Location: Sherwood, WI
Date: June 20, 2009
Placing: 4th Overall, 3rd Amateur, 1st Master
Race Photos
Results: Click Here

In my last triathlon race report (Clemson Sprint Tri), I commented that "...as long as I continue to have some stellar days mixed in with bad ones, I have a pretty high probability of writing a report in the near future that speaks of valiant efforts and feats of athleticism...that day is just not today." Well, that day IS today which helps prove the statistical theory that if you enter enough events you will have some days where your house is built of bricks and mortar - and some days where your house is built of Shot Bloks and GU (for those of you not familiar - let's just say it wouldn't make a very sturdy house). Next week may be a different story but next week isn't here yet so I'm prepared to rest on these laurels for the time being.

The long and the short of it is - well - the long and the short of it. Meaning I've always excelled at longer events whether they be running, cycling, duathlon or triathlon. You definitely lose fast-twitch muscles as you get older but to be honest I'm pretty sure the only fast-twitch muscle I ever had was the one that grabs food faster than my brothers at a dinner free-for-all. I didn't always win, but I was competitive. I'm not upset about it. Someday my SLOW-twitch muscles will come in handy like if I ever have to escape the law and I have a 5-minute head start. I'll be in the next state by morning while they're still searching a 3-mile radius. In reality, it's simply the ability of your mind to fool your body for copious amounts of time; to endure when others can't. Mostly to endure pain and discomfort but at times to endure the weather, solitude, mind-numbing courses, the urge to stop at every eatery that the course passes. Sometimes - as witnessed by the photo below - I must even endure people who are too self-centered to care about the world around them...I hope that's not you. (I can't believe that I had to call these people out in a blog!!)

Dear people raised in a barn, this is inappropriate...

The venue for this event was a good-sized park along the shore of Lake Winnebago in central Wisconsin. You may have noticed over the years that I am freakishly drawn to the area to do big events. No, it's not a secret cheese curd fixation (although don't test me on that), the truth is that my wife grew up in Appleton and most of her family still lives there. Let this be lesson #1 to any budding triathletes out there: when choosing where to do a big race, make sure there's something in it for your spouse. Janis' family is wonderful. She gets to see them and I get to race. High Cliff Park is so named because of the bluff overlooking the lake. You can see it in the background on this photo. Quite scenic. The cliff is certainly not a climb like we are used to on the outskirts of Greenville, but it is quite the hill and I wouldn't want to have to run up it...but unfortunately I DID have to run up it.

The "High Cliff" looms in the background as I prepare to hop on my bike...

Now, I'm only going to say this one more time (right) but I still have yet to find a race with the organization and control of a Setup Events race (our regional race promoter). But if you are reading this, Jeremy, the folks at High Cliff had you beat on one very important thing - at least it is important to my wife at every event - and that is concessions for the spectators. Oh yeah der hey; them Wicsonsin cheese heads know how to throw a BBQ, eh?. Janis got a brat, chips and drink for $3. And for that I say 'Go Packers!' (they love their Packers). Just having something to eat and drink for the spectators makes it a bit more bearable for them when these races exist miles from the nearest Starbuck's Latte.

We arrived for packet pickup on Friday afternoon and the registration process was a snap. I sat and read through the race info and when I finished taking it all in, I had 3 concerns: 1. Athletes must wear swim caps. No swim caps were provided. This was silly on several levels. Obviously, if you are going to require something that costs a buck to buy in quantity, why don't you just supply it?! So I was forced to buy one right there at the expo. The more troubling part of this was that how would they know if everybody was starting in the correct wave? I would love to simply trust everyone but I finally gave that up big time when I witnessed Ironman Florida firsthand. Oh well. 2. The water temps were rumored to be in the very low 60s. Last year, I did a lake swim early in the Spring and even with a wetsuit, it was the closest I had ever come to hypothermia. Hopefully, this concern was simply unfounded. 3. I learned that the run course was not only through the park, but it was on park trails. Hiking trails and horse trails. Less than 2 miles of the entire course was on-road. I was double-concerned here becuase I wasn't sure I was prepared for trail running with my shoe choice or with my training and also - how well would a trail be marked? I could just see me missing a fork in the trail and winding up on someone's hunting land with a white number hanging off my butt like a deer's tail. Again, there was little use in worrying about it...although I did.

Now most people in Wisconsin will laugh at me for this next comment, but thank goodness they were having a bit of a heat wave. The morning was just about perfect and the forecast was sunny and 88 degrees. My kind of weather. It gets light out really early here (before 5am) but that didn't make me feel any better about getting up at 4:30. With this being my first half-iron in a year and having so many ups and downs, my race prediction was more of a sliding scale rather than science. A time of 4:30 is usually my starting point. If nothing goes 'wrong' I should be able to break 4:30. And to break that time, I just tell myself that I need to be running by the 3-hour mark (knowing that I can consistently break 1:30 for the run portion). That's all I had today. No real time estimates. No predictions to give Janis. I was just going to let it all happen today. Be smart. Take advantage of every strength I have and be aware of every weakness. And that I did...starting with the swim.

