Race Report - Folsom Long Course / Olympic (as guide)

Folsom Long Course (1 mile swim / 56 mile bike / 9 mile run)

I had a big weekend planned with the new Folsom Long Course triathlon on Saturday and then guiding my friend Richard Hunter in the Olympic Distance race on Sunday. The Long Course tri was a unique distance with a 1 mile swim, 56 mile ride, and 9 mile run. I had been training well and even tapered some for the race, so was quite looking forward to it. My plan was not overly sophisticated and consisted of “going hard” and my definition of hard for the event was a power of 250-280 watts steady during the ride and a pace of 6:30-6:50 during the run. I learned several things from this race that I will hope to improve upon in future events.

Key lesson #1: swimming straight is critical. Sounds obvious, but I learned the hard way (again in this event). The start was uneventful and since there were only around 200 people in this race total, my wave was not overly crowded. I did my best to draft, but it was pretty sparse and so it was clean water pretty much from the get-go. Heading East up Lake Natoma, the sun was really bright, so I basically just did my best to go towards the sun and search out the buoys. I don’t think I did a bad job on the way out, but after hitting the turn bouys on the far end of the rectangle, and heading back West, I ended up kind of in the middle of the rectangle. Not good. I couldn’t see the sighting buoy well and the last turn buoy was too far down there. Lesson learned: it is more important to sight often and swim straight(er) than it is to put your head down and just go. I also learned (as I do in every race), that I have a ways to go with regards to my swim technique and fitness. Compared to my bike and run, my swim is just too far behind.

Key lesson #2: practice your transitions the way you want them to go on race day. In spite of the easy (and small) transition area, I decided to have my shoes clipped into my pedals already and just roll out of transition before getting my feet in my shoes. I did practice this one time about a week ago, but it turns out to be much harder than expected. In mounting my bike, I basically had to stop, turn my shoe over, and get on just like I would’ve otherwise, and then, once I got out on the roads I had to really slow down to get my shoes on my feet. The tongues of my shoes were stuck inside out and I had to really dig my finger in there to get them fixed. Very annoying at the start of a ride where I knew I had some serious work to do to chase down some guys in my AG. In hindsight, I would’ve been much better off just putting my shoes on and clipping in normally – would’ve been faster.

Key lesson #3: call out (loudly) what you want at aid stations or alternatively, carry everything you need in small races. The beginning of the ride was going well (after I managed to get my shoes on) and I started passing people and getting dialed into my nutrition plan, which had me getting calories in every 15 minutes, alternating a swig of EFS liquid shot, and a drink from my bottle of EFS/CarboPro. I use water in my aero bottle to chase both. At the first aid station, about 20 miles in, I was starting to get low on water and grabbed the first bottle as I rolled by. However, I was not as diligent as I should’ve been in specifying what I wanted and ended up with HEED instead of water. This was a “short” race (i.e. not an Ironman), which allows more “slack” in nutrition, but I still was concerned not having any water to dilute the concentration of my nutrition. I still had some water in my bottle, so I just put the heed in there hoping that it would be dilute enough and rolled on.

Key lesson #4: know the course like the back of your hand! Again, since this was a small race, there wasn’t a lot of intersection control and even though I am local and knew the basic route, I did almost miss a turn. I overshot by about 20 yards, had to stop and go back. This happened twice. I don’t think it really held me back that much, but was still not good… if I had kept going and not figured it out, it would’ve been VERY frustrating (but my own fault nonetheless).

Key lesson #5: be uber-prepared to fix flats as quickly as possible. When I was getting my gear ready on race morning, I got out my pit-stop to have in transition and throw in my jersey pocket in T1. However, I left it on the work bench in my garage. Oops. About 45 miles into the ride, I felt the dreaded soft-mushy-tire on my back wheel and knew I had a flat. I hopped off quickly, but “only” had a tube and CO2 to change it. I didn’t have my pit stop, so I was forced to change out the tube. On my tri bike, it’s not particularly easy to get the back wheel off, particularly when you are standing on the side of the road. The axel comes out the back of the frame instead of out the bottom of the frame, so you can’t just turn the bike over. This bike also does not sit well upside down like a road bike and won’t balance. You basically have to hold it yourself with one hand and fuss with the wheel with the other. I have done it many times, but my bike is usually hanging on the wall of my garage with me “under” it when I change wheels. Getting the wheel off the back took me longer than it should’ve. I checked the tire quickly and didn’t feel anything so just hoped for the best when I got some CO2 in it. Turned out to be fine for the last 10 miles.

Key lesson #6: you must put things behind you and focus on what you can control, staying in the race moment. I had a pretty good run (6th fastest in the field), but probably didn’t get everything out of myself on the day because I knew I had dropped way back in the field in those 10 minutes I lost. Regardless, I should’ve dug deeper – perhaps easier said than done, but a lesson nonetheless. I went hard on the run, but faded more than I would’ve liked and given different race circumstances, I may have been able to push just a bit harder in the last 3 miles. (I probably also had the next day’s effort in the back of my mind).

