New Orleans 70.3 - St. George 70.3 - & Going Pro

Gonna mob this post and deluge it so awash of good stuff.. I’ve been a little busy in the last 6 weeks- three 70.3s, a TT, 5 batches of cupcakes baked, and 6 seasons of Dexter completed. Exhausting. There have been so many characters & sub-plots to keep track of, so many containers of strawberry frosting to disperse, so many race-wheel cassette swaps, and so much energy expended via competitive exercise. But let me back up a bit….

New Orleans 70.3

I was lucky enough to be accompanied on my trip to the Big Easy by my ever loving & supportive parents, my aunt & uncle, and my favorite French travel partner, Jose. I was jazzed on this race because of the slight chance I may attain some Marti Gras beads on the run if I wore the right speedo (however, I was let down).

Quick recap of the action:

This race was a time trial start, which meant all the age groupers started by individually walking over a timing mat and jumping into the harbor to tackle the unconventionally shaped swim course on their own. Picture a child writing out the letter “M” but getting distracted and veering off into the next letter 3/4ths of the way thru.. That’s what the swim course looked like. A short lived game of “pong”. I felt alright in the water, regardless of how goofy the course was and exited in a mid 26. That’s around what I was expecting for a solo 2k swim. The bike course was flat and boring. The 1^st half of the course was directly in to a fairly strong headwind. My energy just wasn’t there. I had been feeling a little under the weather before the race, but convinced myself that I wasn’t sick. I don’t know how much had to do with a cold or the fact that I was just not quite recovered from the Texas 70.3. I got off the bike with a disappointing bike split and wanted to tear that run course apart. I have no idea how I ran a 1:18, because I felt absolutely miserable the whole time. I legitimately walked for a bit and drank coke around miles 7-8 to get my crap together. The rising temperature & wind wasn’t making life any easier. Everything was a blur from around mile 10 till the time I woke up from a long nap at 6pm later that evening. Big congrats to Rodrigo Acevedo, who had a great day and won the overall amateur and our division. I finished in 4:05, around 50 seconds back from Rodrigo’s time. Note to the 25-29 AG(/all AGs): good luck taking Rodrigo down in Vegas this year, he’s a beast. Also, a big shout out to Jose, posting up a great day- finishing 6^th overall!

A little sick.

The next day (after sleeping 14 hours straight) we ventured into the French Flea Market and got to experience some New Orleans entertainment.

Interlude:

An extremely arduous task was mentally & physically rallying after a sickeningly hard and disappointing 70.3 and getting amped to do another one, on a much tougher course… with a stronger field… in a 12 days time. Motivation was lacking, to say the least. I just wanted to rest & recover. Why was I signed up for another stupid 70.3? Because this was going to be my last amateur race and I wanted to go out having strung together a solid set of 70.3s gaining some confidence to actually race against the Pros, not just show up and post a respectable time.

Jen entering Los Hermanos #possibleMethOperationCovers

St. George 70.3

You never fully appreciate how much fun road trips with friends are until they’re over and you think back to it. Had entirely too much fun with Jen, Mark & Beth on our excursion to St. George that weekend (sponsored in part by a Butsko Utility Design Inc. vehicle). This race wasn’t typical for me; I didn’t quite know how to recover/taper after New Orleans. I took 6 days completely off, 3 of which were consecutive, and a lot of extremely slow bike/runs within the 13 days between races. I told Mark the night before that I wouldn’t be surprised by a result on either end of the spectrum.

Utah was beautiful. That was my 1^st time out there and it didn’t disappoint. I’d never seen such unique looking mountains and landscape in person. I was so close to achieving my childhood dream of sojourning thru the Red Rock Mountains on horseback with Clint Eastwood, shootin down bad guys. Instead, I’d be roaming thru those mountains in a pair of highlighter yellow Nikes and a speedo.

The bike course profile looked like it suited my strengths.. a lot of climbing. It was my initial plan to go apesh!t & tear the bike course up then see what my legs had left on the run. However, after we drove both the bike and run course the day before, I realized that may be a really dumb idea. The run course looked like it had major potential to make a fool out of you. The best advice came from Mitch Hall the night before, when he told me to “feel it out” and that I had no reason to prove anything. Therefore, I took the boring and less appealing rout of balancing out my race and attempting to pace myself, building into it. Which, in hindsight, was probably the right move.

