Miami Olympic Tri Race Report

The alarm buzzed very early this morning at 4:00 AM. I managed to get myself out of bed shortly after, and proceeded to get ready. I didn't have much to do in the morning since I laid out all my clothes and gear ahead of time. My hotel was on Miami beach and the race was about a 10 minute drive south onto Key Biscayne. I arrived into transition around 5:00 AM, and was ready to get the day underway. My bike was racked next to the Pro rack, and it was really cool only being a couple of bikes down from Chris Leito, Matty Reid, JoAnn Zeigler, Nina Craft, and some of the other top athletes.

After body marking and 20 minutes of transition prep, my bike and I were ready to roll. I put on my running shoes and ran about a mile to get the legs warmed up. By now 7:00 AM was closing in, and it was time to head to the starting line. The Pro men athletes wave went off at 7:00 AM, quickly followed by the pro women, then it was my wave. My wave consisted of both men and women that were registered in the elite division. I really felt good simply because I'm not a fast swimmer and didn't want to get left in the dust (not that there aren't some good women swimmers out there), but at least I now had a chance to hang on. Just as the sun broke the horizon, the horn went off and I sprinted into the water. I quickly got into a rhythm and found two swimmers that I picked out of the crowd to draft off of. About half way into the swim I decided to pick up the pace and see if I could move up a little. I found another fast swimmer to draft off of, and hung on for the ride. Before I knew it I was exiting the water in just over 16 minutes. Okay, so I really didn't swim a 16 minute mile, the swim was a little short. But regardless I had a great swim and felt good the entire way. Off with the wetsuit, and it was time to hammer the next 25 miles on the bike. I was quick through transition and on the bike in less than 2 minutes. I wasn't sure how far back I was from the leaders, but decided to set into a comfortable pace with my heart rate in the low 170's. I moved up a couple spots in the beginning and held my position over the next 25 miles. I felt good on the bike averaging around 24 mph. There were two (two minute) climbs on the bike course, but besides that it was pancake flat. When I finished the bike I knew that I was going to PR at the distance unless I had a very bad run. After another quick transition (just over a minute), I was off on the run. Right in front of me out of transition was Female Pro, Heather Gollnick. I was shocked to see that I had made up ground on her and this meant I was actually up by a couple of minutes. I tried to hang onto the heals of her feet, but quickly started to loose ground. For some reason I had this really bad pain in my stomach area every time I started to push a faster pace. The run was on a half dirt / half pavement path around the bay filled with potholes, and lots of tree roots to trip over. My running style is not meant for trail running and I actually tripped and fell twice on the run. It was sort of embarrassing, and I'm happy that no spectators were there to witness my falls. It took about 3 miles for the cramps to go away, but by now it was too late. My goal of running a sub 40 10K was gone. After the race coach and Beth reinforced that I had just come off a 60+ mile running week, and I should be happy with a 41 minute 10K. When it was all said and done I finished the Olympic Tri in 2:06:51. That's almost five minutes faster than my previous Olympic race. Plus the best part was I didn't finish last in the Elite division. I actually placed 9th overall out of 19 Elite racers. That means I beat 50% of them right?

So overall it was a good start to the season. This week is another plus 20 hour training week, and my focus now will shift to the marathon at the end of April, and more importantly Ironman training.

posted by Chad Holderbaum @ 8:22 AM Comments: 1