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Speeding Ticket! - The Elma Easter Sprint Triathlon Race Report

April 15th, 2007

The scene: 9:24am, Interstate-5, somewhere around Kent, WA. “el ZappoMan” is pulled over by the Washington State Highway Patrol for “speeding”… I guess you could say it was an omen… the question is, will it be a good omen (he must have woken up fast), or a bad one (just the start of things to come).

It was the first race of the year, so I was eager to get there. Although day of race registration, and check in wasn’t until 10:30, and the race wouldn’t begin until 12pm, I had a 90 mile drive ahead of me. So after making breakfast for the family (Chocolate Chip Pancakes, eggs, and sausage…. yum!) I loaded my bike on the top of the car and headed down the road.

I admit, I was feeling a little nervous. I’ve been totally slacking on my swimming lately, and working really hard, and this year’s training has been so much more intense than last year. I have been feeling over trained, but I have put on a lot of muscle mass, and in the last week I’ve put on some extra weight (poor eating habits) and so I’ve been feeling a little doubt about whether or not this seasons training plan was right. (Wouldn’t you like to know now, how it turns out? Hah… you have to read the whole thing… or skip to the bottom.)

After dealing with the police officer, I got back on the road, and set the cruise control to exactly 60mph… the other drivers didn’t like it, but since I saw maybe another twenty state patrol officers, it was clear they were in the middle of some kind of a speeding drag net, and I was caught up in it. Well, no worries, focus on getting into game mode for the race.

Public Radio helped out… as I rolled along the back highways of Washington toward Elma, I tuned into a great radio program about sports and “spirituality”. I had never heard this show before, apparently it’s mostly a I don’t know if it’s a common show or theme of the show, but it was perfect for me at that moment. They had an interview with a former Olympic runner and Commonwealth Games Champion, Bruce Kidd, who talked about the feeling of your body transcending your mental ability to comprehend what was happening. He was really quite eloquent, and as he and the host, Mary Hynes, discussed a famous event in Olympic history when in a Womens Track event, all of the participants broke the world record… of course, only one of them won the race, but they were all so excited and overcome with “good sportsmanship” after the race that they all immediately embraced each other after they crossed the finish line. It was really quite inspiring, and got me right back into the frame of mind of racing!

When I got to the event location, I registered, got my bib number, and started setting up my bike and transition area. It was really an interesting experience to return to the site of my first triathlon. I feel like I’ve learned so much since a year ago. Now, I know exactly what I need to setup, how to set it up, and how to prepare for the race.

I am a very minimalistic racer. I pride myself on having very fast transitions. I don’t want to waste any time with gear I don’t need. A year ago, I was a joke, I had extra clothes to put on, extra fluids, I wondered if I needed a bowl of water to clean the sand off my feet… hah! Not any more… Now, I have the minimum amount of gear. Heres, a shot of my transition area. Note: the wet suit cap, and goggles will be with me in the water, so really, I have socks, and running shoes. That’s IT! Everything else I need is on my bike.

My bike, is setup as follows: Shoes, clipped in rubber-bands holding shoes horizontal; helmet on handlebars; gloves are velcroed to my cables coming out of my shifters (note: I don’t need these for a short race, but for a 112 miles, I want gloves, so I practice with my gloves); couple of gu packets taped to top-tube; sunglasses taped to handlebars (again, I could live without this for a short race, but not for a long race, so I practice with them).

Before the race, I was chatting with a couple other racers, and it became clear to me that I was far more organized that most of the racers… in fact, my preparedness and confidence had branded me “the guy to beat”. I chatted with one lady who was giving pointers to a guy who was competing in his first triathlon. I reminisced about this being my first race last year as well. The lady racer mocked my clipped in shoes saying that it would be fun to watch me do my flying mount. I assured her that I was such a slow swimmer, that I was confident I’d be the only one left in transition as I accomplished this well practiced feat.

The “lake” (eh hem… pond) we were to swim in was calm but cold… I estimated 51F. But with a wet suit, it really isn’t that bad. There were three racers I saw without wet suits. At least this year (as opposed to last year) the weather outside the water was sunny and warm-ish. The swim course, like last year, was the “swim around the rowboat holding the buoy line”… but this year they were smart enough to tie the line to a pole on shore. Here are shots of the “lake” and the “boat”.

