Brewhouse Race Report

So I have not posted in a little while, and I thought writing up a race report for the Brewhouse Triathlon would be the perfect return post.

Ready for the race in the morning.

Synopsis

A real quick run down: cut your foot, swim slowly, fight the wind and rough roads, run like you are being chased, and relax with a smooth root beer...

Details

I woke up early so that I could get to the race site right at 6:30 am to get a good transition spot.  Based on my recon on Saturday at packet pick up, there are better spots even though everyone is assigned a group of racks by number.  It is nice that they group you by numbers to a rack, but it would be better if they had put the same number of bikes on each group of racks.  On Saturday I looked through transition and found that each row was four racks with a sign for which numbers should rack there.  Some rows has 20 numbers assigned, while others (including my row) had 30 numbers assigned.  So, since it would be crowded I figured I should get there early and get a good spot on the rack.

Once I had everything setup in the transition area, it was time to wait.  With the short and long course sharing the same course, they had the short course race start first and then had a very long gap before the long course got going.  The race starts at 8:30, and my wave did not take off until 9:06 or so.  With the cool weather we were having, I basically shed my warm ups and then put my wetsuit on to stay warm as I sat on the beach watching the short course waves start, and even finish the swim portion.

It was fun hanging out on the beach chatting with other long course athletes waiting for our start.  I chatted with a couple and another young lady.  Both of the ladies were competing in their first long course triathlon.  I don't think any of us was a good swimmer and we all were discussing our plan for making our way out of the lake.  The urge to empty my bladder came over me so I decided to wish them all good luck and that a warm up swim was in order.  Emphasize the warm up...  Once that was taken care of it was getting close to the long course wave starts so I stayed in the water waiting.  While waiting I was chatting with another athlete.  Right as the elite wave left he commented that he just missed his wife start.  Turns out they were on their second race of the weekend and his wife had won at Graniteman the day before.  We wished each other luck as our wave was getting ready to go and we both found our spot on the start line.

Swim: 24:46 (74th)

Once the count down was over and we started, I took one step and my right foot found a very sharp rock or zebra mussel and I was immediately swimming...  On the outbound leg of the new swim course we were swimming directly into the waves and wind.  With my poor form, this does not really affect me other than that I took in quite a few mouthfulls of Pike Lake when I would happen to breathe right as a wave was cresting in my face.  When we turned left at the far end of the outbound leg, we turned into the sun and the field immediately spread out searching for the next buoy.  Being the lazy ass that I am, I took a second to sight the next buoy and picked my line and it was way left of the majority of the field.  After the next buoy, we turned left towards the beach and now the waves were coming over our left shoulder and rolling us a little.  Soon enough I was able to stand up and I yanked the wetsuit off and jogged to my bike.

After effects of stepping on a rock/zebra mussel.

Transition was a little hectic as long course athletes were running one way to their bikes, and the short course athletes were running the other way with their bikes or out on the run.  When I got to my bike I quickly sat down to put my socks and shoes on after putting my helmet on.  I then flipped my Garmin Edge 500 and ContourRoam on and headed out.

Bike: 56:31 (10th - 241 watts, 22.6 mph)

Note the discrepancy between my swim and bike performance...  Couple that with starting in the second to last wave and not a single soul passed me on the bike.  As much as I would like to think that is because I am a great biker, I know it has a lot more to do with my slow swimming...  The new bike course was better that last years course for racer flow.  I passed a lot of bikers, both short and long course, and I never had trouble with the course being crowded or having tight turns.  The wind happened to be in our face on the section of pavement that was the smoothest.  This of course then meant that we had a tail wind on the roughest section of pavement.  All in all I was happy with how the bike section went for me.  I pushed hard and set myself up well for the run.

Coming into transition I did my standard flying dismount and for the third time this year my drive side shoe caught the pavement and popped my bike in the air as I was running to my rack.  These instances have all happened since I began using the wheelcover this year and it seems it rubs the cassette just enough to spin the crank and put the shoe closer to the ground after I jump off the bike.

Power File w/Elevation

Run: 34:07 (45th - 6:50 min/mile)

Leaving transition my plan was to run hard and see how long I could hold on.  The cooler weather had me feeling confident I could run strong the whole way.  Immediately out of transition I passed my plant manager who was having a solid race.  Once out of the AAA grounds and onto Midway road I tried to lock onto a strong pace and go.  There were a couple racers up the road that I set my sights on and went after.  They were running strong, so it worked well.  As I rounded the corner onto the old hwy 53 I saw race leader Brian Bich heading in for the win.  He was looking strong and had a big lead.  I grabbed a water at the aid station and kept running.  Mile 2 was kind of boring in a good way.  I held my pace but did not catch or get caught by anyone.  As I turned the corner and headed down to the turn around I was getting closer to the two runners ahead of me.  I managed to catch one just as I hit the turn around.  Once heading back I also saw that there were a couple runners not too far behind me.  As I powered up the hill I wanted to stay smooth and keep ahead of the runners I saw at the turn.  Once back onto the old hwy, I got back up to pace and knew I had two miles to go.  At this point I was feeling the start of a side stitch but kept pushing the pace.  I wanted to see how hard I could push it.  As I turned back onto Midway road with about a mile to go I was doing everything I could to keep the pace high.  The side stitch was starting to be noticeable, but I was confident I could handle one more mile of it.  At this point I could not catch the runner up the road, so I simply focused on running as fast and smooth as I could to the finish line.  In the end, it was about 40 seconds faster than last year on the same run course.

Overall: 1:57:46 (26th)

Once finished, I made a point to congratulate the racer who finished just behind me.  Seeing him at the turn around kept me focused on the return leg of the run and helped push me to a very solid run split.  He made a similar comment that he was trying to chase me down the whole way and it helped push him also.  I then made a beeline to the signature of the Brewhouse triathlon, the free Brewhouse Root Beer they have.  Next to a cold beer, a cold Root Beer is a great after race refreshment.

I wanders around after the race and chatted with fellow racers and familiar faces from the Tuesday night Duluth Running Company tri training nights.  I then cleaned up my gear and loaded it in my truck and headed back for awards.

All in all I am very pleased with my race.  My time was slightly better than last year with a more challenging swim and a longer bike course.  My race execution left me feeling pretty good as I look forward to Superior Man.  I really pushed on the bike and ran very well afterwards.  If I can get some solid workouts in over the next week before my taper I will be ready to roll come August 26th.