First things first, lets get somethng out of the way. Which is the tougher bike course, the Harriman 1/2IM or the TTT 1/2IM? I think I can definitively say that the Harriman course is tougher in an absolute sense, but its not coming the day after 2 olympic distance races, which plays in favor of the TTT. In the end, its probably a wash: both of them are tough by the standards of a lot of 1/2 IM courses; finishing either in under 3 hours in the context that they are raced in is a sign of real strength (i.e. beyond me :) And now, to the race report ...
The first race felt awful to me: I barely feel like I have my bike shoes on properly in 5 miles, and after the 10hr, 550 mile drive from Philadelphia that ended just 2 hours before, I really wasn't ready to race. I jogged the run course to warmup, but when the run came, the first 1/2 mile felt like an eternity. My hats are off to people who race short distance sprints - I could not do this. I was ready to start racing about 10 mins after I finished ...
The Saturday AM olympic started out with a long double swim loop (you exit the water and re-enter to start the second loop). One of the nice things about mass starts is that after 200m or so, you find yourself in a group of people going roughly your pace. Not so at the TTT which uses time-trial starts for everything. As a result, if you are a slow swimmer like me, you spend the entire swim noticing another speeding bullet passing by you in the water - another 19min/1500m racer who started 12 minutes after you. I felt rough starting out on the bike, and missed the first bike turn (impossible, but I did it), adding maybe 2-3 minutes onto my time. The hills arrived soon enough, and finally we made the 180 turn onto the "infamous" Thompson Hill Road, which is about a 2 mile climb with sections at 12%. If you're used to riding real hills and you know how to spin (and you came with low enough gears), its not a big deal, but I can imagine that for the many flat-land midwesterners who were racing, this was pretty intimidating. Back for the run, and this time we get to see the whole run course in all its brutal glory. Very pretty, very tough. There are places that would call this a trail race - I wouldn't go that far, but I was walking hills even in this, the first real race of the weekend. On the other hand, I was very conscious of keeping everything dialed way down.
After some lunch, an ice bath and a nap, back for the Saturday PM race. This time, we had a straight out-and-back course on the bike to start, and I was determined to make up some time over my morning effort. There are still two moderate hills on the route, but basically you could just fly 65% of this course at high speed. I passed lots of people, nobody passed me, life was good. Back for T1, squeeze into my wetsuit to help stave off the inevitable cramps when swimming, and back into the water. The suit really did help, but I got a mild calf cramp about 200m from the end. Kicked it out, got back on land, tried to remove wetsuit ... zing! both legs cramp up like crazy. I burn 3-5 mins in transition figuring out how I can get the thing off without locking my legs. Spectators (there were actually a few) are muttering "he looks pretty bad". Eventually, I work something out, and head out on the run. I felt much better on this run than the morning one, but maybe that has something to do with running an 8:40 pace instead of a 7:57 :) More food after the race, some good times chatting with Cheryl "Masters" Chaney and many other racers. My turn for my free massage came up - it felt very good - then back to the campsite for more of my own food, another ice bath for my calves, and bed.
SUNDAY
The big day rolls around. We watch the leading teams take off first, then its mostly back to regular time trial order. Before I get in, we are able to see the fastest duo exit the water to start their second loop, and it doesn't look good. These do not look like racers of the caliber we know them to be ... the reluctance to re-enter the water is almost palpable. How will it feel for us? As it turns out, I really enjoy the swim. Maybe my sloth-like pace is the reason for that, but I actually pass a few people (OK, so maybe they were all the really slow people doing the Little Smokies 1/2 IM at the same time as us). Out onto the bike course, feeling ready for action. I quickly catch and pass the 5 people who got out of the water ahead of me, and find myself generally passing people and feeling good. Its a 2 loop course, and about 20 miles in, I flat going down a hill, though initially it sounds as if my 808 front wheel has cracked. People stream by me while I burn what seems like a very long time fixing the flat. Back on the bike, I start trying to make up the loss, and by the time I get back to the same spot, I've managed to catch most of those who passed me. The bike course has 1 challenging (read long, maybe 8% grade) hill, and 1 tough hill, the rest is up and down and flat. The final 3 miles of the bike course is the same as the final 3 of the Saturday PM race - very fast (nice downhill grade), and I crank it up to about 31mph to finish strong. Well duh. This is a triathlon and T2 is not the finish ... the death march begins. Its now about 88F, sunny and although most of the run course is shaded, the heat is on and I'm dehydrated. I start sucking down InfiniT at every aid station, and pouring water over my head. I walk every incline, and then feel good running the downhills. The fastest guys are just coming in for the end of their first loop as I head out, and then they pass me again on my return. Everyone's race number has their name on it, and so we all shout out encouraging words to "Paul", "Carol", "Chuck", "Scott", "Andrea" and so forth. My second loop starts out feeling better than my first, but I still walk all the uphill sections. As I hit the turnaround, I know that the race is over and I will soon be done, and sure enough, I manage to finish feeling great, telling the director that I want to go around again. No suprise why: I was running a 10:49 pace ... does that even count as running?
