Monday, June 4, 2012

Leon's Triathlon Race Report


The 2012 Leon’s World’s Fastest Triathlon took place on Sunday, June 3rd this year which just happened to be my 19th birthday.  I went to Hammond, Indiana with the intention to give myself a deserving birthday present and that is exactly what I did! Enjoy the recap from the weekend of racing and birthday festivities.

Hammond is only about 45 minutes away from my house so I did not have to worry about travel, crappy smoke-filled hotel rooms and unusual foods the days leading up to the race.  I woke up early on Saturday morning after a good nights sleep to some steel cut oats and a nice cup of coffee. I met up with my friend Chase at the Park Center parking lot at 7:30am to do a little pre race warm up workout.  We started off practicing a few flying mounts and then went out for two loops on the Glenview Park District Triathlon bike course. We got in about 10 miles with a few building efforts on the flat sections. After rolling back to the cars, I put the run shoes on and went for a run around the lake again, with a few building efforts to tune up for the next day.  After a light stretch, we were off to Hammond to pick up packets and swim the course.

We got there around 10:30am, checked out the swim course, got our packets and hung out with some friends for a little bit. We then went down to the swim course and swam about 1000m.  The water was a nice temperature and there was a little chop but nothing to worry about.  Then again, it is Gary, Indiana and the water quality was not the best. I heard that they pulled a dead guy out of the lake after the race last year….

Around 12pm we got back in the car and hit up Whole Foods on the way home for some lunch.  I got home, finished packing for the race and then put the feet up and relaxed. I had my usual pre race meal of salad, grilled chicken and sweet potatoes. I was in bed and asleep by 9:30pm before the 4:00am wake up call the next morning.

The alarm went off (way to freaking early) and I laid there for a minute wondering who’s idea it was to make races start at 8:00am instead of a much preferable 10:00 or 11:00.  I eventually hopped out of bed and got downstairs to make some breakfast. After getting my stuff together I headed off to Chase’s where we were meeting up to drive out to the race. 

We got there at 6:00am, right when transition opened. They had designated wave rows in the transition area but where you slotted your bike was done on a first come first serve basis. I got a PRIME spot right next to the bike in/out and then went straight to take down the port-o-potty conundrum (10 port-o-johns for 1000 people does not work out well). After waiting in line, even at 6:15am, I got back to transition and set up my gear. I took the bike out for a little spin to make sure everything was good to go and then got in a little run warm up.  I had a little stretch and then went down to the waterfront to put the wetsuit on and get ready to go.

The sweet bike racks made my super-high saddle a non issue when racking (6'2''& up friends, back me up on this). 
I was racing in the Elite wave at this race (formally known as “Amateur All Stars” which made me feel like less of an elite for the ridiculous name) and there was actually some serious competition at this race. Pro racers Reevan Nathan and Jared Milam.  Extremely fast amateurs Adam Zucco, Ryan Frederickson, Dave Fix and Chase Baraczek. Not to mention the 40 other elite men who I did not know personally but I had seen around racing very well this season.  I was not intimidated, I was actually excited to get out there and race these guys.

Me getting owned in the face by elbows, fists and feet at the start. 
The swim is a diamond shape and you go out with the current into your face, hang a left and then swim back to shore with the current at your back. The start of the swim was a free-for-all and I was pretty much pummeled by every guy in the wave. The swim stringed out and once again, I had just missed the front pack of about 5 elite swimmers. I was out there on my own, trying to bridge the gap but I just could not reel them in.  I swam the entire 1500m on my own with some guy on my toes. I eventually caught one of the guys from the group (not wearing a wetsuit?) right at the end.  I stumbled out of the water, disoriented as always, and looked down to see a new swim PR, 19:17.

Almost went down coming out, may have swallowed too much dead-guy water.  
I ran over to T1 with my head spinning from the chop in the water and made my way over to my bike.  I struggled a bit with my chinstrap but made it out onto the bike with a sweet flying mount in 1:24.

2-3 curse words may have been uttered here. 
The bike is actually pretty interesting.  Two loops, mostly on a closed down highway that is filled with bumps and potholes. The race is known as the “Fastest in the World” and I think it gets its name from the literal zero feet of elevation.  It was flat as a pancake. I took a similar plan to Kansas City in that I was going to go conservative on the bike, possibly loose 1-2 minutes from what I could probably ride and in turn, save my legs for a fast run.  I was not passed at all on the first loop and I was taking it relatively “easy.” I just settled into a pace that I though was right below my threshold and kept it there.  It was not until the second loop where I was passed by a number of guys towards the end.  They looked like they were hurting pretty hard to stay together and I felt like I was biking hard but never out of control.  Their effort to pass me maybe gave them :15-:30 seconds over me, a loss I was willing to take before the run that was soon approaching.  I got off the bike in 1:02:56. Not blazing fast but my legs felt pretty fresh for the run.


