To summarize my race, it didn't quite go as planned. The short story is that I was in the lead of my age group after the swim (good) and then in 2nd on the bike at about mile 35 when I got a flat on my rear tire (bad). The time it took to change my tube caused me to drop to 27th at the end of the bike. I gained back two spots during a crappy run and ended up finishing 25th in my age group. I had a grand plan of traveling to Europe and earning a podium spot. I envisioned things going similar to the movie Beerfest. Unfortunately, the flat tire pretty much killed that plan.
Here's a more detailed version...
Pre Race
I arrived 4 days before the race and it took me about two nights to get fully adjusted to the 9 hour time difference from Los Angeles. I did some light running, riding, and swimming the days leading up to the race, but pretty much took it easy. The picture below is from a group bike course preview two days before the race.
The day before the race, I decided to take the train north and explore Zurich. I ended up doing a lot of walking that day, which might not have been the best idea as my legs were tired as I went to bed the night before the race. Race morning I woke up, had a nice breakfast at the hotel, and walked over to the race site. There was rain in the forecast and right when I got to the race site, it started to downpour. I found shelter with everyone else, waited about 20 minutes, then continued getting ready for the race. I got sort of lazy keeping track of the time so I had to rush down to the lake to get a quick warm-up swim in before my wave went off.
I arrived 4 days before the race and it took me about two nights to get fully adjusted to the 9 hour time difference from Los Angeles. I did some light running, riding, and swimming the days leading up to the race, but pretty much took it easy. The picture below is from a group bike course preview two days before the race.
The day before the race, I decided to take the train north and explore Zurich. I ended up doing a lot of walking that day, which might not have been the best idea as my legs were tired as I went to bed the night before the race. Race morning I woke up, had a nice breakfast at the hotel, and walked over to the race site. There was rain in the forecast and right when I got to the race site, it started to downpour. I found shelter with everyone else, waited about 20 minutes, then continued getting ready for the race. I got sort of lazy keeping track of the time so I had to rush down to the lake to get a quick warm-up swim in before my wave went off.
Swim
Everyone had been talking about how cold the lake was going to be and the race organizers even made wetsuits compulsory. I thought the lake was the perfect temperature during the race, not too cold and not too hot. When the gun went off, everyone took the first 100 meters pretty hard as they usually do. I soon pulled away from the pack and it was just me and a kayaker for the rest of the way. I can't remember ever having a kayaker guide me through a swim and I've got to say it was pretty nice. About 100m to transition he pulled off and gave me the thumbs up. I gave thumbs up back and then proceeded to transition holding first for my division. The picture below is from the day before the race. It was not so sunny race morning, but that's OK.
Everyone had been talking about how cold the lake was going to be and the race organizers even made wetsuits compulsory. I thought the lake was the perfect temperature during the race, not too cold and not too hot. When the gun went off, everyone took the first 100 meters pretty hard as they usually do. I soon pulled away from the pack and it was just me and a kayaker for the rest of the way. I can't remember ever having a kayaker guide me through a swim and I've got to say it was pretty nice. About 100m to transition he pulled off and gave me the thumbs up. I gave thumbs up back and then proceeded to transition holding first for my division. The picture below is from the day before the race. It was not so sunny race morning, but that's OK.
Bike
Before the race I had set a goal to not ride like it was an Olympic distance race. I think I may have forgotten about that goal and taken it too hard when I first started the bike, but eventually settled down into a good rhythm.
Prior to the race I looked at the participant list to see if any of the top athletes in my age group from last year were coming back to race again this year. Of the top 5, only 2nd place, Peter, was racing again this year. At about mile 30, Peter passed me. At that point we were on the second loop of the course and were caught in a big pack of people. I noticed one of them was blatantly drafting. As I passed him, I pointed at him and yelled "You are drafting!". About a mile later, he caught up to me and started yelling a bunch of nonsense (to me at least) in German. I had no idea what he was saying, so I kept riding and then dropped him on a climb about a mile later.
Soon after, my hopes of getting on the podium pretty much ended. I was holding 2nd about 30 seconds behind the lead when I noticed my rear tire felt sort of "soft". I looked down and noticed it was going flat. I had never had a flat during a race, but of course I happen to get my first flat when I travel to Europe to race. As I frantically changed the tube in my rear tire, numerous people passed me and I ended up going into T2 in 27th place in my age group. At that point I decided I would just try to put in a solid run and see what that gives me.
Run
Overall, my run was just plain bad. Out of the three half ironmans I have raced, this was the flattest run course and I had my slowest time on it. I'm not sure exactly what my issue is, but I can't figure out the half marathon distance at the end of a triathlon. The drop in pace from my race pace with fresh legs is substantially greater than the drop in pace for Olympic distance triathlons. I just got new bright orange laces for my shoes, so maybe that will help improve my run time in the next race. That has got to be the solution. The only significant elevation change during the run was running up these stairs ("Stairway to Heaven") to a castle.
I look pretty calm and relaxed in this picture. Maybe I just wasn't pushing it hard enough.
Here are the final times:
Even though my race didn't go as well as I wanted to, I still had about 1.5 weeks ahead to explore Switzerland and Italy, which was great. I hope to have another post about my explorations soon.
Next up is the San Diego International Triathlon on June 24th.
Even though my race didn't go as well as I wanted to, I still had about 1.5 weeks ahead to explore Switzerland and Italy, which was great. I hope to have another post about my explorations soon.
Next up is the San Diego International Triathlon on June 24th.
No comments:
Post a Comment