OK folks here is the race report you have been waiting for! I went into Steelhead hoping to avoid injuries during training…which I did…but life got in the way. With my new job, moving, buying a new house, family obligations, etc. my training was not as good as I hoped, but better then last summer! So I decided 6:00 would be my goal.
I put off getting a hotel for way too long and finally got a room at the Motel 6. I know they are pretty no frills, but it was just about across the street from the Red Roof Inn I stayed at last year so I figured it would be ok. Wrong! One of the shower handles was coming off, the toilet had issues about every three flushes, the sink faucet sucked and the TV shut off any time it felt like it (sometimes after an hour, sometimes after 2 minutes). I went to see the Simpsons movie and get dinner and returned to the hotel only to receive an obscene phone call (I have had one before, but it was from a girl with a hot voice…not some guy). Later when I went to bed on thursday night there was someones shadow in my window for a couple of minutes, when I got up the person left…so I taped the curtain so nobody could see in. They did not have Do Not Disturb signs, so I called the front desk and they said they would tell the maids not to come by…but they did anyway! Finally the water taste exactly like Lake Michigan! In other forwards do not ever stay at the Motel 6 in Benton Harbor!
On friday I picked up my packet easily, bought a timing strap since I did not want to use the pink plastic thing they gave us, had a swim in the lake and then a brisk run. Went back to the hotel, had a light dinner, shower and then went to get marked/rack my bike. Why do people put bags on their saddles in transition over night? Every tri I have done you put your wet ass on the saddle, so it gets wet anyway! My wife and in-laws showed up along with my awesome dog Dakota! So we hung out in the hotel for a while. That night I didn’t sleep much.
Race Day! I got over to the race with little trouble or waiting. Got my stuff set up in transition and hung out talking with the guys around me. It was the old hurry up and wait! Transition closed so I started walking down the beach chatting with a guy from Cali. Did some swimming warm-up and chatted with a guy from Ft. Lauderdale. Then it was race time. It was weird getting ready to swim after the last race I did had a man die during the swim and my previous wetsuit swim felt like my wetsuit was too tight in the chest. Luckily they had some great tunes going while we waited to start! The announcer started us (long after the first wave had finished, I was in wave 14) and I waded out, trying let the crowd thin out. I started swimming and for about the first third had a bad swim. I couldn’t get the negative thoughts out of my head and couldn’t get a rhythm. I soon got a nice mouthful of lake water when an ill-timed left side breath was right into a wave. I coughed breathed right, coughed and breathed again and was fine. At that moment all of the negative thoughts left and my rhythm came. Now, I think Tom Z. was playing tricks on me as every time I sighted the buoys to see how many where left it would be one more then the last time! I swear I saw three one time, passed one, looked and still saw three! Tom was adding buoys! Usually on swims I tend to drift away from the buoy turns, but, perhaps due to the tide, I kept drifting in towards the shore. At one point I was feeling so good that I thought about waving to the safety boat…and then realized that they might think I was in trouble so I didn’t do it. As I swam I was singing every tune I knew or heard recently. I was pretty happy that I knew all of the words and did not just get one or two line stuck in my head! Swimming to shore was odd as everybody was standing as soon as the water got to about stomach deep, but it was a good 50 yards to dry land so I kept swimming. It was a slow swim, but between not getting the rhythm and my lack of swim training I wasn’t unhappy as it was only about 5 minutes slow. The run up the beach seemed a lot harder then last year, I was tired and out of breath, but saw a women with one leg using crutches after the swim and was inspired! I got into transition, sprayed the spray on sun block on and it hurt like hell when it hit my wetsuit burn on my neck…Yeowtch! Decent transition, faster then last year. Had to run through the sand to get out and as I got on the bike my feet were covered, so I tried spitting water from my aerobottle on my feet, which worked on my right foot but not the left. I eventually used some of my Infinit bottle (met Mike at his booth on friday, great guy and remembered me from my order!) and it got most of the sand and didn’t turn sticky!
I felt like crap the first 5 or ten miles of the bike…just like last year, then settled into a rhythm. I was sucking down water well and using my Infinit gel (last year I did a poor job due to a big stomach bubble that would not go away) and got a few small stomach bubbles, but nothing that prevented me from drinking or using my gel. I did have to stay out of the aerobars a little, but nothing horrible I have been training with an aerobottle but had yet to race with it, but it went really well. I saw some blatant drafting, but not as much as last year. One was a women, her female friend and the friends boyfriend. The friend actually asked me to move over (left) so she could pass and get back on her friends wheel! The other was some guy who would draft for a minute and then pass and move on to the next wheel with a decent pace. I also saw a lot of marshalls so there was less drafting then last year. We had a group of guys who kept passing and then getting re-passed, no drafting, we were just close enough in pace that we were around each other all ride. One guy would fly by me on every downhill and then drop the anchor on uphills and flats. Every time I passed him I wanted to tell him to save some energy for more then just the downhills. Well the bike went ok except for two things. I had a bubble that was going to come out the backside so I leaned over and gave a push and the magical fart came out (man did I feel good after that!) and for about 30 seconds I felt like I had used every last ounce of energy in every muscle! Wow. The one other issue was that my left IT band was acting up a bit. I think my cleat may have slipped at some point in transit or on the early part of the ride as I have not had any trouble with it before. Two cool things were coming through a curve really flying on the aerobars I saw a race photographer and heard him snap three or four shots of me! I have never had a good ride shot in a race, usually it’s me with my feet on my shoes coming in or out of transition. I can’t wait to see them! My time was within my goal, but strangely slower then last year when I had a road bike with clip-ons and a non-aero helmet. Bummer. The other cool thing was my flying dismount I perfected in my last race. The guy pointing to the dismount line looked a bit freaked out as I came in with some nice speed and didn’t slow down to dismount! My wife told me that a spectator next to her watched me do it and said “That was cool!” I got my bike racked, did some stretches, grabbed my Infinit gell for the run, reset my Garmin and bagged it for the run, put on the socks and shoes, grabbed the race belt and hat and headed straight for the…porta-potty! About 15 miles from the end of the back I had to pee and it just got worse!
I went out conservatively on the run, figuring I would pick it up a bit as I got used to running and was feeling really good except my IT band was tightening up. I got to mile four and stopped to stretch it out. Felt good for a couple of miles, was drinking a lot of water and the Infinit was going down well, but I was getting a bit gassy (sorry if you were behind me!)…then the IT band started getting worse and worse. Eventually stretching would not help and I walked most of the last three miles. I was so pissed because my legs felt good, like I could have been running a good pace, but as soon as I started running it was like someone stuck a knife in my knee. DAMN! I was walking briskly, but I was so mad. My time was faster then last year (with the lower back spasms) but I am so mad, because I know I would have been close to my overall race goal had I not had the ITB problem. When I got to the turn to the final straight I gritted my teeth, said “fuck it” and ran down the straight…and it hurt like hell. So bad that I did nothing but grimace at the finish line.
I did a 6:46 and change for my final time…30 seconds slower then last year. Had I known I was that close I would have probably tried to do something to beat that time. This was a tough one to swallow because I felt so good (fatigue and muscle wise) and had no health issues in training. I may not do Steelhead next year just because of the timing, as I had to be back on campus for my student-athletes to check in today. I am thinking about Racine for next year and a early June half as well. All in all I had a great time and it’s a fantastically run race! The volunteers were awesome and so were the policemen. One even had his camera taking pics of the race!
