This post won’t be as detailed as past race-reports, but figured I would keep integrity on the blog by making sure I gave at least something from these races. I’d rather take the time to go a bit more in depth (to come soon in a separate post) from a topical standpoint surrounding my thoughts on racing consecutively over 4 weeks.
Starkermann Epic Challenge (3rd Overall): This was a weekend stage race, meaning that athletes compete for the best cumulative time across a series of events. Friday night 5K, Saturday morning Olympic Triathlon, Saturday night 40K bike time-trial, Sunday morning Olympic Duathlon. The weather was just miserable all weekend: cold, rainy (which turned to a sleety ice) and extremely windy. As a result, the entire field was slowed, and the 40K TT was cancelled, a last-minute call by the race director that I fully agreed with, especially given the course was all sharp climbs and descents, which is not very conducive to slick roads and 25mph wind gusts.
Friday Night 5K: I ran this just a hair under true 5K pace. Probably right in between my 5K and 10K pace. I ran neck-and-neck with another guy the whole way, and for some reason I couldn’t understand, he kicked real hard at the end (remember, this is a cumulative race, and saving energy is important) to beat me by a few seconds. After Friday night, I sat in second place, but the top of the field was separated by mere seconds with all kinds of racing ahead, so this didn’t mean much.
Saturday Morning Reverse Tri (4.4mi run, 30K bike, 300yd swim) Since I didn’t go full-tilt (or kick at the end) the night before, my legs felt fine going into this race. Again, knowing that there was still a lot of racing to follow (theme of my approach to the weekend) I tempered things again, and paced everything somewhere in- between a hard workout and a true race effort. As the field separated, I learned I was probably the strongest runner competing, but relatively weak on the bike. As for the swim, I’m a duathlete -- I was happy that I didn’t drown, and as expected, pretty much everyone put 60-90 seconds into me here. At the conclusion of this race, I sat in 4th place, a little over a minute out of 3rd. As much as I would have liked to say it was due to losing time in the water, I also lost time on the bike. The 3 guys ahead of me were simply stronger in the saddle, not good considering that in combination, the next two races involved 70K of biking and only 10K of running…or so we all thought that was the case…
40K Bike Time-Trial Cancelled due to weather. Bummed about this since I really wanted to test myself over all 4-weekend events, but it would have been downright unsafe to race such an already technical course in a hail storm with icy roads (yes, icy roads in May, Pure Michigan for ya). What this did do, though, is open up the podium to me. I wasn’t catching Chad (one of my best friends and Greater > Than teammates) who was sitting pretty in 1st place, but, the door was open to get the guys in 2nd and 3rd, who had about 70 and 80 seconds on me respectively. Even though these guys had proved they were stronger cyclists than me, the Duathlon is my bread-and-butter event, so I was ready to make things happen and try and hit the podium.
Duathlon (5K/30K/5K) Knowing that I wasn’t going to move up on the bike portion of this final race, I pushed the pace running right out of the gates. The guy sitting in 3rd (Glenn Goodman) ran with me again (I guess that kick on Friday night didn’t hurt him so bad) so he basically said “I’m matching you in your strength, you are not getting me today,” but the athlete who was in 2nd (Justin Vasseau) fell behind pretty quickly. I pushed entire first run knowing Justin would get time back on me during the bike. Exactly that happened, as Justin passed me at about the 25K point of the bike, but I was able to keep him in sight for the final descending 5K, and he hit transition up about 20 seconds on me (for the duathlon) which meant about 100 seconds up on me cumulatively. I had my work cut out for me with only 5K of running to go. While 100 seconds is pretty enormous to make up during a 5K (almost unthinkable actually) I knew a few things: 1) My training is built for me to run strong off the bike and on tired legs, so this was good given how trashed everyone’s legs were at this point of the weekend 2) I had proven that I am a much better runner than Justin, 3) I really wanted to join Chad on the podium. I left transition and ran like a bat out of hell. I caught Justin about a half mile into the run, which meant that I needed to make up 80 seconds (the time he had on me going into this race) in the last 2.5 miles. I ran my ass off and didn’t look back once. This is probably the hardest I have ever run in my life, it certainly felt like it, as I was really suffering out there. When I crossed the finish line I immediately hit the lap button on my watch and let the waiting game begin. An extremely long 80 seconds passed, and still no Justin. He ended up coming in about 100 seconds later, meaning I beat him by a mere 20 seconds over the entire weekend!
Overall Cumulative: I literally ran my way onto the podium in this race, and caught some luck with the TT being cancelled. It is pretty remarkable how close things were amongst the top 4, with just 2-3 minutes of separation across us over the entire weekend of events. My buddy Chad proved his durability as a multi-sport athlete and had a great and consistent performance to take the win. I would love to race here again next year, and see some of the same guys (Chad, Glenn and Justin) out there, as we really pushed each other hard, and competed with lots of intensity, but also in a very honorable and respectful manner. If I plan on placing again next year, I’ll have to come back much stronger on the bike, since Chad, Glenn, and especially Justin are really all quite strong and consistent cyclists.
Starkermann Epic Challenge (3rd Overall): This was a weekend stage race, meaning that athletes compete for the best cumulative time across a series of events. Friday night 5K, Saturday morning Olympic Triathlon, Saturday night 40K bike time-trial, Sunday morning Olympic Duathlon. The weather was just miserable all weekend: cold, rainy (which turned to a sleety ice) and extremely windy. As a result, the entire field was slowed, and the 40K TT was cancelled, a last-minute call by the race director that I fully agreed with, especially given the course was all sharp climbs and descents, which is not very conducive to slick roads and 25mph wind gusts.
