Marquee Triathlon recap...

My weekend truly started on friday evening. My youth group had a lock-in planned on Friday night as part of a fundraising campaign for World Vision and their 30-hour famine money drive. Everyone fasts for 30-hours in an attempt to learn a bit of what kids around the world go through each and everyday.

We met at 5pm at church, played games, did a bible study, talked about their experiences thus far with being hungry for a day, broke fast at midnight and went to bed. I never sleep well at church, even though I shoot for the couch in the youth room. I am not sure if its being in a weird place, temperature or what not, but I was up at 6am after a patchy night of rest. I immediately turned on NPR after looking out the window and watched as my car was continuously buried under the 6 inches of snow that was already on the ground. My biggest worry was getting out of town before they closed I-17 and I wouldn't be able to get to phoenix.

I made it on to the highway. Pushed 50mph over mostly good roads and was in phoenix by noon. First mission accomplished. Apparently when it is snowing in Flagstaff, it stays cold in phoenix too. I was just hoping that the weather was going to be nicer and warmer the next day, cause I hate cold weather races.

I make it to Tempe Town Lake and walk into the check-in tent. As I get my bib number, the volunteer informs me that the swim for tomorrow is cancelled. The recent rain tends to drain bacteria into the lake and there was not enough time between check-in and race morning to analyze samples for cleanliness. Go figure. Kind of a bummer as my swim was going fabulously this spring and I was really looking forward to setting a new PR over the distance. It is what it is. The triathlon just turned into a duathlon.

I wandered through the expo, bought a new pair of cycling gloves as they were on sale and I needed new ones. Took all my gear back to my car, unloaded my bike and began to make my way to transition for bike check-in. I got a nice spot in transition. Bike rack places were reserved by race number. I was number 22 and was on the second rack you see from the run-in and out. Put a trash bag over my frame for safety from the rain and went to check in at my hotel.

The hotel was nice, albeit odd. It seemed more like a short term housing unit as there were bikes chained to stair railings, people milling about and other odd features. But, this was not a $20/night place. Odd, very odd. The room was very large, small kitchenette, couch, two beds, desk. For one night, no problem. I got settled, watched some TV til dinner and went in search of food. Made it old town Scottsdale which I would love to go back to when its warmer. As a historian, I love the old town places that retain much of their original aestheitic. While Old Town does an ok job at this, and has become a snobby hangout for rich artists and those wannabe artists, I can still sense the atmosphere of the area from a hundred years ago. It was just a tad too late for most things to be open and was cold and drizzly which made me retreat back to my car and head back to the hotel after my stomach was full.

I found Good Morning Vietnam on TV (one of my favorites) and watched that til it was time for bed. I was not as nervous for this race and really tried to keep my mind off it. I never sleep well before races and wanted to change that. It mostly worked. I probably had my best night's rest before a competition. However, just like the night before at church, I was up before my alarm. I turned on the weather channel to check the temperature, made some oatmeal and coffee. Did my final touches. Loaded my car, checked out and headed to the race venue just after 5am. There wasn't the same buzz around transition as normal because the olympic distance and sprint distance went of an hour and two hours, respectively, after the half-iron. Most people didn't want to get up just to sit around, especially cause it was pretty chilly outside.

I set up my transition a little different because of the duathlon format. I didn't need to set down my running things because I would be wearing them for the first 5K leg of the race. That left just my helemt and bike shoes. Pumped up my tires, taped my Gu's to my top tube and left for a morning prayer service led by Ryan from FCA Endurance. The turn out was disappointingly small, but we take what we get and the guys who showed up were great.

I left my bag with Ryan, took my sweatshirt and sweatpants off and headed for the start line, which was now on the Mill Ave bridge, instead of at the water line, for our 5k run.

We close in on 7am, start time, when tehy inform us that their is a vehicle accident out on the bike course that is blocking all four lanes. Delay the start 15 minutes.
National Anthem sung, 5....4....3....2....1....GO!!
I have never done a duathlon and was not sure about how to pace myself. We started in waves (I was in the pros/20-39 age group) and I settled in comfortably in about 11th place. I used Bo Reed's advice of transitioning (not to be confused with triathlon transitions) and running with the course. Relaxing on up hills, pushing downhills. With a mile to go, I was in 4th place and feeling strong. By transition, I was in 2nd. I was blown away!! My longest week of mileage since Jan. 1st has been 16 miles and I have done little to no speed work. And none of the little speed work I have done has been faster than 6:45 pace. I finished the first 5k in 17:26. Good enough for the second fastest of the day overall.

I had a blazing fast transition for what I am used to. Despite taking it easy and slowing down. I am out on teh bike course in second place overall. By mile 5 I am passed by two brother who are working together. I stick with them for the next 5 miles but start to lose ground and need to regroup. By the first turn around, 14 miles in, I am in sixth place. I am riding hard and can't do anything about it, they are just superior riders. I hammer it downhill back toward transition to complete the first loop of the bike. I am starting to feel a little tired but keep checking my pace and it hasn't slowed. By the 40 mile mark I am hungry. Full blown hungry and realized I didn't eat enough. My couple bowl of oatmeal were eaten 6 hours ago and all I have had since is a few Gu's and some cytomax. Not enough. Its survival mode. To make matters worse, the wind has picked up and I am fighting it all the way home. I finish in 2:40. I know that I was inshape for a 2:25. Bummer.

My toes are frozen and running into transition is difficult. My second transition was slow for a couple reasons, frozen fingers and toes, and bonking. I know that there is an aid station just a couple hundred meters out on to the run course. I try to run but my legs have nothing in them. I grab a handful of pretzels and eat them as I walk. Thank you to everyone who asked if I was ok during this portion of the race. I do a run/walk for the next mile and grab some animal crackers and gatorade at the next aid station. I am beginning to feel just a bit better. But, it takes a good 4 miles before I have any kind of sustainable strength in my legs. I end up running between aid stations and walking the food line for the rest of the race. Eric, Nate, Gary, and Wendy, all of Team FCA, help encourage me and keep me moving forward. My race is already over, it is just a matter of finiahing now. I could tell that some individual that passed me earlier are coming back to me and I am making up ground. Which tells me that my late-race strength is there, but the first four miles of the run left me uncompetitive and making up a deficit the whole race both in nutrition and speed. Since there was no body marking because of no swim, I had no idea who was in my age group or what place I was in. The only person I know for sure was in my age group was a kid in an ASU singlet. I see him in the last mile and continue pushing until I was right behind him with 50 meters to go. Except, while he was hurting before, he finds an extra gear and beats me by 1.5 seconds.

I had no answer as was the case most of the day.

Good things to take away from this race:
1. My 5K speed is there. Where did it come from? no idea. But, it's there.
2. Despite starting the half marathon on a bad note, give it some time and it can turn around. I believe I was listening to Frank Shorter speak one time and he said this same thing. Everyone runs in to bad patches in a race, maybe for 10 seconds, maybe for 2 miles, but they will eventually turn around.
3.I have 4 more weeks to make my swimming even better before my next race.

Bad things to take away from this race:
1. Keep working on cycling strength. There is no reason I should have been dropped so easily.
2. Eat more before a race!! It was a lapse of judgement and I usually know better.
3. Take more food on the bike, just in case.