First let me apologize for taking so long to get a new post up. Apparently I should add "managing a blog" to the list of things I'm trying to juggle in my quest to one day complete a 140.6 triathlon. The past three weeks have been full of work commitments, family events, another wedding, and all of the usual unplanned distractions. But all of those have been made more tolerable by the Brierman Triathlon that ended with the photo to the right. Yup, yours truly is standing on that box with the 3. I made my first podium ever.This was particularly rewarding for a few reasons. First of all, I had finished fourth in the Clydesdale division in 2008 and 2009. Thus earning the title of first place of the non-podium finishers. Not very exciting. The only solace I took in the past two years was that I wasn't even close to the third place finisher, usually 5 minutes or more behind. But I had always had the goal of making a podium and I thought this would be the race where I could do it.
Secondly, I should have made the podium at the Dewey Beach race. But, rather than registering as a Clydesdale, I registered in my age group so that I'd be in the same start wave as one of my friends. After Dewey was over, just out of curiosity, I checked my finishing time against the Clydesdale finishers. Yup, would have finished third, but for the first time in a while, I hadn't registered as a Clydesdale and missed out on my first podium. But the podium at Brierman was better. See, at Dewey they don't have an actual podium, they just announce the finishers, you trudge up to the Race Director and get a medal, and then turn around and go home. Piranha Sports, the folks who run Brierman, do it right. They have an actual podium, give out nice big medals to the top three in each age and weight division, announce the winners, and (as evidenced above) take everyone's picture. So, how did I make it to this podium?
The race started awfully cold. I think it was about 55 degrees when we started the swim at 8 am. Being a veteran of this race, I remembered to bring a sweatshirt and some shoes that I didn't mind losing. So I stayed bundled up until right before the start while everyone else stood around in their wetsuits shivering and trying to keep their feet warm. Once in the water it wasn't all that cold. The course is a triangular swim and after Dewey, it was nice to be in calm, flat water. I found some space and just tried to stay in a rhythm. I managed to round the first buoy without incident. But rounding the second buoy and heading for the beach I realized why the earlier wave had been all over the place coming in, we were swimming straight into the sun. Good thing I wasn't in first place. I just followed the crowd and hoped that we were all swimming towards the right spot. A few minutes later I found that we were and I was out of the water.
T1 was pretty uneventful. I managed to get out of my wetsuit and into my cycling gear without any problems. I had brought three different shirts with me since I wasn't certain about the weather. I opted for warmth over style, wearing my long sleeve red cycling jersey (thank you Jenn and Gerings) rather than my poker cycling jersey. A tough decision to be sure, but one that I was thankful for when I was flying downhill. Getting out of T1 was a little worrisome as I tried to keep mud out of my cycling cleats. Then it was on to the bike to find that I had made a rookie mistake.
The first 100 yards of the bike I spent trying to power up a hill in a tough gear. My rookie mistake was not setting my bike in an easy gear before racking it in transition. So instead of spinning while trying to get my shoes engaged with the clips, I was trying to turn over a big gear. Did I mention that it's uphill the first half mile out of transition? Fortunately I powered through it, got into the right gear, washed down the three Aleve I had taken in T1, and started pedaling. Being a third year participant, I knew what to expect on the bike. I didn't overdo it getting out of the park and onto the main roads, let my legs rest on the first downhill and settled into a comfortable pace through the rollers on the first 9 miles. I was sucking down some nutrition, remembering my Endurolytes (electrolyte pills), and feeling pretty good. I didn't have a lot of people passing me, but I wasn't moving up much either. I was just trying to go fast, but save some energy for "The Hill."
