Lake Placid Mini-Triathlon
July 21, 2008 6:40pm
400yrds/12miles/3miles
==========================
Pre-race
========
After a LONG and WET day yesterday watching IMUSA from 7am - midnight (up at 4am, in
bed at 1am, and with a volunteer shift as a bike catcher in the mud and rain from
2:45-5:30pm), I had a lazy day just sitting, snoozing, and reading. It rained for a
couple of hrs early afternoon, and I felt depressed about more rain, but then it cleared
up and was a lovely afternoon and evening, sunny but not too hot. I got down to Mirror
Lake Beach early at 4pm and I sat in the sun and read some more. I assembled my bike @
5pm and went for a short spin - the legs did not have much jump. Once the High Peaks
Cyclery crew, Brian and his gang, arrived and setup the t-zone and registration, i
registered and got the best transition spot, right at the swim in/bike out/in/run out
gate! No racks, we laid our bikes out on the grass. I decided for a simple race, no
contact lenses (so i would swim a little blind), just a little bit of water on the bike,
no elastics on the bike shoes, and do the race in a bike jersey (it was really all i had
left from using nearly all my clothing yesterday and most of it was still all wet). I
ate a Clif Bar @ 5:40pm, and just before getting into my wetsuite @ 6:20pm I did a short
yoga sun-salutation routine. I was relaxed and happy and was just going to go have fun
in this race, not go hard at all. I did a short swim warmup, just enough to loosen up.
Swim
====
I seeded myself towards the back of the pack, and it was a mass start. Lots of
thrashing arms and legs, but i managed to stay clear of the worst of it, and I picked up
a draft for a minute or two. Then, as I got into my groove, I lost my draft because i
was now passing people (who'd started with a too much of a rush). To the turn-around
buoy, and I now led a train to the beach.
T1
==
I called out my bib #207 as instructed, and I walked to my bike (I needed the time to
get my wetsuite off). I put my glasses on so now i could see, and quickly I was running
out onto the bike course.
Bike
====
I had a bit of difficulty getting my feet onto my shoes cuz they were spinning freely,
but not as much difficulty as a guy beside me with a solid rear wheel on his bike. He
dropped behind me and it took a couple of minutes before he came steaming past me. I
settled into a steady pace along Mirror Lake drive, and I did not push hard up over the
Northwood Rd hill. Luck was with me at the Hwy #86 junction as there was no traffic so
I didn't have to stop. I cruised/flew down the Bears and Cherries hills, a couple of
people passed me, and then we turned onto River Rd. I managed to pass a couple of more
people and take a couple of sips from my water bottle. On the climb back on Hwy #73
towards town I was spinning easily in low gear, in aero position, and a guy came past
me, working REALLY hard. I nearly passed him back at the top of the hill at the horse
stables, and again at the Hwy #86 junction I made up ground on him over the top of the
hill. I kept my pace easy and I didn't push hard on the bike at all. But on the bad
news side, I could feel tighness in my ribs and stomach, harbinger of a side-stitch that
I figured would appear on the run. Back onto Mirror Lake Drive I stretched out calfs
and legs. A good bike ride.
T2
==
I put on socks cuz my shoes were still soaked from yesterday. A quick transition
though.
Run
===
I started the run just behind the biker i'd been chasing on the uphills, and he quickly
pulled ahead of me. My legs felt good and loose, but I stuck to my "do not kill myself
today" plan and let him go. Within a couple of minutes he started coming back to me and
I soon passed him. I settled in to a good pace quickly , and i just ran. As expected,
the side-stitch came, not bad. I did some hard breathing out to try to get rid of it,
but that didn't really work. I found I could manage it, so I just ignored it and ran.
Just past Northwood Rd we turned off Mirror Lake Drive onto a dirt road that was a long,
gentle uphill to the run turnaround. Ahead of me I could see two runners - one in white
and one in yellow, that I was slowly gaining on. I felt good, no tiredness in the legs
and the side-stitch was just there, but notaffecting my breathing or pace. Around the
run-turnaround (that came quickly!) and I picked up the pace just a bit down the hill in
an attempt to catch yellow-jersey. Back onto Mirror Lake Drive, 1.5km to go, and I was
within 20m of him now. The pace was getting tough to maintain now. I was closing so
slowly with him, I thought that even if if I did catch him, I couldn't pass him in a
rush and he was sure to match me. White-jersey was also coming back to us, so I focused
on catching him. With just a few 100m to go, I closed to within 5m of yellow-jersey,
and then he glanced back, and surged away from me. I couldn't match him (and didn't
want to try, I remembered my plan for this race, just to enjoy it and not kill myself)
so I cruised toward the finish line. With just a few meters left, I heard footsteps
coming up behind me. I surged abit to try to beat the onrusher to the line, but it was
a flying 15-yr-old (and a relay team to boot) and he went past me like he'd been shot
from a cannon. I cruised in to finish.
A lovely race, and I am happy with my performace, effort, and results. I felt great and
relaxed, if not hugely energized, and so I just did a steady race. A good swim, steady
bike on hilly terrain, and I ran hard but not all-out to a good negative-split run.
Side-stitch again on the run, at least it is consistent. We'll have to figure out
what/how it is happening, cuz i drank a total of 4 mouthfuls of water on the bike, well
before the end of the bike ride. I think the run was short, not even 3miles, cuz if it
was 3 miles=4.75km then I was running a 23:45 5km pace, and I severely doubt that. No matter.
I congratulated yellow-jersey afterwards. He said he heard my footsteps coming, and was
also hoping to catch white-jersey ahead of us. His face looked familiar to me, but it
wasn't until I got home and checked the results that I placed him - he was Mike Richter,
NHL goalie (retired), who beat my Vancouver Canucks in the 1994 Stanley Cup finals!
Drat him! That's twice he's beaten me now! :-)
What a fun event! Brian has been doing these for 25yrs now, 8 Mondays in a row each
summer. A low-key, fun atmosphere, informal, and there was enough competition to push
yourself if you wanted. Most of the prizes were draw-prizes too, all merchandise,
overall and AG winners got something as well. Well worth the $15, and there is a
duathlon if you so wanted as well :-)
my splits:
swim & T1 - 8:11
bike - 36:26
T2 - 0:39
run out - 11:44
run back - 10:49 (a 22:33 run - yikes!)
official results:
swim - 0:07:29 (9th overall)
bike - 0:37:07 (includes T1)
run - 0:23:13 (includes T2)
total - 1:07:49
12/54 overall
4/7 Men30-39
(
geocities.com/marathon13man/race_reports) (
geocities.com/marathon13man)