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Beach2Battleship Race Report - First 140.6 (Long read)
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Did my first iron-distance race at Beach2Battleship this weekend and had an awesome time. What a well-run race, I would absolutely do it again and will recommend it to anyone. Overall I'm very happy with the result. I pretty much nailed my race execution and pacing, which really surprised me as I was kind of using this as a test run to get one of these under my belt. I really don't think I could have paced it better.

Background
Came into this season super pumped after devoting all winter to doing my first ultra - a trail 50k. Prior to this year I had raced all my triathlons on a road bike that was stuck in the big chainring due to a broken FD shifter, stock wheels and a regular helmet. Upgraded this winter to a Shiv Tri Expert, Flo 90/Disc, PI Octane, and aero helmet. Was targeting Augusta 70.3 as my big race for the year to try to grab an Austria WC slot, then try an Ironman the following fall. In March, had a bit too much to drink at brunch and was talking with my girlfriend about how two friends had just signed up for IM Boulder. I was all pumped up for them and was like "there's one in October I could do, maybe just use it as a trial run to see what it's like and then really go for it next fall." Before I knew it I had signed up.
I was rounding into fantastic shape in May, and then I displaced a meniscus in my neck. That pretty much wiped out almost all of may, all of June, and most of July. I still did Eagleman, had a disastrous race, and went my worst time ever. I learned a TON from that race though because of all the things that went wrong. Throughout that 2.5 months, I was doing maybe 2-3 runs per week and I was lucky to get one bike workout in if my neck was feeling good. No swimming. Went my worst time ever at a local sprint series in late July - really not off to a good start with my new aero setup.

Had a bit of a breakthrough after doing a bunch of PT and rehab on my neck in August. Had a good race at the final race in that local sprint series, and signed up for TrainerRoad. For the next month and a half, I basically did as much biking as I could and ramped back up my running. Swam 1-2 times a week, typically 1. TrainerRoad did wonders for me, and come Augusta I was actually feeling pretty decent and thought I'd be able to go a best time, but figured a WC slot was out of the question. Ended up racing Augusta as aggressively as possible, ended up going a best time by far and getting 7th OA amateur, but 2nd in an AG that only had one slot. Huge bummer - that result is taped up next to my trainer.
I really buried myself in Augusta so it took a while to recover, but then I ramped it up as much as I could for the next two weeks and then spent last week just resting and doing a bit of maintenance. Time for B2B.

Pre-Race
I felt fantastic on my usual pre-race 2-mile run on Friday. Was shocked at how good my legs felt because the days prior I hadn't felt well at all. I was staying at my grandparents' house in Hampstead, a bit over 30 minutes north of Wrightsville beach. My girlfriend came up from Charleston with me and my mom and her boyfriend came to town as well. Had the typical chicken parm dinner, went to bed around 9:30. I slept pretty well. At that point I hadn't gotten any pre-race jitters at all - it felt completely uneventful, which was weird. I woke up at 4:00, ate my usual bagels with peanut butter and bananas. Took a bit too long getting everything into the car and out the door, and by the time I got to T1 I really had to rush. After going back and forth all day before, I elected to do a full change into my PI Octane suit in T1 to avoid being cold for the first couple hours on the bike. Put on my old tri top and shorts under the wetsuit. I had pumped my tires up two days before when I was about to drive up, but the last bus was about to leave and I still had to drop off my special needs and T1 bag. Felt my tires, it felt like they were somewhere betweeen 90 and 110 - that was going to have to do. Didn't have time to dry the morning dew off my Flo disc and tape the drive side hole. Made it onto the bus, had about 400 calories of EFS in a powerade bottle to drink over the next 45 minutes. Waiting at the beach prior to the start was uneventful. Discarded my clothes when it was time to walk down to the beach. At no point did I get nervous at all - typically I have a bit of jitters, but for whatever reason it just felt very businesslike. I was just kind of "okay lets get this started and go to work."

