race

Race Report: Treasure Island Olympic Triathlon

November 13: I had stopped training after the Big Kahuna Half Ironman in early September but I continued to exercise. On average I was swimming about 2-3 times per week and running/biking once or twice per week. Russ, a training partner and former student of mine, and I had this idea that we would race Treasure Island, with each of us sticking to certain conditions. I was not allowed to train for the race and he would go out and drink heavily the night before the race and we would see which of us hurt more. Russ never even made it to start line. Besides not training, I had a couple of other setbacks before the race. One week prior, I spent a night in the emergency room with an inflamed pancreas and severe abdominal pain. But I was soon in la la land and getting the rest I needed when the doctor started the morphine drip. Four days before the race, I caught a cold which eventually left me the day before the race. Not ideal race preparation but that's been my story the last three months. The swim start was calm and I found myself in the top three swimming side by side with a mate I usually race against. After 400 meters or so, I knew I was going too hard for my fitness and that swimming next to him would only cause me to do his race. I eventually pulled back and swam my own race. After the first of two loops, I felt my calves starting to cramp, a sign that I was not a. in race shape and b. not taking full breaths and c. racing above my fitness. I slowed down again and was resigned to seeing a disappointingly slow swim split. I emerged and saw 23:18 or so which is about 3 minutes off my normal swim time but I heard the course was a tad long. Running to the bike, my legs were cramping (as expected...I always cramp when I'm not in racing shape) and I took deep breaths to get some oxygen to the muscles. Starting the ride, I felt pretty darn good. The bike is 6 loops with lots of turns and I loved all the cornering. It was like doing a crit but without all the crazy packs and drafting and bike crashes. I loved the multiple laps because it was like XMAS every time you started a new loop because you got to see your split and see how you were doing. In fact, I was gaining time on the first place guy, each time we crossed, I was making up ground. I got so into the cornering and the racing that I forgot to count laps, yikes! I was so desperate that I tried shouting at the first place guy as he went by me if we had one more lap, like he would tell me anyways. I concluded that it's better to do an extra lap than be short a lap because I can always argue and try to subtract a lap time if I needed to since they were tracking our lap splits. But my risk was correct and I did the correct number of laps. As I arrived to T2, both of my legs siezed up and I was standing by my bike unable to bend or move my legs to put my running shoes on. Once again, I took deep breaths moved ever so delicately to put my shoes on which gave the third place guy who was over one minute down to catch up and leave T2 next to me. Starting the run, I was definitely doing the ironman, sitting back on my butt, run. I'm sure it looked ugly and slow. The third place guy went by me and I sized him up. He looked a bit thick and I thought that if I come to life, I should be able to outrun this guy. My gait started to come around and I passed him at the mile 1 mark. I heard his breathing behind me for the next two miles and right after the turnaround, he made a move. I reacted and repassed him thinking, damn it, it's going to be a race for the entire 10K. Knowing I had no speed, my plan was to wear him down as much as I could and hope that he would break. I put in about 3 surges and he responded each time. With about half a mile to go, he made a huge breakaway and I was tired from my surges (my plan ended up wearing me out more than him) and I let him go. Then suddenly, I decided to react and started to pull him back in but I soon ran out of real estate. As I began to slow down again, I hear a guy with his finishing kick and I picked it up to finish right ahead of him. I snuck in for the final podium spot, just 6 seconds behind the second place guy. I'll take that. It was a great day of racing and I found myself enjoying it so much, even the pain. Also, my friend Kathy, who I've known since high school, did her first triathlon after taking a 4-5 year break due to injuries, and she wound up 5th in her age group. Team Zoom did quite well putting 4 of 6 guys on the podium. I'm totally content with this being my last race of the season.