I jumped in the creek with several other racers, hosed down, ate and chatted with more racers, waited to see my times, and drove back to the campsite to pack up. A state park manager told me I should drive back a different way (via Athens, OH, which he described as "the only bohemian town in OH"), and sure enough I got some fantastic mexican food at Casa Nueva, right in the middle of Athens as it turns from college town to summer town. I drove on until somewhere north of Clarksburg, WV, and crashed in the back of car. Ouch! I'm 43, not 23, and that hurt. Up early in the morning, and back in Philadelphia by 10:30am.
Now that's what I call ... a weekend!
I don't have results yet. Overall, I did far worse in the standings than I expected. After my 7th place overall at Harriman the previous weekend, I showed up feeling just a little bit over-confident in how the TTT would workout. I was totally unprepared for the level of the athletes there. Lots of people racked near me turned out to be All-American national AG'ers, and then further out in the racks were people who had not submitted USAT 2006 rankings but were incredibly fast and tough. On the posted results, I think I saw 93rd for the Saturday AM race, 72nd for the PM race, and I was way down for the Sunday race with a 6:17 finish time. However, my goal was to be able to drive home without pain, and I managed to do that. Quite a few people seem to think that the TTT is harder than doing most Ironman races, and given that my training has not been focused on anything about 1/2 IM, I'm happy that I finished feeling good. There was also that little event called Harriman the weekend before, but I honestly have no idea how much of factor that was. The TTT is an amazing race experience. Its cheap (US$175 for *FOUR* races, with food after every race & a massage), very social and friendly, fantastic athletes of every level, and has beautiful and epic courses. If I was going to be doing tri's next year, I'd be back in an instant. Mostly though, I have to admit to a slight sense of depression about the whole thing. The gap between myself and the guys like Kirk who set a new course record, or even Bill Barton, in my AG and living not far from here, is just so huge, and as much as I can enjoy racing at any level, somewhere there was some kind of idea that I could be good enough to be up there in (say), the USAT rankings. Its not going to happen.
Next up for me? Maybe Epicman on June 8th, otherwise the Philadelphia Triathlon, June 23rd.
Slowtwitch notes: I too wish I had met more ST'ers, but I felt so lousy after the friday sprint, I wasn't in the right mood. I did end up racked next to rroof for the entire weekend (he beat me in every race with a massively stronger run than I could put out). dtreeps was a happy face, cheryl chaney was amazing, and I said hi to a few others as well.
The first race felt awful to me: I barely feel like I have my bike shoes on properly in 5 miles, and after the 10hr, 550 mile drive from Philadelphia that ended just 2 hours before, I really wasn't ready to race. I jogged the run course to warmup, but when the run came, the first 1/2 mile felt like an eternity. My hats are off to people who race short distance sprints - I could not do this. I was ready to start racing about 10 mins after I finished ...
The Saturday AM olympic started out with a long double swim loop (you exit the water and re-enter to start the second loop). One of the nice things about mass starts is that after 200m or so, you find yourself in a group of people going roughly your pace. Not so at the TTT which uses time-trial starts for everything. As a result, if you are a slow swimmer like me, you spend the entire swim noticing another speeding bullet passing by you in the water - another 19min/1500m racer who started 12 minutes after you. I felt rough starting out on the bike, and missed the first bike turn (impossible, but I did it), adding maybe 2-3 minutes onto my time. The hills arrived soon enough, and finally we made the 180 turn onto the "infamous" Thompson Hill Road, which is about a 2 mile climb with sections at 12%. If you're used to riding real hills and you know how to spin (and you came with low enough gears), its not a big deal, but I can imagine that for the many flat-land midwesterners who were racing, this was pretty intimidating. Back for the run, and this time we get to see the whole run course in all its brutal glory. Very pretty, very tough. There are places that would call this a trail race - I wouldn't go that far, but I was walking hills even in this, the first real race of the weekend. On the other hand, I was very conscious of keeping everything dialed way down.
After some lunch, an ice bath and a nap, back for the Saturday PM race. This time, we had a straight out-and-back course on the bike to start, and I was determined to make up some time over my morning effort. There are still two moderate hills on the route, but basically you could just fly 65% of this course at high speed. I passed lots of people, nobody passed me, life was good. Back for T1, squeeze into my wetsuit to help stave off the inevitable cramps when swimming, and back into the water. The suit really did help, but I got a mild calf cramp about 200m from the end. Kicked it out, got back on land, tried to remove wetsuit ... zing! both legs cramp up like crazy. I burn 3-5 mins in transition figuring out how I can get the thing off without locking my legs. Spectators (there were actually a few) are muttering "he looks pretty bad". Eventually, I work something out, and head out on the run. I felt much better on this run than the morning one, but maybe that has something to do with running an 8:40 pace instead of a 7:57 :) More food after the race, some good times chatting with Cheryl "Masters" Chaney and many other racers. My turn for my free massage came up - it felt very good - then back to the campsite for more of my own food, another ice bath for my calves, and bed.
