Olympic Distance Race Saturday afternoon
The third race of the weekend was another Olympic distance event, however, this one involved a strange twist. We would be starting off on the bike to repeat the same course we rode in the morning before putting on wetsuits and swimming two laps in the lake. I should point out that due to the tornado the night before race organizers had to divert from their original plan for this race and directed us to repeat the same course we rode in the morning race because some trees fell across a road on the intended course. Other than a few minutes of warming up on my bike before a few previous races I don't think I have ever ridden hard and then tried swimming. So, this was going to be an experiment in dealing with new variables...namely what is it like to BIKE then swim and run? Before the race started I assumed there would just be some overall body soreness from the morning race and then of course from the 40k ride immediately before the swim. However, I thought my legs would only give me trouble once I had finished the swim and tried to transition to running the 6.55 mile course since I normally use them quite sparingly on the swim. Mostly my pre-race thoughts focused on sore arms and shoulders for the swim and sapped legs on the run. Oh how wrong I was!
The race organizers had set up the weekend as two distinct divisions; solo competitors and a team race. This third event was the first tangible reminder that there was a team dynamic at play during the race itself. Those who were racing as a team were allowed to start together on the bike leg and could draft off of only one another for the duration of the ride. Thus, my friend Paul and his teammate Becky were set to begin just ahead of me as we were theoretically suppose to begin in race number order which ordinarily would have Paul and Becky starting just a few seconds ahead of me. I was lackadaisically setting up my transition area and at first didn't think I wanted to start directly behind Paul or fight my way forward in the overcrowded line waiting to begin the race that dominated at least half of the already crowded transition area where the racers gathered standing atop their bikes. However, space opened up ahead of me and several competitors let me get ahead of them when they asked my number and noticed I was suppose to be starting ahead of them according to race number order. Somehow I made my way up to Becky and Paul and gradually came around to the conclusion that it might be interesting to try and hang onto them, at least visually, though obviously I wasn't allowed to draft off of them. I know Paul is a very strong cyclist and I thought if nothing else he would pull me along (without my actually drafting) to a fast bike time, though by following this strategy I was risking not having much left for the run. Life isn't much fun without any risk, right?
Racers beginning to walk their bikes to the front of the transition area to begin the third event.
Paul and Becky took off and I was allowed to proceed a few seconds behind them. I was able to catch them fairly quickly and tried just hanging back maybe 4 or 5 bike lengths but it seemed like they were just cruising along in no particular hurry which I thought was uncharacteristic of Paul. When two or three riders passed us I decided to move ahead of Paul and Becky and see what happened since my perception at the time was that they weren't riding all that hard. After all, I was feeling ok at that point and assumed they would likely overtake me at some point. I kept expecting them to come flying by me over the first several miles but I didn't see or hear them again until shortly after the turn around point. At that point I had just made the turn and I could now see they were only about one hundred and fifty meters behind me with maybe two other riders between us. I had been riding pretty hard on the way out there, and though I shouldn't have been surprised they were that close, for some reason I was. Since there were about two and a half flat miles to the massive mile long hill I knew they would catch me before that point since they had the drafting advantage. Sure enough they both came flying by me on that stretch of roadway. I looked down at my Garmin and was getting dropped by them while I was going 23+ mph. It was one of the few fast spots on the course and I thought it would take too much energy and effort to try and stay in contact with the huge climb coming up shortly. I let them go.
Paul on the bike course
Once we reached the bottom of the hill I dropped down into my now favorite granny gear and made a concerted attempt to moderate my effort in the consistent turning over of the pedals. Several guys were already jumping out of their seats within the first 100 meters with their double cranks trying to over power this lung busting hill which I thought was crazy. I passed those guys fairly quickly and really wondered if they were planning to stay out of the saddle for the duration of the hill but couldn't simultaneously keep moving forward and look back to find out. I stayed seated and just focused on turning over the legs and keeping my heart rate and breathing in check. It was a LONG road with competitors zipping down the other side at 30+ mph and occasionally they would jump over into the far edge barely crossing over to of our side of the roadway. I never felt I was in danger of getting hit, but in the event one of them would lose control of their bike a crash was a distinct possibility. Thus, I was paying more attention to the roadway than I normally would during a tough climb. I was slowly passing riders on a consistent basis as the riders ahead of me appeared to be riding double cranks and just didn't have the ability to spin their legs around nearly as quickly as I could with my triple. They were having to use their strength to pull themselves up the hill by turning the cranks slowly and I could just see their leg strength seeping away into the afternoon heat. That is a tough way to race but I was impressed with their resiliency and really wondered how their legs would respond once the run began.
Tony Rigdon from the Columbia Multisport Club (CMC) was one of the few racers I knew at this event.
