How this all started part I

When I started this blog, I stated that I got into running for all the wrong reasons. Here's the story on that. I'll follow up on this with where this has taken me over the past 12 years.

I was always a racquetball player. My Dad got me into it at a young age and I just loved the competition. After moving from California to Colorado in 1995, I took up the sport again after a bit of a hiatus. I was on the court 5 days a week, 2-3 hours at a time. In 1997, my company had a group of people doing the Race For The Cure. I entered with the group with no expectations as I was not a runner. Race day came, it kicked my butt and I finished in 22:20. I was really pleased with this since my sole source of fitness was racquetball, not endurance running. Shortly after finishing the race, a guy from work who I barely knew was bragging about his time. He asked what my time was and after finding out he had ran faster than me said "what a loser" in front of a group of my co-workers. Having grown up with a parent who made a point of telling me all the things I wasn't good at, this hit me where it hurt. I started running at that point with the sole purpose of kicking this guys butt the next time around. Well, the next time around didn't come until the following years Race For The Cure. During this time, I got hooked on racing. I completed my first marathon and did a lot of trail races. When the time came for the 1998 Race For The Cure, I was ready to lay it all out there. I ended up beating this guy by a lot. I finished 4 minutes faster than the year before. When he came across the finish line, I was laying on a massage table near the finish and made a point to tell him good job. I took a lot of pride in that at the time. Now I just feel foolish. I have too much respect for every person who laces them up to race for whatever their personal goals might be. As I said, I got into this sport for all the wrong reasons. It did, however, open my eyes to a different lifestyle that gives my life balance. It's allowed me to do things I never thought I could do. I'll get into that in a later post.

5430 Long Course Triathlon Race Report

On August 9th, I raced my first "official" triathlon of the season. I did an off road triathlon in July but didn't take it too seriously and just tried not to get hurt. This was a race I was taking seriously and was using to gauge my fitness level. I did a mini taper for it only backing off my normal training regimen 6 days out. The distances are the traditional half ironman distances of 1.2 miles swimming, 56 miles biking and 13.1 miles running.

The Swim

I was really excited about this part. I'm not a good swimmer but I have been consistent in the pool of late so was hoping for a result that was better than my usual one. I felt like I was moving well through the water although I never really found a drafting partner so I raced all by myself the entire 1.2 miles. I hit the beach in 32:40 so I was fine with that. Not great but good for me. The actual swim time includes the run up the hill from the beach so my official time was 32:21.

T1

The best laid plans...all to be foiled by my wetsuit. I had everything lined up ready to go. I had mentally gone through the exact order of what was going where for the trek out on the bike to hopefully gain some precious seconds on my competitors. That all came to a halt when I couldn't get my left wetsuit leg pulled over my timing chip band. This cost me valuable time and sent me to a sub par 1:47 transition.

The Bike

Despite the sub par transition, I was very relaxed going into the bike. I know the bike is where I am most comfortable and where I pass the most people. This started immediately. On the one plus mile section leaving Boulder Reservoir to the main bike course, I was passing packs of riders. My only concern was to not get taken out by another rider that was coming outside their line to pass someone in front of them. The packs were big enough that I made the decision to just go hard and pass them all rather than settle in behind the next pack. This worked well and I must have overtaken 30+ people in this section. More importantly, I passed what would be the biggest group of people I would see all day with no crashing. Once on the main bike course, it was smooth sailing. My friend and training partner, Kevin Dessart, had given me some basic but great advice. The night before the race, he said "don't think, just go fast". That rang through my head early and that's exactly what I did. I continued to pass people. I had cleared my head of most thoughts and was just going hard. I knew I was passing a lot of men in my age group early which would bode well for my overall place. I came through the first loop in 1:09:30. It was just feeling really easy. I wanted to negative split it but at this point I was in no mans land so I was getting a bit complacent. Around mile 32, some 19 year old kid passed me like I was standing still. I was excited about that as now I had someone to chase. That didn't last long as I couldn't go that fast without going completely into the red zone. Having him pass me like that jump started me and I was riding harder now than I had at any part of the ride. I was really going well but still wasn't sure where I stood in my age group. About mile 48, I came up on someone I figured to be one of my main competitors and made a hard pass. I really gunned it for the next 8 miles to the finish so I could gain some valuable time on him. I know we are comparable runners so I wanted to make sure that he would have to run well out of his comfort zone to catch me. I finished the second loop on 1:08:08 for a total bike time of 2:17:38.

