Switzerland 70.3 Race Report

Excuse the delay in this race report, but I took about 1.5 weeks holiday following the race and wrote this in parts during downtime (train rides, waiting for meals, etc.). I also apologize for the watermarks over some of the pictures.  I was solo on this trip and didn't have anyone with me to take pictures, so I had to "steal" some of the professional photos off of the Internet.  Here's the report...

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.

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.

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. 

Made it to CH

I'm here in Switzerland!  I left Tuesday evening and after a short layover in Dusselforf, Germany, I touched down in Zurich at about 15:00.  After wandering around a couple train stations, I finally made it to my hotel in Zurich. The sad thing is after one day, I am already getting tired of lugging around my bike.  I guess I will just have to learn to deal with it.

Last night I had a nice meal at an Italian restaurant near my hotel, and then went to bed around 22:30 local time.  I thought I was going to have a hard time adjusting to the 9 hour time difference, but I think I'm adjusting quite well.

This morning I woke up around 7:00, threw down a banana and some juice, and went for a touristy run through Zurich.  It was an interesting run and I felt sort of out of place as I was running amongst a bunch of people dressed in business attire commuting to work.  I was also scared I was going to get lost, but fortunately I made it back to my hotel. 

Now I am about to go catch a train to Rapperswil, the sight of the race on Sunday.  I had hoped to post some pictures, but the hotel wifi seems to not be letting me email the pictures from my phone.  I'll continue to post here during my trip as much as possible, hopefully with pictures too.

70.3 Switzerland Preview

My next race is a big one! Exactly a week from today on Sunday June 3rd, I will be racing the 70.3 Switzerland in Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland. This will be my third venture into the half ironman distance.  Last year at Vineman and Vegas Worlds, I had great swim and bike legs, but basically bonked on the run.  I partly attribute that to inadequate nutrition on the bike and basic lack of run fitness.  Leading up to both of those races, I was battling shin splints which prevented me from putting in the solid long runs I needed.  Right now, I think I have figured out my nutritional needs (I guess I'll see if I am correct), and I feel like I have built up a solid training base going into this race.  I'm also excited for a change of scenery from the Los Angeles chaos that I live day-to-day to something more calming and scenic like this:

I expect there to be cows wearing berets all along the bike course.

Here are some thoughts I have going into the race:

Swim - Looking at the results from last year, there did not seem to be any super fast swim times in my division. So, unless last years results are skewed because of some lake monster slowing everyone down or if some superstar swimmers end up racing this year, I expect I can finish the swim at or near the front of my division.  My only concern right now is the water temperature in Lake Zurich.  Europe had a nasty winter and I have read that the lake is colder than normal for this time of the year.  I guess there is nothing I can do about that other than just deal with it.

Bike - The bike course consists of two loops with about 300m (1000ft) of climbing each loop.  That's a decent amount of climbing, which I like. My plan is to just get into a groove and push it.  That's about it.  Oh yeah, and make sure I take in enough calories so that I don't bonk on the run.

Run - The run is fairly flat other than a section of stairs that the race calls "The Stairway To Heaven".  Watching videos of previous years, there were cheerleaders at this section of the course.  Not your average high school cheerleader, but more like the cheerleaders from Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video. I hope the cheerleaders are on the run course again this year.  I'll need the motivation.  As I mentioned earlier, I have bonked on the run in my previous two half ironmans.  I think I have figured out how to avoid the bonking, but I guess I'll soon find out.  I rarely make goals before races other than to race fast, but I think I am going to put a goal of a 1:25 half marathon for this race.  On fresh legs I'd have not worries of meeting that goal, but at the tail end of a triathlon...we'll see if I can do it.

Once the suffering race is over, I plan to take several days and venture into Northern Italy while my body recovers.  Haven't decided exactly where I will be going, but thinking of exploring the Piedmont wine region and visiting Cinque Terre.  Once I feel my legs have recovered, I plan to head back up into Switzerland and do some riding through the Swiss Alps.  I have read about many great rides, but the one that I am looking at riding includes the Grimsel-, Furka-, and Sustenpass.  Here is some of the scenery along the route:

And some more scenery:

Those photos were taken off of the internet.  Hopefully I will have my own photos to share when I get back from my travels.

2012 Wildflower Photos

I published my race report before I was able to grab some photos from Brightroom.  Here are a few photos of me racing.

I don't know why I am smiling as I begin to climb Lynch Hill...

I look like I'm having too much fun out there...

At least I look beat at the finish...

Note, the clock was 20 minutes off from my chip time...

I dislike posing for photos, but my camp buddies insisted...

Finally, I neglected to give a shout out to TriSports.com during my initial race report.  I have received much needed support while being a TriSports.com athlete over the past two seasons and that support was once again extremely valuable leading up to Wildflower this past weekend.  Many exciting things are currently happening at TriSports.com.  One of the most significant is the soon opening of a new retail store in Tempe, AZ. Updates on the new Tempe store can be found on the TriSports Blog. As always, please remember to use coupon code MTRIPP-S for any purchase at TriSports.com and you will receive 10% off of your purchase!