7/17 Evergreen Lake Triathlon

The Evergreen Lake Triathlon in Bloomington IL I have participated in for the last 3 years, it is a well run race that attracts the best midwest talent.  Plus is sponsored by Erin Baker so I needed to represent our team.  This year my sister came down from Chicago and my friend Joel came to race as well.  We all arrived after work Friday evening checked into the race and found our campsites.  We decided to camp at this race since the race site is a nice park with camping anyway.  It turned out to be a good decision since we got to wake up a little later and take our time race morning.  My dad was bringing my girls back to us after watching them all week so I was excited to see him and the kids.  It was a little hot out and I did not sleep very well, but got what I needed.  Race morning we all got gear set up in transition and readied at the starting line.
The elite wave was combined again this weekend with men and women, so my sister and I started together.  The wave was quite large though as the collegiate age group was in there as well.  After the start I found myself in front with Bryan Rhodes, Andy Starykowicz, and one other.  The entire swim we swam together, I came out of the water right behind Bryan in 2nd place.  I was out of T1 in first place but not for long.  Bryan passed me again while I was putting on my shoes not 1/2 mile from T1, followed by Andy a mile or so later.  I could not match pace with those two on the bike, but I kept them within sight the whole bike.  It proved to be pretty good for me as I was at 317 normalized watts and 25.6 avg mph throughout the 42 k bike, it is a little long due to some road construction I think.  The end of the bike it was starting to heat up pretty good, the run was going to be brutal I thought.

I entered the run in 3rd place still and since the run course started out opposite the bike I could gauge where I was at in the race.  1st and 2nd were a few minutes ahead, Bryan by not too much and 4th place was a few minutes behind I found out at the first turn around of the run.  Heading out I saw my Dad, Betsy, and my girls cheering me on, this was great to have them all there to watch. 

The run was very hot and humid but nothing major.  I ran at a nice pace, not really pushing myself very hard since I thought 3rd place was in the bag.  Plus I was trying to heal these shin splits that have been plaguing my for a few weeks.  At about mile 5.5 I heard footsteps behind me, no way could this guy of caught me.  Before I could even look back came the pass, crap, I had to stick with him and pass at the end now.  I kept pace for about 500 meters, then I knew I was beat for sure.  I ran hard all the way to the line as you can see in the picture below but he was a far faster runner, turns out 33 low 10k in the heat, whoa!

Anyway this took me out of the prize money and into 4th place.  I found my girls, Dad, and Betsy as we all waited at the finish line hoping my sister Christine had better results, she did not disappoint. She came in to the finish in no less than 1st place female overall.  All was not lost after all she had a great race and took home $1k too.  My friend Joel did the sprint race as well which started 1/2 hour after us, so I did not see him on course.  He came in a little while later, in his first sprint race that had a longer 42k bike.  He had a great race as well finishing in 5th place in his age group.
I can't really be too disappointed with my race I had good splits, and was just ran down in the last mile, it will teach me to not get too complacent and think you wont be caught.  They are always chasing.  Christine had a great race and it was good to race with Joel and my family watching as well.

Swim 19:54.9    1:13   
T1 00:36.6   
Bike 01:01:04.5    25.5   
T2 00:41.0   
Run 38:39.5    6:13   

7/11 - Rodney T Miller Decatur Triathlon

This would be the second year competing at the Rodney T Miller Triathlon in Decatur IL.  It is a longer sprint distance race, but attracts many of the top midwest pros since there is prize money.  The race is one of the best run races I do all year, there are almost more volunteers helping with the race then athletes.  This year they even had live video feeds on the bike and run course for the spectators, this is great for a small race in the middle of IL.  Four days prior to this race I had a pretty good bike crash going around a turn and into gravel at about 28mph.  I had a sore hip and elbow along with some nice road rash.  I had been nursing some shin splits from running as well.  Not the best shape to do a race but not excuses either, I was going for it.  I talked my sister Christine into coming down from Chicago for this race, I think she was glad she made it for sure.  I brought the whole family as we were planning to drop our two daughters off with my dad for a week who was there to pick them up and watch the race.  The girls were excited to visit Grandpa for a week.
The morning of the race was warm already, the water was hot like 85 degrees, so no wetsuits.  My sister and I got our gear setup in transition and went to the stretch and start.  We found my Dad, my wife, and the kids all ready to watch us start. 

