While I loved, loved, loved CDA, it was also nice to be able to drive to Cedar Point for this year's race. I had gotten to ride a loop of the bike course a few weeks ago, and I know that everything around there is pretty flat, so I felt a little more confident going in. For those who haven't been to Columbus, it's a little easier to emulate northwest Ohio than it is to emulate northern Idaho. :)
We drove up to Cedar Point on Friday, and were able to get in one more drivethrough of the bike course before getting Meredith to her volunteer duties. I had hoped that a couple of the chip sealed roads would be a little more flat by race day, but there were still some pretty rough stretches. There are only a couple hills of any note at all on the course, so I made a mental note where they were located as well. Friday evening brought one of the best perks of this race - Cedar Point opened some of their bigger rides for the athletes and volunteers from 6-9 PM, and it was fantastic! There were really no lines at all, even for the most popular rides. After a quick trip up Top Thrill Dragster, I ran into Carole and the Team Trakkers group, and they let me tag along for a bunch of rides, which was a blast! They really have a good group of people, and a cool product to boot! Eventually (no thanks to our phone service), Meredith managed to find us after she finished volunteering, and we got to hang out until the park closed. Very hungry, we followed a local recommendation to Chet and Matt's Pizza. Highly recommend it!
On Saturday morning, we got up to walk down the beach and go for a practice swim. Now, maybe for you ocean swimmers, it might have been a reasonable day, but for those of us used to swimming in small bodies of water? It was like nothing we'd ever seen. What were those white parts at the top of the waves?! The swim course is fairly shallow, and people were just standing out in the water. Sure, the occasional person tried a few strokes, but mostly just horrified looks all around. Meredith and I did give it a shot for a bit, but it wasn't much of a swim. My fingers were firmly crossed that the weather would change by the next morning. The plan was to get our bikes and bags turned in, then plant ourselves on the couch for an afternoon of OSU-Miami football. At halftime, we went back to Chet and Matt's for some pasta (stick with the pizza, it was pretty bland), and to watch the rest of our Buckeyes finishing off the Hurricanes. There was time for a Gatorade mixing party back at the hotel room, and then it was bedtime.
Sunday morning dawned plenty early, and I concentrated on getting everything put together that still needed to be put on my bike or in my bags. Strangely, I couldn't find the two Luna bars I'd packed, so I figured I must have already stuck them in my bike bag. Got to transition, and nope, they were nowhere to be found. Well, you have to be flexible to do one of these races, right? (Not literally. Thank goodness!) I quickly revised my fueling plan - I had enough EFS shots to make it 7 hours on the bike; I just wouldn't have any leeway if I went longer. And so I mentally prepared myself to grab other nutrition if needed. The rest of setup was pretty easy - I liked the layout of transition, everything was very straightforward and accessible. And so it was time to walk to the swim start and get ready to race! Good news - the water was flat today!
I said goodbye to the family, watched the pros go out, and then got into the mass of people at the starting line. One of my favorite parts of race day is meeting new people, and I chatted with a guy next to me who was doing his first full distance race.
Then, a quick countdown, and we were off! Or...well, we were walking. Slowly. Remember the part about how shallow the beginning of the course is? Lots of people were just walking out as far as they could, and for those of us behind them, there wasn't much we could do but walk as well. Eventually, most people figured out that swimming would be faster, and decided to get the day underway. I followed suit, and stuck my face in the cool, but comfortable, water. For a mass start, this race was significantly smaller than some of the IM starts, but I didn't think it lacked anything in brutality. :) This was probably the roughest swim start I've been in - the plan was to start to the outside, but I never quite made it out there. I never took any direct hits, but there was a lot of grabbing, pulling, and being swum over. The good news is that I've become a pretty confident swimmer, and by the first turn buoy, I'd pulled away from most of the nastiness. The rest of loop one went by pretty uneventfully, save the velcro on the neck of my wetsuit folding in and scraping me. All those one-armed drills paid off, as I must have fixed it 50 times during that swim!
The swim at Rev3 is a little different than most - there are two loops, but they are actually two distinct swim areas. So, after the first loop, you run down the beach a bit before you get back in the water. My family had, unbeknownst to me, made signs for me this year out of a goofy picture we had taken in Italy a few years back, and I couldn't help but laugh at how funny they were.
The second swim loop was almost a little lonely! I've felt like I was by myself in swims before, but I knew I was swimming pretty well, and I figured the loneliness was a good sign. There were certainly plenty of people in front of me, but as another swimmer and I realized on the way back in, there were even more behind!
