©2009 Clarke Rodgers/SPORTZFOTO.com

GOALS:
* Top 6 Overall
* Hit my nutrition plan
* Be more conservative on the swim and bike
* Set a higher cadence on the bike
* Have a solid run
* 3:58 – 4:04 overall time depending on conditions

ACTUAL:
Place: 15th
Time: 04:27:45
Swim Time/Place: 26:54 / 14th
Bike Time/Place: 2:31:42 /  16th
Run Time/Place: 1:22:54 / 8th

PRE-RACE:
Going into this race I knew that my fitness and gumption was fading fast and that I needed a mid-season break and a solid rebase period.  I was hoping to just hold on for one more race and have a solid result before kicking off the second half of the season but it wasn’t in the cards.  Aside from my fading fitness I made some mistakes and had a bit of bad luck that culminated into a major meltdown and a good learning experience. 

Jen, Clarke, and I left Charlotte, NC on Friday morning and drove to a hotel about 3 hrs away from the race venue and spent the night.  On Friday we arrived at the expo at around 1:30pm to find that my race number was “lucky number 13”.  I’m not very superstitious but the number selection is pretty funny after the fact.  I had planned on biking and running to check out the course but didn’t have much time left so decided to just drive the run course and head back to the house to spend some time with our families.  We had quite the crew in for the weekend and it was great to see everyone: my parents, sister Sarah, and grandma along with Jen’s parents and brother Bert.  As I was putting my bike together at the house I realized that I made a very bonehead move…….I brought two rear wheels.  Let the games begin.  I was a bit panicked as I didn’t have a front wheel to ride on but at the pro meeting I talked with the race director and he put me in touch with Jeff who was nice enough to give me one of his training wheels to ride during the race.  It wasn’t my Zipp 808 but you know what they say……beggars can’t be choosers.  I got back to the house with my wheel in hand and went for a short bike ride to test everything out.  We had a great pasta dinner with our families and hung out before heading to bed at 10pm.  For some reason I woke up at 1am and couldn’t fall back asleep so only got 3 hrs of sleep for the night.  I think this may have played a role in my lack of motivation later in the day.  After the usual morning routine we made it to the race site and I got my transition area together and started my 1 mile trek to the swim start.

SWIM:
The logistics of this race were interesting in that you had to walk one mile on the beach from the transition area to the swim start.  I decided to jog the mile instead since I wanted to get my swim warmup in.  I got to the swim start with plenty of time and got in a short warmup and came out of the water to stretch before heading back out.  When I was putting my goggles back on they broke and I just couldn’t believe it.  I went back to the race director and asked for help yet again and he got on the microphone and a very nice older man handed me his spare pair of goggles.

We lined up for the swim start on the beach and we were off.  I sprinted to get a good position and dolphin dived my way to a top position as we turned the first buoy.  I knew this wouldn’t last but it helps to be able to choose which feet to sit on.  Guys were passing me one by one and I couldn’t hang onto anyone’s feet.  My right shoulder was overly tight and I didn’t feel like I could apply much power to the water.  Eventually I was left to swim by myself as the gaps grew bigger and bigger.  Throughout the remainder of the swim I had a very tough time sighting as the sun was directly in our eyes and my goggles were a big fogged up.  The doubts were creeping into my head during the swim and this was just the beginning of the mental and physical unraveling.  I exited the water in 26:45 but knew that it was not a good swim and that I would need to make up quite a bit of ground on the bike.

BIKE:
I hopped on my bike and tried to settle into a good cadence and rhythm.  My HR was static at 170 bpm for the first few miles and I tried to bring it down but realized that I had been passed by the lead woman during the swim and could see her up the road but wasn’t making any ground on her on the bike.  I tried to lift my intensity because I knew I should be able to close that gap much faster and my hamstrings, glutes, and lower back started to give me quite a bit of discomfort.  I eventually passed the lead woman and could see a rider up the road but again wasn’t closing the gap.  We had the wind at our back for the first 10 miles but my splits were about 10 seconds per mile slower than I was expecting.  At about mile 15 Bates came by me so I put in an effort to try and salvage this bike ride but my body wasn’t cooperating today.  The rest of the ride I just tried to stay fairly comfortable and my pace and HR slowly faded to the point that I was riding recovery effort.  I ended up getting passed by the top five women over the last 10 miles which added a bit of salt to the wound.  My stomach was giving me some issues in the last 30 mins of the bike so when I entered transition I stopped at the porto to take care of business.  I went to rack my bike and talked with Jen and my family a bit since they were concerned about my well being.  I told them that I was a bit overcooked and just wanted to finish the race and told them to go enjoy the beach.

RUN:
Once I hit the run my legs actually felt okay.  I took in a couple of gels in the last 30 mins of the bike so maybe that lit the match again.  I started off the run hitting 5:30s and 5:40s and these would eventually slow to around 6:00s.  I tried to keep my HR around 170 bpm for as long as I could because I wanted to at least get some race intensity experience in the bank for later races.  Over the course of the run my HR would slowly fade from the 170s to the 160s and eventually over the last 4 miles it would drift to the 150s and 140s.  The last 2 miles my legs hurt so bad that I could barely get them to move any faster than 8 min miles.  I completely fell apart and was in quite a bit of pain while coming down the finishing chute.  I was quite disappointed about how the day ended up but you have to fail every once in a while to really appreciate the successes.