race

The better the training, the more the anxiety. Going into this race, I knew I was the fittest I've been all season, putting in some great speed sessions. Ironic then, that I was most worried going into this race. I think it's natural when you invest so much time and energy into something, you want to reap the benefits and be rewarded; in this case, with a good race result. But being in sport all too long, I know there are no guarantees when it comes to racing. Just because you put the work and training in doesn't always mean you have a good outcome. Basically, race week is as much mental as it is physical. Being religious seems to be advantageous because you are practicing a lot of faith and optimism. My week started off with some anxiety like what if I have an off day, what if I flat, or what if a meteor falls out of the sky and lands on me? But my faith and optimism came through as the week progress and I really had a sense of calm in the days leadig up to the race. I had a good swim, not a great swim. I just didn't feel as peppy and as powerful as I normally do. But mentally, I was always in race mode and trying to improve the situation. Onto the bike, I thought I was sitting in 2nd or 3rd in my wave. The plan was to hammer the bike pushing big gears and maintain 80-90 rpms. I saw my buddy Pete come into T1 as I was leaving so I figured I had 30 seconds on him or so. Through the first part of the bike, I was expecting Pete to come flying by me. I knew I was having a decent ride because every time I expected Pete to come on me, he didn't. Sure enough, he finally passed me and my goal was to keep him in sight the remainder of the ride but not at the sake of blowing up. As I tried to keep Pete in sight, I passed about 2-3 guys in my wave, and I was a bit shocked at how many good swimmers were in the field today. The invisible thread between Pete and I slowly got longer and longer and I knew I would blow if I rode any harder. Finally the thread broke. Coming into the only climb of the course, a guy went flying by me but I was very confident in my climbing. I left it in the big ring and hammered up the hill repassing him early in the climb. But once we got to the flats heading back to T2, I knew I couldn't hold off the ginormous quads on that guy. With about 5 miles to go, not only did he pass me but one other guy, Tim, who always finishes ahead of me. I was bummed because one of my goals was to hold Tim off until the run. So now I was sitting in 4th or 5th place. Off the bike, I wasn't feeling that great on the run and mentally, I kind of left race mode. But a wake-up call from Jay, the owner of PacWest Athletics, got me right back into it. I was with a group of 4 guys and they all pulled away from me but I slowly pulled them back in and slowly pulled away. From that point on, mentally, I felt like this was my best effort on the run to date. I may not know how to pace myself for an ironman but I take pride in being able to redline it for a 10K. The only problem was that unbeknownst to us racers, the run was a 12K! Yes, they measured the course wrong. So here I am redlining so that I would be totally spent at 10K or the finish and when the 10K came rolling around, I was still running. And now it was like an ironman in that I had to go into crisis management mode. I had run myself into third place and a podium and I knew second was not obtainable. And since I was bonking, my plan was to slow the pace down, try to recover and have something to react to a possible pass from behind. I have to say that last mile was a death march. I was in a whole lot of hurt and fear of losing my podium finish. But once I crossed the bridge, I knew I was about 800 meters from the finish and I didn't see anyone near me from behind. I put myself in jog mode and looking at the race pics, you can totally tell I was in jog mode. I was disappointed that the course was measured wrong because I really wanted to see if I could come close to my PR on this course which is a 1:56 or so. But I also know it's really hard to compare times from year to year as conditions is such an important factor in times. I consider the race to be a success and better yet, I got a free entry thanks to Taylor over at skincareforathletes.com