Race:

Gotta make a note of my race morning breakfast: Three travel size containers of applesauce, 3 glazed buttermilk 240 cal donuts, 2 Keith Butsko- Strawberry jam filled strawberry cupcakes, 1 bottle of chocolate ensure, 1 chocolate chip/PB Bonk Breaker and a bit of coffee. #logsonthefire

As Chris Berg wrote in his blog, he & I got into a literal pissing contest while standing around in our wetsuits, prerace. Chris won, but not by much (Berg, I’m coming prepared next time). While floating around in the 60-degree water, let’s just say, Chris & I were probably 5+ degrees warmer than everyone else.

Before we even started, I knew it was going to be a long day in the water. For whatever weather related reason, my asthma was out of control (& heard from numerous amounts of others that allergies and asthma were running rampant). It was a long and miserable swim for me. I just remember thinking before every single breath: “If I don’t get this breath of air, I’m going to pass out”.

But setbacks are a part of racing, and I didn’t get down about it. I took off on my bike riding conservatively. Didn’t really look much at my power meter unless I was on a (rare) flat section. I, as Mitch mentioned, played it by feel and didn’t try to crush myself or force anything that wasn’t there. I found my way to the front and onto a completely empty road around mile 8ish. Part of riding by yourself is fun, but most of the time, I enjoy having targets ahead to pace off of/ pass. Many times when riding solo, I’ll become comfortable and settle into what feels nice.

Pic by Mark Barber

Took some secret nutritional advice from Jen (& Mark) in T2, and pranced out of transition feeling good. Again, I held back at the start of this run. The 1^st 3ish miles are, essentially, uphill. Then the next 3ish are down. On the way back, around mile 9-10, I took a good look behind me on a long straightaway and didn’t see anyone. I realized I was in the clear (at least in my division and any surrounding divisions). I eased up a bit (not a ton, but ran slightly more relaxed), saving some energy for the walk to the beer tent. I finished 1^st in the 25-29 division, & 2^nd Amateur overall.

Thoughts On Turning Pro

I figured I’d start racing pro because it seems like a really painless road to quick success and tons of money. I’m guessing it’ll probably be an extremely effortless and undemanding life where little work and merely thinking about it will pay off huge. But...Not really.

One of the all-time greatest captures, by Mark Barber. (Ironman Suit Dude)

The bottom line is that I love to race. I do it for the thrill. When I talked with Mitch about racing professionally this past winter, he asked me why I wanted to. I believe my response was something like: “to get filthy rich, score loads of women, and live like a king”.. A cheeky & pert answer, which I’m sure, Mitch is used to hearing out of me (I know full well, triathlon will never provide any of that for me). I want to do this because I love it- I crave competition, I don’t get bored with 3 sports and endless options, & because I pine for the feeling of going fast. Until the thrill leaves me or I physically can’t compete anymore, I’ll keep racing. When I was a kid, my Dad used to tell me “you play to the level of your competition”, and unfortunately, racing age group has turned into solo time trials and not so much “racing” for me. Hopefully I don’t go from that, to doing solo time trials off the back of the men’s pro field. I’m excited to line up against the best in the world, but I know I have a long way to go & it’s going to take a lot of hard work. But, my parents didn’t name me ‘Keith Hard Working MoFuggin Butsko’ for nothing. 

*PS: Syracuse 70.3 (June 23) will be my 1st race as a pro. (Followed by Vineman 70.3 and Lake Stevens 70.3)

Texas 70.3

Nuts

I haven’t been jumping out of my pants (that was the best G-rated, slightly sexual, figure of speech I could think of) to write a race recap- probably because of how mundane my own race was. It's like going to an Atlanta Braves game; they won, but it was all base knocks with runners in scoring position. No cannon shot 500-foot homeruns, no diving over the wall robberies, no "Oh, doctor! You can hang a star on that one"’s. Nothing extraordinarily breathtaking happened. I was happy I accomplished what I went to Texas to do- win the overall amateur and post up a solid day. But something was missing, that feeling inside you get when you’re smashing down the barrier that you know so well and marching past it. That’s the feeling I live for, the reason I do anything, really. Progress is my drug- I crave the PR.

