Drove up Saturday morning. Amazingly hit no traffic from Indy to Rockford! I checked my bike and took a short swim to loosen up. although I was never sore after TTT all the energy was gone. I had done a lot of swimming in the two weeks in between the races but minimal biking and two runs! My achilles was driving me crazy so I was hoping to finish feeling good.
After that we set up our tent at the campground (thanks Luke for the tip on the campsite!). The setting was awesome, right next to the lake, tons of trees. We headed over to the ST party and it was a blast seeing everyone. The pasta was good, Mrs. Dtreeps’s pepperoni roll was a hit. As was Ti’twar’s pasta salad. Wow, this guy can cook. Great seeing Beckyo from TTT. Mrs. dtreeps loved connecting with her and ti’twar’s wife. I think she was impressed with my internet friends :).
Got a good nights sleep and headed over to the race. did a short swim warmup and felt great. Somehow I missed Chip saying the race was about to start and I ended up near the back. It was chaos until the first buoy. I didn’t put three strokes together until then. On the backside I did start catching some seaweed behind my ears b/c i lost my cap in the warmup. came out in 37 minutes and I was pretty dissapointed. I need to start nearer the front next time and get some more guts for the mass start. I really didn’t want to run anyone over. I stayed on beckyo’s feet the whole time. She did a good job sighting.
On the way to the transition newbz blew past me looking strong. I wore 3/4 crew socks to keep the achilles warm and compressed and they worked fantastically. Never felt a twinge of tightness.
The bike course was amazing. Great roads, rolling hills, quite windy but I never felt like I had a headwind. Saw Sentania riding strong with the big boys. Rroof and newbz were coming back as I was making the final turn to the turn around and they looked good. I opted to take a bento box to hold my salt caps and the hammer gels. Turned out to be a mistake as it was hard to get things in and out. I eventually put my salt caps into my jersey pocket b/c I dropped them and had to turn around and get them. It cost me some time but I would have dnf’d without them. Finished the ride very conservatively in 2:41.
I came into the bike somewhere around 71st place (i think someone shouted that to me). I knew with my swim I had little chance of breaking 5 hours which was my b. goal for the race. I started running and capped my HR at 155. Passed several guys just out of transition and then went for a period where there was no one. I was about to turn around b/c I thought I was off the course. I was running with my water bottle as is my habit but there wasn’t an aid station right away. I was seriously thinking of pulling the plug b/c I’d been about 15 minutes w/o water. Bottomfeeder rode by and I asked if I was on the course and he said yes. He asked how I was doing and I said I was about to drop out b/c of the fluids. After TTT i’ve got nothing to prove. Monty’s rule about not doing anything in the race that will keep you from enjoying the party has some truth especially given the fact that I’ve been in terrible shape with dehydration/hyponatremia after my last two halfs. He traded me water bottles so I had some water and I decided to keep going and play it by ear. eventually started catching some other runners. Saw newbz at a turn around and knew I could catch him. It was a long stretch of road that was overgrown with trees when I saw him up ahead. I told the guy i was running near, “that’s the guy I’ve gotta beat. I’ll see you later.” I decided to take a surreptitious approach and hugged the trees on the side of the road. He kept looking over his left shoulder so I stayed as right as possible and tried to blend. Finally he saw me and took off like a shot. I my HR jumped to 170 to match his pace. This went on for more than half a mile and I had to ease the pace a bit. Eventually I made the pass as he started to cramp (from the acceleration?). I gave him a salt stick cap and some water. I asked him if he thought we had a chance to break 5 hours and he said, “nope”. I decided to run my best anyways. Towards the end I got some funny looks as I ran backwards down the steep hills…figured I’d save the quads for the final kick. I was hustling the last three miles. Caught almostdrowing and told her “good job” and she returned the compliment:). She was looking very strong with a good turnover. As i rounded the last corner I saw the clock tick 4:59 to 5:00 and I was ticked. Got in just over 5:01. For the swim I had and just doing TTT two weeks ago I am fairly happy with the result but I really wanted to break 5 hours and if everything went well 4:50. I guess that’s what keeps us signing up for more:) All in all a great race and I would definitely make it a regular part of my schedule. Good job Chip!
Here’s a shot of Peter finishing hard. He and his wife are great!
Here’s one of Becky looking strong out of T1:
