Olympic Distance Race Saturday morning
The athletes gearing up to begin their swim at the edge of the lake.
This race began at 7:30 a.m. and I think we arrived at the race site around 6:40 a.m. to set up our transition. By the way, racers are assigned a bike rack based on race number---I can't recall specifically but there were around 10 racers on each rack. You could set up your bike and transition area anywhere on that particular rack. There wasn't much space between bikes for your gear, but like I said before, these were all veteran racers so they managed to make it work. I was definitely wearing a wetsuit for my 1500 meter swim and hopeful that might improve not only my performance but also my confidence level. Assuming I finished this race, I still had another 3200 meters of swimming to go over the next 26 hours! Once more the organizers wanted us to line up in race number order to begin the swim. I, on the other hand, had a different plan. I am a slow swimmer and thus felt more comfortable starting out near the back of the pack. So, I decamped to almost the end of the line which really didn't matter since my time didn't begin until I crossed the timing mat. I think there were maybe 20 racers behind me when I entered the water. Don't ask me why, but I felt better not being the absolute last person to start the race. Almost everyone else was well into their swim by the time I started and some of the top guys had already begun their second of the two loops on the swim course by that point.
Paul beginning his race
Unfortunately, a good chunk of racers would still be passing me for their second lap and my first, but at least I figured this would help minimize the number of swimmers running into me. It worked to a certain degree. I still had quite a few people swimming into my legs but it seemed like there was more room to carve out your own space in this 1500 meter contest and those who were passing or swimming over me seemed to be more courteous (saying sorry) and in less of a hurry. I again walked my way out as far as possible before starting to swim and certainly did appreciate the buoyancy provided by my wetsuit.
There was a tornado that came through central Ohio the night before, and though it didn't touch down near the race site, it did drop a lot of water into the lake for this swim. As a result, the water levels were much higher and the temperature felt a degree or two colder than the night before. I never saw anything from the race organizers on the water temperature after the Friday sprint so that is totally a subjective judgment on my part. I was finally able to get into a good stroke rhythm on the back side of lap one and it felt just like my last iron distance race, albeit much colder. Once again I walked my way through the final meters of the swim on lap one and the first section of lap two. It was nice to see so many folks leaving the water as I made the turn since that meant I would be relatively alone to finish up lap two. Lap two was relatively uneventful as I just focused on my stroke and breathing bilaterally.
Just before the swim began I posed for a picture.
I came out of transition and was happy to be able to spot my bike sitting all alone on that particular bike rack since it seemed like all the competitors under number 200 were already out on the bike course. I began the bike and passed a couple of racers just out of transition on the half mile long ride out of the state park. We turned left out of the park which meant I was now on unfamiliar terrain. The first few miles of the course were relatively flat but fairly soon we hit the hills. It has only been a few days as I write this but I think I have already managed to erase many of the details of the course from my mind. I seem to recall a bunch of inclines that wouldn't necessarily flatten out but just gradually kept going up in a winding direction so you couldn't tell exactly how long they were until you would be able to recover.
A typical racer on his bike at Triple T
I tried to ride this course in a conservative fashion since I didn't know exactly what to expect, except lots of hills. They were there of course in spades. We reached a long downhill somewhere around mile nine(?) that was windy and seemed to go forever! I didn't clock it but it reminded me of skiing down a massive run at one of the Colorado resorts.....it just kept going down and down seemingly forever. It felt like we were cruising at 30 mph for over three minutes but that is probably just my perception, not having driven the course ahead of time. You couldn't tell how long it was from the top because it was so curvy and could only see about 200 to maybe 300 meters ahead at any given time before there was another sweeping curve in the road. In any event, the hill finally ended and there was a state trooper at the bottom holding up traffic from a junction road on the right hand side. There easily would have been a slew of accidents without his presence. I checked my Garmin for the distance of the hill on the way back up later and that downhill section was about 1.2 miles in length. After reaching the bottom we began the flattest part of the weekend on the bike--it was about 2.5 miles to the turn around point from the bottom of the hill and everyone was flying since it suddenly felt like a normal triathlon with everyone going 20+ mph.