There was no 'elite' wave at this event like many of the other events. Instead, the promoters allowed you to submit a prior race result in order to get put into the first wave of 50. Your race number dictated which wave you were in but most people were wearing long-sleeved wetsuits so as I mentioned before, there was no way at all to tell if people were in the correct wave. I was wearing a sleeveless wetsuit and my warmup consisted of walking out into the water until it was waist deep. Then I walked back in. Truly a monumental warmup. I didn't even get my shoulders and head wet because I was afraid it would be too cold. We lined up on shore and waded into the water to the start banner. The water was shallow for a good distance and I always tell Janis that I would just as soon 'run' the swim course than swim it at these events so you can rest assured that if the water is shallow enough, that's what I'll be doing.

The water was quite choppy and pretty shallow for the first several yards, as you can see from this group of sprint racers...

The gun fired and I was in for the most eventful swim I'd ever done. For starters, the water remained shallow for longer than I anticipated. I ran through the water until the water finally neared my armpits. I estimated I 'ran' for nearly the first 40 yards before diving in and finally feeling the chill on my dry head. The next part of the swim adventure was the waves. Not just chop - but actual mini waves lifting us up a foot or so. This made it easy to drink a lot of the lake and difficult to site the bouys but I dealt with it. The next thing I noticed is that since I didn't have to start with my usual group of 'motorboat' swimmers that leave me alone as soon as the gun goes off, I actually had several swimmers around me and that made it nice for me to set a pace. About 8 to 10 minutes into the swim, I saw a woman who seemed to be doing a good job of swimming straight and slowly creeping past me. I sped up for an instant and angled in behind her. Holy cow! I was actually drafting someone in an open water traithlon. I told myself I would stay behind her as long as she swam straight. I ocassionally came out from behind her just to make sure that she was not actually slowing me down since the effort felt much easier behind her. I was amazingly comfortable and did a great job of staying stealth. I think in 20+ minutes of drafting her, I only tapped her feet 3 or 4 times. To top things off, when we made the final turn to head directly into shore the current and waves actually made it feel like we were body surfing. It was an awesome swim.

I don't know how he did it, but this photographer should get an award for making me look like swimming the English Channel would be no problem for me.

I glanced at my watch as I exited the water and my time told the real story: 32 minutes and change. 4 to 5 minutes faster than my usual time. I was shocked. I hoped that the course was not short (based on relative times, I concluded later that it was not). I knew the drafting helped but I also hoped that I could attribute some of that to my large increase in swim yardage the last 6 weeks. Wouldn't that be cool. Maybe all the cheese curds made me extra buoyant? Whatever. I also was not as dizzy as I often feel when exiting the swim which was good since we had to climb Mount Everest to get from the shore to the transition area which brought my official swim time to 33:53. After my nutrition fiasco last year in West Virginia, I told myself that I was sticking to my intake schedule no matter what - starting with slamming an Ensure in about 4 seconds in the trasition area. I also took a few extra seconds to put my socks on now rather than in the second transition. If I'm going to put them on anyway, might as well be comfortable during my ride too. I glanced one last time at my watch as I mounted my trusty circa 1980 steed so that I could guage my ride time.

The climb to the transition area (aka "Mount Everest")

The instant you left transition, you made a right turn and within 100 yards, you climbed the road to the top of the 'cliff'. In total, about three-quarters of a mile with varying gradients - none of which was incredibly steep but it was a good up. I stayed in the saddle all the way over the top. As a matter of fact, I stayed in the saddle and in my aerobars for all but about 200 yards of the 56-mile course. We were actually told that a short detour on the course dropped the distance officially down to 55.5 miles. The roads were entirely wide-open country roads through America's Dairyland. The course had about 5 to 7 miles of truly flat roads and about 5 to 7 miles of some medium-sized rollers. The rest was made up of looooong ups and downs. The kind where I am doing 28mph for a couple of minutes going one way and 22mph going the other direction. There was also quite a breeze blowing off the lake. For the majority of the ride, it was a crosswind but the final 5 miles were directly into it. I was only about 10 miles into the ride when it was already thinned out to a point where I would see one or two cyclists per mile...and it would seemingly take several miles to catch them. One by one, I did my usual job of picking people off. I felt better than I had in a long time. I was staying well within myself. I passed the 25-mile marker on the ground and quickly checked my watch. This marker is a great gauge for me since I typically strive to average 25 mph. The best I could tell using oxygen-deprived math was one hour and one minute. Good - just shy of 25mph with plenty left in the engine. Even with my complaints about power loss recently, it seemed like I really pulled people in whenever it was a headwind or uphill - and these are the places where more power comes into play.