*Follow up note on that 19 year old kid. I ended up passing him back about 20 miles later. It turns out, he is Ironman legend, Dave Scott's son, Drew. He had a 2:14 bike split. Crazy fast.

T2

I came into transition feeling really good. I hadn't gone at what I felt was a real hard pace and I was really looking forward to the run. When I got in, I noticed that I had the only bike in the racks for my wave. I was thinking that I was in first in my age group unless someone had mis- racked their bike. I had a smooth transition and got out in 1:00.

Run

I started out at what felt like an easy pace with a goal of trying to build into the run. My first 3 miles average 6:55 pace. Near mile 3, there is an out and back section that runs approximately 4/10ths of a mile. It's the only place on the course you can see the competition behind you. Well, that guy I passed at mile 48 of the bike was over 3 minutes behind me at this point so I was feeling pretty good about that development. He was the only person from my age group that I even saw. I was feeling confident in holding my place as I felt like I was just starting to run well. My nutrition on the bike had gone well (Accelerade, gels, water and SaltStick capsules) and was allowing me to play with my pace. I was just having fun while going pretty fast, for me. Around the 9 mile mark, I came up on that same out and back. This time, I saw another competitor from my age group who was only 1:15 behind. He is a better runner than me so it shocked me into a different mode. Where I had been just ticking off miles in the 6:55 to 7:00 minute range, I was now sure I had to step up my game or lose my placing. I ran the quick math in my head and figured he had to run 15 seconds or so per mile faster than me to catch up. I was determined to not let that happen. I went through mile 10 in 6:45, 11 in 6:43, and 12 in 6:49. At the start of mile 13, I just went and went hard. I treated it like the track and went a half mile at the fastest pace I could go at the time knowing that if he was close behind me, I was going to put some distance on him and hopefully break his will. I settled into my regular pace that last half mile and finished that 13th mile in 6:16, my fastest of the day. My final run time was 1:29:59. My total time was 4:23:43 which was good for 1st in my age group. I only won by 1:00. The last 4 miles was the most fun I had all day because it was the first time I felt I was racing someone. I was in no mans land all day and it felt good to be challenged. He had a much better run time than me. Thanks goodness that a bike ride is involved.

My friend Kevin had told me some time ago, "don't stop on the run for anything. If you have to, pee while you're running but don't give away any time ". I came into the run having to pee REALLY bad. I thought about his words at that moment. While I didn't pee on myself, I ended up being so focused that I forgot. Good thing too because had I stopped, I would have lost my place in my age group.

I feel very fortunate to have won my age group at this great race. Looking back on the race, I didn't have any part of it where I felt great. At the same time, I never felt bad and lost time to that. I just felt consistently good for all 3 disciplines and that won out over one discipline of great. I can't wait until my next race!!!

Mt. Evans

Mike, Jim, Kevin, Me and Todd at the top

Last week, a group of five of us went to ride up Mt. Evans. Mike Hagen, Jim Webber, Kevin Dessart, Todd Murray and Ic all drove up together from the Springs for the ride. Mt. Evans is the highest paved road in North America. I was a little unsure about it because I only own a triathlon bike rather than a traditional road bike that is much better suited for climbing. My goal was to not get dropped. We started in Evergreen. This put us 18 miles away from the base of the climb up the mountain. The trek from Evergreen to Mt. Evans climbs the entire way. There were some occasional pulls by the group that spiked the old heart rate throughout that section but it was something we could all deal with. Most importantly, I was never close to getting dropped. We arrived at the base of the mountain which is 14.5 miles from the top. At this point, each mile seemed like it was taking forever. It was just a relentless climb that never ended. One of the guys got a flat on the way up so we stopped. At that time, I realized I had lost a front brake pad. Uh oh.....this was not going to be good on the way down! We kept plugging away and I was just waiting for treeline at about 12000 feet. The reason is I've always had trouble at high altitude so I expected a dropoff in performance. This time, I actually felt great so gave some good pulls and went off. I never got dropped and had a huge snap is my pedaling up high so it was a great ride. We hung out at the top a while but it was starting to get cold and extremely windy. We took a few pictures of the mountain goats and headed down.

I had moved one of my rear brakes to the front to help out. I was VERY cautious coming down with only one brake. I just let everyone take off. At the bottom, the guys were waiting for me. From that point on, we were all just bombing the downhill section into Evergreen. This was the most fun I've ever had on a bike ride and can't wait to do it again. This time with ALL my brake pads so I can bomb the top section on the way down.