Friday Night 5K: I ran this just a hair under true 5K pace. Probably right in between my 5K and 10K pace. I ran neck-and-neck with another guy the whole way, and for some reason I couldn’t understand, he kicked real hard at the end (remember, this is a cumulative race, and saving energy is important) to beat me by a few seconds. After Friday night, I sat in second place, but the top of the field was separated by mere seconds with all kinds of racing ahead, so this didn’t mean much.
Saturday Morning Reverse Tri (4.4mi run, 30K bike, 300yd swim) Since I didn’t go full-tilt (or kick at the end) the night before, my legs felt fine going into this race. Again, knowing that there was still a lot of racing to follow (theme of my approach to the weekend) I tempered things again, and paced everything somewhere in- between a hard workout and a true race effort. As the field separated, I learned I was probably the strongest runner competing, but relatively weak on the bike. As for the swim, I’m a duathlete -- I was happy that I didn’t drown, and as expected, pretty much everyone put 60-90 seconds into me here. At the conclusion of this race, I sat in 4th place, a little over a minute out of 3rd. As much as I would have liked to say it was due to losing time in the water, I also lost time on the bike. The 3 guys ahead of me were simply stronger in the saddle, not good considering that in combination, the next two races involved 70K of biking and only 10K of running…or so we all thought that was the case…
40K Bike Time-Trial Cancelled due to weather. Bummed about this since I really wanted to test myself over all 4-weekend events, but it would have been downright unsafe to race such an already technical course in a hail storm with icy roads (yes, icy roads in May, Pure Michigan for ya). What this did do, though, is open up the podium to me. I wasn’t catching Chad (one of my best friends and Greater > Than teammates) who was sitting pretty in 1st place, but, the door was open to get the guys in 2nd and 3rd, who had about 70 and 80 seconds on me respectively. Even though these guys had proved they were stronger cyclists than me, the Duathlon is my bread-and-butter event, so I was ready to make things happen and try and hit the podium.
Duathlon (5K/30K/5K) Knowing that I wasn’t going to move up on the bike portion of this final race, I pushed the pace running right out of the gates. The guy sitting in 3rd (Glenn Goodman) ran with me again (I guess that kick on Friday night didn’t hurt him so bad) so he basically said “I’m matching you in your strength, you are not getting me today,” but the athlete who was in 2nd (Justin Vasseau) fell behind pretty quickly. I pushed entire first run knowing Justin would get time back on me during the bike. Exactly that happened, as Justin passed me at about the 25K point of the bike, but I was able to keep him in sight for the final descending 5K, and he hit transition up about 20 seconds on me (for the duathlon) which meant about 100 seconds up on me cumulatively. I had my work cut out for me with only 5K of running to go. While 100 seconds is pretty enormous to make up during a 5K (almost unthinkable actually) I knew a few things: 1) My training is built for me to run strong off the bike and on tired legs, so this was good given how trashed everyone’s legs were at this point of the weekend 2) I had proven that I am a much better runner than Justin, 3) I really wanted to join Chad on the podium. I left transition and ran like a bat out of hell. I caught Justin about a half mile into the run, which meant that I needed to make up 80 seconds (the time he had on me going into this race) in the last 2.5 miles. I ran my ass off and didn’t look back once. This is probably the hardest I have ever run in my life, it certainly felt like it, as I was really suffering out there. When I crossed the finish line I immediately hit the lap button on my watch and let the waiting game begin. An extremely long 80 seconds passed, and still no Justin. He ended up coming in about 100 seconds later, meaning I beat him by a mere 20 seconds over the entire weekend!
Overall Cumulative: I literally ran my way onto the podium in this race, and caught some luck with the TT being cancelled. It is pretty remarkable how close things were amongst the top 4, with just 2-3 minutes of separation across us over the entire weekend of events. My buddy Chad proved his durability as a multi-sport athlete and had a great and consistent performance to take the win. I would love to race here again next year, and see some of the same guys (Chad, Glenn and Justin) out there, as we really pushed each other hard, and competed with lots of intensity, but also in a very honorable and respectful manner. If I plan on placing again next year, I’ll have to come back much stronger on the bike, since Chad, Glenn, and especially Justin are really all quite strong and consistent cyclists.
Grosse Ile Duathlon (6th Overall, 1st Age Group): I’m going to keep this one real short and sweet. This was my last race in a stretch that began with Du Nats on April 30. If you count all 3 events at Starkermann, this puts me at 7 races in 28 days, or maybe more representative (since Starkermann was really one big “race” with pacing strategy coming into play); 4 events on 4 consecutive weekends. Knowing this would be my last time racing for a while, and my last short-course race of 2011, I did my best to re-focus and treat this as its own individual morning. Fatigue (mental and physical, more on this to come in my next post) had definitely set in, but my training had prepared me to deal with fatigue, and the results from this race proved exactly that. On a calm day and a flat course I ran 6:06 pace for the first 5K, road at 23.1mph for the bike, and ran 6:18 pace for the second 5K. Pretty much exactly what I would have predicted.
I’ll take a week off and then ramp up with a focus on long-course racing in the fall, with my A-race coming on Sept 10 at the Tawas Multisport Festival (4.4mile run/56mile bike/13.1 mile run). The past month of racing was great. I performed well, learned a lot about myself as an endurance athlete, and identified areas for improvement heading into the summer.
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