I know some of you may be tempted to scroll through this post, checking out the sweet pic's like a magazine at the dentists office, but it's my dang b-day so read them articles playboy!
Yesterday was my second trip back to good ole' Hammond, Indiana (very close to the ever famous Gary, Indiana- aka the murder capitol of the world). Below is the recap of how I managed to avoid the smog, swim around the dead guy in Wolf lake and explain tea bagging to my 70 year old grandmother. Enjoy!
One of the perks of living in the Chicago suburbs is its close location to the city and therefore, Northwest Indiana. Only a 40 minute drive up 294 and a 4 dollar toll each way got me into the Hoosier state where it's illegal to sell cars on Sunday and catch a fish with your bare hands.
After a quality slumber on Friday night, I woke up Saturday morning, scarfed down a few rice cakes and hit the road with Dad for a morning spin and run. I felt really strong on both and this got me even more excited for the race on Sunday.
Try to keep up son!
Soon after, I hopped in the car and headed to the race site for packet pickup and a swim on the course. On an unrelated note, check out this guy doing this cool thing at the lake.
Also, I got interviewed for the TV coverage that airs on CSN July 4th!
Well, that was pretty pro
Now, enough with those pre-race shenanigans. Time to get down to business. Leon's Triathlon is known to be super flat and super fast. If you're interested in a PR, come to this race. One may expect that I would be past this point in my career but coming into the race, I had yet to break 2 hours for a true Olympic distance event. Early season snafus with course measurement and adverse weather conditions deterred my ability to break this benchmark and I was down right ticked! Barring any catastrophes, I knew the sub-2 hour performance would be there but it was only a matter of how much...
Racing in the elite wave (what they like to call at Leon's the "Amateur All Star wave") meant a start time of 8:05am, a little later than normal for other triathlon races. I woke up around 4:15am, had some breakfast and then hit the road around 5:00am, making it to Hammond around 5:45. I quickly organized my things and got right on the bike for a nice, long 30:00 minute warm up/ course preview. Although it was a little windy, the weather was looking pretty perfect for a fast day.
Spectacular venue. Most of the fencing was actually barbed wire *sarcasm
I made my way over to the transition area, racked my bike and then stood in line for one of the four porto's they had on site...
HOLD IT TOGETHER JUSTIN
Around 7:00, I went out for my run warm up and felt really, really good. I was getting excited but calmed tried to calm myself down as much as possible, trying to avoid a premature explosion nervous excitement before this s**t got real.
I made my way back to the transition area, made sure everything was tidy and then started putting on my wetsuit. In the span about 15 minutes, I began putting on my wetsuit in 60 degrees and sunny and by the time I was zipped up and ready to go, it was 50 degrees, crazy wind and sideways rain.
After standing around for about 5 minutes, I starting to shiver and watched my perfect pre race warm up fly out the window. I considered jumping in the lake for a swim warm up but it was so damn cold that I figured getting back out and being even more cold would do more damage than good. After a short delay, we walked down the dock and jumped into the refreshing bath-like 65 degree water. I swam around for a few minutes and then took my position, waiting for the gun to go off.
Yeah it was cold, again. Wetsuit and RAM cap for warmth all day
To my overwhelming delight and surprise, the swim start was relatively calm. I didn't get smacked in the face or kicked in the nether regions. Although I felt pretty crappy for the first 500m simply due to no swim warm up, I was able to settle into a groove on the second 500m, pass a bunch of people and then hammer home the final 500m, feeling outrageously strong and smooth. I came out of the water on a really quick swimmers toes and was confident in my position. I was elated to find out after the race that my swim split was 18:26- a new PR for 1500m!
Gosh that water tasted odd (they found a dead guy in this lake last year, no joke)
Solid crowd cheerin at the swim exit
After a perfect first transition, I was onto the bike where the cold, wind and rain were all huge factors. Honestly, I really had a tough time settling into a rhythm. There were a lot of bumps, lots of turns and lots of headwind with nothing to block it. I was passed by a few guys and tried to stay with them but quickly realized my counter punch was absent. Whenever this happens, I try to block out my competitors and singularly focus more on my own effort- going as hard as I possibly could within my limits. Once my legs warmed up a little bit, I felt descent and was able to find my threshold effort and hold it for the remainder of the ride. Surprisingly, I still managed a 1:00:26 bike split which is awesome considering how flat I felt early on.
Pretty sweet highway they shut down for most of the bike course
Despite some frozen fingers and toes, I had a smooth second transition and was out on the run with no problems at all. Once onto the flat out and back, I immediately settled into a rhythm. At this point in the race, the cooler temperatures and spitting rain worked in my favor and I was absolutely flying. I felt exceptional. My cadence was up, my form was on and I don't know what it was, but I could just tell that a run PR was in the midsts.... I pushed hard, all the way to the finish and crossed the line with a 34:49 run split and a 1:55:40 overall time.
Grittin' the teeth. Super hardcore.
Speaking of Steve.... Not to mention being a trooper and coming out to watch the race in the pouring rain for the second event in a row, he also decided to rock this Ed Hardy t-shit from '04.
BOLD move.
I ended up coming in 4th place in the elite division and 8th overall including the Best of the US series competitors. I joked after the race with a few friends that Leon's was like the midwest national championship this year; the field was stacked! Congrats to new friends Adam Zucco for kicking ass on the bike and Jason West for taking names on the run. Not to mention Colin Riley for taking the overall W.
After the race, I jogged around for a little bit, met up with a few friends and then hauled ass out of there. Not only was it cold, but my sister's graduation from high school that afternoon and Mom was going to punch Dad and I in the jejunum if we didn't make it on time. In true Metzler fashion, it all worked out and we were sitting there cheering Jillian and 650 of her classmates on as they painfully walked across the stage for 3 hours. Congrats Jillian, you've made it.
It was also great to have Poppop in for the race, he's my #1 fan (literally #1), if you think you are a bigger fan, take it up with him and he will tell you all about his days as a boxer. The dude is 78 years old but don't mess around.
I want to give a special thanks to Rick and Essie Streicher for their love and overwhelming support of my dreams. You guys are the absolute best and am happy we established such a comfortable relationship over the past few months.
I also want to give a shout out to my entire Precision Multisport team who took 4th in the team competition at Leon's (especially Mark Kolar for being in charge of team spirit and organization). You guys rock!
Feels great to be part of such an amazing group of people
That's all for today. I'm off to enjoy a much needed birthday massage. Up next is some serious training and then Bigfoot Triathlon on the 23rd of June.
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