Superior Man Race Recap
Short Synopsis:
Slow but steady swim in 38:XX. About what I expected.
Solid bike pace, until I got a flat (10 minutes to change)
and then got stung by a wasp: 2:45. Take
away the break for changing and I am pleased with my bike time.
Run… Not so
good. Over two hours of run, shuffle,
walk. Problems with a side stitch right
from the get go. Need to figure this
out.
Long Version:
With a 6:30 start for the first boat, it was going to be an
early morning. I rolled into transition
about 5:30 am and set about getting the bike and transition spot ready. Being indoors made this very easy as it was
well lit. It cleared out as the first
boat folks went to board and I took care of the last few things and headed out
to watch them jump in and get my chip.
Swim:
I will be the first to say I was a little disappointed when
they changed from a straight in swim to the rectangle arrangement. After watching the first boat start, and then
swimming it myself I will say it was a great decision overall. From a safety perspective the kayakers and
medics on the breakwall were able to watch both
of the long legs of the rectangle with ease. Also, the spectators were able to watch
everything happen right in front of them.
Once on the Vista Fleet boat I went up top as I wanted to start
DFL. I figured since I got roped into
the “faster” wave it would be better to start last in the time trial start so
any of the faster folks would not have to navigate around me. It also worked out well as myself and Adam
Swank, the other guy to jump last (two jump doors…) were “allowed” to dive
in. They said for safety purposes
everyone needed to jump in feet first in case there was any floating
debris. Adam coaxed Clint into letting
us dive by saying after 300 other folks have gone in, it should be clear of
debris. So I gave it a good jump, and
realized mid air that with the height I jumped, and the door height above the
water I was going to go pretty far under.
No biggie… It was a pretty sweet
way to start. Kudos to Clint, SuperiorMan, and the Vista Fleet for the boat start.
It was a highlight point of the race.
My swim was uneventful, as it should be. With the time trial start for each boat load,
and the two boat loads, there was very little crowd on the swim. Of course, it was tough to catch a draft
though. The chop was a little rough for
your average swim. That really was to be
expected as Lake Superior is a little larger
than your average lake. I had no problem
with the chop overall, I just drank a little lake a couple times; this should
test if the lake really was clean enough for us.
T1:
Once out of the water, it was a little bit of a jog to the
arena door. I made a point of running as
I did not want to waste a minute of race time.
Once in the arena they were warning folks to walk as the smooth concrete
floor and wet feet did not mix. I kept
rolling though. Bottom line, in a
straight line no problem. Simply slow
down when you need to turn the corner…
Saw story with the bike in hand out to start the ride.
Bike:
The bike started simple enough. Kept it easy on the out and back over the
railroad tracks. Continued to take it
easy through the first miles in town.
Once onto London Road ,
I tried to get in a groove. With the
tail wind on the outbound leg, I figured I had to be careful to push but not
too hard. Take advantage of the wind
while we had it.
I was passing lots of people the entire bike ride. I saw absolutely no drafting. However, there were a couple guys that need
to work on their position foul understanding.
I am guessing they thought since they started so late there would not be
any strong bikers behind them. Sorry
guys, there is someone who swims worse than you do…
Everything was going to plan until I turned the corner at
Two Harbors. This pavement was brand
new, finished only two weeks ago… Yet
for some reason my bike seemed to be bouncing a little. I checked my tires and it appeared my rear
was a little low. I pulled off and sure
enough it was probably at 50 psi and going down slowly. Better change it…
I took my time because I still had 23 miles to go and did
not want to miss some small chunk of whatever that was causing a problem. Ten minutes later I was ready to go. Once back on track, I really started to
notice the head wind. It was really
making us work. I paid special attention
to my Quark so that I would not be frying my legs before even getting on the
run.
Things were going smoothly and I was staying smooth as I
traveled down London Road
again. Just before I get to the bike
trail with about 5 miles to go in the bike a wasp/hornet/bee stings me in my
right leg below the knee. A few curse
words later and no mishap of bike handling later and my leg hurts like a
sonofabitch… Nothing to do here, so I
keep rolling and make my way towards T2.
T2:
I made my way through T2 with my normal quickness. Nothing good can come of sitting in a nice
cool hockey arena when your run is out in the sunny 85-90 degree heat. Total time was 1:13 in T2. Only the relay folks were in and out faster
than me. That would be the end of things
that went well for me…
Run:
Starting out my legs felt great and I headed out. I knew the heat would be tough, but I think I
started the run a little dehydrated. Add
to that the side stitches that flared up right away, and the fact that my right
leg was a little numb from the knee down from the wasp/hornet/bee sting and I
knew I was in for a rough afternoon.
I tried to make the best of the run. When the opportunity arose I chatted with
other athletes. I tried to thank the
volunteers when I could, and even had the luck to be coming under the aerial
lift bridge when there were big boats coming in on two of my three laps.
Finish:
Once I finished I grabbed a cool bottle of water and laid
down on the grass. My side stitch was
still pretty bad. It was so bad I could
not breathe in very deep at all. I said
hello to the family and thanked them for cheering me on. They asked if I wanted to go out for lunch,
but I was a dirty, sweaty, salty mess so I said they should just go. I then chatted with a bunch of other athletes
and had my complimentary brat from Canal Park Brewing Company. Based on the brat alone, I cannot wait for
them to be open so I can try the other food and beer they will be offering.
Overall I will say I thought the race was well run. Sure, there were a few things they could have
done a little better; maybe some carpet for the smooth concrete floor in
transition, slight tweak to the run aid station placement, improve the stairs
out of the swim. All of those things
were minor issues and for transition they were adding carpets as they could and
had a slew of volunteers telling us it was slippery. For the run aid stations, on the longest
hottest stretch without an aid station they had bikes and a golf cart going up
and down the road handing out water on the later laps as it got warmer. So they were doing a good job of identifying
these items as they happened and doing what they could to improve them on the
spot. Kudos…
The highlights were many though:
- Swim course – starting from the boat was cool and the course was easy for safety personnel and spectators.
- Transition – indoors was neat, but the overall organization and assigned rack spots was nice.
- The volunteers were everywhere and did a very good job overall. People were all over in the water and on the breakwall for the swim, every corner in town had people and signs telling us where to go on the bike, and the run aid stations had smiling volunteers along with many more at the turns and areas where we would be crossing over popular tourist walkways. If you volunteered, thanks. I tried to thank many of you, but I know I missed many.
- Bike – I may be an unfair opinion on the course as I rode it four or five times in its entirety prior to race day so when I say it was easy to follow, well… I thought they had well educated volunteers telling you about the turns and the areas to take a little extra caution though… I did see a few flats out there, but since I was starting from the back I probably saw almost all of them, along with getting one. When you factor in there were 246 finishers, that means there were a total of 13776 miles biked on the day. Many of those miles were on slightly more fragile tires than your average training tire. So, I cannot say there was really a flat issue. I am sure everyone who got one may beg to differ though…
- “Big”
Time Race Feel – this is my own interpretation I guess. The whole venue choice from the arena
for transition, to using a boat to start, and having the wonderful
- Logistics – ever go to a race and have no place to park? Well, if you were willing to pay $5 you could park no more than 100 yards from the front door to transition. If you did not want to pay, there was a lot one block away that was less than 100 yards from the finish line that was free. Both had plenty of open spots because they were designed for events with 1000’s of people instead of 100’s of people.
- Cool finishers medal...
Overall, a good race to have as a late season goal
race. See everyone next year,.
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