#LogsOnTheFire #snapchats

However, the season is early and there will be plenty of time to find that feeling and ring it out for all it’s worth. Until then, anticipation will just continue to build.. 

Coronitas (post race)

The trip to Texas was fun. The more I travel to the Lone Star State, the more I love it. Texas and I met in cold, thundering, rainy, windy, and sickening conditions. Since then, it’s done it’s best to change my feelings. I can’t deny how good the food is (sans Mexi food; SoCal still dominates that category), or the attitude of nearly everyone there. Example: that warm & welcoming southern hospitality or the redneck hostility towards outsiders like myself and my French travel companion, Jose Jeuland.

Flashback to USAT Collegiate Nationals 2 years ago- the UCLA tri team & I were on a casual run around Tuscaloosa- Alabama (I may or may not have been in a speedo), & had some leftover Hooters pitched at/on us by some redneck southern boys driving in their pickup.

BBQ, 4 realz

I appreciate cultural differences. Living here in health/endurance land (aka. Encinitas), I’m comforted to know that other parts of the world still view these fruitcakes running around in minimal lycra as anomalous (and occasionally treated with belligerence).

Race Ramble:

It’s a little frustrating to look at times and compare them to the top pros, which I undoubtedly did, but shouldn’t really do it. The Age Group race is completely different than the pros race, especially starting last, an hour and 30 minutes after they go off. Along with changing weather conditions (wind, heat), there’s also the constant swerving and meandering around people in front of you and the lack of faster guys around to judge your pacing.

That being said, I’m satisfied (for the most part) with my result. Quick note: Wow… epically fast guys in the 25-29 division! The top 5 amateurs were all under 29.

Garmin, who's pushin who's buttons here?

Pre-race: having an hour and 30 minutes to sit around before we started, I ventured into the Moody Gardens Aquarium and spent most of my time, fully entertained, in the Giant Sea Otter exhibit. Those dudes are AWESOME. Way cooler than run-of-the-mill sea otters. I also ate a few of my friend (and ridiculously fast cyclist), Jessica Cerra’s dark chocolate Fit Bars. If you haven’t tried one of these little dandies, you should; Immediate mood improvement.

Swim: A congested course, clogged up with floating “swimmers”, made for an irritating, stop & go style swim. I felt like I was swimming quick and efficiently, but there was just far too much circumnavigating to have a good time. There seemed to be a clamoring tea party at every buoy for some reason.  (27:16)

Bike: I wish my power meter was working as well as my legs. It took a fair amount of button pushing & back-spinning to get a connection to my quarq.. I may as well have been sending out tweets and FB updates from the bike, with all the Garmin computer tinkering I was doing in the 1^st 5 miles. I gave up on it and rode the course without any power numbers (which was a bummer, not able to fully gauge my effort on a flat and windy course). The course was flat, out and back along the coast with a lovely crosswind that only seemed to be growing as the day went on. Stupid me for only drinking 1 bottle while on the bike; I immediately regretted that decision when I started running & realized how thirsty I was. I need to work on my nutrition, that was a big fail. (2:11)

Lap 3. Facial expression speaks for itself

Lap 1. Totally cool, I got this.

Run: The course was another flat, 3-looper, with a ton of 180 degree out and back sections. Hit the first 4-5 miles around my goal pace of 5:45-5:50 and felt good. Towards the end of the second lap, it may have been a combo of nutrition, heat, motivation, & a side stitch, but things started to get slow and heavy. My pace dramatically slowed and I had to walk (alright.. jog) an aid station and regroup. I’m kinda proud I got my ish together and started running hard again. When things rapidly begin falling apart in a long course race, it’s hard to stop the bleeding, let alone turn it around and go faster. The last lap I held it steady around a 6:10ish pace. (1:19:06)

Stickers, making any shirt a podium shirt.

Time of 4:02, 1st Overall Amateur, 14th overall

I’m really stoked for Jose, who had a great race and finished 4^th overall and my good friend, Brannen Henn, finishing 4^th in her AG with a smoking fast run split! Also, shout out to Tatiana Vertiz, who’s on the mend and finished without pain.

