Regicide - Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi! AmZof F1 RR

Triathlon Forum
1

Well, the “KING” was dead the second the ‘gun’ went off, and I stood there watching the LC racers leave - it was a strange experience, having started LC 4 times prior. Part of me was a little sad; but then reality set back in, and I realized I would have had minimal chance of racing well, and that my current (lack of) fitness (relatively speaking, compared to last Fall) would be better applied to the F1 race instead.

Having a bagpiper there again at the start totally ROCKED. Good mojo.

Weather was about perfect, temps were chilly pre-race, but had warmed up enough by the F1 start that I removed the gloves and glasses from my bike, and just raced in tri top and shorts. Sunny, light breeze, bluebird skies, green leaves - heaven.

And we’re OFF! I moved to the front pretty quickly, and was joined by one other racer (who I would not find out until after the race was John Hirsch, the professional triathlete JM said he “brought in as a ringer to kick my arse” ;-), and we ran together for much of the first run, finishing within a few seconds of each other.
Uneventful T1, and off on the bike!

“Only” having to do one lap (at a time) of the bike course was going to be a whole new thing for me. I was digging it. JH was ahead of me on the climbs, standing and hammering. I smiled, knowing that it was inevitable that whomever “that guy” was, was going to blow himself up by doing this - eventually.
We passed each other back and forth, him on the climbs, me on the descents. After topping out at Minnewaska, I got by him and got a gap, thinking I’d seen the last of “that guy”.

Rolled into T2 after about 1:30 or so, right on plan, thinking I had a pretty sizeable lead. This is gonna be great, just cruise, don’t blow up, and enjoy the day.
Except then I heard footsteps behind me as we approached the first run aid station - WTF?? It’s “that guy” again. (I was under the delusion that I was up 3 or 4 minutes on him; turns out it was only about :45) I told him he was running REALLY well. (Um yeah, so much for the victory lap.)
Then I had to pick it up to not let him get away - managed to reel him in on the descent again, came into T3 just a little ways back. Perfect.

We’re climbing up towards the Mountain House again, and “that guy” is standing and swaying side to side, he’s obviously hurting. I await the inevitable, since nobody can be working like that and have any prayer later on in the race, right?
I get stuck behind cars on the descent (yet again), only this time there are fire trucks, an ambulance, cop cars, and I’m forced to nearly a complete stop before I can get by. I hope whomever it is, is going to be ok.
And once again I get sandwiched in behind 3 or more cars at the stop sign, so much for carrying any speed thru that turn. Again. Blah.
I catch up to him along 299, and say “Hey! We’ve got ourselves a race here today, eh?” I ask him his name, now I know “that guy” is named John. “I’m Mike.”
And with that the pleasantries ended, and we pass each other for a while… and then Josh Beck goes by us on the climb - going literally twice as fast as we are.
“That’s kinda humiliating, huh?” We’re on lap 2, he’s on lap 3.
“Yeah, I need a swim if I’m going to have any chance of beating Josh” says John.
(I wouldn’t know anything about that…)

And then another LC rider goes by shortly thereafter, also at a humiliatingly faster pace than either of us. Yeah, F1 was a good call today.

But now I’m out of water. CRAP. I probably should have grabbed a bottle at the aid station… …grab the P4 aero bottle, slurp, and now I’m out of nutrition too. Swell. We top out at Minne again, I pass on the descent again, and I’m hoping/trying/praying I can get enough of a gap to hold John off, or that he’ll finally crack after all that standing and hammering.
I’m struggling up the last climb again, it feels eerily like a 3rd lap of the bike in LC does. Just. need. to. get. done. NOW.
Finally get to the turn, grab a water bottle and try to swig some down, then up the dirt hill and into T4.
CRAP. John rolls in just a handful of seconds behind me. I run to the pavillion, grab 2 cups of Red Bull and slug them down, John blows past moving quickly, and I’m off after him, hoping to keep him close.

First climb, he’s gapping me, but not totally getting away. Keep him in sight on the descent, keep the pressure on. Make him hear the footsteps.
He turns up the second climb toward the run aid station, about :20 later I do the same. And… KA-ZAP!!!
Both thighs completely cramp up, I feel like I’m being electrocuted. Quads, hammies, every other muscle in there - everything is in spasm. GAAAAAH!!!
I can hardly walk, but I keep moving… and finally it flattens out a bit near the top, and I’m shuffling/jogging again.
The ladies at the aid station (THANKS!) are encouraging, but I know that barring a miracle, the win is gone, and I now just really want to be done.
I’m moving again, but can’t really open up on the descent, which probably doesn’t matter anymore anyway. Walk one more time up the rock garden climb, then run it in from there.

I finally cross the line, John’s there waiting for me, and we shake hands and offer each other congrats on a great race. It’s rare and amazing to be duking it out mano-a-mano with another competitor for over 4.5 hours, and only then do I finally put 2 and 2 together and realize that John is John Hirsch, (DUH!) and now I know why he never cracked. We chatted for a while afterward, and it was truly a pleasure - just a really nice guy.

OK - I want a KCB. WHAT??!!!??!! There are none this year? Travesty!!!

A few wonderful Keegans in a big ol’ honking stein later, and some tasty Main Street Bistro eats, and all is right with the world.
Hanging w/ cool peeps after a great race like that, in that setting, cheering on the LC racers and F1 stragglers, is the best.

As a bonus, I was able to head out and make it back down home to see the second act of my daughter’s school play musical (I saw the whole thing the night before). They had worked out all the kinks and technical glitches, and the kids just rocked it. Just terrific.

