Bonelli Olympic Distance holds a place in my heart. Bonelli Park was the site of my first-ever Oly distance race on my mountain bike back in June of '05, and the BOD in October last year was my first “podium” finish…3rd out of 7 in my AG. Woo hoo…big whoop! So, even though the finances dictated that I should have sat this one out, I decided to do it. It was at the end of my last recovery week before my 200.9 Double Header- IMFL/70.3 Championships final build period!
So, on to the race. Arrived around 6:30pm and got a great rack location and felt very relaxed. Set up, registered, chatted with some friends, and did a little stretching, and finally it was 8:30am. My Oly PR is 2:30:51, and my Bonelli Oly PR is 2:36 and change. My goal was to beat my Bonelli PR. It’s a somewhat hilly course, and I’ve been training more longer, slow than shorter fast lately.
In the water we went. Now, I’ve been feeling pretty slick with my new DeSoto T1 suit, and my swim times in the last 2 races I did with it suprised me. That suit practically swims itself. I don’t work for Emilio, however, any freebies he wants to flow me for my glowing review of his suit, I’ll damn sure take 'em! Either the course was short or I ate the right things. I tried to keep a relatively hard pace and glide as much as I could. One glitch, in the last 500m of the swim, my goggles slowly started filling with water. I knew I was on a roll, so I kept powering, swimiming eyes closed, and sighting with one eye every 15 seconds or so. I banged out that 1500m swim in a bit over 22 minutes which was well ahead of my PR for Oly distance.
Quick T1 and out on the bike. Felt good and started at a decent pace, but nothing outrageous. I found that I was blowing by people on the uphills, but being the cautious sort (read “wuss”), I would get overtaken going downhill as anytime I hit 35mph, I’d find my fingers uncontrollably grasping the brake levers. In lap two, while stuffing my water bottle back into the cage on the left side of my Xlab Flatwing, the metal gave way and my bottle and cage were dangling precariously bashing against the wheel as I climbed a hill. I decided to get to the top of the hill (I’m not good at “starting” on uphills!), and I quickly dismounted and pulled the bottle out of the cage and stuffed the broken cage into my pocket on my shirt. Fortunately, I have a third cage on the seat tube that I wasn’t using and had nearly removed that morning to save weight. I lost about 30 seconds and made a hellbent effort to catch those that passed me during my pit stop so I’d feel that I gained the time back. I did catch some of them. By lap 3, there was a big dude riding in full TT gear (shoe covers, aero helmet, etc.), I was going neck and neck with him, passing on the uphills and him passing me on the downhills, but I figured he was a relay guy (he was) unless he was going to run in those shoe covers! I got up to drink one last shot of Gatorade before the bike finish and he yelled at me to get down in the drops and challenge him, but we were already only 500 yards from the finish.
Quick T2 and out on the run. I set a pretty good pace off the bat and settled in as we trekked through the canopy around the east side of the lake. A very cool stretch of the run in my book. Kinda like being in the jungle! This run also goes along an airport runway, through an RV park, over a dam, and through the park. Not many 10k’s you get all that in less than an hour! I was hitting the mileage signs earlier than expected…again, either the course isn’t quite 6.2 miles or I was having a stellar day. I was clocking myself at a bit under 8 min/miles and thought something was wrong. I’ve been working on small changes to my running style lately, but on this run, I found that longer strides really were working for me! My legs just felt better. I was reeling in slower runners along the way, and think I only got passed by 2 people that I can recall. One guy was in front of my for 4 miles, but he stopped to drink at two aid stations, and that enabled me to catch him in the last mile and overtake him, and for the last 1/4 mile, I emptied the tank. I kept checking my watch in disbelief that I was about to break my PR for Oly distance, despite the stop on the bike. I finished up about 1:20 ahead of my prior PR feeling quite good about it. I had a great run, but feel that my biggest time improvement seemed to be in the swim. Whatever the case, now I unfortunately will have to beat THIS time in the future to feel worthy, but I did achieve one of my short-term triathlon goals of finishing an Oly in under 2:30, and got a 4th place medal in my AG (this time out of 24) which proudly sits on the closet rod in between a bunch of t-shirts with my other finisher medals…ha, ha.
Congrats to ST’er Longboarder’s wife for her 3rd in her AG in the sprint, and to DocFuel for WINNING his AG in the Oly!
Jay, I’ve been waiting for your report, since I can never match it. It was great to see you and and Mr and Mrs LOngboarder.
I had a great day, despite having dead legs from a hard Thurday workout. I think the weather was perfect.