Gots to thank my boys (& girls) @ B+L Bikes for helping me out. I had a minor freak out sesh when building up my bike the day before the race and the Di2 decided to stop working. It took a little figuring out, but Kev talked me thru it over the phone and we got it dialed. Looking forward to having some fun & a little run redemption at the New Orleans 70.3 in less than 2 weeks (April 21); which, in all likelihood, will be my last race as an Amateur…

Jose had a hard time containing his enthusiasm.

SuperSealStories

Jose & I ..& his French TV crew (Pic: Reid G. Butsko)

Rather than pine & pout about how poorly I ran this past Sunday, I’d rather entertain you with some good stories from the race..

I was glad to have the company of my good friend, & Frenchy pro, Jose Jueland, racing with me on Sunday. Both of us trained thru this race, so there was a slight compromise on the race rather than our main goals for the season.

I arrived early to the race, which is tremendously uncommon for me. Katya Meyers & I thoroughly enjoyed watching panicked sprint participants zigzag aimlessly thru transition and eventually stumble into their bikes. I love observing a T1; It blows my mind how just 5-10 minutes of swimming has the ability to disorient someone to the point of loosing all memory of where they had just racked their bike- in a clearly marked area, no bigger than a basketball court. I’m definitely not innocent of that crime. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve run right past my bike, probably looked it square in the eyes along the way and thought, “nah, that one’s not mine” then continued on with my pursuit for the correct one; Upon finding it, what seems like 10 minutes later (when in reality was probably only like 10 seconds), that overwhelming & undeniable sensation of idiocy drops like a bomb.

When the race started I did some obtuse dive that likely looked like a pelican swooping up a fish and my goggles fell down my face, into my mouth, then back into their original place of residing (only then filled with water). I nonchalantly veered off the front after 150 yards and quickly fixed them. I jumped back into the front group but 2 dudes already had a bit of separation occurring. I attempted to cover lost ground but it was too late and they had a gap I knew I couldn’t bridge. Once settled in, I found myself in the front of the newly formed 2^nd group and started a solo journey into no-man’s-land. Around 5-600 meters out, I noticed my hand graze something that felt a lot like sand. “Hmm, wait a second”, I thought, & stood up in knee high water. I can only imagine how comical it looked from a spectator’s point of view, seeing some dude, 600 meters out in the San Diego bay, running across the water amongst a group of swimmers. I looked back to see if anyone had caught on to my discovery; not too far back I saw that Jose had just popped up and started running too. We looked at each other and started cracking up. Pretty sure everyone else followed suit and took the Jesus strategy in that 20 meter section. The rest of the swim was miserable, I had no idea where I was going. That swim course is in the same shape as the state of Texas, so navigating the buoys is no straightforward task. I’d completely stop at each buoy to find the next one. Where is Roch on his paddleboard when you need him? I’ll post some video evidence of how off course I was. Unfortunately, for everyone following my lead, I added on an extra 50-100 meters on the way in and swam around an unnecessary buoy.. hah. 3^rd out of the water.

I chatted with my buddy, Lars, in T1 about my time deficit to the two guys in front, grabbed my bike & started to run out. I glanced back to witness Jose entering T1 like Superman… and by Superman, I mean like Charlie Hustle sliding head first into home plate, set to knock out the catcher in an All-Star game. He nailed a sand covered parking stall bumper and won the crash of the day award. 

It took me around 10 miles to get going, but once I found my cycling legs I felt good. Pretty happy with my ride and the fact that monster cyclist, Karl Bordine, didn’t eat me up on a flat bike course. We must be doing something right, Mitch Hall. That’s a win in my book. I caught one of the two guys ahead of me on the second lap and entered T2 in 2^nd.

Just as I wasn’t concerned with my poor bike performance in the desert the other week, I’m not too worried about my lackluster run. It’s there. That’s just part of training thru races. Jose had a great run and caught me a bit before the last mile, put 15 seconds on me and it stuck. Congrats to Jason Pedersen, who won, and Jose for having great races!

Thanks to all my friends and fam that came down to watch; it’s always motivating to have recognizable voices yelling at you. Thanks to my hombres, Johnny & Tom, @ B+L Bikes, for finding all my mistakes on my race-day bike setup.