SUNDAY
The big day rolls around. We watch the leading teams take off first, then its mostly back to regular time trial order. Before I get in, we are able to see the fastest duo exit the water to start their second loop, and it doesn't look good. These do not look like racers of the caliber we know them to be ... the reluctance to re-enter the water is almost palpable. How will it feel for us? As it turns out, I really enjoy the swim. Maybe my sloth-like pace is the reason for that, but I actually pass a few people (OK, so maybe they were all the really slow people doing the Little Smokies 1/2 IM at the same time as us). Out onto the bike course, feeling ready for action. I quickly catch and pass the 5 people who got out of the water ahead of me, and find myself generally passing people and feeling good. Its a 2 loop course, and about 20 miles in, I flat going down a hill, though initially it sounds as if my 808 front wheel has cracked. People stream by me while I burn what seems like a very long time fixing the flat. Back on the bike, I start trying to make up the loss, and by the time I get back to the same spot, I've managed to catch most of those who passed me. The bike course has 1 challenging (read long, maybe 8% grade) hill, and 1 tough hill, the rest is up and down and flat. The final 3 miles of the bike course is the same as the final 3 of the Saturday PM race - very fast (nice downhill grade), and I crank it up to about 31mph to finish strong. Well duh. This is a triathlon and T2 is not the finish ... the death march begins. Its now about 88F, sunny and although most of the run course is shaded, the heat is on and I'm dehydrated. I start sucking down InfiniT at every aid station, and pouring water over my head. I walk every incline, and then feel good running the downhills. The fastest guys are just coming in for the end of their first loop as I head out, and then they pass me again on my return. Everyone's race number has their name on it, and so we all shout out encouraging words to "Paul", "Carol", "Chuck", "Scott", "Andrea" and so forth. My second loop starts out feeling better than my first, but I still walk all the uphill sections. As I hit the turnaround, I know that the race is over and I will soon be done, and sure enough, I manage to finish feeling great, telling the director that I want to go around again. No suprise why: I was running a 10:49 pace ... does that even count as running?
I jumped in the creek with several other racers, hosed down, ate and chatted with more racers, waited to see my times, and drove back to the campsite to pack up. A state park manager told me I should drive back a different way (via Athens, OH, which he described as "the only bohemian town in OH"), and sure enough I got some fantastic mexican food at Casa Nueva, right in the middle of Athens as it turns from college town to summer town. I drove on until somewhere north of Clarksburg, WV, and crashed in the back of car. Ouch! I'm 43, not 23, and that hurt. Up early in the morning, and back in Philadelphia by 10:30am.
Now that's what I call ... a weekend!
I don't have results yet. Overall, I did far worse in the standings than I expected. After my 7th place overall at Harriman the previous weekend, I showed up feeling just a little bit over-confident in how the TTT would workout. I was totally unprepared for the level of the athletes there. Lots of people racked near me turned out to be All-American national AG'ers, and then further out in the racks were people who had not submitted USAT 2006 rankings but were incredibly fast and tough. On the posted results, I think I saw 93rd for the Saturday AM race, 72nd for the PM race, and I was way down for the Sunday race with a 6:17 finish time. However, my goal was to be able to drive home without pain, and I managed to do that. Quite a few people seem to think that the TTT is harder than doing most Ironman races, and given that my training has not been focused on anything about 1/2 IM, I'm happy that I finished feeling good. There was also that little event called Harriman the weekend before, but I honestly have no idea how much of factor that was. The TTT is an amazing race experience. Its cheap (US$175 for *FOUR* races, with food after every race & a massage), very social and friendly, fantastic athletes of every level, and has beautiful and epic courses. If I was going to be doing tri's next year, I'd be back in an instant. Mostly though, I have to admit to a slight sense of depression about the whole thing. The gap between myself and the guys like Kirk who set a new course record, or even Bill Barton, in my AG and living not far from here, is just so huge, and as much as I can enjoy racing at any level, somewhere there was some kind of idea that I could be good enough to be up there in (say), the USAT rankings. Its not going to happen.
Next up for me? Maybe Epicman on June 8th, otherwise the Philadelphia Triathlon, June 23rd.
Slowtwitch notes: I too wish I had met more ST'ers, but I felt so lousy after the friday sprint, I wasn't in the right mood. I did end up racked next to rroof for the entire weekend (he beat me in every race with a massively stronger run than I could put out). dtreeps was a happy face, cheryl chaney was amazing, and I said hi to a few others as well.