out-and-back around 4:02 - and I saw my dad cheering for me on the sideline!
I saw Luke less than a mile after that and knew that he had picked up a lot of time, so second place was my target. Just tough it out for 3 more miles… I hit the final turnaround (1.6 miles to go) at 4:14:30 and started a nice uphill grade - my crampy legs felt better going up hills. I finally saw gels at this turnaround aid station but thought, "yay, a lot of good that does at this point. I'm already done with the race." But as I hit the top of the hill - 1.25 miles to go, maybe - my legs started cramping again. Badly. I had seen a few guys 2-4 minutes behind me at the turnaround so I knew that I just needed to hang on. But my right calf started seizing up and I could only move forward by shuffling. Running or walking made it seize up. I stopped to stretch it out and was passed by a first-lapper who wasn't moving very fast. Grrrr… I got going again at like an 8-9 minute pace, just hoping to hang on. It took me 15 minutes to cover those last 1.6 miles. Of course two guys from the 7:09am wave passed me as I was hobbling through the last mile *and* 1-2 guys from the 7am wave ended up with slightly better times than mine. Next time I need to take salt tablets and more gels. Grrr…
My run split was 1:33. Total time 4:29:31. I took sixth overall, but if I could have finished the run at all then third (4:27) was mine and second (4:25) was possible. Luke put up a 4:08 to win by 17 minutes.