I did my best to catch bubbles when I could, but most of the second loop was all up to the individual swimmer. The water had gotten a little rougher, but was still fairly nice. For a change, I kept my sighting pretty good until the home stretch. For some reason, I couldn't for the life of me see the exit arch, and I was sighting off the wrong end of the crowd. Eventually, I realized my error, and swung back to the left, swimming as far in as I possibly could before standing and making my way up the beach into T1. (I got teased about this later, but hey, if you can swim in 6" of water, why not? :)) I didn't find out my swim time until later in the day, but it was a 7 minute PR, a little better than I had hoped for!
Swim: 1:16:42
Pace: 1:59/100m
Rank After Swim: 15/35 AG, 91/421 Overall
Let's be honest. From last year's blazing fourteen minute effort, there was nowhere to go but up for my T1 skills. :) I grabbed my bag from the rack, found an empty chair, and did a full change into bike jersey and shorts. After getting badly burnt in CDA, I decided a bike jersey was a better idea since it would cover up the areas that don't see as much sun. It turned out to be even a better idea than I thought, because I missed any sunscreen on the way out of transition. I think I surprised Meredith and my family at how quick I got out of there this year. The only thing I forgot was my brain as I pulled my bike from the rack and swung a leg over it in the middle of transition. Whoops. Back off the bike, running for the exit, and ready to take on the longest part of the day!
T1: 6:03
For the bike, I had made the decision to pack all my hydration with me for the day. CeraSport (the course drink) sits fine with me, but I hadn't done the training with it, and it didn't have as many calories as I was used to. I had four bottles of Gatorade Endurance on my bike to start, and another three waiting in special needs. That gave me 7 hours of bike time, after which I'd need to start grabbing CeraSport from the aid stations. I'd get my water from the course as I used up Gatorade.
The first part of the bike course goes down the peninsula of Cedar Point itself, and is a little older road with some seams and potholes. And wouldn't you know it, three miles in...
Kachunk. Whssshhhh...Thunk. I launched one of my Gatorade bottles from my rear cage at the rider behind me, who was thankfully paying attention. I had to make a split second decision whether to go back or not, and I decided to keep going. Make that 6 hours of Gatorade I had available. The good news was that these were 24 oz bottles, and I usually train with 20. I figured I could space them out a little more to extend my bike time before having to mess with my (at this point, heavily amended) plan. I was mostly alone for a little while, but then the masses caught me on the bike, and I don't think there was another point in the day when I couldn't see another athlete.
I can't lie, this bike course was not as "epic" as CDA, but that also meant it was easier to simulate for a flatlander. Other than a couple short, moderately steep, little hills this was a pretty fast, easy course on paper. The steepest of the little hills brought us up into the town of Milan around mile 23, and I was happily surprised to see my parents and brother had come out to see me there. This was early enough that I was still feeling great, but even then it's a nice boost to see people you know. And if I thought I was feeling great then, the next 15 miles had a dead on tailwind. I was cruising! (Well, for me at least) But what goes east must come back west, and turning back took us straight back into the headwind, as well as onto some rough chip seal for a lot of the winding return trip. This was the biggest mental challenge of the day for me - you never knew which turn would have you on good or bad road, into head or cross wind. The HalfRev course rejoined us at our mile 50 and stayed with us for the next seven miles or so. This was the most crowded stretch, and at one point I started wondering if I had missed a turn since I only saw bikers wearing HalfRev bibs. I did finally find another fellow FullRev athlete and confirm that I hadn't missed it. Frankly, the turn to the second loop would be hard to miss - they had signs, volunteers, and the road chalked. :)
I saw my family again at mile 60, and knew that from there on, the support would be pretty limited on the course. The drag strip section of Route 113 was still there with as much tailwind as ever, but the way back was even more of a slog. It felt like the wind was picking up during the day, and I was just about seeing single digit speeds on some of the stretches. Chip seal, false flats, and a headwind can be a deadly combination to your psyche at that point in the race; I just wanted to be done. At mile 93, we passed the loop turnoff again, and at least had the good news that we were headed home. I took stock of my time and my nutrition - I would be fine on EFS, but would run low on Gatorade. For the last stretch, I diluted down the half aero-bottle I had remaining with water, and survived on that rather than introduce something new. In retrospect, I think I had done well enough on nutrition that it didn't really hurt me. The Cedar Point sign never looked so welcome as when I saw it, but the last few miles still draaaaaagged getting back to the park. They finally came to an end though, and I was back past my cheering group and into T2 with a new best bike time (on a MUCH easier course) by 46 minutes.