So, while I was passing a few riders there frankly weren't all that many riders in my near vicinity to catch. I would say I probably caught seven or eight riders until we almost crested the hill when I noticed Paul and Becky directly ahead of me. While I would like to say I threw in a surge to catch them the truth is that my legs didn't really have anything approximately a surge to spare for such an effort. Thus, I just kept turning over my legs as quickly as possible and tried to stay seated. Over the course of this long hill, over a mile in length, I believe I stood up in the saddle on three separate occasions. Standing up was basically to allow my legs to stretch and experience a different position to avoid cramping from the sustained and repeatable movements I was engaged in while sitting down for so long. I caught Paul and said a few words of encouragement--he looked better than I expected, but I could tell he was working hard to stay in contact with Becky. She was maybe fifteen feet ahead of him and I caught her too! Again, a few words of congratulations and encouragement sprang forth since by this point we were nearly at the top of the hill.
Becky on the bike course.
I tried to pick up the pace on the relative flat to downhill section that followed while trying to recover. Unfortunately there were more hills on the way back to the transition area. However, the last few miles were relatively flat so I was able to hold a relatively good pace for that section. I came into the transition area and lo and behold Paul and Becky were right behind me. As an aside, I will point out that chatting with them later Paul related that when I first passed them early in the race on the bike Becky had told Paul, "Don't you dare try and go with him" since they had their own race strategy that she wanted to follow. Apparently it worked quite well since I think our times were almost exactly the same on the bike portion of this race.
The following little tidbit is probably my favorite memory from the race. While still in St. Louis on a training ride Paul had mentioned that at Triple T the transition from the bike to swim during this third race was normally something to behold. Paul had raced Triple T on at least one previous occasion so I was trying to soak up any insight he could offer at the time. He basically said that I wouldn't believe some of the things I would see as competitors struggle to put their wetsuits on after a hard 40k ride since their coordination, reflexes and muscle control are all not accustomed to going from the bike to the swim. With Paul's warning/admonition ringing in my ears I took my time getting off my cycling shoes and helmet and carefully put my wetsuit in position to try and slip my right leg into the bottom of the suit. In other words, I was taking my sweet time trying to avoid any quick movements that might cause a muscle spasm or contraction. Before doing so I looked over to Paul whose transition area was on the same rack and just down a few bikes. Paul was flying! He had his wetsuit halfway on up to his waist and proceeded to stop one of the race volunteers to hand over two small plastic shopping bags saying, "I am sure someone else can use these."
By way of explanation for those of you not familiar with this practice---the plastic bags are placed on the legs before the wetsuit is pulled on with the theory being that the wetsuit will slide over the plastic faster than bare skin. The race volunteer took one look at Paul and handed the bags back to him saying, "Actually, I think you will still need them, look down--your wetsuit is on backwards!" Paul then looked down and could see his zipper just below his navel! Most wetsuits are designed with the zipper fastening from your butt to your neckline. I think Paul had a choice word or two that he muttered to himself loud enough for me to hear and then proceeded to sit down and began taking off his wetsuit. By this point I was starting to get my own wetsuit on--with the zipper on my back I might add. I was smiling as I moved past Paul to the swim start spot since I recalled his words that I would see some bizarre things during this particular transition.....at the time Paul had no idea that he would be the one showing them to me!
J.P. was hanging tough throughout the weekend, particularly on the bike.
My legs felt ok jogging down to the swim start, however, things were about to get interesting. Once I walked into the water and my legs had a dose of the cold water my quads and hamstrings began severely tightening up and muscle spasms were occurring every few seconds. This was not a good sign at all. So, I walked gingerly out as far as I could with leg cramps proceeding with each step. Once I actually began swimming with my head in the water and arms outstretched and legs behind me I could barely manage to swim without some rather uncomfortable pain. Whenever I would stand up to sight or take a break with my legs dropping below my chest my hamstrings and quads would again begin to seize up in excruciating pain. It felt similar to a charlie horse cramp, particularly in my hamstrings. By analogy it felt as if I were a marionette and a puppet master had attached wires to my hamstrings and was now pulling on them as hard as he could to get my attention. So, I would swim some more and kind of forget about the fact that my legs would seize up and then put my legs underneath my torso only to have the cramps return. It was not a good moment since I felt like an idiot for forgetting not to do that yet again! Anyway, I probably stopped a total of ten times during the course of the first lap, usually due to someone trying to swim over me. Normally I stop and let them pass but each time it caused more cramping in the legs.
Dianna was also from the CMC club and was racing with her husband Rodney pictured below.
At one point I noticed a young girl in a canoe for safety purposes maybe ten meters away off to the left and I just stopped and looked in her direction after having been swam over for the third time in about three minutes and the third time my goggles took on some water. Believe it or not, I have never had that happen before in an open water race and I wasn't experienced in putting them back on while dealing with severe leg cramping simultaneously. I was hoping she would see that I wasn't moving forward and come my way to help. Nope! No such luck on this occasion. I think it was more mental exhaustion with the cramping and frustration of people swimming over me, but I wanted a little break from swimming and, though as illogical as it sounds to me now, for some reason I was thinking at the time that if I could just hold onto her canoe for a minute to catch my breath and put my goggles back on I could start over refreshed. I clearly wasn't thinking at that point about my legs, though in retrospect I believe they still would of been severely cramping even holding onto her canoe.
