Duathlon Nationals

After doing the race this weekend, I’ve decided I’m going to try and keep a blog (I hate that word) of what goes on with me, hopefully weekly. We’ll see what comes of it though, as I often get so busy I barely have time to eat.
So this weekend was a huge race weekend. I would have preferred to go to Athens with RPC and watch/race those races, but I had other obligations. About a month ago I signed up for Duathlon Nationals in Richmond, VA. I haven’t been running all year, so up until this week I was 95% convinced I was not going to race. On thurday (Earth Day!) I had the urge to go out and hammer a bike ride. I ended up riding from Williamsburg to Richmond, and back (101+miles) in a little over 4h 30min. Then, I had a brilliant idea of doing a 4 mile brick off the bike, and threw down a sub 5:40 mile in the process. After 5 hours of training, and three days before the National Event, I decided to do the race.
Having sold my TT bike, I had nothing to ride. I hit up my teammate on W&M cycling, Wilson, and asked to use his machine during the race. He said yes, which was awesome considering the short notice. Greg Grosicki (who is another WiMa cyclist that was doing the race) and I had to drive up Saturday to Richmond to drop the bikes off in the transition. The race wasn’t until 9:30am on Sunday morning…
I was excited about Nationals for 2 reasons. 1) It is my last multisport race for a long time. 2) There were a few racing friends I really wanted to see. Let me explain:
1) I recently got on Richmond Pro Cycling, and will be part of their corps until at least September of 2011. I barely know what I’m doing tomorrow, so it’s hard for me to plan what’s going to occur in the distant future. So this summer I will be cycling around 25 hours a week, in addition to working 40 hours a week at NASA, and driving to Richmond and doing civic leadership. Also, lets not forget driving and racing on the weekends… I wonder if I will even have time to think about something other than work and bikes. Hopefully food and sleep will fit nicely in there, somewhere.
2) Last year at Duathlon Worlds, I met a great guy named Shane Thread. He is one of the most down to earth people I know, and just listening to him talk about his life, and stories, almost makes me feel inadequate. Shane is one of those people that seem to always be looking out for others, before himself. Sure he has priorities; as does everyone, but his heart is in the right place and he has a great head on his shoulders. He is someone you meet once in a blue moon. Consider myself lucky. My mom looked at the competitors of the race, and said Shane was going to be there. I was going to make an effort to find him, out of the 1300 people racing.
Greg and I drove up to Richmond at 7am. We stopped at Wawa to get a coffee, and what I call, “le Jitters”. Luckily, caffeine is not a banned substance…at least in the doses I take. I’m not sure if there is a cap on the amount of mg you can consume before races. When we got to the race, the wave of starts had already been going for hours. There were a ton of people on the course already, and I knew that since my wave was the last to go, it was just going to be a clusterfrick of people. Oddly enough, Greg and I were walking toward to porter johns to take care of the morning business. As we were waiting for the wave of runners to cross, I saw Shane run by!!! Pretty awesome coincidence! I yelled “Go Shane!” but he was too focused on the race to pay attention to who said it. After the race, I talked to him and he said he was wondering who that strange voice was that called his name.
After business was taken care of, Greg and I walked to the transition to check out the bikes and get put our helmet and shoes down. I saw my coach in the transition, and we talked about the race. I told him afterwards I was going to go eat a half gallon of ice cream…because I’m pretty sure he was furious when he found out I ate a gallon in a day. I was obviously joking about the i’cream though. Its racing season now!!!
The Du was 5k run, 38k bike, and 5k run again. I can count the number if times I’ve run all year on both hands… which isn’t that many. I was very concerned about the run and had no clue how fast I could go. All I knew was that the bike was my specialty, and that’s where the time had to be put in. At 9:35, the gun went off, and a herd of testosterone flew out of the carrel where we were being detained. This particular wave was the big guns. Age groups 20-29. I knew the winner would come out of here.
To my surprise, I hit the first mile in 5:00 even. Damn, I thought. I wasn’t even at the front!! I was mid pack!! The leaders had to go through in 4:40 pace. The 2nd mile I backed off and hit a 5:28, and I ended up running the first 5k in 16:39…pretty good for not running. I made an effort to find the leader of the first run and see what he was wearing. I needed stuff to hunt down on the bike, and I figured I would go Big, or go home. Luckily, I saw him just as he was getting on his bike. He split a 15:19 for the first run, so he was way in front.
