Race Report: Spirit of Racine Triathlon 2006

Prologue
2006 started with promise. Fresh off a successful inaugural season of triathlon with an Ironman finish, I was ready to continue training and competing in more races. My main race of this season was to be the Spirit of Racine Triathlon (SORT), a half-ironman that last year ate up the field with 99° heat and a 110+° heat index. I wanted retribution.

Alas, the season thus far hasn't been as regimented as it was last year. I never sat down and set out a training plan. There was to be a marathon finish in May. But my IT band was having nothing of that. Then, we bought a house and I was busy with that, work and other social activities; playing softball and volleyball. My training suffered, long rides and swims were rare, if existent. Running took a back seat to rest my ITB. Then it was June and almost time for the SORT. I was way behind and questioning my abilities to finish the race.

Pre-Race
We were eating breakfast and I was missing the decisive Tour de France individual time trial. My wife was somewhat amazed that I actually got goose bumps thinking about what Floyd was about to do. I hurried her through her eggs just so that we could get back to an internet connection to follow the live updates on velonews.com. That's when we walked by the bar and saw OLN. (Our hotel next door didn't have OLN.) We walk in and sat down next to a very nice gentleman that explained where Floyd was and how he was looking. (10 minutes to go, 1:30 ahead at predicted paces.) We discussed things some more and quietly left after the stage was over without acknowledging our viewing mates. It wasn't until the awards ceremony that we realized who we were speaking with. It was none other than Dave Cracknell, Lisa Bentley's husband. Lisa was there too, but she was too engrossed in the tour to talk.

As for the pasta feed advertised by the race; well...not so much. It was a part of Racine's "Salmon-a-rama". Seriously; Salmon-a-rama. Nothing but Racine's finest were out for various festival goodies. Some rides, a fishing pond for the kids, overly fried food and beer. Lots of beer. Everything except a "pasta feed." No one knew about it. Not the lady selling the tickets to get the beer. Not the kids selling tickets to get beer. (Where are all the triathletes? Everyone here look like they could eat a triathlete.) Not the people selling everything but beer. Not even the beer people knew what the pasta feed was. Finally, inside the showroom displaying all the boats, engines and trailers was one gentleman that finally knew where the pasta was; down that hall around that corner and tucked away. We checked it out. Umm, yeah, maybe not. Only one table was full. If pasta could ever smell putrid, this was the place. We didn't want to be the blame for Jason, Sheila and Carl getting sick the next day, so we called and cancelled the gathering. (Sorry I missed you all the next day!)

Race Day
Unlike last year, the weather was perfect. An initial forecast of rain dissipated as storms blew by the day before. High seventies, sun and light wind. Perfect. Time to race. I got my transition area set-up in record time, put on the TRI-DRS dog tags (known to provide PRs) and waited for everyone to show up. I made sure I was early to pick-up my chip after hearing about some significant delays with packet pickup. Everything went swimmingly and I even had some time to wait for a pit stop in the blue bins. Lemme just say; thank goodness I did. It would've been way worse had I not. Got back to my spot, picked up my wetsuit and made my way down the beach to the start. On the way, I was chatting with Jumpy on how much I suck at the run and how it hurts me. (More on that later.)

Swim
Got to the start, saw my family, and warmed up a bit in the water. They sent off the pros, and then the 50+ age groupers. As we settled into the start position, either the speaker system went out or we couldn't hear it above the sound of everyone and the waves. All of a sudden everyone's telling GO! from behind. So I guess we're off then. The swim out was right into the rising sun and had to use that as the sight point and not the buoy bobbing in the waves. I hit turn in the front of my wave, exactly at the same time of meeting up with the back of the wave in front of us. That would be the first of many bumps along the way. Two factors made the swim more difficult than it appeared from the beach. 1) The waves in the lake grew as we got further out, and 2) There was a huge gap between the turn buoy and the next one down the line. Both combined to mess with everyone's sighting. I'm sure that the lifeguards had to chuckle at the sights as they watched from their boards: People were everywhere, criss-crossing each other and the straight line marked by the (lack of) buoys. I ran into more people on this swim that I did in my entire 2.4 miles at Ironman Wisconsin last year. About three-fourths of the way through, I finally saw another cap that matched mine and veered over to catch his feet. That didn't work out too well. He kept running into others and slowing down, followed by me running into his feet. So we finished side by side on the beach, with him taking the run up to transition. I finished second in my age group, slower than last year, mostly because the actual swim and beach run were longer.

Split: 0:28:19, 2nd in age group and 29th overall.

Bike
Uncomfortable. That word sums up the whole ride. I can't put a finger what was wrong, but the entire contact area where my body meets the seat was never right. Could've been the shorts, coud've been the lack of training. As for the rest of the ride, it went well. Ate lots of food, gulped down some gels and drank plenty of fluid. Mmm, mmm, good. There were an extreme amount of bumps/joints on the road. They were just big enough to not notice them in a car, but big enough to vibrate your body up through your teeth. There's nothing like five mile stretches of getting your teeth knocked around. Aside from my comfort, it was a good ride, given my lack of training. I got to see my family a couple of times, which totally helps. While my split says I was faster than last year, I believe the course was a mile short by my calculations.

Split: 2:37:58 (21.3 mph), 52nd in age group

Run
The goal of the day was to run the entire course. I didn't have any time goal, just run the whole way. If was to make up for my lack of a marathon this year, I at least could try for a running a half.

Like in my training bricks (running right off the bike), the first couple of miles started out fast. I probably should've held back but I felt good, so I kept myself pegged at same heart rate. If it was two beats over 160, I dialed it back. I wanted to finish strong, so I was hoping to save something for the last three miles.

My splits slowly degraded as the run continued, but my heart rate stayed in the same place. I finally reached the final turn to run the final three miles back. I had intended on picking it up some and building the entire way back. Sadly, my legs didn't agree and I found it more and more difficult to get them into a faster gear. I maintained my pace for mile 11, struggled to keep it there during mile 12, and then fought to return to speed after an aide station to finish out mile 13.1. I think my face may have contorted a bit as I finished, because everyone said something about it later. I finished within three(!) minutes of my stand-alone half-marathon early last year, so I'm pleased with that. I hope to go much faster than that in Chicago on October 1.

Split: 1:58:02 (9:01 min/mi), 64th in age group

Final: 5:08:16, 53rd of 109 in age group.

Overall, a fine finish on minimal training and taper. Although I ran the entire run segment, there are still loads of improvements to be made there. I'll highlight those in the near future, but that's going to be a big focus for some time.