Bike: 6:48
Pace: 16.44 MPH
Rank After Bike: 23/35 AG, 199/421 Overall
I've had problems with my right little toe going numb on the bike and then hurting like crazy when the blood comes back. That happened during T2, and I was limping over to the bags. I knew it would be okay in a few minutes, so I took my time doing another full change into my "Run Dave Run" shirt and running gear. Once again, I was the only one out there with my name...someday triathletes will figure out what marathoners already know - spectators love to shout your name if they know it. :)
T2: 6:45
More than anything, I was thrilled to be off the bike. My long runs have been...questionable...this summer in the heat and humidity, so I just wanted to go out and do my best. Doing a quick overview of my body, my HR and stomach were going to be the limiting factors for me, so I decided to start walking water stops early to let them settle and get in nutrition each time. I was wearing my Garmin this year, so I had a good idea of my pace, and put in an effort to keep it around 10 minute miles to start. The Garmin was a great move, because my legs kept gravitating toward paces I knew I couldn't hold long term. The nutrition plan for the run was a Gu gel every 30 minutes or so, with water/sports drink as needed at each aid station. To that, I ended up adding ice under the cap for the first loop, since it was still kind of warm for a marathon.
The run at Cedar Point is two loops, with the first loop coming almost all the way back to the finish line before heading out again. The course starts out with a scenic run across the causeway over to the Sandusky waterfront. While it was technically a "city" run for much of the course, I was surprised by how much was along Lake Erie, and presented a really picturesque backdrop. The only hill of any note at all was one little bridge on the causeway itself. For much of the first loop, I held my pace and nutrition spot on. I got lots of "RUN DAVE RUN!" from the spectators and volunteers. One volunteer in particular had (I assume) her young daughter with her, who loved yelling for me. In general, I was pretty impressed with how many people were on the run course; I had assumed it would be pretty deserted. By the time I got back toward the park at the end of the first loop, my stomach was starting to turn on me a bit. I wasn't about to lose my lunch (er...gels), but it was starting to walk that line between unease and upset. As Meredith jogged with me on the way out again, I told her my pace would probably drop in the second loop, as I didn't want to push past that line and ruin the rest of my day.
In this race, as opposed to CDA, I felt like a "mid-pack" racer. There were plenty of people going in to finish while I was heading out on my second loop, but last year I felt like everyone was finishing while I wasn't even to the finish of the first loop. And so, I never had the down feelings I did during the run of that race. For all the issues my stomach was presenting, my legs were still solidly underneath me, and I knew I was going to finish with a pretty decent time. And those gels I had planned on? Those were turning my stomach more than anything right now. I turned to that best of friends to the triathlete, flat coke. That and the occasional CeraSport and salt tab became my nutrition for the last ten miles of the run, and I think it was the right move. I did begin walking some more stretches, but felt like I was being honest with myself. Run until you're nauseous. Walk till it's under control. Repeat. This still kept me going around an 11 minute pace including water stops. And while there weren't the vast hordes of walkers from IM, I still felt like I was gradually moving up in the ranks. Then, at mile 20-something, I started seeing runners with glowsticks. And I realized that I might not finish before dark, but I was going to finish without a mandatory glowstick this year. :)
The last few miles across the causeway were beautiful. The temperature had dropped to something very close to ideal, and the sun was fading into the lake with all shades of oranges and purples, and the park was silhouetted in the midst of it all. To the end, my legs stayed with me, and I was running sub-10s as long as my stomach could take it. I was offered water at mile 26, and kindly let the volunteer know that I could probably make it from here. :) From there, it was into the park, down the chute into the crowds, and to a final chant of "RUN DAVE RUN" from the announcer and spectators, I finished my second iron distance tri.
Run: 4:46:27
Pace: 10:56/mi
Rank After Run: 19/35 AG, 171/421 Overall
Total: 13:04:45
I'm really feeling happy and content with my effort. Do I wish that I could have found 4 minutes out there and come in under 13 hours? Sure. But I sort of feel like I had the race I wanted, and I can be satisfied with it. Will I do another one? Sigh...probably. Somehow I've found that I really like these things. :) But not next year.
Maybe next year?
NO.
Next year, I plan to focus on the shorter distances. Local sprints, some Olympics, maaaaybe a half if I feel like it. But I think if I want to improve my speed, it's time to learn some technique and focus on that for a while rather than enduring another season of IM training.
And now, the most important part. Thanks to both sides of our family for coming out and spending yet another long day cheering. Thanks to my amazing coach, Elizabeth Waterstraat. Thanks to all the friends, local and remote, who I've met through this sport, and who have supported me throughout the year. Thanks to Team Trakkers for adopting me for the weekend, and for being cool people all around. And the biggest thanks as always go to my wife Meredith, who somehow got me into all this, and without whom I couldn't do it at all.
