USAT Age Group Nationals

How I got here:

Last year after Ironman St George, I went back to race Loveland Lake2Lake Triathlon after getting two flats the year prior and a challenge thrown up by my buddy. I ended up having a good race that day, 2/22 in my Age Group (AG), 2 minutes behind my AG winner and 4 minutes ahead of 3^rd place.  So in any USAT sanctioned race the top 10% are invited to compete in AG Nationals every year at any distance (sprint, Olympic/international, long course/70.3 and ultra/140.6).  Additionally there are regional and special qualifiers held in each region you can compete in and the top 33% of each AG are invited to Nationals. For more info on qualification click on Nationals. Due to Loveland being in June and AG nationals in August, the slots were already sold out and the race was held in Burlington, Vermont in 2012. So there was a mark on the wall,  why not shoot for the following year? 2013 USAT Age Group Nationals were being held in Milwaukee, WI.  

This led me to sign up for Maple Grove Olympic Triathlon in August to qualify for the next year.  This is one of the bigger races in the area so I knew I would have some tough competition.  We had lived in MN for about 2 weeks before I woke up early that morning to drive to this race.  Not ideally trained: had not been in the pool for 3-4 weeks, bike and run were intermittent with moving from CO to MN during this time but I was going to give it my best.  This ended up just being enough as I came in 3rd out of 34 in my AG. So I was pretty excited to qualify for this race.

Pre Race:

We had set up to stay with my Aunt who lives about 30 minutes from the race site.  It was very relaxing to not having to worry about a hotel, keeping kids entertained; along with getting the opportunity to visit with family. We made it out to the race site late in the afternoon Friday. I was able to get checked in which was less complicated then Ironman events with waivers and death benefit paper work (ha ha just kidding).  My main goal was to get the layout of the area after getting a hold of one of my athletes who was also racing. We met up as I finished getting my race packet and goodie bag. Walked by the TYR booth and was thinking “Man, what are they giving away wetsuits over there”.  Nope it was just the 4X Ironman World Champ, Chrissie Wellington signing autographs.  So it was cool to see her little did I know I would see her again.  I was able to talk some race plans with Angel and get a few photos before we parted ways.  Went back to the car where J was with the sleeping boys. I got my race number on my bike took a quick spin and headed over to transition for bike drop off. We headed to my Aunt's and got unpack and prepped for race day events. That night we went over to my cousin’s house for a pasta dinner and some relax time just what I needed to get my mind ready for the next day. We settled in for a good night of sleep prior to a 5:30 wake up.  

Morning of:

Transition Area

Transition was open from 5:30-7:30 with my wave start at 9:30 so getting there by 7 was the goal. We allowed about 45 minutes of drive time which was plenty.  I was able to park the car pretty close to transition and headed over to set up. After walking in I realized yep this is the biggest Olympic Distance Race to date with over 2,700 athletes racing. I found my bike and set up my transition. Took me less than 20 minutes to pump up tires, clip shoes in to my bike and rubber band them to the frame (for a flying mount), set up helmet and my run gear.  Getting back to the car, boys were out of their PJs and dressed so we played around the vehicle for a little while before the start of the first waves. I had my wetsuit, goggles and swim cap along with my mixer bottle with 2 scoops of UCAN lemonade to take with (which I consumed about an hour before my swim time). I put on my tri top (rocked my "Green Green" from my club) , body guide, sun screen and grabbed my extra shoes to do a warm up with.  We had about 1.5 hrs prior to my start at this point.  We worked our way over to the swim exit to catch Angel come out of the water to cheer her on. The swim start waves were push back 15 minutes so 9:45 was now my start time.  I did a quick warm up around 9 then grabbed my things, kissed J and the boys and headed to swim start.

Nutrition: I took my 2 scoops of UCAN about an hour prior to swim start and took nothing but water during the rest of the race. Metabolic Efficiency!

Swim 25:06 (1:31/100 yds) Rank 92/183 AG

My wave was 183 strong and this was nationals so I knew most of these guys were good swimmers. I planned to try to stay with the mid-pack. We had a good 8-10 minutes to warm up in the water prior to the start after a quick warm up it was pretty awesome hearing all the different places guys were from in pre race conversations happening around me. Soon the waters calmed as we waited to start. 

Few minutes in to the swim

The horn went off and man that was one of the roughest swim starts I have ever been in.  Ironman was pretty rough but I was able to swim away from most of the crowd in 200 yards that day. Today I was right in the middle of the chaos: kicked in the chest, elbow to the face and of course I threw some wild haymakers.  It lasted almost ¾ of the way to the turnaround before we got spaced out enough.  I just tried to stay with the group around me sighting every once and a while to make sure the dude in front of me was sighting.  The swim was in calmer and warmer water than the race in Racine so I was enjoying it. At the turn around I thought time to take it home I started to move to the front of the pack I was with and started to push it a little harder.  We crossed under the bridge and headed for home. The swim exit was a ramp with some volunteers on it to pull you up right and keep you from falling back. That ramp was pretty tough (felt like a 30 degree incline) as I was trying to get blood back to my legs but made it up and on the way to transition. I hit lap on my watch just over 25 minutes right where I thought I would be.  Just at that time I heard my name it was J and the boys.

