This Is Going to Hurt

The obvious buzz leading up to the race was how hot it was going to be. Temps could be near 90 on the run with the heat index near 105. I will admit I didn't pay that much attention to this as there is not much I can do about it and everyone has to deal with it. This both helped me and hurt me in the end.

My dad decided to make the trip up for this race and next weeks Twin Cities Tri. Because of this we decided to get a hotel room in Annandale to make the trip short in the morning. We enjoyed the drive up listening to the Twins and discussing politics and the world debt crisis. I somehow managed to fit in some tri talk as well. As we pulled into the hotel I noticed a familiar face in the parking lot. It was Rhett Bonner. I then noticed another familiar face with him by the name of Brian Bich. Rhett and I share a special bond after our little dual in the sun at Square Lake a few years ago. Brian and I have only been able to chat once last year after Waconia. You will be hard pressed to meet two nicer guys. It was awesome to be able to introduce them to my dad and shoot the breeze for a while. We then got settled in and I managed to get a good nights sleep minus a passing train a few times.

As soon as I stepped outside I know it was going to be interesting. It was 80 degrees and the dew point was through the roof. As I started setting up I started noticing the usual suspects as they came in. I went for a quick bike and run to warm up and found myself drenched in sweat. Never the less I had a hydration plan and figured I would be set for the race. I went with my Aero Bottle with Heed in it and a regular water bottle on the frame. I hoped this would be enough.

The water was a different story. Because of all the recent rain the water temp couldn't have been over 78 degrees. This felt even cooler due to the air temp and I found myself using this as a way to cool down prior to the race.

I lined up around Kevin O'Conner, Brian Bich, Rhett Bonner and fe other fast swimmers. Because it was crowded I figured I would just stick to their feet as long as I could instead of going to the middle to fight it out with the dash and crashers. The strategy worked pretty well as I hung on longer than I thought I would. In fact the only reason I fell off was because they went a little to the left to get around everyone else. I found myself in no mans land and had to fight to get back near the regular pack to draft. I then made a steady increase in intensity and new I was in good position around the second corner. Somehow I knew Patrick Parish was on my feet and I even managed to drop him by a few seconds towards the end. Patrick then blew by me on our way to the bikes.

T1 did not go as well as I would hope but wasn't a disaster either. I put my shoes on in transition so I could get right to pedaling and started to hit it. I again changed my seat position slightly this week and immediately felt the power. The heat was bearable on the bike but it was still uncomfortable. I started picking people off and found myself gaining on Patrick fairly quickly. When I got to him I was moving pretty good. I made the pass and gave him a the usual nice work. Patrick gave me a look like. What are you doing here? I haven't been biking at his level yet this year. He managed to pass me back after a minute or so but I quickly returned the favor and left him behind.

I then noticed a pack of three riders up ahead. They almost looked like a draft pack but as I got closer realized they were legal distance from each other but it looked like no one wanted to push the pace. As I started passing them I noticed it was Kevin O'Conner, Brian Bich and Rhett Bonner. I was hoping they wouldn't be able to match my pace so I could gain some ground on them. Unfortunately I looked back a few miles down the road and saw that I was leading the pack and they weren't going to let me go. with a couple of miles left Rhett made a pass followed by Kevin and Brian and I was content to follow them into T2. I knew I had put up a monster bike split since I knew i put 30 seconds or more on Patrick. When I went to rack my bike I realized I was at the wrong rack. I found my rack only to have trouble racking my bike. On top of that I had to put some body gluide on my heals to keep from blistering. It was not a pretty T2. As I left I realized I didn't know where the exit was. When I turned around Patrick had already gained back what I he had lost to me and was running out of T2. What sucked was the exit was where the bike entrance was. This meant I lost time due to my transition being positioned farther inside the area than most of the other top guys. That's a dig on me as I need to know that prior to the race.

The run started good. I felt good and my legs were working pretty well. It didn't even look like the four guys in front of me were gaining much. Then I made a nutritional mistake. My stomach was a little sloshy so I opted against any fluids. As I got to mile two I knew this was going to hurt. I knew Josh Blankenheim, Brooks Gossinger and possibly Chad Millner were going to be coming from behind. I was running scared at that point which can be very dangerous. I just had to keep going though and hope I could hold them off. I started noticing Josh at about 2 miles in although I had almost a half mile on him. I knew that this may not be enough though.

The run just kept getting hotter and harder. Small hills were starting to feel like mountains and I knew my heart rate was maxed out. With about a mile and a half left I saw Josh was definitely closing in on me. I decided to keep pushing and hope I could just out will him. At about a half mile I looked back and only had about 5-10 seconds on him and knew the pass was inevitable. I made another decision that when he passed I would not try to keep up with him unless he didn't decided to match my pace. Unfortunately he had just a touch more in the tank and made the pass with a little less than a half mile left.

At this point it was more about survival than anything else. I was expecting Brooks to catch me more than Josh but I expected both of them to catch me. In fact I was stoked I held Josh off as long as I did. I looked behind but no one was in sight. My legs felt like bricks as I crossed the line in sixth place and I could hardly stand. I grabbed a bottle of water and headed to the beach. The water was possibly the greatest refreshing feeling I have ever felt. I noticed that Kevin and Dan Hedgecock also had the same idea and we talked about how brutal the heat was.

In the end I am extremely happy with how I did. With as much trouble as I was in on the run I outran several guys that typically dust me to include both Brooks and Chad. I talked with Brooks about it after the race and he said he was completely toasted off the bike. All he could do was worry about finishing and was not worrying about passing anyone or being passed. Tony Schiller even had troubles with the heat and he is as seasoned as anyone you will ever meet.

Thanks to my mom and dad for braving the heat to watch me race. Minus the heat it was a ton of fun and I loved the race and enjoyed talking with tons of people I don't get to see very often. Next up is the Twin Cities Tri. I pray the heat wave is over by then.