Chase had actually passed me in the last mile or so on the bike and we practically came into T2 side by side.  I had a great second transition and was out of there in 0:42.


The run is a straight out and back on an uncovered section that is primarily on parts of the bike course. A group of about 4 or 5 guys (including myself) left T2 together and they all started gunning it out of transition.  I instantly channeled my inner cheetah mode, picking it up to bridge the gap. I then felt a little twinge in my adductor that reminded me to run my own race.  I pulled it back, settled down and let them burn it off into the distance. I remember saying to myself, “they are going out way too hard, they are going to come back.” I came through the 2 mile around 12:30 (exact same 2 mile time as KC). I took these first two miles conservatively, just focusing on my cadence and form.  Miles 3-4 has a little separate out and back that gave me the opportunity to pick it up a little bit and bridge the gap on the other guys.  I hit the 3-mile turn around in 18:30.  As I started to grit my teeth and buckle down, I saw the group of guys coming back.  I hit the 4-mile in 24:00, I was cruising and felt pretty good.  It was around this point that this race started to HURT.  I saw the guys up ahead and I was putting the pressure on.  I started to really get after it and came through the 5 mile in 30:00 flat. I was not worried about splits at this point, all I was thinking was “kick it in turbo mode and out sprint those guys at the end.” I started to put in a few surges to try and bridge the gap even further but every time I really opened it up, I got a few muscle twinges in my VMO. I just kept to my hard pace and they started to come back.  I got to the final dogleg turn and had caught two of the guys.  I put in a final kick and passed them at the finish, collapsing at the finish line.  Final run time was 36:25, 5:52 min/mi pace. A new 10k PR.
This final sprint HURT!!!!!!
I looked at my time, 2:00:45.  Wow, a 3:58 Olympic distance personal record, a 10th elite male finish and a 12th overall finish. I had finally put the pieces of an entire race together and had my fourth consecutive personal best time.  This was the best birthday present I could have ever asked for!

After letting my body recover for about an hour after the race, cooling down in the nasty-ass lake and drinking about 4 bottles of water, I finally got the energy back to put in a painfully slow 20:00 cool down jog around the beautiful river trail of Hammond, Indiana (closest I have ever personally been to getting shot, maybe short shorts where not the best option?). I stretched out and got in the car with the fam and we went to get my new post-race craving food, Einstein bagels. We got back home and Mom gave me pretty much free range to do whatever I wanted on my birthday.  Hmmmm, well I did need to do a 1hr recovery ride later in the day and Dad had not worked out yet, so we headed out to Buffalo creek to ride together, something we had not done in a very long time. It was perfect weather and I was doing exactly what I would have ever wanted on my birthday. After Dad ran a little bit (heck to the yeah after battling back from a bad calf injury), we picked Mom up and went to Whole Foods to get some goodies to make for dinner. I finally decided on this, yup it was freaking amazing.

Bow tie pasta, sauteed vegetables, steamed brussel sprouts, marinara sauce, grilled talapia and mango salsa with a mixed green salad, cornbread and a real cola. Birthday meal = success. 
After an episode of Game of Thrones and an episode of 24/7 Pacquiao v. Bradley, I treated myself to a birthday brownie/granola/frozen yogurt beast creation that was well deserved.

Overall it was a great day, I had a lot of fun and did what I love to do.  I actually feel pretty good today (taking into account the usual post-race soreness). Hard training is on tap for this upcoming week to put in another surge for the rest of the season. A big thanks to Precision Multisport and CycleOps Power.  Please consider donating to the Eleonore Rocks Foundation at www.eleonorerocks.org. Next up is Lifetime Philadelphia on June 24th!

Official Results:

Clock Time
02:00:45
Overall Place
12 / 563
Gender Place
12 / 394
Division Place
10 / 40
Swim
00:19:17
Trans1
00:01:24
Bike
01:02:56
Trans2
00:00:42
Run
00:36:25
Swimrank
17
Bikerank
23
Mph
23.6
Runrank
13
Pace
00:05:52

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