Next up: Texas 70.3 (April 7)

Icebreaker in the Desert

sucha momma's boy Pic: Mark Barber

If there’s one takeaway from the 2013 Desert International Triathlon, it’s finally learning that a good or ideal day in each sport seldom occurs. You’d think after 4 years of racing triathlons, I’d have figured that out long ago. The biggest positive from this past Sunday was that I didn’t get down on myself after a tired/sluggish bike ride, & stuck with it. I know this race is small in the grand scheme of my season, and it’s early, being the 1^st race of the year, but I enjoy the excitement of competition.

Pic by Mel Kurek

& The Race Deets:

Around 200 meters into the swim, feeling I’d been moving fairly quick, I surveyed the sitch of nearby swimmers and there were 2 guys around me and 1 dude that somehow had like 1-2 minutes on us. That was blowing my mind, how do you put that much time into a group of elite swimmers within 200 meters?? (Turns out it was Rob Lea, a former collegiate freestyle sprinter). Somewhere around the midway point in the swim, I realized I was swimming with one of my swim heroes (& buddy), Max Biessmann. This was a small victory in itself, as Max always smashes me in swims. Ended up having a bit of an extra kick and exited the water in 2^nd behind Rob, who was minutes ahead. (After 4 years of the same exact swim results, it’s kind of exciting to see some progress & improvement occurring. Thanks to Grace Van Der Byl for helping me and shaking things up with my swim stroke. As stubborn as I am, she’s slowly turning me from a surfer into a swimmer;-)

Early AM- locked n loaded w/ the new whip

Apologies to those of you expecting a monster bike split, I’m aware of it. Not at all worried about my cycling right now, though. It’s there.

Thx to Ben Travis for the pics & the splits on the course

Like I had mentioned earlier, as I rolled into T2, I didn’t let myself get down and stayed with it. A few people along the course mentioned I had around a 2 minute deficit to the dude in 1^st… 2 minutes is a lot to make up in 6 miles, but for whatever reason, I felt extremely confident in my running. I ran the 1^st 3 miles at a 5:30 pace and didn’t let myself run any faster. One of the few times I’ve been conscious of pacing in a shorter race. At the beginning of the 2^nd lap I caught sight of Rob and realized catching him was very doable. I turned up the pace & ended up passing him somewhere a bit before mile 5. Ran the last mile in 5:13. It hasn’t been typical of me to negative split runs- happy I’m slowly learning how to pace myself & not go “Pre” all the time. Props to Rob for gutting it out and pushing the pace up at the front.

It was definitely fun to race again; I’ve missed that feeling. It was rad having so many people I knew out there, both racing and cheering. Congrats to all my friends.. I heard about multiple PR’s. Solid day for B+L athletes as well; Rebecca Travis tore it up & was 2^nd overall. Also, one of my good friends, Bill Jones, won the UCLA triathlon earlier that day too.

Eating a bunch of food @ the finish w/ Hippie Jen

Very fortunate to work at a place that supports my racing so much.. As always, thanks to Mark Palmer & B+L Bikes- & my bro-dog (the best mechanic I know) Kevin, for staying until 10pm to build up my new Shiv (more on the Shiv in a near future post). A big thanks to Mark Barber for all the help this weekend. Mark wins the award for giving the most accurate in-race timing splits. I was stoked my mom came out to watch and got to witness a bit of race drama unfold. I'm sure it wasn't easy for her to watch a come from behind win. 

Next up: Superseal (Olympic dist) March 17

2013 Petco 5K9

Hard to beat that dog's grin.

Flawless event. Had I no dog, I’d still go spec this event, purely for the comedy of watching all these people run with their dogs. Some people are far superior runners to their dogs and some dogs far superior to their owners. Either way, I love dogs and there’s no race where people are smiling as much as this one. Even the volunteers on poop patrol are smiling... no, but seriously, they are- it's kinda weird. I’m pretty sure there’s more mollycoddling for the dogs than the people.

Sneeze?

