I went into this race know that Josh Riff would probably be my toughest competition. Josh did not disappoint. I came out of the water next to a friend Micah Turman and ahead of Josh. This maybe the first time I have ever been ahead of my chief competition out of the water. Josh tracked me down about mile 6 on the bike, passed me and then slowed down a little. I then passed him back to see what he would do. Matt Payne told me that I would not be able to ride away from Josh and this scenario quickly became apparent as Josh then passed me back. I then formed a strategy of staying just out of drafting range for the first roughly 22 miles of the bike. Then I planned on putting a little steam into it and then back off a little to see what he would do. If he let me go I could put a little time on him before the run but my legs would surely suffer. If he caught back up I figured I could play a little cat and mouse on the second lap by passing him on the downhills and flats and make him work hard to catch me on the hills. Hopefully I could wear out his legs for the run. Josh is a fast runner and would surely out split me by a large margin if I didn't make him work on the bike. Sure enough josh came charging back and then slowed down again. I let him feel me on his back until about 3o miles in and I started my first charge. I managed to put a pretty good gap on him and saw him working hard to catch back up. When he did I let him go for a few minutes and then passed again with the same result. Each time we would have a short pleasant conversation about the battle that was taking place. As we got deeper into the race I started pushing it more and more. The strategy worked perfect as we came in off the bike together. Now it was time to find out if the strategy actually worked.
Unfortunately Josh's run was not affected by my attempt to tire his legs. I, on the other hand took the first half at a nice easy pace in order to run into my legs. A great lesson learned with my battle with Rhett Boner last year at square lake. Josh had about a 3-4 minute lead on me at the turn. As I made the turn I knew that the only thing I could go for was to beat 4:20 as Jerry at MN Tri News said that Josh would be the only one who could accomplish this. All of a sudden my legs started firing and I felt fantastic.
I picked up the pace and turned it on. Behind me was speedy Todd Landgraff, Todd is a former runner at the U of Minnesota and I knew he would have a ridiculous run split. Luckily I had about 8:30 at the turn on him and I knew as long as I didn't bonk I would have second wrapped up.
As the miles kept ticking off I kept felling better and better and increasing the speed. At the 10 mile mark I needed a sub 19 5k to make the 4:20. A feat I thought impossible for me. Although the legs felt good and there was a large wood chip down hill at the end that would allow me to run finish very fast. As I came up on the finish line I hit 4:20:40 and felt awesome. I may not have beaten 4:20 but I certainly proved that I was capable of it.
After the race I got to chat more with Josh Riff. This was Josh's first win and he was super excited. We chatted about the battle on the bike and how he was afraid I would catch him on the run. Little did he know that I didn't have a prayer but it still made for a very exciting race. I hope to see Josh on the course again as he was an awesome competitor and an ultra nice guy.
About five minutes after me Todd cam in. I have seen his name on many results pages before but never met him. I talked with him for a while about his awesome improvement this year. Todd is going to be racing at WI Ironman and the training is brining him to the next level. Todd's father was also there as well was my mother. The four of us hung out at the awards, shared some stories and had some laughs. Just a few more friends that this sport has helped me make. Congratulations to both Josh and Todd on an awesome race.
As I was on cloud nine all the way home I made calls to the wife and father to tell them about the race. Later that afternoon I checked the results to see I got hi with a 4:00 traffic penalty. My first response was, you have to be kidding me. Apparently I crossed over a double line on the course somewhere. I'll save my thoughts for my next blog as I think this deserves an entire section.
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