Igda and I got up on Saturday and stayed at a home very near the race site. Thanks again Kyle for the hook up. The forecast was predicting a perfect day, low 70's and sunny! Deep Creek has to rank up there with one of the most perfect, beautiful venues for a race.
Dr. Evil himself (Kyle Yost- course architect, visionary & madman)
My plan going in was to cruise the swim, nothing hard. Let it all hang out on the bike and survive the run. Sean gave me the best advice as I was toying with the idea of going for it on the bike. He said earlier in the week, "There's no glory in racing in zone 3!" That's all I needed to hear to fully convince myself that I needed to go for it on the bike.
Swim:
We had a slight delay due to the fog, but before you knew it, we were on our way. I started fairly quick and then just got into a rhythm. After about 500 meters, I notice this guy to my right swimming about the same pace as me. We're right next to each other. As I'm breathing to my right, I notice he has on a Zoot wetsuit. Hmmm, interesting. Sean has a Zoot suit, too. After a couple more breaths, I notice his race number on his swim cap. It's one off from mine. Sweet, it is Sean. I figure, what the hell, we're swimming about the same pace so I drop back and get right behind him to take advantage of the draft. I can honestly say that I followed Sean's feet the rest of the way home. It was beautiful! I tried to avoid slapping his feet, but I will admit I tickled his toes on more than one occasion. Thanks for the tow, Sean! I kindly thanked him as we ran to T1.
Bike:
Start of the bike:
From the get go, I started out hard. I was either going to have a great bike split or I was going to go down in flames. It was a gamble. I blew through the first part of course and entered Westernport feeling good. Now, the real pain was about to commence. I shed my vest just before The Wall and followed Brady up the climb. I saw Brady take a stumble at The Wall, but I had no time to doubt my ability to get up the steep ascent. I charged up with everything I had. I made it! Brick #2 complete. Now, 7 more miles of climbing to go before a reprieve.
"THE WALL"
Here are some good youtube videos Igda got (click on to launch link):
1. Me
2. Funny one
3. Leaders
4. Bad Fall
5. My buddy Ted
For the rest of the ride, I just tried to keep drilling it and hit the power #'s I knew I could hold. I just tried to stay in the here and now and not worry about how I was going to hold up on the run. When I came to the Killer Miller climb, it was brutal. I slugged my way up the climb and got a few cheers from Kyle and Laura as I reached the top. I asked how far Brady was up the road and they said about a minute or so. Brady had re-passed me on the Big Savage climb, but I was now going to use him as my carrot to chase down.
Just after "Killer Miller Climb"
I really pushed the last 10 miles. Finally, I caught a glimpse of Brady up the road. It was what I needed. About two miles from the finish, I finally caught him. I rolled into transition and was so focused on wrapping up the bike strong that I forgot to get my feet out of my shoes before transition. Well, so much for a flying dismount. I stopped, unclipped and hobbled over to my rack with my shoes on. Michael and Ken came over to offer some encouragement as I was putting my running shoes on.
Here comes the run. A huge question mark in my mind was about to be answered! Would I have the legs to put together a decent run??Power Profile (click to enlarge):
Run:
Yikes...my hip flexors were cursing me as I worked my way out on the run. Oh, boy. This is going to be rough. My only mantra was "Don't Walk!!!" I knew my bike split was around 3 hrs, so I was hoping that bought me enough time to just run steady. I had no idea how far back anyone was in my AG but I felt if I could keep the legs moving, someone was going to have to run really fast to catch me.
Brady was off like a bolt of lightning. There was another fellow heading out in the 30-34 AG right in front of me. I figured I'd just use him to pace off of and stick with him. I managed to keep up with him for the first loop, just barely staying in contact up that painful fire road climb. I was a little nervous, I saw Ted and figured he was about 5-6 minutes behind. Although he started 7 minutes behind me, I desperately wanted to make sure he didn't catch me. I thought if I could hold him off, I'd be in good shape. Loop 1 over, thank god!
I knew I was going to have to go deep into the pain cave on lap 2. My rabbit was still in front of me as we hit the climb up through the camp ground. He ended up slowing to walk and I passed him. I hollered at him to "keep it going", but he was gassed. I just kept repeating, "Don't stop!" I saw Sean as I exited the campground and he was entering. Ok, he seems to be gaining on me. He looked pretty good. I put in a pretty good effort to get to the fire road climb. Once there, I just knew I had to get to the top as quick as possible, but it wasn't easy. I had to alternate between power walking and jogging. I still wasn't sure how far back my chasers were, but I knew I needed to finish strong. I saw Ted midway down the fire road and Sean at the base as I exited. Ok, time to bring it home! Man, was I happy to wrap this sucker up. I finished in 5:27:11. 11th overall male and 1st in 35-39 AG. Wow! What a day. It was a big 30 minute PR for me from last year's race. After the race, I came to find out the that the 2nd place AGper and Sean (3rd) were closing the gap throughout the run. Damn glad they ran out of real estate!
That's a wrap. An absolutely amazing, challenging and fun race!
Sharing War Stories with the crew post race:
Igda & I:
**It was also rewarding to be able to raise some money for the Joanna Nicolay Melanoma Foundation. Thank you to all who donated in my fundraising effort! A great cause to support.
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