So I'm about a week overdue for writing up my report for the Over The Mountain Triathlon in Kings Mountain on May 21st. Last year I did the race in about 3:16. However, they changed the run, first off they added .2 miles to it and made it a lot more hilly. With all that in mind, my goal times were 3:07(dream time) and 3:12(realistic goal).
So, lets get to it. It was perfect weather to start the day. About 60 or so and sunny. It definitely had the feel of a hot day coming though.
1500 yard swim: The swim was actually a very small wave. There were maybe 20 of us, so there was absolutely no bumping and kicking. I like to avoid that, but I've actually been sort of wanting to get into bigger waves to get me prepared for Arizona. But oh well. After the previous week of struggling to breath in my suit I went for a different strategy. I started out a bit slower than I did before, gradually picking up speed. This worked well. I never felt winded at all on the swim. Was also given an incredibly helpful tip from another racer. He suggested sighting by where the land met the water, rather than the actual buoy. That made things a lot easier because trying to site a buoy from 800 yards away is nearly impossible. Anyway, I felt pretty much alone through the whole swim, the only other swimmers I encountered were from the wave that started about 5 minutes before us. That made me feel pretty good to catch up to some of them. But I exited the water about 28 minutes later. I was six minutes faster than last years time, so I was already way out ahead of my goal.
T1: Then began the torturous T1. You exit the water at the bottom of a very long, very steep boat ramp. The run up that thing is just nasty. One of the toughest parts of the whole race. But I just kept forcing myself to jog up it, knowing I could relax a bit and catch my breath on the bike. Finally made it to my bike and began the process of trying to rip that wet suit off. For some reason it got hung up on my timing chip on my ankle. But alas, I got it off, got my bike gear on with no issues, and was on my way.
45 Kilometer Bike(28 miles): So the bike actually felt pretty good. I was strong the whole way, the hills were not a problem at all for me. I felt much stronger than last year. I was only passed by a handful of people, but I think that was partly due to the fact that we were one of the last waves to start. My plan was to drink HEED every 10-15 minutes and a Hammer Gel every 45. I stuck to the HEED plan pretty well, but unfortunately was stupid with the Hammer Gel. I felt fine, so I wound up only taking one. This came back to haunt me later. More on that later. The heat was definitely picking up as the bike went on. When I finally was approaching the finish, I took the final mile fairly easy and cruised into T2 feeling pretty good. My final time was 1:32:51. Three seconds slower than last year.
T2: Not much to talk about here. I had a good dismount off the bike and cruised right in without slowing down too much. Popped on my running shoes, hat and number and was off after one last swig of HEED.
6.2 mile run: So, the run begins. Always the most grueling part of the race. However, I was fooled into thinking how good I felt. The first mile or so is mostly downhill, so it allowed me to relax a bit, get my HR down some, and foolishly believe that I was going to hit my dream time. Let me back track. Starting the run I was around 2:05. I not only had a chance to beat my dream time, but crack 3 hours with a really solid run. To do that I would need to average 9 min miles. I routinely do 8:10-8:15 min miles in sprint tri's, so it seemed conceivable that I would be able to maintain 9 for an Olympic. When I hit the 1 mile mark, it seemed even more doable. I was right at a 9 min pace, and I felt that I was going a little slow. Well, that's where the gradient and my feelings began to change. Around 1.5 miles I was feeling sort of like I wanted to die, and mistakenly thought about the fact that I still had almost 5 miles to go. "PUT THAT OUT OF YOUR MIND, JUST GET TO THE WATER STATION." That was the last time I had that thought and I kept pressing on. When I hit the 2 mile marker I had slowed to around a 9:30 pace overall(10 min pace at that point). What felt like an eternity went by and I finally began approaching the midway point. When I hit the turnaround I was right at 31 minutes. Now I'm down to a 10 min pace overall. Bye bye cracking 3 hours. However, the dream goal was still in my sights. I'd have to be faster, but that only meant picking up the pace a little bit to finish in just under 29 minutes. Certainly possible. However, forgetting that I had just come down a huge long hill, that goal quickly went bye bye as I very slowly trudged up that same hill. At this point it became a war of attrition between my mind and my body. This is the point where I realized how foolish it was not to take in all the hammer gel I had brought with me. I was out of energy, starving, and nautious. All signs to me that I didn't take in enough while on the bike. Anyway, I kept pressing on, with each water stop and mile marker encouraging me. Then two wonderful spectators told me and another guy how inspirational we were and that made me feel really great inside, despite wanting to die. I knew my speed was slowing badly as I could tell at each mile marker that I'd been slowing by about a minute per each mile. I hit mile 5 and knew I had to reach the end of the street, make the turn, and the final chute would be straight ahead. I finally got there, .2 miles to go. I saw the chute, and for those final seconds forgot about the pain, hunger, nausea and turned into sprint mode for the final 50 yards. I spotted Rachel up ahead on the other side of the finish line and couldn't wait to get there. I finally crossed the finish line at 3:10:05. Nearly 2 minutes ahead of my goal time and with a run time of 1:04:53. Absolutely terrible, but enough to get me in under my time.
Valuable lesson learned though...stick to the nutrition plan no matter what.
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