Swim
I made my way to the front of the group while waiting for the start. The gun went off, I ran into the water at the outside of the group. Wanted to get towards the middle for the fastest current. My plan was to sit in the lead pack and do as little work as possible. Two guys went off the front - the guy in the lead just absolutely blew the doors off of everyone. Just completely obliterated us all. I swam uptempo for about a minute or two and was clear of the group, and a pack of 6 or so of us developed off the front. The swim was really pretty with the morning sun, and I just tried to relax, find some feet in the pack, cruise while expending no energy. The water temperature felt PERFECT. I went off to the side of the group for 50-100 meters of backstroke 3 or 4 times to stretch out and use some other muscles. I didn't think about hopping in the water before the start to pee, so I spent the last half of the swim trying to pee to no avail. Came up to the dock, and climbed out feeling great:
Swim split: 39:27

T1
Got stripped of my wetsuit, and jogged into the showers with the rest of the pack. Showered off, and once they ran on I stood under one of the showers on top of a grate (the shower tent was outdoors in a road) and peed for about a minute. I finished before anyone behind our pack came into the showers, and made sure it all washed down the grate to not instigate a Chattanooga changing tent debacle. Ran the rest of the way into the changing tent to continue the slowest T1 of my life. I stripped, toweled off, chugged an ensure, and proceeded to fight my octane for the next 5 minutes trying to get it over my shoulders, even after spraying my arms and legs with tri slide. I really needed to practice that while wet beforehand. Put on my socks and $3 expo gloves at my bike, and ran through the bike start after surrendering any advantage my swim gave me.
T1 split (I'm embarassed to even post this): 9:11


Bike
Cruised the first mile of the bike to ease into things then settled in to an easy spin. I wanted to go around 21mph as long as I wasn't working too hard. It was a bit chilly, and the gloves were the best $3 I ever spent. I tossed them at the second aid station. In hindsight I could have gotten away with just swimming in my octane and dropping 5 minutes off my T1 time, but since this race was uncharted territory I'm okay with my decision to do the full change. Maybe spending those first two hours being cold would have thrown off the rest of my race. The wind throughout the bike was favorable - a decent amount of tailwind, some headwinds, but nothing strong. I focused on not trying to push on the pedals, but just spin easily. I really wanted to hold back. I hit a pothole about 30 miles in and lost my rear water bottle full of about 300 calories of GU roctane. I cursed for a few seconds and then mentally let it go, happy that I crammed in several extra roctane gels into the fuel cell in case of emergency. The planning paid off. I used them all by the time I cruised into special needs. I picked up two bottles for my rear and BTA holder, and saw that the pothole actually broke an arm on that rear bottle cage. It still held the small bottles of HEED but I kept checking on it. I wasted a lot of time trying to refill the Shiv's bladder. I should have practiced that. It cost me about 2 minutes. Stuffed all the new roctanes into the fuel cell, and off I went, honey stinger waffle in hand.

I immediately lost the rear bottle with another 300 calories of roctane. Rinse, repeat, curse, let it go, thank myself for packing extra gels in my special needs bag. Backed off the effort for the next 20 miles, to be cautious, but the wind seemed to be favorable and my pace didn't dip. I really had to pee, so I tried to let it go on the bike but wasn't able to. The only bad part of the bike came around mile 80 when there was a stretch of road that had cracks sealed like clockwork every 20 yards or so. That repeated jarring was pounding my neck. I eventually found that over by the very outside of the road - there was no shoulder - there were almost no bumps. I held a tight line there, praying that I wouldn't be blown off the road by an unexpected gust of wind. After maybe 20 minutes, the bumps stopped. At this point in the bike I was thanking myself profusely for suffering through those numerous 5-hour workouts on the trainer - I'd put two TrainerRoad workouts on back to back. They had an obvious benefit - I wasn't bored or hating my bike at all. This felt easy by comparison. I was ready to be off of the saddle and I had to pee desperately (still unable to pee on the bike), but those workouts set me up fanstastically to endure the IM bike leg from a mental standpoint. I will be doing more in the future. The last 10-15 miles into town was amazing. There was a big tailwind, and I really think that set me up in a good place for the run. I was able to sit up a lot, stretch out, spin at different cadences, and go 24-25 mph for a few of the miles with minimal effort. The weather was fantastic for the bike. So were the volunteers at special needs, the aid stations, and the police officers directing the traffic. Even the cars driving on the roads seemed to give a lot more space than usual. It was remarkable to me how well run the entire bike course was, thanks to the volunteers. I cruised over the bridge into downtown Wilmington, and into T2. I ended up negative splitting the ride, 2:38/2:32, but with my special needs stop the splits for actual riding time were probably more like 2:36/2:32.
Bike Split: 5:10:43