We were the first wave and got to start together.  The start was uneventful though I did find a few men right with me on the way out to the first buoy.  Soon I was passed by John Kenny, I tried for a second to keep up by there was no way he was fast!  My hip was feeling a little sore in the swim, but that was not the real reason I was behind.  He was fast and I am feeling a little down on swim shape.  Anyway Andy Starykowicz passed me soon after that, I was in third now and the 3/4 mile swim was only half over.  I pushed on to the finish the swim right behind Andy, but John had put in over an minute already.  T1 was fast as I was one of the only top men without a speed suit.  Once on the 19 mile bike course I could see John and Andy in front of me, Andy was doing the usual and hammering.  Soon John was passed, they were gapping on me but not as bad as I had thought.  Towards mile 14 or so Eric Bean passed me, I stayed close to him all the way to T2.  I was happy with my bike here though, averaging 25.9mph, and 331 normalized average watts (my coach says to start looking at normalized power not average).  Upon starting the run I thought the shin splints were really doing to hinder my running.  They did hurt pretty bad for the 1/2 mile or so, but soon I either forgot or they felt better.  They would go on to be very painful the next day.  I found myself within sight of Eric the whole run, at first I thought there was no way I was going to catch him.  But at mile 3 of the 4.5 mile run I decided that I needed to give it a shot.  I ran hard to overtake him and kept pushing, to my surprise I came within 15 seconds of catching 2nd place as well.  3rd place was still in the prize money for this race so that was a nice bonus as well.  Christine came over the line soon after in 2nd place for the woman's race, she had just ran down third place in the final 200 meters to take 2nd place.  Overall a great race with stiff competition and very well organized.   Oh yea and Jimmy John's subs at the finish, I think I ate 5.   But the best part?  The "big" checks a la Happy Gilmore of course!

Swim - 16:25.6    1:20   
T1 - 00:22.5   
Bike - 00:43:50.4    26.0   
T2 - 00:25.7   
Run - 26:06.9    5:48
Total - 01:27:11.1

06/26/10 - Boulder 2 mile reservoir swim

Last weekend I took the whole family out to Boulder CO to look at houses for our upcoming move, while out there I decided to find a local race to to.  It ended up be an BAM (Boulder Aquatics Masters) open water swim. We drove out and arrived Friday evening with enough time to look at a few houses and walk around Pearl street and have dinner in downtown Boulder.  The swim was at the Boulder Reservoir a few miles northeast of Boulder, I was amazed how many people were out on the water already water skiing, rowing, and other sports.  The lake swim had options of wetsuit, no wetsuit, 1 or 2 mile, the water at 74 or so was nice for me since the midwest water is over 80 right now.  I choose to wear the wetsuit and do the two mile swim. After a little warm up and the kids playing on the beach it was time to start.

The course was a 1 mile loop done twice for the two milers.  There were about 50 people that showed up to do the race, a pretty good turnout and was very well organized.  We started and I was quickly out in front by the first turn buoy, but there was one other person right on my feet.  After swimming a few more minutes I realized it was a women and without a wetsuit.  We were out in front after the first 1/2 lap by quite a bit.  I lead the whole first lap thinking to myself I will just drop her at the end of the 2nd lap. But starting the 2nd lap she began to pass me and really pull after each turn buoy.  I could tell she was a very good open water swimmer.  She lead the 2nd lap and I still figured I could just pass her up at the last 500 meters or so.  It was nice to not have to spot for most of the 2nd lap.  I put in a little pass at 500 meters to go, but she matched pace no problem.  It turned into a sprint to the finish, we came out of the water at about the same time, but I think she beat me for sure.  Since she was not wearing a wetsuit and I was breathing pretty hard after while she went for a 3rd warm down lap.  We were ahead of the rest of the pack by about 4 minutes, we finished in 40:16.

Notice how tired I look compared to Christine.....it must be the altitude...ha ha

Come to find out that the women who beat me was Christine Jennings who happened to place 2nd in the national 10k open water championships a few weeks earlier, so 2 miles was a walk in the park for her.  We hung around the beach for a while and spoke to as many of the locals as we could to gain more knowledge of the different areas surrounding Boulder.  It was a great race to do as we met a bunch of new people and gave us something to do sat morning.  The rest of the weekend we took the kids to Rocky Mountain National Park two days, did a long single-track trail run, had a 4 year old birthday at 8k', and pretty much confirmed what we already knew....Boulder CO will be our new home as soon as we can complete the sale of our home in IL.