Great Expectations

It's been a very tense and active few days since I last posted. School is ending, ancillary activities are kicking up, and it's been late when I've gotten finished on most evenings. For that, I apologize. Hope to do better soon - with vacation right around the corner, that should be easier.

This morning six intrepid Lawrence County athletes ventured out west to ply our fortunes on the vast plains of Terre Haute. That may be *slightly* hyperbolic, though I would argue only slightly so. What was on the line?

• John T. was doing his first EVER triathlon. How would his open-water swim be with a swarm around him? Of course he can ride and run, but what happens when we put it ALL together, including transitions? Was there any chance to unseat Rand's dominance of T1/T2 glory?
• Roy has improved tremendously over the last year, and on top of that he now owns a top-of-the-line Kestrel. They's fast, boys and girls, and he was in a particularly good position to use it. Could he put enough on the bike to hold off Jimmy in the run?
• Miller, though in great shape, has not spent a great deal of time on a road bike this year. His time trial Tuesday was solid, better than he could have hoped for realistically. Would it translate into a great ride today? Could he close down the gap between himself and IronBill sufficiently to allow his superior running to overtake him? Would he run well off the bike?
• Jimmy has his hands in everything right now, so anything said about Miller's biking goes double for Jimmy. Of course his running, swimming, and transitions would be fine. The whole trick was to bike hard enough to be close to Roy. A big gap could prove fatal.
• Rand is fit - fitter than he's been in a long time. His time trial Tuesday was pretty darn good. All the pieces were in place. Could he pull together a keeper?
• IronBill recently suffered a shoulder injury, so swimming was a huge question mark. The cooler, wetter winter/spring cut back the number of days riding early, so conditioning is not the same as last year. Finally, running speed is at a record low. Could he ride fast enough to create a gap between himself and Miller that would survive the 1-minute differential in running speeds?

Let's see the results!

To see a larger version, click on the picture.

As you peel through the results, hopefully you can get a clear picture of what happened. 

Yes, John T. did have an outstanding day. He did very well for the first one.

Roy dropped 10 minutes from last year, though he came up short of Jimmy. Outstanding day regardless. 

Rand is still the king of transition.

Miller had a good day, but couldn't make up enough on the run to overtake IronBill. 

As for the loot, well, here are the winners. That's not to say the guys that didn't get loot are losers. They're just not winners. ;)

John T. not only took 3rd in his age group, he won the "New Triathlete" award as well. Two trophies on the first day? A first place in a division? Sounds like a natural to me!

Miller got 2nd in his age group. He missed 1st by only 30 seconds, and the difference was the swim. He gave 3 minutes to the first guy, and it came down to time in the water. Miller is a good swimmer when he has the time to train for it. 

IronBill was 1st in his age group, beating Frank Troiano. That's definitely a feather in the cap - the guy is no slouch. This was totally unexpected to say the least. 

Race Synopsis:

Terre Haute has gone to self-seeding on the swim. Athletes submit their prospective times during registration, then they are seeded accordingly. I entered a time of 11:30, which is the time I ordinarily approximate. Apparently this made me an "elite", so I was given the blue cap. This designation meant I would go in the first wave, a "mass" start of 23 swimmers. 

Swim

This is a hard thing to write about. On the one hand it was one of my harder Terre Haute swims because of the crowd I was in, my sighting, and my inability to develop a rhythm. My whole thought process as I swam was "I am pushing too hard, and the bike will suffer/oh well, it's done now". On the other hand, I had my best time there in years, coming in on my watch at 9:15! That's "standing-on-the-mat" finished, not standing up in the water either. I couldn't believe my eyes. Apparently the weight lifting has improved my swimming. I guessed it might, but hadn't seen the results yet in a race. Luckily the shoulder didn't bother me at all. 

T1

Took too long trying to put on sandals. I should have just run barefoot. It would have taken me to my best ever time if I had. Oh, well. 

Bike

This was tough today, and not just for me. Everyone was commenting how hard it was to hold speed on the way out. It wasn't like it was windy or gusty or anything. It was just hard. I hit the turn at 32:30 (approximate time), which should have given me a 1:05 or more on an out-and-back course. Instead I dropped almost 2:30 from the next half. Finish time was much faster than I expected going in. I'd hoped for 23-24 mph, but I didn't expect it. 

I did have one fellow that made it interesting. I caught him in the second mile of the race, probably from an eighth mile back or so, and we had a back-and-forth going for most of the way. It wasn't tight; I would pass him, put a stretch on him, then he'd come back and pass me. The gap would open, I would close and pass, put another gap on. 

What I noticed was he was very good on the flat stretches, marginally better than me. I was much better on the technical portions, particularly in the rollers. He tended to pedal down the steeper hills, a totally foolish thing to do, and I would catch him every time. Unfortunately the race finished with a long flat, and he reopened the original gap. So... our rides were a wash. 

T2

Not the fastest guy in transition, but not the slowest, either. I couldn't believe how rubbery my body felt at the start. I could hardly move at all!

Run

The major disadvantage of being an elite starter is the lack of people to chase. There simply aren't enough bodies close to you make you feel you have that imminent kill right in front of you. I feed off that, so it was harder to focus on the run (and to some extent the bike as well). One fellow went by me, hard, and I mean like 5:30 pace hard. I didn't for one nanosecond even consider the possibility of keeping up with him. Good thing; he ran it in 27:40!

Still, there were things to keep me going. First and foremost, I felt I need to keep under the 7-minute mark to be sure of beating Miller. When I saw him on the bike I felt I had 5-7 minutes, which should have been enough. Nothing is ever guaranteed though, so I just kept on it. There was a reward for it. I was able to take two more spots, the second one on the back side of the lake. I'd just about given up hope of catching the guy, but right as you end the long straightaway, right at mile 4, he looked back. I was 75 yards off him, slowly closing, but running out of time. The look on his face told me everything. He then started shaking out his arms, and I figured he was toast. I knew if he was slow going up that sharp first climb, he was mine.

That's where I caught him. All that was left was to lay down enough hurt he wouldn't want to respond. Step one: talk to him as I passed him. "Great job! Keep it up", I offered when I went by, controlling my breathing. If there was any life left in him, it passed at that point. I never felt any pressure from behind the rest of the run. It was only 21 second in the end, but anyone who runs 5ks will tell you 21 seconds is another zip code. 

For all my concern about training, injury, and anything else, this turned out to be the best finish I ever had in this race. Part of that is because the numbers are so down, but I have to tell you, the quality was there on the front end. There were some truly outstanding times today! On top of that, this may be my best time (it will take me time to look it up). I had a great race, even though I had no reason to. Gaining over 2 minutes in the swim is the main reason. I guess I did something right over the winter!

Conclusion
It is always a great time when we gather as a group and do an event. Scott Bartley also came in a support capacity, and he took a number of pictures (I hope to see). I'm sorry Steve Black didn't make it; shoulder injury kept him from participating, then he doubled down and worked today (BOO!). It didn't matter. It turned out to be a great day anyway, and I think everyone had a good time on some level. Some got great results, some found weaknesses to address, but I think we all enjoyed one another's company.

PS
The Terre Haute triathletes strutting around in their team gear make me think Allen has the right idea on this jersey thing.