T2
I run into the convention center for T2, hand off my bike and grab my T2 bag. Quickly body glide my nipples after unzipping my octane and throw on my running shoes. Run into the bathroom with not a second to spare as I'd held it in the entire bike ride. Improved a bit getting the octane back over my shoulders - found out it helps to pretty much bend over and touch my toes while pulling it on - and out the door onto the run course holding a bottle of roctane. Overall, still an embarassingly slow time that I need to improve.
T2 Split: 6:35


Run
I started running feeling like a million bucks. I was very happy with my bike pacing, and felt fresh - the tailwind at the end of the bike was just a huge benefit. I had to keep slowing myself down, and wanted to run at like 8:45-9:00 pace. My girlfriend let me know my total time as of leaving T2, and I calculated that I'd have to run a 3:54 to break 10 hours. I kept running, holding 8:30-8:40, and then right after the mile 5 aid station my body decided that it needed a port-a-potty NOW. This was the hardest part of the race. I picked up the pace a bit until I finally hit the mile 6 aid station, threw away my empty roctane bottle, and spent about a minute and a half in the port a potty - I definitely improved my octane removal/putting back on technique. I was back out on the run course. I was shocked at how good I felt and just focused on staying relaxed and thanking volunteers and spectators. I saw my girlfriend/mom/mom's boyfriend about 2 miles before the turnaround, and let them know it was easy to drive on the roads along the run course as it wound around the lake. At the turnaround, I briefly got confused about whether I needed to complete the mile out and back that runners had to do after T1. After running off that way for 5-10 seconds, I realized I didn't and turned around to go over the actual turnaround timing mat. I picked up my special needs bottle of roctane and started the final 12 miles. I was feeling the total mileage in my legs a lot more but was still completely shocked at how good I felt. I wasn't laboring at all. By the time I got to the lake, I started to do calculations each mile for what I'd need to hold to break 10. I was bracing myself for the wall that inevitably came - hard, in both my marathons and the 50k. My cheering section was leapfrogging around the lake part of the running course and that helped keep my spirits high. I was doing whatever I could to try to keep this positive energy going as long as possible before the wall - making a conscious effort to smile, thank everybody, and be happy. I was having a blast. I hit the final turnaround - just under a 10K to go. I figure the wall will come any step now. 21 miles - I'd really have to slow down to miss a sub-10 time. 22 - no wall. Still feel great. See my girlfriend for the last time before the finish. 23! Still feel great! I have sub-10 in the bag barring a total, walking meltdown. I know that's a distinct possiblity. Mile 24. My mind is blown that I still feel great, and I pick up the pace to around an 8:00 flat. Mile 25. Down the steep hill and then the final straightaway with all the big crowds. I'm feeling awesome and rip off my fastest mile of the marathon, but I don't bury myself - I see 9:48 on the clock and finish at a 9:49 flat with a huge smile on my face. I look at my garmin showing a 3:43 marathon and realize that I negative split it, at around a 1:52 high and 1:50 low. I'm absolutely shocked and more proud of that than anything else in the race.
Run Split: 3:43:05

Overall: 9:49:00, 22nd overall, 3rd M25-29


I'm shocked at how good I felt walking around after the finish line (and today/yesterday). Night and day compared to Augusta, where I honestly thought I might die during the last two miles with a WC slot still in play. I figure that it's pretty much all because I nailed the marathon pacing as well as I possibly could have - discounting the 6th mile with the bathroom stop and miles 25-26 where I pushed it, all 23 miles were within 30 seconds of each other. I didn't know I negative split the bike yet. Even now, I'm shocked at the execution and pacing. I hope this wasn't my 'one' where both of those go pretty much as well as one can hope for, because I realize a huge amount of luck was involved in nailing those and not getting into any dark places mentally. The only bad spots were the two lost bottles and the bathroom emergency at mile 6 of the run. The awful T1 was a decision I made to ensure comfort at the start of the bike, and I know I can cut that down big time.

