First of all, if it’s true that Slowman Dan had a hand in designing the run course, just let me say with the greatest respect and affection - UP YOURS!! That was the most hideous run course I’ve ever imagined. At 35,000 feet of climbing on each loop with gradients up to 110%… or at least that’s what they felt like on the second lap!
A shout out to the race volunteers and especially to the CHP, Lakeport PD, Lake County Sherrifs and all the denizens of the Lakeport area. The people came out to watch and cheer, offer to spray us with hoses and offer words of encouragement ALL FREAKIN’ DAY long. It’s a sleepy little town, and the folks really got off on the race. They were in their front yards and driveways, sitting in lawn chairs and just watchin’ the show!! That part was just awesome. The one o one crew did a fabulous job and just made it a tremendously memorable day. The schwag was first rate and the finisher’s dry-fit shirts were a plus. Lasagna for all racers the night before, and bbq-ed chicken and steak during the awards. And all this for $200. Accomodations in Lakeport were pretty cheap, so it’s a bargain even if you have to fly or perhaps drive a long way. Stay a few days and enjoy the place.
So yeah, the location was gorgeous, the weather was perfect (a little dry and windy which dehydrated me a bit) and the bike course was a dream to offset the nightmarish run course. My good friend darbster and I were just talking on Friday about our collective propensity for biking with a reckless and callous disregard for the fact that there’s actually a run to be done after the T2 dismount, something he calls “biking stupid”. He pounded the bike at Oceanside and melted down on the run and of course I always remind all my athletes to bike less than all-out in preparation for a 13 or 26 mile run… I guess I should have included 18 mile runs and possibly left a note to self: “Dude, HUGE run after the bike, save something…”
I had a decent swim and picked up a pretty good draft after about 600 meters and stayed with the same guy the rest of the way. I could easily have gone around him and taken a minute or two off my swim, but as it was I was working my glide and dps and kept my HR at the bottom of zone 1 for nearly the entire swim and came out fresh and ready to go.
Hopped on my race bike (haven’t ridden it since the week before my knee surgery last September) and it felt awesome. I got “happy feet,” aka biking stupid, and ripped through the first lap at about 23 mph average, which is about as fast as I’ve ever done an Oly bike split!! Don’t know whether to credit Frank’s PCs, My new dimpled tyres, or the magic Oxyblast (or whatever it was called) highly oxygenated water they were handing out, 'cuz I drank a couple gallons of it on the day, but that first lap was stupid fast (for an old dude). I made up for it by slowing as the bike went on and ended with about a 20 mph average, which is my typical HIM pace. Average certainly would have been faster if I hadn’t gone out so fast but it just felt so good to go fast! The bike course was gently rolling and at no time did I have to get out of the saddle or even out of the aeros, except for a couple of turns. It was just a course that kept begging me to hammer…
So I got to T2, handed my bike to a volunteer and couldn’t stand up straight after riding aero on the rivet for four hours. Also noticed that I hadn’t packed a second pair of legs for the run, which was unfortunate, since the ones I had used on the bike were pretty well fried. After about ¾ mile I was able to get my schwerve on and ran a sub 8:00 pace for about a mile and half until I hit the first hill. In spite of the fact that the hill went up, everthing else went downhill after that. My per mile pace rolled up close to 12:00 by the time I staggered across the line. I think I trimmed a few minutes off the bike, but might have been just as fast had I ridden more conservatively. However, I was hoping for a sub 3:00 run split and ended up near 4:00, mostly due to being stupidly over-aggressinve on the bike. As the run progessed, I had cramps in both quads, the right VMO, piriformis on both sides and flexor hallucis longus just behind and below the medial malleolus (which almost caused me to fall when I ran too fast on a couple of downhills). During the last four miles, my cramps were having cramps.
Despite all that, I held on for my first AG win of the year (first race of the year, so I’m undefeated in '07) and I must say it was an awesome race. I’m down for next year.
Then winning your AG anyway is great. Congratulations!