So, the race… well, my plan was, I had no plan. When I got in the water, I decided I was not going to have the same swim as last year, I would take it really easy, try to find my stroke, and do everything I could to enjoy the swim. After I got out of the water, I’d decide at that moment how I’d race the rest of the race.

My hopes of a calm swim were dashed pretty quickly… the reality is that 300 yards is simply not enough to thin out the herd, and so it was basically a washing machine. I never found my stroke, but I also didn’t spike my heart rate. I was one of the last people out of the water, and I was fine with that. The event wasn’t chip timed, so I’m not exactly sure how long my swim was, my math after the fact doesn’t really sound plausible… if I take my official time and subtract my known computer time for the bike and run, then I get approximately 4:50 for the swim and T1… so, there is no way this was a 300 yard swim… I just don’t swim that fast, and neither do the people that got out of the water in front of me.

What I do know is that I had a good T1. I got my wet suit unzipped and off one of my shoulders before I got to my bike, and with a couple of quick tugs I had it off my arms and off my legs. My secret for a quick doffing of a wet suit? Olive Oil… and lots of it. I coat myself with Olive Oil before the race. I find this also helps my wetsuit “fit” properly, as it allows my wet suit to slide into place as I put it on. Wet suit off… helmet on, socks on… grab the bike and run.

I was using my Garmin Edge bike computer, AND my Garmin Forerunner running computer in Multisport mode. My Edge has been blanking out on me lately… something is wrong with it, so I didn’t want to count on it as my main computer. I’ve never used my Forerunner in multi-sport mode, but it seemed like a good idea. Basically it will switch sports from biking to running when you hit the lap button. It even supports transitions, so lap 1 was bike, lap 2 was T2, and lap 3 was the run. Press the start button and I’m off!

I quickly passed two racers out of transition. And started looking for other victims to hunt down. Even though I didn’t enjoy the swim, it was over, I was on my bike, and the competitive spirit was swelling inside me. I was in my zone and ready to race. About 1 mile out of transition I caught up to the lady at the start line who mocked my shoes. As I passed her, I was nice… I gave her a “good race! good job!” and rode past. About 10 seconds later she starts to pass me and says “That’s just what I needed for a kick!”…. ok… fine I think, drop out of the draft zone, regroup, and hammer down… as I pass her I say “Ok, you want to race today? Let’s race!”… as I fly past I hear something like “ok, you can have it…”. Hmmm, that was too easy…

I keep pedaling, and I don’t see anyone ahead of me. I’ve averaging about 22-23mph… riding pretty hard. Feeling strong. I check behind me, and lady racer is still in sight, but I’m dropping her. I don’t see anyone behind me. I don’t see anyone in front of me… and I keep pedaling. Right about mile 5 on the way out, I’m thinking… I really wish I had my aerobars… I hadn’t put them on yet, as I’m still in my cycling season. I had debated it last night, but thought… eh, it’s only 13 miles. Now I start to get paranoid… there’s no way I’m in the lead is there? Why don’t I see anyone else? This can’t be.

Right about then, I get passed by some giant on a $7,000 tri-bike galore… this guy is all legs. He was 7′14″ with 8′ legs… seriously… he looked like he weighed 75lbs but had 75kgs of leg muscle. And I’m thinking… jeez man! Where did that freak come from! Now I’m thinking… hey wait a second… that guy must be on a relay team. Why else was he so far behind, and yet he’s so fast as a cyclist. I give myself hope that I may be the first individual competitor, and that he is the only racer ahead of me. As we hit the turnaround, him about 1/10th of a mile ahead of me, my hopes are confirmed. I am indeed in the top two and possibly the number one individual. Now I wonder about who is trailing me.

On my way back on the out and back, I pass lady racer, and quickly closing in on her is a bunch of riders. They look awfully bunched up to me, but I flew past so quickly I couldn’t tell if they were drafting off each other or not. I do keep seeing lady racer’s boyfriend on the side of the road taking pictures. I can’t tell if he’s taking pictures of me, or waiting for his lady friend to pass. But I figure as long as he’s on the side of the road, it means she is behind me, and I gotta keep the hammer down. I try to keep up with Legman… but he keep drifting further and further off into the distance. At this point I get a little worried that I am losing my energy.

Whenever you feel bad on a race… take on calories! So I slam some sports drink and try to push harder. I am approaching the transition point, legman is long since gone from sight, so now I figure it’s all about me… it’s time to dig deep and go as hard as I can.