After the turn around I tried to maintain a good pace without going crazy since I knew I would have to climb that beast of a hill in just a few miles. With the flat section ending at about mile 15.8 the climbing began in earnest. I was in the granny gear within 30 seconds and kept it there for a good ten minutes at least. The hill just kept going up in a winding fashion and I didn't remember any details on the way down that would have signaled when the end was near. There wasn't really any respite from the elevation gain so I just tried to grind it out without going into oxygen debt. Easier said than done. I also made it a point to stay seated as much as possible but probably came out of the seat about three or four times just to stretch out the legs and prevent the legs locking up from being stuck in one position the entire climb. Of course, once past the big hill around mile 17 I still had nearly eight more miles to the transition to the run. There were more hills on the way back too which further sapped the legs. Once I finally reached the park I had about a half mile jaunt to the transition area so I made it a point to take it relatively easy that last short spurt on the bike and massaged my quads to try and loosen them up for the run. The transition itself was uneventful.
I was looking forward to running since I figured I could catch and pass at least a few people over 6.55 miles given my running background. In addition, I figured this would be a conservative run since I had not yet seen the vast majority of the course I would be unlikely to go all out early on. After the first half mile along a park road (race organizers had wisely reconfigured the course to remove the soupy mudfest section steering us instead to the roadway) veers off onto what they call a fire trail. Basically it was about eight to ten feet across and though there was pavement along a good chunk of it, that pavement only covered about 1/4 of the trail and looked like it had been there a LONG time.....just a general impression but it reminded me of what happens when nature takes over a road from disuse. Anyway, I finally hit the first aid station which was around the mile mark (I think) and I noticed that the general trend of the trail to this point was a climb upward. Ok.....some downhills please! Well, the next three quarters of a mile continued the vertical trend until around mile 2.25 or so when we reached a significant downhill that basically took you almost all the way to the turn around at 3.27 miles. There was also a second aid station in mile two.
A group of runners on the fire trail
You reached the three mile marker on the downhill and just had a quick left hand turn and a quarter mile to go until the actual turn around point but that section was completely flat. The good news was that there was an aid station and porta pottie at the turn around point. So, after the quick quarter mile flatness and a quick right hand turn you were faced with a massive climb of 3/4 a mile. That was lots and lots of fun.....although I will say that I kept running and actually I passed a few folks on the hill. The best part about that hill was reaching the top of it because once you did you could basically coast your way back to the finish line because the trend on the way back was always either flat or downhill except for perhaps two very short moderate inclines or less than 30 meters each. I felt great over those last two and a half miles. I went through the finish line making sure not to sprint but just maintain a good strong pace since I still had another race coming up in a few hours.
Several runners walking up the climb just past the turn around point.
I grabbed some food from the race tent including a banana, pretzels and water and headed off to meet up with my friends. I found them at Paul's RV which was located maybe a quarter mile away from the transition area. We traded war stories and then JP asked me I wanted to head back to the hotel. Absolutely yes! JP's plan was to take a nap while my plan was to score some solid food to replenish my energy for the second race of the day. There was a McDonald's about 200 meters from our hotel so I walked over there and ordered one of my standard fares; a chicken mcnuggets 10 piece meal plus two cherry pies washed down with four or five cokes. It tasted great after the hard effort of the morning race. Unfortunately we only had about an hour and fifteen minutes from the time we arrived back at the hotel until we had to get back in the car to travel back to the race site. Before going to McDonald's I had changed into my normal civilian clothes and left my American Triple T jersey back in the hotel room on a hanger to hopefully dry out a bit. When I returned to the room I put on a different set of tri-shorts and a dry tech shirt while carrying my Triple T jersey which was still damp from the morning race.
On the way back to the race site we passed another car full of fellow racers one of whom was holding his jersey with both hands outside the car window on the passenger side trying to air dry it. I don't know how well that worked for him but I was just expecting to deal with a slightly damp jersey. I figured once we were about twenty minutes into the bike we would be sweating profusely and it was a moot point. I didn't plan on putting on the jersey until a minute or so before I was ready to leave transition with my bike. As the distances increased my relative performance compared to the other competitors dropped slightly. In the Saturday morning Olympic race I finished in 76th place out of at least 88 racers in my division and 324th out of 381 total finishers in this race with a final time of 316:00.
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