Here’s a little story about the endurance history of Parker & I: When I started running, back in 2009 (like.. running without chasing or kicking some ball, or rounding a base, or thru a campus late to a class), I ONLY ran with Parker. Lately, I’ve been getting a bit emotional running with him- looking back at all the milestones we’ve hit together; My first 20 or so runs were all with Parker, he was with me the 1^st time I broke an 8-minute mile, a 7-minute mile, a 6-minute mile, a 5-minute mile, a sub 18 minute 5k, a sub 17 minute 5k (he missed out on the 1st sub 16, but I have full confidence he can do it)… Up until recently, Parker has always been there to lead and push the pace each time we run together. Unfortunately, as a combo of him aging & me getting faster (& sequentially not being able to workout as much with him) the weight has been shifted slightly. It was simultaneously good and bad; In the last ¾-½ mile of the 5k9, Parker started to fade when I wanted to go faster. It was almost at the same exact spot last year that the roles were reversed and Parker wanted to go faster as I was feeling like passing out. Regardless, I can read Parker pretty well and he didn’t have anything left, so I wasn’t about to break out the bit and whip to get him to stay with the dude who took over the lead. He was as happy as a dog can be and even though we ended up 10/15 seconds behind the eventual winner, guaranteed, we had more fun hard charging up front & alone for 14 minutes. I think we ran a mid 16 minute 5k, which was a great time for that guy considering his lack of endurance runs as of late. Even though we ended the day in 2^nd place (overall), places don’t matter to a dude that is running with his best friend (and vice versa). 

Tired pup.

Cold Chillin @ the Austin 70.3

Pre riding part of the course in a sweatshirt. #cold

“These go to eleven” –This is Spinal Tap

I’d just like to be completely honest with everyone and come clean right now…. At the beginning of the year, I went to Mitch Hall to help advise/coach me. He immediately had me doing copious amounts of PERFORMANCE ENHANCING workouts. The secret is out now. Thanks for being patient, tolerating my nonsense and helping me, Mitch. I’d also like to give the speedy Beth Walsh a huge ‘Thank You’ for being a top-notch training partner. Her run workouts are a game changer!

South Congress Street Food Trucks, ftw

The city of Austin is pretty cool. After my past two experiences with Texas, I wasn’t the biggest fan of that state. (Collegiate Nationals in Lubbock, 2010: cold as balls, hypothermic water, stormy and out of control wind. Galveston 5150 2011: out of control wind and heat.) Besides the weather, Texas has been fairly unimpressive to me. However, Austin was redeeming. The city seemed to have a good pulse on awesome food, good music, and a fairly artistic culture. I never really had a chance to mingle with common folk in the city so I can’t really say whether Austinites were actually on this planet or in their own world. They seemed aight tho.

Race Morning

Yet again, my wave was one of the last to go off, which was an hour and 20ish minutes after the pro men. After they kicked us out of transition around 7, I had plenty of time to freeze my loins off in the low 40-degree air. I stuck around to witness the pro men & women exit the swim & frigidly jump on their bikes. Quick side story: The day before the race, Beth had been joking about shoving newspaper into her tri kit to stay warm on the bike along with various other outlandish antics in attempt to keep warm. Again, I thought this was a JOKE. Low and behold, here comes Beth into T1…. & chaotically starts cramming newspaper everywhere into her kit. Priceless.

So after I witnessed some more bizarre methods of people attempting to cover up, I decided enough was enough and something had to be done about the bone chilling breeze that was making me regret my decision not buy an Eskimo suit for this race. Desperate times called for desperate measures, so I headed to the porta-potties, put on my wetsuit then put my morning clothes over that, fully closed the toilet seat and took a nap for 30 minutes (yes, in the porta-potty). That may have been the best decision of the day, actually.

The Race

Swim: 26:17

Trying to find the string... &

Forget that, I'll get a volunteer to do it

Not to sound like a douche, but I could tell as we were lining up in the water for the open water start, the competition wasn’t going to be too thick. I seemed to be the only dude (along with my buddy, Marco from SD) wanting to be at the front, pushing the invisible line between the start buoys. After the horn sounded, I believe there were two dudes on my feet at the 1^st buoy. I did another check around the 2^nd buoy, around 4-500 meters out, and had a pretty sizable gap going on. I arrived at the conclusion that there was a good chance I’d be on my own for the rest of the day. I did my best to keep pressing the pace in the swim despite running into countless people floating about on the course.

