Keuka Race Report

What a crazy weekend. Crazy fun, though. Began Saturday with an hour-thirty ride, in the rain... again. I think that standing in the parking lot of the park unpacking my bike, feeling those first raindrops falling, ties with the last mile of my run yesterday with the most mentally tough parts of my weekend. I've had about enough of the rain. It took everything I had to talk myself onto my bike. I knew if I could just get started then it wouldn't be so bad. I ended up putting in about 26 miles of easyish endurance. I felt strong, and that got me excited for the race coming on Sunday.

Headed down to Canandaigua to stay the night for a shorter drive to Penn Yan in the morning. Got up at 3:45 and showered, laid down a bit, then got back up at 4:30 to get ready to go. I was excited to wake up to almost no wind. Good to go for the race wheels! Made my smoothie for breakfast, and left for Keuka, a bit late around 5:40. Arrived at the race at about 6:20 after parking and everything. Saw Kim and her boyfriend Travis as I got my stuff out of the car. Headed down to where transition was set up. Found out that registration was all the way across campus (yay) and headed over there to get set to go. Saw Ivan at registration, chatted for a bit, then back to transition to get everything set up. Stood in line and got body marked. Chose the wrong line. For some reason there was three markers for the line on either side of mine, and one for mine. That always seems to happen though, got tired of waiting, and just walked up to the next available person. At this point it was about time for transition to close, and I felt not so good. Cue severe intestinal distress. I'll spare the details, but I spent long time in a port-a-potty. Seeing as I have a irrational fear of public bathrooms, you know it was bad when I'm willing to use the port-a-potty.

Anyways, I made it down to the beach about 30 seconds before my wave was supposed to start. Forgot my garmin. The state troopers that were supposed to staff the bike course weren't there yet, so I had a few minutes to calm down, and get ready to go. My wave went off, and I started fairly strong. I looked to see who was going to be leading, then found them and tickled their toes for the next 1.4km or so. About half way through I saw I was being drafted off of too, he decided to take the lead after the second turn, and I just stayed where I was. I was pretty happy with the pace, and I wasn't pushing myself very hard, so I was content. Typically there's at least one good swimmer who's not so strong anywhere else, so I took that gamble. We cruised into shore, and got up, ran up the stairs, and I noticed it was Travis. He slipped across the mat just before me, but the jokes on him, because I'm still listed as placed higher in the swim than him! We fist bumped as we headed into transition for our good swim.

Swim: 21:27 1:25/100m, or 1:18/100yds (for Alexa!)

As I headed to my transition spot I saw the kid who passed us in the swim. He was barely like 1/4 out of his wetsuit. That gave me a pretty good indication that I made a good call not pushing too ahrd to catch him, he wasn't a threat. Travis was about two slots down from me. I had some trouble getting my left foot out of my wetsuit, and ended up leaving transition a bit behind him.

T1: 1:10

Travis freakin took off on the bike. He dropped me pretty early, but I took my time and stayed strong. I got some nutrition in, and set a solid pace. I was caught by Nick Brodnicki about 5ish miles out, and then again by another guy. I didn't get caught up in racing them. I just kept my solid consistent push. There wasn't too much to talk about for the bike. I was pretty zen. I kept my cadence consistent, and my effort high, maybe a little beyond what I thought of as sustainable. Jeff Henderson passed me on the way up skyline. He was booking it. That guy can ride. At the turn around on skyline I was running about 6th (not including later waves, just people in front of me), I picked up two on the way back to transition. This is including almost being run off the road by some jerk in a truck. Just after that Curbeau came up to me, and I rode into transition a few seconds behind him.

Bike: 1:09:15

At this point I also noticed that I was only a few seconds behind Travis as well. Somewhere out there I must have pulled him back a bit. Took off the helmet, slipped on my running shoes, grabbed my visor, and headed out. I was a few steps behind Curbeau, Jeff Henderson, Travis, and some other guy. I started my run pretty solid, and settled into what felt like a strong pace. Kim yelled to keep Travis in sight as I headed out, that wasn't going to happen. I settled in behind Jeff Henderson, and stayed relatively in contact with him until just after the turn around at 3.1 miles. Through then I felt solid. My pace felt strong, and I felt good. No GI issues this time! From there, I gradually started to hurt more and more. By mile 5 it was BAD. I just focused on doing everything I could to maintain until I was over that line. I made it, barely. My goal going in had been 2:15. I crossed in 2:14:48.

Run: 42:19 6:50 pace
Total: 2:14:48 12OA, 2AG

Overall, I'm really happy with my performance, I've made huge gains since last fall. I'm racing well, and feeling strong. I'm excited/scared for Placid. Some days it's hard to tell which one I'm feeling more!

Coming into the home stretch! I have training camp coming up the 17-19th. Tinman the 25th, mini-Mussel July 16th and IMLP July 24th! Then the weeding July 30th, then The honeymoon after! Lots of fun times on tap!

One block left before IMLP! 48 days to go!

Pictures to come shortly!