I passed one last rider into that nasty headwind in the last 5 miles and stuck to my usual plan of backing down slightly the last couple of miles in anticipation of the run. I was also good about finishing both of my calorie-packed bottles that I took on the bike. I slammed into the second transition - now close to 7 minutes ahead of my 'be running by 3 hours' plan. I took a quick inventory of the bikes on the rack:4. That assumedly put me in 5th. I threw down another Ensure and off I went. Once around the grass field and then straight back up the 'cliff'. Not too bad on the bike 2 hours ago but not a lot of fun on a run. I mentally looked at the bright side which was that we ran down the hill to the finish. At this point in a long triathlon, it's all about trusting your training. Unlike a lot of people, I do a decent number of long brick runs (back to back riding and running) so I know exactly what pace range I will run when I am tired. So I never really start out to 'race' the run...instead, I sort of set it on cruise control and assume that I am running between a 6:20 and 6:40 pace. I 'shimmied' up the climb the first mile and onto the trail. I was exactly where I thought I would be at this point - all alone in the woods. Every time I got concerned that I would go off course, another trail marker would show up. As it was, I never once had to question the direction. Whew. Also, the trail was mostly soft dirt, with some grass running and an ocassional sand section. No problems for the feet.

Now this photo does it justice. Here you see about a third of the climb we had to endure in the first mile. Fortunately, the last mile took us back down!

I was happy that my first mile was a little over a 7:00 pace considering that it should be the most difficult mile. I tried calculating my pace as I passed some of the mile markers but the best I could tell was about a 6:45 pace around mile 5. Which is about where I encountered my first human being (other than the plentiful drink stations set up in the woods). I passed the runner handily and just kept going. Just after mile 6, I completed the first loop and crossed the road that came up the cliff. Suddenly, I was joining other runners who were on their first loop and that seemed to spark some life into me. I made it my goal to catch each one as defiantly as possible. I could feel my pace increasing. It was time for the mind tricks. Mile 9. Mile 9 is always my magic mile marker on a half marathon. It just seems that after you complete 9 miles you only have 4 more and that's less than half of what you've already done! As I approached mile 9, I passed a runner that was a little harder to catch and I was happy to see that his race number was in the top 50. He had to be one of the people ahead of me. I kept my pace high and aimed for mile 10...then 11. Now I was getting tired but I knew once I saw that mile 12, I had a huge downhill to finish on.

There were runners scattered all over the course and it would be hard to tell who was in what position until the magic moment when I popped out onto the cliff road for the second time. This time - instead of going across for another lap like most everyone was doing - I turned right. Even though there was a little over a half-mile to go, it was all downhill and I was so elated that I ran several yards with my arms in the air as if to thank the Lord. I instantly snapped back to reality when I looked ahead and saw someone running just about 50 yards ahead of me. There were no more sprint racers out on the course so that could only mean one thing...I was surprised to find a hidden afterburner in my legs and slowly began to run him down. I was moving in on him rapidly but was trying my best not to slap my shoes on the ground so as to take him by surprise. I backed down as I approached him and waited for the right moment to sprint by him. You can see my excellent sprint form after 4 hours of racing in the photo below. You'll also notice the runner several seconds behind me. He must have been completely spent because he didn't even react as I raced around him. I realized at that point that I had a little too much left; I should've squeezed out a little more the last few miles. I was 3rd across the line.

The runner in light blue behind me didn't even respond as I sprinted past him in the final 200 yards. Maybe I had too much left?

As it turns out, there was a competitor who started in a later wave that beat my time - giving me the 4th best of the day - and I congratulate him on his day. On the other hand, I would have a tough time congratulating either of the top 2 finishers (one of whom turned out to be a professional triathlete from New Zealand) for reasons which have me biting my tongue. But I am not an official, this is not the world championships and the only person I am judging is me. And I judge that today I had a stellar race - I hit all my marks today, had perfect nutrition, no blisters, no injuries. My final time was 4:18:08 - and I did that without the use of my walker OR my Geritol...

Ahhh...the sweet smell of a sub-4:20 half. Time for a brat and saurkraut.

Race Notes:
* It cost one-third the price to ship my bike FedEx than it would to fly it (and it was probably handled better).
* The park was great (except for these things they call 'lake flies'...but they weren't that bad) and I enjoyed my obligatory cool off swim in the lake.
* Hips and glutes were sore for 2 days because I stayed in the areo position for the entire ride.
* I was originally nervous about so much trail running but in the end, I think I preferred it to being out on the open road.
* It's not like I'm looking for prize money or anything, but you'd think for the effort they would give more than a cheap framed certificate that says 'Age Group Winner' - the exact same thing that everybody who placed top 3 in their age group received. Anybody need an 8 x 10 picture frame? I don't care how many awards an event gives out but here's a simple rule promoters should use - the amount of pride that the recipients have in the award is equal to the amount of pride the promoter has in their race. If you have to spread the awards so thin that all you can afford is 100 cheap picture frames, then you're giving out too many awards. I'll go out on a limb and say they have little to no pride in their event.

Next up: Go Tri Sports Sprint Tri - Greenville, SC (Tentative)