THANKS to JM for having the vision all those years ago to make this event a reality, and for everyone else who played their part in making it happen.
-M

PS - brief power geekage - my first and 2nd lap #'s:
Lap 1 - IF .83, avg speed 19.0 mph
Lap 2 - IF .73, avg speed 17.6 mph. D’OH!!!

2

Great race and I’m glad I’m not the only one who got completely humbled watching Beck et al blow by. I can’t quite get my head around what the F1 would feel like - so much of my race day psychology is about getting a leg “DONE” that getting back on the bike would feel really weird. Anyway, congrats again - sorry we didn’t get the chance to catch up but it sounds like you had a great day

3

I’m just glad you dropped the King from your screen name :wink:

Looking forward to seeing you in Tucson for Du nationals next year. I mail a permission slip to your wife so you can go to the race. Better check the mail soon.

I know, I know, I already hear you saying stuff about taking 9:45 out of me in the B/R at Espirit, but old man, I’m not worried about you :wink:

Great job out there, way to still pack a punch. I hope when I grow older I can always be as fast as your out of shape!

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Thanks Ben - your first run split was SICK. Sheesh, you’d rock the SC with that kinda run speed.

DD - I’ll keep my eye on the mail.
In the meantime… be afraid, be very afraid. I can also take you in T3. :wink:

5

Thank G*d for ringers! Bwaaaa ha ha ha!

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Yeah, just think how much more of your money I might have won over the years if not for all the ringers. :wink:

I needed to round out my AmZof podium collection anyway: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and two 4ths. It’s nice having a slightly smaller stein to drink from too, beer stays colder.

7

Keegan sez only Nancy boyz need smaller steins to keep beer colder.

8

At least I have a stein. Several, actually. Perhaps I can loan you one? It’s kinda sad to see you doing without.

9

LOL great report, glad to hear the F1 was as tough as it sounded like it was going to be… still hoping to get back out there (doubt next year, doing IMNZ in March). Nice work everyone.

AP

10

So you’re out of shaping and rocking it with John Hirsch?

Just glad that I moved up to 45-49!

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Thanks Dev!

(and thanks for checking in yesterday, sorry I didn’t respond, but the cell was dead from me leaving it on all day. D’OH!)

Yes, seriously, I’m a good month behind where I normally am this time of year on the bike.
How that was enough to stay in the hunt w/ JH for as long as I did is beyond me…

12

You the man. I can only imagine that Hirsh was thinking the same thing about you (who is this cockroach?). Epic race. Doesn’t quite top the LC Championship from last year, but it is probably the greatest ST performance so far this year.

13

On the last run, ML is in the podium double-fisting Red Bulls, and John Hirsch snooches Mike in the Pavilion. Apparently, it gave him wings.

What a nice guy John was though. And ML as well, surprisingly. Everyone really. If it weren’t for Cassie, I’d start thinking that being a spectator at AmZof is basically just front row seats to the best sausage-fest ever.

Amazing race ML, like I said to you afterward, it was really fun to watch.

14

The cobbler runs bare foot.

15

BTW, great race.

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As I tell everybody, I’m not nearly the whopping d-bag a-hole in real life, that I am on the interwebs.

I’m much, much worse.

Many thanks to Cassie for being the token chick/Canuckistanian (aren’t they one in the same? Aren’t they?) - someone had to counterbalance your manliness.

I. need. coffee. STAT.

17

Mr. Law may have lost the battle but I wonder if he won the war as its 4 days later and I am still wasted!

I had such a great time at Am Zof. Its a magical event and I can’t say enough great things about it.

Your report was dead on, I was HAMMERING the climbs. I race a lot of road cycling and figured if I didn’t “race stupid” in terms of uneven output I would get killed. This course has the profile of a vampire’s teeth so I figured I should hammer-recover-hammer-recover rather then the normal steady watt output that most tri folks do for all other events. Am Zof is, as we keep finding out, different in a lot of ways. This worked well for me because I am really focused on Ironman so no amount of surging/climbing/hammering for a “short” race of 5 hours is gonna crack totally.

What was really interesting about our splits is that we both knew we had a big lead on 3rd so I stopped (and I bet you did too) worrying about pacing and just worried about cracking the other guy. Tatics change a lot when its straight up head to head racing. I think thats why our last runs were so slow and all the running paces were uneven. We just kept slugging away at each other (me on the climbs and you on the downhills and flats). I think by the last run you and I were like two fighters staggering around in the 15th round. It was brutal.

One thing that hasn’t gotten a lot of mentioning is that Chris Martin is a SICK triathlete. Josh is a sick one two clearly, but Chris Martin can and has shown up and beat full pro fields. Am Zof may not get 2500 athletes like a huge event but the ones that come, come correct.

A final point: Mr. Law is THE first athlete ever to catch me on a downhill run. He did it twice. Seriously impressive. It really got in my head because that is normally my strongest part of my game.

Oh good thing I didn’t know it was red bull at t4 because if I had known they had red bull there I would have TOTALLY stopped and just had like 10 of those. Lucky for me I had a Hammer Espresso gel, which has 50mg of caffine so I was properly wired for the last run (and the post race and the car ride home and up all night).

I have to say that was the best post race spread ever and a great group of people to hang out with, chat, talk and meet. Stoked to see you all soon.

18

Nice RR. Duking it out with a pro, well done!

You’ll be missed at Harriman this year. Wouldn’t mind if you sent the fog back though :wink:

19

Wow, I’ve never been called the Lone Canuckistan Chick Sausage-Fest Spoiler before! That is new…

20

Great race and the RR was a cool read. I would serve as the Jester in your Court anytime, King. You passed my ass on the climb to Minniwaska like I was standing still-outstanding.