About 1/4 mile from transition I start to take my feet out of my shoes, by 1/10th mile out, I’m out of my shoes, standing on them like platform pedals, and I’m standing on my legs trying to get them to adjust to being weight baring again. I am playing through T2 in my head… jump off the bike, take off my helmet, slip on my shoes, run…. off the bike, on with the shoes, run… go, go, go!

As I roll into transition I notice legman is standing at his car… YES! He is on a relay team… I’m in the lead. Maybe I can even catch his relay runner. Into transition… hit my lap button, off the bike, on with my shoes, off with the helmet, on with a running hat… run… run… run…

Nine Seconds! That’s right…. Nine second T2. You can’t touch that… I dare you… I kid you not, there was a group of fans there, cheering on other racers, and they were like “Wow, that was one fast transition!”… “Did you see that guy?” … “Go man! Go!”

I was like… That’s right… that was fast… I am running now…. run fast man… Right about then I look at my Garmin and it has some kind of a warning on it… I have no idea what it was saying. Maybe it was saying something about breaking the speed limit… I freaked out and pressed the lap button thinking that maybe I hadn’t started the run lap and it was complaining because it thought I was moving too fast in transition. Next thing I know, it’s beeping and say “Congratulations! Your Multisport Event is over!” What?! Darnit… I hit stop/start a couple more times, and it looks like the timer is running again, and it says “RUN” so… I figure I must have it working close enough… and I just keep running.

Normally, I’m a slave to my computer. I have no idea how fast I am running if I don’t have it telling me that I’m running a certain speed. But I decided that I would just run my guts out, and use the fear that the competitors were breathing down my neck as my pace indicator/incentive. Lady racer’s boyfriend helped out in that regard because if I saw him pull over to take a picture, I told myself she was right behind me!

As I approached the turnaround point in the run, I could see the relay runner in front of me. Apparently Mr. Legman is teamed up with one of the shortest women on the course today. I later found out that she is his wife… but at this point I’m just thinking… I can catch her! So I pour on the juice and head into the turnaround. About 100 yards from the turnaround I catch her… about a tenth of a mile after that I start to see the other racers on the way out… so I’ve got about a quarter of a mile on the main pack. I also notice that Lady racer has been overtaken by the pack of racers and she has dropped to about 5th place. Still I pour it on.

At this point I have to dig deep, because I am starting to feel a little pain in my legs and my brain is screaming… What are you doing? I end up replaying the Bruce Kidd interview in my head. He was talking about the feeling of your brain being on a runaway stage coach which is your body, how your body can do more if you let your brain lose control of it. So I rip the reigns away from my brain and I let the stagecoach run wild.

As I pass other racers I give every single one of them a “You’re doing great! Keep Going!” I even hand out a couple of high fives. As I come across the finish line, the clock reads 1:01:57… I am the winner… no one else in front of me. Wow!

As for Lady racer, I chatted with her a little after the race. She looked pissed as she came in to the finish line and I was worried that maybe I got into her head. I would have felt bad… I know she was in my head. But it turns out she was mad at the women who came in first ahead of her. Apparently, she felt that the group of riders who closed in on her at the turnaround and eventually passed her were running a pace line. Not just casual drafting, but a fully organized paceline. I couldn’t tell from my vantage point. But seeing how the women who won was wearing full sponsor gear, she may be one of the Pacific Norwest Women Triathletes on this roster. I’m not saying that they were cheating… but Lady racer certainly was bummed.

For me, I was happy… this is my first all out overall win.

When I compare my results to last year, I had set a new course PR bettering last year by 7:33. If the same competitors had competed as did last year, and they had turned in similar performances, I would have come in 4th place overall, improving one position in the overall standings. I don’t have my splits from last year, but my recollection is that I was a little slower on the bike, I think my average was 20mph, and I was about the same on the run, maybe a little slower. So I guess my training has produced results where I would expect them to have produced results… faster cycling times, and more confidence in my run. As for the swim, eh… this swim is such an oddball distance I don’t think it really shows anything. I certainly had a much better T1 this year… I stayed calm on the swim, and raced through T1 without any problems.

So I guess, the speeding ticket was a positive omen. Now, I feel like I’m coming down with a cold, so I’m going to bed. Rest… that’s going down in my logbook! Rest is training!

So, here are the splits…

Thanks Lou! This one was dedicated to you!

Entry Filed under: Fitness, Triathlon, Swimming, Ironman, Running, Cycling, Marathons, Strength Training, exercise, speeding tickets, racing