Pre-Race
Morning of I arrived for setup at about 10 minutes after
6:00 am. First order of business was to
grab a nice spot and a picnic table so we would have a place for 10 hours of
transitioning. I then got all of my bike
gear setup so that in the case of a mechanical, I would be able to take care of
it quickly. Clint arrived shortly after
I did and he had a wonderful pop-up tent the Duluth Running Company uses at
events he was able to bring. This would
be key later to protect us from the intermittent showers and keep us dry. Lou showed up next and we were ready to
go.
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| Left to Right, myself, Lou and Clint. |
Going into the race our plan was to stay in our specific
sport for at least the first 3-4 rounds and then decide after that. Clint would be our swimmer, I was biking and Lou
was running. For our overall goals, we
wanted to win our category, win the 10 hour overall, and therefore also win a
growler of beer.
Start
At the start of the day, all of the 10 hour teams and
individuals take off 30 minutes before the 5 hour folks. Right off the bat, Clint pulled in behind the
growler teams swimmer Howie. He drafted
for most of the way. I had to get
prepped so I did not see the finish, but Clint pushed hard to be the first out
of the water and into transition. He
sent me out on the first bike ahead of the field. I wanted to push a little harder on lap 1 to
make sure every other team knew we were planning on racing hard. I was able to stay out in front for the
entire ride and sent Lout out first. On
the bike, it was apparent early on that the wind was going to be an issue all
day. It was early morning and it was
already blowing pretty hard. Lou took
off and ran well. We came off the first
lap with a good lead on everyone else in the 10 hour race. So far, so good.
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| Note the profile and the corresponding speed profile for the first triathlon... |
Lather, Rinse,
Repeat…
It now became an effort in quick recovery and trying to spot
your athletes. As noted in lap 1, Clint
was clearly one of the fastest swimmers here today. On top of that, he was basically our
transition athlete. So while his event
might have been the shortest in time, he was really kicking ass by hammering
the transition from run to swim and from swim to bike. We actually had me setup right at the bike
mount line with one foot clipped in and he would sprint the entire way from the
lake so that we could take every last second out of transition possible.
For myself, I would be biking a lot with less than 30
minutes to recover in between. For me it
was all about staying hydrated and fueled while also not having stomach issues
on the bike. As the day went on, it
really became an exercise in surviving the wind and the rain. Talking with athletes throughout the day the
wind was what all of the bikers talked about.
Considering it rained on 6 of the 9 laps, you know the wind was
bad.
Running had to be tough.
In the end Lou ran 27 plus miles.
I am not sure it would have been harder to run it back to back as
cooling down for 45-50 minutes in between had to make it tough later in the
day. Factor in the cool temps and the
hilly course; well I think our runner had a tough task and did well. I was most impressed with Lou’s ability to
strip in no time flat. More than once I
was coming back from the bike and he was still in his warm clothes and he had
them off and was out running in no time flat.
Video from third time through the bike course...
Finish Time
As the time started to wind down we were chatting strategy
again. As Lou was out for our 8th
run it was obvious we would have more than enough time for 9 laps. There were only two other teams that would be
allowed to start their 9th lap.
Talking to them in transition, neither of them were going to start the 9th
lap. So, we were guaranteed the overall
win for the 10 hour race. So, go out for
9 or not? Clint wanted to win in style,
so we decided to knock out a 9th lap. He hammered the swim as usual and off I went
on the bike. At this point, I had
already ridden 114 miles on the day. I
have never ridden that far in a single day ever. I now was heading out for 14 more… It went well and I was glad we did it as
there were many racers still challenging themselves on the course as the 10
hour time limit was coming.
In the end, 9 laps was the count. A nice bowl, and a growler of beer. Basically a great day of racing with friends.
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| The Spoils of the Day |
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