Nice look on my face, eh?
I could've at least smiled (although I did give my daughter a kiss ;-)

I ended up finishing in 4:15:16 and made my way back to 4th in my AG. Had I not flatted, I probably would’ve been 2nd AG and somewhere between 5th and 7th overall. Had I had the pit stop and it worked, I may have only “lost” 20-30 seconds and not 10 minutes and the race unfolds differently, but that’s not how the day went. I had a solid run but I don’t feel like it was quite to my current potential for the distance and also a solid bike, although from a power standpoint, it is basically the same ~245 watts norm for a HIM ride (that’s not Auburn). I don’t seem to be able to push it past that range – perhaps it is telling me something or I need to break through somehow.

Also, big congrats to Sheila Leard and Karyn Hoffman who also tackled the Long Course race! It was a hot run and we all made it through!

All-in-all, it was a successful race and a fun day out there. For the rest of the afternoon, I put on some compression socks and hung out with my kids, hoping to bounce back quickly for the next day’s adventure.


Folsom Olympic Triathlon (warning – graphic picture at the end)

My job on Sunday was to be the guide for my good friend Richard Hunter. He is a visually-impaired athlete and graciously allowed me to be his guide for the race (in spite of signing up for the long course the day before ;-) All kidding aside, it was an honor to be out there with Richard – he’s a great guy and a great athlete!

I had been on the tandem bike with Richard only 1 time before, so we got down to transition early with the idea to get in a short warm-up ride and get me re-acquainted with piloting a tandem. We had to wait a few minutes for enough day-light to ride, but then got the tandem out and practiced at the bike out area. The mount line was at the start of a curvy bike path, which made for a bit of a nerve-wracking start for me. Once you start peddling, you can’t stop and you basically have to get one foot in the peddle, get rolling, and worry about the other one later after getting your balance and bearings. Let’s just say I was most nervous about this part. Regardless, we managed to get out there for a few minutes and I got a little more comfortable.
Richard and I started in the physically challenged wave, which consisted of the 2 of us and 2 other guys using handcycles. It was like having your own personal start, although it wasn’t long until the waves behind us started coming through. Regardless of that, Richard found a nice rhythm on my feet, followed the tether, and we cruised through the swim with no drama. It was actually quite nice ;-) Our first transition was a little clumsy, getting our wet-suits off and bike stuff on, but we figured it out quickly, grabbed the bike, and headed for the bike-out. Crunch time. It was probably in my head already, but sure enough, when we tried to get going, we fell right over to the right and right off the bike path into the brush. I banged my knee pretty good (didn’t think much of it at the time) and the chain fell off. Richard’s calf cramped a little when we fell, but otherwise, we seemed to be fine. We did eventually get the chain back on, but after a minute or two of fussing with it. Not the best way to start the bike, but we figured it out… after that little drama, I just concentrated on calling out turns, when I was going to shift, and the hills, etc. We worked the ride as best we could and ended up riding a 1:09 or so. I think it would’ve been a few minutes faster with a smooth start and no chain issue.

Coming back into transition at the end of the ride was nice with a good crowd there to cheer us. We had no issues and got through transition fairly quickly and out onto the run. I let Richard drive the pace (he is a really good runner), and just stayed with him on his shoulder, calling out directions, etc. I tried to be as specific as possible. Even though he has run this path many times, it was a race environment and I still wanted to make sure we didn’t have any issues, so I tried to over-communicate as much as possible. Richard set a good pace and I cruised along, pretty happy with how my legs felt after the 2 days of hard effort. We ended up running a 44-minute 10K and Richard set a new personal best on the course by a little over a minute. Not bad considering our little mishap!

After the race

At the end of the race, Richard and I recovered for a minute or two and then I happened to look down at my leg. Holy Cow!! The whole front of my right leg was covered in blood. I wish I would’ve had a picture… My knee did ache some during the run, but I never looked down and didn’t really pay attention since I was focused on making sure Richard got through the run smoothly. I went over to the med-tent and asked them to clean it up a bit. They told me there was a pretty deep gash and I should probably go to the hospital to see if it needed closed up. They cleaned it and bandaged it for me. We hung around chatting with a few friends, but then Richard was nice enough to leave a little early (before his awards!) so I could go get it checked out. Bottom line is I ended up with 2 staples in my knee as a souvenir from my first guiding experience… here’s a shot for those with strong stomachs ;-)

Stapled closed

I had a most-excellent weekend of multisport adventures. My race went well overall and guiding was awesome! It puts the sport in a new perspective. Plus I had a great weekend of "training" with some hard effort on back-to-back days. Now it's time to get my knee healed, recover, and get ready to race again in 2 weeks (I hope!)

And with respect to Richard, he is quite fit and is now getting ready for Ironman Florida in November! I can’t wait to see him do his first IM!