I had
signed up for St. A’s at the beginning of April. I have always heard about what
an incredible race this is and I really wanted to be a part of it. This year the
pro field was ridiculously stacked, with big money and even bigger qualifying points for Hy-Vee, everybody wanted a piece of the action. The race organizers even put together
THIS cool list showing everyone’s
accomplishments. For me to even be on the starting line with guys of this
caliber was reason enough to sign up. I’d have front row tickets to a brutal
triathlon throw down!
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| Hen Houses all packed up and ready for the airport, no extra bike fees here |
After a
successful Collegiate Nats, I had high hopes for what I could potentially do in
St. A’s. Those plans got a little derailed though, my ankle sprain was much
worse than I thought and what was supposed to be a few days of no running
turned into basically two weeks of zero intensity in all three sports. Turns out the ankle is a
critical joint in swimming and I even struggled to put pressure on the bike pedals
during rides. A few days before St. A’s I was finally able to run again, and
the day before the race I could even manage to take right turns pain free. So
although I hadn’t really done much training going into the race, the plane
tickets were already paid for and at least structurally speaking there was
nothing damaged anymore…just some residual swelling.
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| One of these things is not like the other! |
Kelli,
Justin and I were able to all do this trip together. It was great to finally
have Kelli come along for a race. She puts up with a lot of things from me doing triathlon and is
extremely helpful to me in my training so it’s great to have her come with to share
the race experience and have her help on the trip. Justin hooked us
up with an amazing homestay about an hour from the race site in Siesta Key.
Huge thanks to Rick and Essie for putting us up and being amazing hosts!!
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| Buffet on the plane, it's hard to travel during dinner |
The
regular prerace shake out went fairly smoothly and my ankle was holding up pretty
well. I was stoked to get at in the race and was sitting in a pretty good spot
mentally. I was excited to relish the experience and had no heavy performance
pressure on my shoulders, it was going to be a race to attack and see what
happens. I knew that I was probably lacking some fitness but on the plus side I
have probably never been fresher for a race!
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| And when I put it together there were only a few extra parts left over.... |
The pro meeting before the race
for me was like sneaking into a celebrity party. Everywhere I looked there were
my idols that I watched on TV, read about in magazines, studied on the internet
and tried to interact with on twitter. It was an awesome experience to be in
the same area as so much triathlon talent. I even got a chance to use my
Russian and chat up the Vasiliev brothers!
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| ITU Swim, Bike stud and London Olympian...Ivan Vasiliev....and I talked to him! |
| Freaking sweet |
Being
an hour from the race site we had to be up at 4am to get where we needed to be
in time. Luckily, with the help of Ryan Frederickson, I got a VIP parking
pass the day before…my first ever pro perk! This meant we could park right next to the
transition zone and could actually sleep easy knowing we didn’t have to search
for parking downtown/far away. I got in a short warm up ride and had Kelli meet
me at transition with all my stuff, I love having my Sherpa around! I was feeling pretty good on the bike even though the wind
was pushing me around some. Setting up transition was an incredible experience,
I got to be on the other side of a wall I would always look over with envy.
My spot was even right next to Hunter Kemper, I even got to loan him some
rubber bands! Little did I know this would be the highlight of my race…
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| Apparently Cancellara made his much anticipated triathlon debut here as well |
I spent
a little too long of a time in line for the bathroom and got to the swim start
with only 5 min left to warm up. Not ideal but it happens, I quickly hopped in
and splashed around, realizing that the wind was making for some serious chop.
We lined up shortly after and I got myself ready for what I knew would be a
really tough swim. The cannon went off and I let myself get comfortable on the
tail end of the group. Not more than 100m into the swim I took a hard kick to
my temple. It temporarily stunned and disoriented me and after a few more
strokes I found myself not only off the back of the group but also way off to the
left. I pushed hard to close the gap but the group just slowly pulled away from
me. I got a little upset with myself because I felt that had I been in the
swim draft I would have been in the mix with the group.