Bike: 2:16

Don't do this.. TT position uphill. Totally unnecessary.

I’ll try to limit my whining here, as my time didn’t turn out to be too bad, but I’m still not very happy with the way I rode. It took me around 25 miles to “find it” on the bike. Like I had mentioned earlier, it was a bit nippy out, so getting my legs going took a while. The condition of the roads and headwind weren’t helping anything either. But, once I found “it”, somewhere between miles 25-30, no one was touching this ish. The last 20 miles I was on fire and wish I’d have been riding around some faster guys because I was craving some competition.

Run: 1:17

It may have taken 3 years of failing 70.3 runs, but I’m beginning to figure it out. I love going fast and I’m excited to keep working hard and see what I’m capable of next year & on...

This course was slightly rolling with a smidgen of dirt trail, so sticking to a particular pace wasn’t really doable. So I just picked, what I thought, was a hard yet sustainable pace and kept it. Apparently that pace was sub 6. If you’re interested, I’ll post the mile splits from my garmin (if that’s what you’re into). The last 2 miles I was feeling really lazy and lost a bit of motivation to keep a hard pace going. But I cruised in feeling pretty good about my day.

Total: 4:04 (1^st Overall Amateur, 7^th Overall, 1^st 25-29ag) Full results

Stoked to take a little break and get some surfing in before picking up a fresh bike and run game and building for next year. I’ll post something later when I know what my plan for next year is…

Being (probably) the last post for the year, I have to thank some people. The first of which being my parents; I love you guys more than you know. Thank you for supporting me from the 1^st day I decided to do one of these ridiculous things. Thanks to all my friends and family for the encouragement throughout the year; I wouldn’t be able to keep a positive attitude towards racing without you guys. Mark Palmer, you’re as tough as nails and I know you’re going to recover from your crash and only become stronger. Thank you for providing a job for me at the best tri shop in SD (B+L Bikes) and supporting my racing. And last but not least, Ramon. My friend, I’ve never met anyone as passionate about life as you. You help me realize how awesome something as simple as running for 45 minutes down the coast is.

Super(duper)Frog

Taken off Slowtwich.com

Preface: First of all, there will be no talk about speedos in this blog post. I don’t care that Lance raced in (a lackluster) one; it’s old hat to me.

Aight, lets do this!

I’ve stated this before, but I’ll say it again, I race the best when I don’t think about it & just go hard. The more I think about a race in the week leading up to it, race morning, or during the actual race… the more I suck. For example, all I did for a month leading in to the Las Vegas 70.3 was religiously deliberate every little detail in my head; then I over-analyzed everything while I was racing. What happened.. ? I sucked. (I know I just used a fallacy, but it works). Almost every “good” race I’ve had, I've merely showed up, ready to get brutal.

So, two weeks out from SuperFrog, I honestly didn’t even think about tapering much, I just did what I wanted (workout wise, food wise, beer wise…). Race day, didn’t sweat out the details of how I was going to race, beforehand; I just wanted to roll. I’m not a very orderly person. Over-structure only creates angst. I don’t function on any level when everything is deeply detailed and planned out ahead of time. I thrive off of spontaneity. Not saying I don’t have any levels of organization..

Recapitulation

Race morning, I woke up at 4am to find my beloved roommate, Ramon, freshly & haphazardly draped across the floor with a streak of snacks, clothes, and other debris, trailing from the front door, to the bathroom, to his final place of residing. This was my first inspiration- to race as hard as he had just partied.

Got to transition and chatted with some friends for a bit. The moment of the morning may have been Karl Bordine’s face as he was warming up on the trainer in transition and Lance strolled up next to us with his entourage and circus of photographers & media’ers. I think Karl had headphones in and his back turned, but as the atmosphere went from peaceful to chaotic within a matter of seconds, he sat up & gave me a look, as if to say: “I don’t even need to check behind me to know what’s going on right now”. It was fairly comical, as Karl is not a small guy, and was nonchalantly warming up right in the middle of this pandemonium.

