This weekend I
took my talents to the iconic 70.3 Eagleman triathlon in beautiful Cambridge,
Maryland. After successfully rolling through a 5th place finish at
the Memphis in May triathlon a few weeks ago, I gave this race a full taper to
have the best showing possible against one of the most competitive fields
assembled at any professional race this entire year. Although I knew it was
going to be a serious challenge going head to head with a 2x Olympic medalist,
the Ironman and 70.3 bike split record holder, an ITU long distance silver
medalist and an ITU duathlon world champion, I had trained outrageously hard
since my pro-debut at 70.3 Florida and I was more than ready to have another
crack at the distance I feel suits me best.
After Dad missed out on Memphis, the two of us were keen on a nice boys weekend for some hard
racing and good times. Friday morning we flew into Baltimore on the first
flight out, drove the 90 minutes to our cottage outside of Cambridge and met up
with my grandparents who drove in from New Jersey to watch me race on Sunday. I
quickly built up my trusty P5 steed, prepared some of my quinoas and vegetables
for the next few days and spent the rest of the afternoon kickin’ it with the
fam.
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| I have an obsession with lemon squeezers. When I found one at the house, I nearly cried tears of joy |
Saturday morning
I made my way over to the race site for some course recon and a few short
workouts. I was feeling pretty good swimming in the warm Choptank river,
rolling on the country roads around Cambridge and cruising along the water in
the hot and humid conditions. I quickly realized that this course was going to
certainly be flat and certainly be fast meaning it was going to be pedal to the
medal from gun to tape.
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| Awesome venue for a race |
After a bit of
lunch, I headed over to the pro meeting to check in and scope out the
competition. I felt surprisingly at home sitting next to world champion
athletes, many of which are 10-15 years older than myself. We hopped in the car
after the meeting and started to drive home when I noticed a familiar face
walking in the hot afternoon sun on the road back to the transition area. Turns
out it was Bevan Docherty, the 2x Olympic medalist mentioned above, and we
offered him a ride back to his homestay. Not only is this dude a vicious
competitor but he is also one of the most down to earth guys you will ever
meet.
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| See you on the course mate |
The remainder of
Saturday evening was super chill and in preparation for a 3:30am wake up on
Sunday morning, I went to bed at 7:30pm (yes, there was full daylight).
That Sunday
morning alarm certainly came quickly and after a solid breakfast, we were off
to the race site. I spun around on the bike for a bit just to make sure
everything was working properly, set up my transition area and then headed out
for a warm up jog. I honestly wasn’t feeling all that snappy on the run but
after throwing on my swim skin for the non-wetsuit swim and a few strokes in
the water, I lined up ready to do what I do.
The gun went off
and the swim start was pleasantly punch-less; a considerably more enjoyable
experience than the usual kick in the family joules-steal your lunch money-blood
bath that accompanies the start of most triathlons. The superswimmers took off
quickly and I didn’t really worry about sticking with them although I sprinted
as hard as I could to create some separation between myself and the remainder
of the field. I ended up going at it alone for the majority of the swim, about
150m behind that front pack most of the way, but I did realize that the 4x
Wildflower champion, Jesse Thomas, was sitting on my feet which was cool
because he’s been an athlete I’ve looked up to and followed for a few years
now. I pushed it hard and was feeling good, exiting the water in 12th
position overall.
After a quick
first transition, I was out on the bike right behind Jesse. I have read this
guys race reports so I knew his style- come out of the water a few minutes
behind the leaders, hammer his way to the front on the bike and be in
contention for the win on the back half of the ride/ the entire run. Having
seen some really strong bike sessions in training, I knew I was prepared to put
in a hard effort, so when he hit the gas right from the start, I made the
decision to try and stay with him. After riding the first 10 miles or so at my
Olympic distance effort, Jesse slowly gained on me until I could not see him in
the distance anymore and at that point I switched my attention over to plan B-
focusing on myself. I was able to dial in the pace to a more realistic value
but never felt exceptional at any point throughout the ride. Although the
course is flat, it is deceivingly difficult and riding 56 miles in the aero
position with the hammer down the entire way is certainly not an easy
task. I came into the second transition feeling slightly more gassed than I had
originally intended from the hard riding early on but was confident in my run
off a challenging ride.
Now I’m going to
be completely honest here: I have been running exceptionally well in training.
If you follow me on Strava, you know what I’m talking about. Long, hard, fast-
that has been the name of the game the last few weeks. After months and years
of hard work, I am starting to finally feel like the run course is my domain
and I was stoked to let ‘er rip to see what kind of split I could throw down.
With that being said, I got off the bike, transitioned quickly and hit the run
course to…. not feel good as I was expecting.
It wasn’t really that I felt all that bad, but I
just could not get into any sort of rhythm and every time I tried to put in a
little dig to pick up the pace, my body was felt unresponsive. Maybe it was
gunning it too hard on the bike, maybe it was the heat and humidity that
continued to rise but no matter the reason, I relied on my grit to get me
through this one and I was not going to let not feeling sub-par ruin my chances
at a strong finish. I held the pace steady and incredibly consistent- clicking off the miles one by one. This strategy paid off as I was able to move into 10th
place late in the run and solidify a new 70.3 personal best time of 4:01:40
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| That finish line couldn't come soon enough! |
Some days you
feel light as a feather and some days you feel like a 10-ton brick. Today was
certainly the latter. The day’s when there isn’t that extra pep in the step are
the hardest but they are also the ones that shape what type of athlete you are.
I had to push extremely hard on this on, maybe harder than ever before, and although it left me in the
med-tent afterwards, it describes the type of athlete and person that I am more
than any combination of words on a screen or letters on a page.
It took me about
an hour to fully come around but I eventually began to form coherent sentences
again which was a good sign. We walked around for a bit and then headed back to
the cottage to pack up our things and head out to the airport for a flight that
was delayed by 2 hours! (not a good time).
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| Who say's they don't pay ten deep? I found this lying on the ground during my run warm up. I say it goes in the prize winnings column. |
First and
foremost I want to thank the magic man, Dad, who is a straight up boss. No
other way to put it. Sunday was his 50th birthday and I was stoked
to give him a sweaty hug and a top-10 finish as a gift.
I also want to
thank Gram and Pop who made the haul from NJ to watch me compete. I know
you all think you’re my #1 fans… but these two are SERIOUSLY my number one
fans. Thanks for being there, thanks for being amazing, thanks for the love,
the pride and the happiness!
Special shout
out to Tony at the Wellness Revolution for hooking me up with the best
treatment known to man and ensuring that my body is ready to perform on a daily
basis. Also, a huge thanks to Sammy of Sammy’s Bikes in St. Charles who guarantees I have the fastest whip and wheels on the road.
Strong races like this couldn’t be possible without the unwavering support of
my remaining kick-ass sponsorship team; EGO, Xterra and Precision Multisport-
thanks guys, you rock.
After recovering
from this one, I am back into full on training mode for the next two races of
the year- 70.3 Racine and 70.3 Steelhead. Racine will be somewhat of a full-circle
return for me as it was one of the first triathlons I ever completed
back in 2009 (finishing 824th overall in a blazing fast time of 5:38:51). I’m going to go out on a limb and bet this year is going to be slightly faster.
Thanks for
tuning in,
Justin
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| Peace out |