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| The calm before the start and the calm waters closer to shore would not last |
This
however, would be the least of my issues. For the first half of the swim we
swam parallel to the shore and then turned out into the bay for a 750m
rectangular detour before coming back to the shore wall for the swim exit. This
left turn is where things really came apart for me. The swim went directly into
the swells which were much bigger now. Lack of intensity coming into the race led to some twinging
cramps in my legs. To make matters worse, I was being thrown all around in the water and
started taking in lots of hydrating electrolyte packed salt water (hopeful that
would balance out the cramps!), most of the time I couldn’t even see the buoys.
To navigate the several foot high swells I had to stop swimming a few times and
take a couple of breast strokes just to figure out where I was. You know things aren't going well when the kayak volunteer asks you if everything is ok...I made things
harder on myself by going off course swimming a lot of extra yards. I came out
of the water with the lead women...who started 3 minutes behind me. I got into
transition and all I could think about was how happy I was that there were a
few other bikes still hanging. I ended up swimming a 23:36 split,
almost a full 5 min behind the leaders. The swim ended up being so bad that the amateurs swim course got cut in half.
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| At least that big!! |
Hopping
onto the bike I was excited to finally be able to lay down some power and make
up a lot of lost ground. But I quickly began to realize that the swim was going
to continue to cause me problems long after I got out of the water. Getting
into my aero position was a struggle because of how water logged my stomach was
from chugging down so much salt water. To make matters worse, my aero position
puts my mouth below my stomach, making heaves of puke come without warning. I
was duking it out on bike with the lead women between heaves and by halfway
through the bike I was at least able to anticipate the heaves early enough that
I didn’t always puke on myself. Nothing seemed to settle my stomach down. I
would try sitting up and stretching my gut hoping that some of the nutrition I
was taking in would work its way down and get absorbed. Around mile 15 or so of
the bike I finally started to come around a little bit. My legs relaxed and I
finally had some positive thoughts floating around in my head. I got
the good mojo I needed to hit it hard on the run.
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| After listening so much at the pro meeting about the weird non draft rules...it didn't really matter cause I rode without a pack |
Starting
the run was an incredibly miserable experience. My legs felt like rotten tree
trunks and any stomach issues that I was beginning to feel dissipate on the bike came
roaring back at me. I was still just leading Alicia Kaye, who was leading the
women’s race, at the start of the run. It was kind of funny (in a sad way) to have everyone yell ‘go girl!’ and ‘first
female, you rock!’ as I would run by. Alicia gave me some pro advice and told
me that I would run faster if I got out of the gutter and onto the street. I don’t know if that’s
true or not, but it totally worked! Once I got out of the gutter I gained some distance on her and was running
my own race.
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| Hunter Kemper on his way to third place....I like to think it's all thanks to those rubber bands I gave him |
I began
to push myself hard knowing that having a descent run split was my only chance
of redeeming myself in this race. I tried to keep my cadence high and to focus
on leaning for speed. This more or less worked and I was able to maintain a
fairly similar pace throughout the whole 10k. I took on some Gatorade at aid
stations, swishing it in and out of my mouth. Trying to trick my brain into
thinking that sugar was coming to the rescue and at the same time not upsetting
my stomach anymore. This must have worked because I ended up negative splitting
the run and crossing the finish line in a little under two hours.
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| Packing, the only time to balance out the tan lines |
I knew
this race was probably not going to be a top time, but I was still hoping for
something better than what I got. And yes, I did end up getting chicked by the top
two female finishers. Full results
here. Knowing that my fitness was a little below where it would
have otherwise been made the initial disappointment easier to handle.
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| Time to take a break from packing and get a solid car snack eaten |
However,
as I had more time to think about all that happened the more upset I got. It’s
a tough pill to swallow when you start to ask yourself what could’ve been.
But it’s all over now and it is time to get
the progress to start flowing again. I have some time until my next race at the
beginning of June, until then I will be doing a major swim focus. I’m done
starting races on my back foot and it’s time to tap some of my extra potential.
But first, I’ll be taking a few days completely off to allow for the swelling
in my ankle to entirely go away. Like always thanks for reading and hopefully I
can bring you some good news on the next post!
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| Post race meal gives me renewed energy! |