I cruised the swim and was out in 21:10 (pretty good for me). My tight hams forced me to sit to get me feet out of the wetsuit. I decided to hammer the hills, fast cruise/semi-recovery on the flats and coast those 2 steep descents. I got passsed by 1-2 and kept changing places with two guys on red Kestrels. This time I was ready for the sudden dismount line and had me feet out before the turnout. Despte the dead legs I was managing to keep up with and finally pass a younger dude on just before the dam. This was lucky, since he yelled ahead to me when I missed the turn up that trail just beyond the dam. It cost me ~15 seconds, but could have been worse (much) (They used to have someone there to reming everyone.) Any way I managed to keep it going all to the finish. Turns out I only won my AG by 23 seconds–some of the REALLY fast AGers didn’t make this one, though. I won a big bottle of HammerGel for my effort.
I have to admit to a special joy when I (on my SoftRide) passed a young guy on a P3 going up the steep hill on the South side. I told him him needed a heavier bike.
(Sorry, I couldn’t help myself, since I catch so much grief for the weight of my bike.)
You definitely ripped the course Dick! I know that turn, and when I was there, they had a sign saying “Run” with an arrow pointing to that trail. It’s an easy one to miss though!!!
I think the swim was short. Saw another race report on BT where the girl mentioned that her swim time was unusually fast.
congrats!
Sounds like the training is in order. Great job on cracking 2:30! Keep up the good work. It looks like it’s going to be IMFL '07 for me.
Aloha,
Matt
Jay,
Keep it up. My first Oly there was 2:45. It’s been a slow process.
You and Bob should come up and ride the Crest occasionally with us, that’s been my biggest help. Dr Dre’ got me going up there, and a couple of other Trithletes keep me going back.
Jay
What took you so long to post?..j/k good report. Good job, all your training is paying off. As for the swim time, my polar said 27 min when I hit the beach(Dirt) but official time to T1 was 24:13. That would be fast for me with the run to T1 added. But I will take 24:13 as it is the only good time I had. I felt ok on the bike but time was so so. As you know I bonked on the run… LESSON LEARNED! It was not my best race but still a good day.
It was good to see you and Docfuel(Dick). What about Doc winning his AG in a good time. Both of you did a great job!
Dick
Great job! You and Jay have something in common…detours on the run. You guys are just running toooo fast. If you’re slow like me, you see everything…j/k. I don’t know if that turn was even marked, maybe a chalk arrow. The HammerGel is better than the horse urine we got from the spring race. I still have that stuff. Never did try it after your glowing review. Maybe we can do a ride this winter.
Good luck with your HIM.
Thanks! That nutrition stuff can definitely bite you in the…
It was great to see you. Let me know when you want to try some hills.
In all fairness, some people actually like that EAS recovery drink. I haven’t been brave enough to try the sample of the electrolyte drink. Maybe on me next run. Glad to see that you two have recovered from your crashes.
Great race, I was looking for everyone all morning but was unsuccessful. I really wanted to meet some of you guys. I hope we can put together a meeting at one of the Bonelli races next year.
I spent a portion of my pre race dealing with my little girl after she slipped out of grandma’s hand and hit the back of her head on the concrete curb at the barrier of transition. She had a nice quick blood trail down her head, but it was only a small wound. We just walked through transition looking at all the bikes to get her mind off of the fall. There were certainly a few bikes that caught her eye.
Wow! Sorry about your little girl! I have a 3-year-old, and I know where you’re coming from! Glad she’s okay!
Sorry we missed you too!
Bob, I think you beat your time from June’s Bonelli Oly too, right? It’s really looking like the swim was well short. I think I swam like 5 minutes slower in June. That can’t be right, but whatever…I’ll take it!
My RR was late because after riding GMR after the race, I got home at 4pm and didn’t have time to get on the computer until midday Sunday. Now, if I could only figure out a way to post live RR’s from IMFL…
Jay,
Keep it up. My first Oly there was 2:45. It’s been a slow process.
You and Bob should come up and ride the Crest occasionally with us, that’s been my biggest help. Dr Dre’ got me going up there, and a couple of other Trithletes keep me going back.
Thanks Dick. Got a taste of it riding GMR after the race. It was beautiful up there!
Sounds like the training is in order. Great job on cracking 2:30! Keep up the good work. It looks like it’s going to be IMFL '07 for me.
Aloha,
Matt
Right on Matt! Get the computer ready on Nov. 5th! Those spots are going to go FAST!
I need to go over there myself. Glad you enjoyed yourself.