T1 2:08

I made it up out of the water and ran the carpet to the grass transition area.. NO SAND! It was great. Got my wet suit down to my waist and part of that process I hold my goggles and swim cap in my hand so they end up in the sleeve which is one less thing to worry about when I get to my transition spot.  Getting to my spot I got my wetsuit off, helmet & sunglasses on and I was on my way out. The aisles were large and I picked out a landmark (speaker) to find my spot in my aisle which worked out well.

Bike 1:05:49 (22.7 mph) Rank 107/183

Small climb up the bridge

Ran my bike out of transition, hitting the line with a flying mount, got my feet in my shoes, velco tight and I was off.  The bike course was something I wasn’t able to ride so mileage points were unknown but I knew we headed out to the north along the lake to a turnaround then south to another turn around then back to transition. I was planning to just hammer the bike to the best of my abilities on this closed course. The first leg up to the turnaround was a bit of a climb but I knew we had a downhill on the way back. Not much to speak off this was a pretty short section of the bike only about 7 miles. Then we headed south getting on the closed freeway with a short climb up the bridge and down the other side.  My average was doing pretty well at this point. I saw a number of race officials on the back of motorcycles and I wasn’t going to be one of those to get a drafting penalty (2 minute penalty).  The course started to get busy as we started to catch the prior swim waves in front of us.  I had to hang back as others made passes and groups were starting to form but tried to stay on the throttle the best I could as we continued to the south turn around. After the turn around I knew there was only one more climb up the bridge then coast the downhill to transition. I got my feet out of my shoes as we came down the ramp. Came up to the line jumped off the bike and ran in to transition. Hit lap yep right where I thought I would be within a minute.

T2 1:12

Started running my bike back to my spot looking for my speaker to find my bright green Newtons awaiting me, I racked my bike, got helmet off,  shoes on,  grabbed my race belt/visor and I was out of transition.

Run 40:23 (6:30 min/miles) AG Rank 47/183

Boom here it is, (my event) the run. I got my race belt and visor on just as I came on the course. I counted a number of dudes in my AG that past me on the bike out of transition, time to let them know they don’t have the legs to keep that lead. I dug in to a pretty aggressive pace to start out the first mile just to see how the legs felt passing a number of guys I rode near on the bike. I think the first mile was just around 6:05-6:10. There was a small out and back section so I could see those just in front of me and later those behind hind me. I felt good I let my pace slow a little bit to leave some for the last mile. I started to put bull’s eyes on every male with an age of 30-34 on their calf.  I ran through the water stops (there was one about every mile) grabbing mostly just water and then ice at mile 3. The temp was starting to warm up but still great race weather. I took 2 cups of water one on the head and the other to drink. I was feeling pretty good to the last out and back section just over 2 miles to go. I caught another guy in my AG group at the water station. He slowed to a jog so I missed that station oh well I am not stopping. I was starting to hurt by this point but I was going to try to run these last 2 miles as hard as I could. I just kept trying to gain some ground on my AG. I remember seeing "a rabbit" a little over a mile and a half from the finish he was a good 500 yards ahead of me, he had on Mark Allen Coaching Kit. Yep catch him that is what kept my mind busy.  I closed off the crowd and anyone else on the course at that time; I needed to catch that guy.  By the time we made the turn to the finish I had closed on him within 8-10 second. Realized I wasn’t going to catch him but here comes the carpet time to zip up and look like it was a walk in the park for my finisher photo. Crossing the line I knew I was under 2:15 but before I knew it I was standing in front of Chrissie Wellington as she was about to put on my finisher medal. I was star struck didn’t really know what to say...”You are the best?” “I read your book?” “You are an inspiration?” “Sign my Chest?” Then I remember watching Kona 2011 and the amazing performance she did for her 4thWorld Championship and was humbled.  If you didn’t see it would be a good thing to see.  I thanked her, she congratulated me on a great race and continued on to get some water.  

Official finish time 2:14:40 AG Rank 77/183

This was a great experience and great course to race.  Very happy with my performance, with my focus on Ironman couldn’t have expected too much more. With 2:23:58 being my fastest time at this complete distance its nice to claim another PR (Loveland Race was cut short on bike and run due to fires and construction so my finish time was 2:02:19).

Next race:  Ironman Wisconsin 8 Sept.