Paul and Becky
I wasn't about to expend any of my energy swimming in her direction since she wasn't in the same direction as the finish to the first lap. So, I waited maybe another fifteen seconds. finagled my goggles back on my head, and then began swimming realizing that in Triple T there are no shortcuts and no easy races! I finally reached the final meters of the first lap where I could walk to the turn buoy to begin the second lap and it was more of the same--severe leg cramping. I also noticed for the first time that I wasn't the only one suffering from problems with the legs. Fellow racers were clutching their legs in pain and a few competitors were actually laying in the shallow water trying their best to massage their legs. In addition, I noted that at least two racers were unintentionally walking sideways in the water and fell over shortly thereafter. This biking and swimming combination was taking a heavy toll on athletes unaccustomed to swimming on anything but fresh legs during a race.
J.P. and I
Well, guess who started walking sideways beginning his second lap? Yes, that was a fun moment. I kept telling my legs to move forward but they had other ideas. Meanwhile, the leg cramps were continuing. The smart thing to do was to actually swim at that point but I was obstinate in my opposition to actually swimming before it was absolutely necessary. Besides, what is a race without a little temporary pain? Once I actually reached the point where the water was at my neck I did begin swimming. I remember it actually felt pretty good to start to swim the final lap for the day. Whenever swimming starts to feel better than staying still I start hearing the Twilight Zone theme song in my head. I focused on my form much more in the second lap and turning my hips properly to generate thrust. The second lap was much better than the first in no small part due to the fact that a good portion of the competitors were already ahead of me and thus only a handful of slow swimming competitors were in my general vicinity and capable of swimming into me again. I like my space during the swim. The second lap was relatively uneventful, although I felt tired generally, I did a pretty good job minimizing the cramps in the legs by staying in the forward swimming position for the majority of the time. However, once again as I was exiting the water by standing up for the last twenty meters or so the cramps were back. I had hoped they would stop once I actually exited the water but they continued onto the metal gang plank we jogged across to reach the transition area. I stopped just after crossing the timing mat, sat down and took off my wetsuit. The legs were still cramping and I spent a minute or so massaging them. I hated to waste the time to do that but figured if I wasn't able to run on these legs I would be losing a lot more than a minute walking a 6.55 mile course. The massage worked to a point. The cramps lessened and I moved over to my transition area and put on my running shoes.
Picture of me at the half way point/turn around on the run taken by a race volunteer
I then opted to walk out of the transition area and for the next 20 meters until I reached an aid station. I grabbed some water and they also had orange slices which tasted great! Ok....it was time to get moving. I started off jogging slowly just to test the legs.....there was soreness for sure but the cramping had miraculously gone away. I was so relieved that I could actually somewhat run that I started to slowly pick up the pace and began looking ahead to see how other competitors were faring. First thoughts? Who could I catch? By the time I hit the fire trail I was back into full on running mode and though I didn't feel great, I was running and felt that this final leg of the race wouldn't be the disaster I had been fearing when my legs were seizing up on the swim. The run was basically a repeat of the earlier effort from the morning.....a general uphill on the way out until the big downhill and then surviving the climb back until you could pick up the pace for the last two and a half miles. The main difference this time around was that I stopped at each aid station rather than skip every other one like I did the first time. Also, I took my camera with me for this second run and was busy snapping pictures of as many fellow racers as I could. Some of my friends probably think I am crazy for taking pictures while racing, but I actually find that it takes my mind off the effort of running and makes the race go faster mentally to keep my mind occupied with trying to spot people I know to shoot photos of. I finished the race feeling tired but stronger than I expected given that three of the four races were in the history books.
post-race
After the race I grabbed some food and drink from the race tent and sat down to replenish the energy I just expended. The food was the same all weekend at the race site and I just had the pretzels and a banana along with water and a soda or two. I caught up with my friends and had fun telling everyone about Paul's zipper moment. JP and I decamped back to the hotel where I proceeded to order a pizza delivered to my room and updated my FB status on the hotel computer. I went to sleep early after prepping everything I would need for the half ironman set to begin in the morning. I woke up a bit early and made a belgian waffle as a part of the hotel's complimentary breakfast offerings. It was pretty good but I was having a tough time eating it all. My appetite tends to diminish once I reach a threshold of consecutively hard workout efforts and I felt that my lack of appetite was my body's way of telling me that I had been working hard all weekend. In this third race I again finished in 76th place out of at least 88 racers in my division and 299th out of 372 total finishers with a final time of 322:09 which was 6:09 slower than my morning effort on the same course. From the sprint race on Friday night until the finish of this Saturday afternoon race there were at least 15 fewer finishers overall.
J.P., Paul, Becky and her husband Don were trying to relax between races
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