Winona Lake Optimist Club Triathlon - Winona Lake, IN - 6/27/15

I really meant to do this on Monday, I promise...

What a weekend, though! It was rainy, windy, and just generally gross, but it was still a great time and a great race!

My initial reaction was that I had smashed my previous PR, I thought by 13 minutes. It turns out that while I still smashed my previous PR, it was only by 5 minutes. Potato, tomato, right?

Let's start at the very beginning. I got up around 3:15 am to have breakfast: Plain oatmeal with some nuts and berries mixed in. Let's just say we need to work on that. I got it down, but not without a little hesitation and grumbling about it. Fortunately, that's a pretty easy thing to work on. After I got that finished up, it was back to bed for a couple more hours of sleep.

My next alarm went off at 5:30, but I apparently turned it off and slept until about 5:50. We planned on leaving at 6, so I was behind already. Fortunately, I didn't have much to do to get ready and we were off around 6:15, coffee in hand.

We got a little lost, got turned around, got back on track, and arrived at the race site around 7:00, and I still needed to pick up my packet. The weather was rainy and a little on the chilly side, so the organizers had decided to forego body marking for the day. I got my packet picked up, and headed to set up transition and get my warm-ups in.

After getting transition set up and my bike warm-up in, the organizer started to call for the pre-race meeting. I had still hoped to get a run and swim warm-up in, but realized very quickly that I would have to forego those today and just get to racing.

Water temp was 72, which actually felt very nice compared to the air temp of 56. Add a little drizzle and a stiff breeze, and we were all ready to be in the water. The first age group to depart was the 18-24 men, and we (25-29 men) were next up. Fortunately we got about 2 minutes in the water before they started us, so I took the time to acclimate as much of my body as possible to the water.

At the horn I dove in and was off. Being a windy day, the wind had pushed the boat holding the divider over to our left, creating a half-circle instead of a straight line. I tried to stay as far to the left as possible, but it was a challenging task to see where I was going. The boat eventually was pushed back to the right, creating an "S" shape with the divider, causing all kinds of problems.

On top of the boat being pushed, the water was unbelievably choppy. I'm a strong swimmer, and my times usually reflect that. With the boat moving, water chopping, and a competitive group of swimmers at the front, I settled into the back of a pack and followed feet to avoid getting sick. I took a lot of water in, got kicked quite a few times, and I'm pretty sure I pissed off a guy in a wetsuit who didn't understand that he shouldn't keep moving the same direction I'm moving to avoid him. While it was faster than last year, it was only faster by a slim margin (4 seconds). In short, the swim was rough.

Swim time: 8:10 Minutes/100m: 2:02 Overall swim rank: 28

Transition was a good distance from the beach. Not as far as it will be at Muncie, but still a good jog. As you can see in the picture, I look like I'm feeling better this year than I was last year. I also look a little slimmer...

Wet feet on wet pavement means trouble when you're trying to put on socks, and indeed I had trouble. It took me too long to get both socks on, but I still managed to be one second faster in T1 than I was last year.

Off I went on the bike. I knew at this point that everyone had struggled with the swim, but I had no idea where I was in terms of my age group. I couldn't tell if I was in transition with other guys in my age group, or if I was there with guys from the age group that left first. Either way, the bike starts off with an uphill climb through some tight turns in a nice neighborhood to get out to a decent state road for an out and back course.

In my warm-up, I had ridden a couple miles and turned around in a church parking lot to head back. As it turns out, I should have ridden just a little bit farther to assess the wind, because past the church was a curve, and past the curve was the wind. The majority of the ride was with a heavy crosswind, and on the way out it was a slight tail wind as well. Going out I felt strong, but probably should have taken my nutrition on sooner as I started to peter out around mile 5. I made the turn and quickly inhaled a gel and some salt, and got back on the horse, but the damage was done. I had made two passes on the way out, and they quickly returned the favor as we headed back in to the same heavy crosswind, now complicated with a slight headwind.

I held my position for the last 6 miles, not allowing any passes and catching a few of the slower cyclists from the group ahead. I felt bad for some of the guys who were riding discs out there, but when you make a choice like that and don't bring backup options, you get what you get.

Unfortunately there was a wreck on the course. There are 3 consecutive 90-degree turns that require a drop in speed to navigate safely. This is also where I'll mention that due to the rain, I had lowered my tire pressure from my normal 115 to 100 in order to boost my grip on the slick roads. A guy in my age group had not slowed down enough in advance, and instead tried to slam on his brakes coming downhill into the turn, leading to a wipe-out. Everything seemed okay, in fact he started running with his bike in tow trying to keep up.

Last year I had taken my feet out of my shoes way too early, and didn't want to be caught in that same trap again this year. I rode and rehearsed in advance, and it paid off. I think I still pulled early, but I still made nice speed into transition and was able to do a great flying dismount at the line. Again, the bike was better this year, but only marginally. I'll somewhat attribute it to wet conditions, but it was mostly my absent-mindedness in my nutrition and effort that lead to only a 17-second improvement.

Bike time: 42:23 Average speed: 19.6 MPH Overall bike rank: 64

T2 was fast, but could likely still be faster. I need to do some research and see where I'm losing time compared to other runners. Shoes on, hat on, belt on, and gone. I felt good coming off the bike, but still had no idea where I was in my age group. With no body marking, I didn't know if I was even close to anyone else in my age group or not, but assumed that I was and went with it.

The run felt great. There's a nice, long, wooded section on this course that leads into a residential area, and it's got a few small rollers that can really kill you if you don't know what to do. I made some quick passes out of T2, and settled in around mile 1.5 to a comfortable pace. I knew I was close to a couple guys in my age group (or at least I had assumed), so I needed to make the run a good one.

I felt strong almost all the way in, but about a mile from the finish I ran into a big hill that I hadn't remembered being there. I chugged my way up the hill, but I had already used a lot of energy keeping my pace up before I got there. As I was climbing, a guy came up on me who I was fairly certain was in my age group, so I paced with him up the hill but didn't stand a chance as we reached the top. I needed to recover a bit, and his long legs carried him away from me slightly.

I was prepared for the steep downhill that immediately followed the uphill, and was able to take advantage of it to gain some ground on a couple of guys. Down the hill and onto the main stretch with about .3-4 remaining to the finish, and I just didn't have the gas to keep up. I came into the line strong, knowing that I had PR'd on the day no matter where I finished.

Run time: 24:25 Average pace per mile: 6:37 Overall run rank: 16

Total time: 1:17:17 Overall rank: 23 Age group rank: 6

I ran in an extremely competitive age group, with only 2:34 separating 1st and 6th, and only :14 between 4th and 6th. The age group was also larger this year, increasing from 24 guys to 32, making my 6th place finish this year much more impressive than my 8th place finish last year, not to mention placing 23rd overall out of a group of 336 finishers.

Additionally, every single leg of my race was faster, transitions included, even if only marginally. My biggest improvement came in my run, where I dropped the majority of my time to get to my PR. Last year's time was 1:22:34, making my time dropped 4:17.

This week is a "rest" weekend, so no races, but Muncie looms just around the corner on the following weekend. Preparation is winding down, and excitement is building! I'll be posting next week with some thoughts as the race approaches, and some details about where you can catch me if you're in the area. Later on...