Photo by Dan Megna

Swim: There was a bit of swellage on the beach Sunday morning, so I was pretty stoked to navigate the surf. It may be one of the few advantages I possess in triathlon, coming from a surfing background. Apparently, it didn’t matter because I had the slowest start ever, my goggles fell off after the 1^st dolphin dive. After getting them back on and adjusted, I was already #OTB of the front group after 20 seconds. I, pretty much, did the entire swim solo (& essentially the rest of the race, for that matter). I had the sighting pretty dialed in, I just didn’t have anyone to swim with, so I wasn’t pressing as hard of a pace as I should’ve been. On the exit of the 1^st lap, I was told it was just under a minute to the front group. On my 2^nd exit, I was 3 minutes back from the front guys… hmmm. 28:15

Bike:

Fairly straight forward here- 56 miles of flat road….. by myself. It was a monotonous 2 hours & 11 minutes, playing number games with my new powermeter (thank you Mark Palmer & B+L Bikes). I loved the cheers from all my friends and family (& even people I don’t know) that came out to watch! Thank you for the entertainment. I jumped off the bike in 4^th place overall, around 10 minutes from the leader.

Steph Galuppo w/ the pic cred

Run:

(Sorry to go 'tridork' on everyone and talk about mile splits here. I don’t do it often.)

Despite only drinking 1 ½ water bottles during the bike, I think I left too much in the tank, because my legs felt way too fresh when I started running. Amped on having a good run, my first mile down the beach was 5:52 followed by a 6:14. The 3^rd mile was rough because the sand got mega deep. After 3 miles on soft sand, running on the flat asphalt and hard packed paths felt like cheating. I was hitting a nails pace on the 1^st loop (3 miles ranging between 6:05-6:15 miles). On the second lap, things started to slow down a bit and the lack of nutrition finally caught up to me. I ran a lethargic 6:20-6:40 pace for the next 3. I then exited this loop back onto the beach, still running solo and in no-man’s-land. There were no volunteers to direct me at the time, but it looked like I was supposed to make a left into some soft sand and run south. So I did, and after around a minute or so, I didn’t see anyone ahead and stopped. I second guessed my course choice and ran back to the gate, a volunteer told me that we were actually supposed to run down this path. That was stupid.

Thanks to Angel King for the finish line snap!

The 1^st mile or so back on the beach was pretty tough and my rhythm was like a bad dubstep song. It took way too long, but I remembered how to run on sand again and my pace went from an old lady’s grocery store stroll to an unenthused little leaguer’s trot from the bench to his position in the field. I finally reached the expo area & my garmin told me I had run 13.1 miles, so I figured the end was near, but I didn’t know where exactly. I got a ton of high fives from spectators and friends on the beach, but I swear I asked everyone “where’s the finish?!”. No one had an answer for me. I found out the finish was around 2 minutes back from where I had been running when a cop finally flagged me down. I ran right past the turn into the finish line. There were no volunteers to flag me down into the turn (it sounds stupid not knowing where the finish is, but when I’m racing, I’m not thinking sensibly anyways). Oh well, I lost an overall place and a solid chunk of time, but I wasn’t overly upset about it. When my watch hit 13 miles, my run time was somewhere in the 1:27 minutes range, but it ended up being 1:31 after my off-course adventure. A little bummed I didn’t officially get credited for having a better run split than what it should’ve been, but that’s life.

4:13 & 5^th Place overall

Hangin' w/ Mitch after the race while he hangs out w/ that sandwich.

I totally enjoyed SuperFrog and would recommend it to anyone who wanted to race a ½ iron distance tri. Congrats to all my friends who raced and killed it! The swim and run weren’t easy, but who gets fulfillment from doing something paltry? You’re in the wrong sport if you’re looking to cakewalk something.

Thanks again to all my friends and family for the big cheers last weekend and all the awesome messages afterwards! Thanks to Mark Palmer & B+L Bikes for all the support they give me; and finally to my buddy Mitch Hall for not only helping me “build the layers on my metaphorical cake” (Yes, I know, 2 “cake” metephors in the last 50 words. #noshame #CakeEater) this season, but also putting on a great race last Sunday.

I may jump in an Olympic distance race in two weeks before the Austin 70.3 at the end of October. The itch to go faster just increases after every race.