Beach2Battleship was an absolute joy to race. My favorite triathlon I've ever done. As on the bike, the volunteers out on the run course were beyond fantastic (same with swim and everyone else involved in putting on the race) and I recommend this race without hesitation or qualification to anyone considering it.

I can't wait for IM Chattanooga on 9/27/15!


Last edited by: cme18: Oct 27, 14 8:34
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Re: Beach2Battleship Race Report - First 140.6 (Long read) [cme18] [ In reply to ]
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Congrats! That's a stellar finish time

x2 B2B 140.6 finisher (11&13) and agree its a gem.



"Keep those feet moving!" Me
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Re: Beach2Battleship Race Report - First 140.6 (Long read) [runnerwv] [ In reply to ]
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Nice job in your first full! B2B was also my first iron distance race in 2011. The weather absolutely sucked that year, and I was very under-dressed. For the bike it was in the 40's with rain and wind. The sun came out a bit near the end of the bike, but it was still very windy for the remainder of the day, especially on the bridges.

I finished in 9:52 and also 22nd OA - funny!

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Re: Beach2Battleship Race Report - First 140.6 (Long read) [cme18] [ In reply to ]
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Congrats & Great race report! Has me looking forward to the day I do the B2B full.
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Re: Beach2Battleship Race Report - First 140.6 (Long read) [natethomas] [ In reply to ]
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2011 was brutal on the bike, absolutlely brutal! Thinking about the cold wind of 2011 makes me cringe to this day.

Super jealous of the nice weather and FAST current this year!!



"Keep those feet moving!" Me
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Re: Beach2Battleship Race Report - First 140.6 (Long read) [runnerwv] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks! Yeah you guys had it rough in 2011 and 2013. Saturday would have undoubtedly gone a whole lot differently if the weather was like those two years. Reading all those race reports/horror stories is what convinced me to go ahead and do the full change in T2 just to be safe. Definitely lucked out this year with perfect weather.
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Re: Beach2Battleship Race Report - First 140.6 (Long read) [cme18] [ In reply to ]
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A little late, but congrats on a great race and thanks for a great race report.

I'll be doing B2B as my first full this year as well and had two quick questions for you:

1) Would love to hear your thoughts on doing a half 5 weeks before B2B. I know you went really hard at Augusta so that left you wiped for a few days but would you advise against doing a half this close to the full? There's a local half that I really love doing that is 5 weeks out from B2B this year and I'm trying to decide if I should pull the trigger on it.

2) Planning on getting the same Flo setup you used this year and was wondering how the disk worked out? Not too windy?

Thanks for the help!
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Re: Beach2Battleship Race Report - First 140.6 (Long read) [msaad7] [ In reply to ]
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msaad7 wrote:
A little late, but congrats on a great race and thanks for a great race report.

I'll be doing B2B as my first full this year as well and had two quick questions for you:

1) Would love to hear your thoughts on doing a half 5 weeks before B2B. I know you went really hard at Augusta so that left you wiped for a few days but would you advise against doing a half this close to the full? There's a local half that I really love doing that is 5 weeks out from B2B this year and I'm trying to decide if I should pull the trigger on it.

2) Planning on getting the same Flo setup you used this year and was wondering how the disk worked out? Not too windy?

Thanks for the help!

Thank you!

1. I wouldn't recommend it if you're trying to do as well as possible in both races. You probably won't have time to build back up before the full. It seemed to work out for me in October, but I think a big part of that was luck with pacing the bike and run perfectly - I wouldn't want to count on doing that again. That said, if you're planning to use B2B as kind of a feeler for that distance versus having a goal to go as fast as you can on that day (at the expense of your 70.3), then you should go for it and be fine.

2. I love the FLO disc and 90 front. Wind isn't an issue at all with the disc; the front wheel is what's affected. It hasn't been a problem for me but I took it out to a park with a 1 mile loop on some windy days last spring to get the hang of handling it with wind from all directions. If you've never biked with a deep wheel before (which I hadn't) you will want to do this. After a while, it is basically a non-issue, save for some huge gusts that can always startle you.
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