Brierman has a 1.5 mile hill about 9 or 10 miles in to the bike. It's probably the defining feature of the race and in the past, has left me wondering how all these people go uphill faster than I do. I don't know if I had gone out to quick on the bike in past years or if I just felt like I was slower up the hill. I actually felt a lot
With the motivation of a sub-2:30 time, I was out of the saddle on all the little uphills. I was tucked and pushing the big gear on the downhills. Only once, going downhill on a blind roller, did I touch the brakes. After the race I checked the bike computer to see what my top speed was. It read 45 mph. The significance of going under 2:30 is that I thought I had a shot at a podium if I could get under 2:30. In the past the 3rd place Clydesdale had been right around 2:27 or so. I thought I had to get out of T2 with 40 minutes to spare to get under 2:30. The run was 3.9 miles, but it is a very hilly 3.9 and I didn't realistically think I could average much less than 10 minutes per mile on the run.
I came into T2 all by myself. I had no problems dismounting and wasn't worried about getting mud in my cleats since the bike was done. I dumped my helmet and sunglasses, tore off my cycling shoes and slid into my running shoes. Last year I had carried my water belt with me on the run. In previous races this year I had always had something with me, a gel, some Endurolytes, something bouncing around either in my pockets, in my water belt, or something. Every race this year I've been annoyed with the bouncing around. I decided before the race that I wasn't taking anything with me on the run. Just me, my shoes, my running hat, and the road.
You can tell in the first few steps of the run, before you're even out of transition, if your legs are going to cooperate or not. Fortunately for me, all of the running I had been doing paid off. The legs were ready to run and I was out of transition. Still, seemingly out of nowhere, I found someone coming up behind me in the first half mile. As he caught me I noticed that he was wearing some calf sleeves on his legs. I've been thinking about adding these to my triathlon gear and I struck up a conversation with him as we headed up the first hill. Not only does he love his calf sleeves, but he also told me that his derailleur broke on his bike and he wasn't officially in the race. Just another crazy triathlete who thought that running 4 miles in the hills was a fun way to spend a Sunday morning even if he wasn't going to get an official time. He wished me a good race and off he went, up the hill faster than me.
At the first water stop, about a mile into the race, I passed my first runner. He was older than I was and skinnier, meaning that I wasn't passing him for a place in the Clydesdale category, but it still felt good to get a pass. I could still see Calf Sleeves up ahead of me. He hadn't completely dropped me (and he hadn't biked 21 miles). Legs still felt good and I was over the first hill. Time for a knee crunching downhill. As a cruised downhill, I passed a woman and we had a brief conversation about all the praying we were doing on the course, it was Sunday morning after all. At the bottom of the hill, we turned around and headed right back up the same hill we had just spend about 7 or 8 minutes descending. In past years, this has been the true test for me. I've never stopped, but there have been a few times that I have had trouble catching guys who were walking (even though I was "running"). This time, I just kept grinding up the hill. Calf Sleeves was still in sight and there were a few other guys I was starting to make up some ground on.
One of my favorite parts of my triathlon season is hitting the top of that hill. You turn left off a paved road onto about 100 yards of gravel trail. When you make that turn, you know that you don't have to run uphill anymore that season. It's all downhill from there. If your knees hurt, you have all winter for them to feel better. If your legs are tired, they'll be resting soon enough. If your thirsty, all you have to do is run faster and you'll get water sooner. Time to kick it for home.
Before I get back to the water stop I've passed Calf Sleeves. I'm cruising. There's another runner out there ahead of me and he's getting closer with every step. He's about my size. As I approach him I think that there's a chance he could be a Clydesdale like me. Last year I passed a guy on the run with about 150 yards to go, but he hung with me and re-passed with about 50 yards to go. I was at the limit, so I couldn't go with him. I wasn't making that mistake again this year. As I got closer I measured weather he was at his limit or had something in reserve. It would have been fun to have a half mile race to the finish, but it would be even more fun to just blow by so quickly that he couldn't possibly come with me. I turned it up just a little quicker and went by him without hesitation. He said "nice job" and made no effort to keep up. Still, I didn't want a repeat of last year, so I pushed it all the way through the finish.
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