I threw on my helmet and shoes and ran out of T1; jumping on the bike and tightening the shoes down. The bike course was 3 laps, and 8 miles per lap. Its actually a really crappy course, going over long bridges on 4 separate occasions PER lap. Not to mention all the horrible riders taking up the whole lane, and a plethora of drafting occurring. This really pissed me off since the race was draft illegal. I don’t like it because racers can sit in on the bike and not do work, and hammer the last run. Biking is my strong point, and to be honest, there is nobody in my wave fast enough to draft behind. I was the target, and occasionally I felt the presence of someone sitting on my wheel for a free ride, so I threw in a surge and popped them off my wheel. Overall, I saw a ton of people walking bikes because they flatted out. The roads were in horrible condition, and the bridges were full of joints that caused the snake-bite pinch flats. I ended up splitting the 2nd fasted bike time in the nation that day. I could have gone faster if I had these: a bike that actually fit, some carbon wheels, and if there were less people on the course. Seriously, who the heck rides a hybrid bike in a triathlon!?! Yeah, great, you’re out there competing, but please don’t take up the whole road. At numerous points, I would get stuck behind riders and would have to cross the double yellow line to pass. I don’t think there was 1 time in the duration of the TT course that I rode on the right side of the road. I was passing people one after another. Way to go DuNats, for putting on yet another clusterfrick congested course. Can’t you make a longer loop??
On the bike, I caught my target: the leader of the 5k, who also maintained the leader position on the bike. I passed him with 10 miles to go on the bike leg, and managed to put about 20 more seconds on him. Essentially, I came into T2 as the leader of the National Championship race. At this moment, I really wished I had run all these months. After ½ a mile, I was hunted down, and was told to go the wrong way on the course (yet again, great job duNats!!) I was wheezing, and felt like I couldn’t get any air. I backed the pace off to 5:45 miles, which is still pretty quick for me. With a quarter mile to go, I was passed again by a guy in my age bracket. I conceded to him up the hill, as I was hitting the wall hard. I crossed the line 15 seconds behind him, which was 15 seconds behind winning a National Championship. I ended up 5th overall in the whole race because 2 guys had faster times that were not in my starting wave. I was also 2nd in me age bracket, and got a fancy plaque that basically says to me, I lost because I can’t run. In all honesty, I was proud of how I did. I couldn’t have gone any faster on the run, and 5th in the Nation is not horrible. Greg, ended up 8th in the nation and 3rd in our age group!! That kid was on fire that day.
Post race—Greg and I drank some complimentary beer that was at the race, and had some pretty dank pizza and tacos. We talked about the race and hung out with 1300 of our closest friends… having a good time. I was wandering around, and eventually came across a familiar face. It was Shane, talking in a small group of other people. I went over and put my arm across his shoulder and said hi, reuniting with my friend from worlds. I kind of felt bad interrupting the convo he was having with other people, but I was really excited to see him. We talked for a long time, waiting for the award ceremony to start, essentially getting caught up with each other’s lives. Shane ended up winning his age group, and was a national champion! Of the 84 other competitors in his age bracket, no one deserved the win more than him! And I was extremely happy he got it.
When the awards finally started, DuNats once again dropped the ball. They said it would begin around noon, and here it was 13:20 and they were just getting started. They handed out the overall winners, and then something happened where they actually had to stop the presentation… they then resorted to trying to give away free crap by asking people random questions and facts, like: “who is the oldest competitor here? Who is the senator of VA? Who lives closest to the race? Who traveled the farthest to get here? “ I think everybody there was getting annoyed. We just wanted to get in, out, and on our way. On top of the horribly late awards ceremony, The speakers were not facing the right direction, so everything being announced was muffled, and it was a wonder how anyone heard their name.
At the end of the day, I found myself talking to Shane again. We said our last good-byes, and congratulated each other on the race. Greg was waiting for me with his parents, and then I left to get some good eats at fast food joints.
To cap off the day, Greg and I went for a 45 mile bike ride in Williamsburg after racing DuNats. It was actually a great ride, and really easy and chill. Bikes sure do make you appreciate everything in life, and the people around you. I was glad to have Greg by my side this weekend. That kid is growing on me, and he is a really hard working athlete. I love seeing that.
Lastly, I would like to mention my great support crew for coming to DuNats. My aunt and uncle from Richmond came to watch the race, and was a great cheering squad. It’s nice to know I had the family support. Also, I had a bunch of kids from WiMa ask me how things went. You can never replace good friends.

New stuff

As of now, I decided to call this blog jitterytanlines. Not sure if I can change it...but this is my reasoning: I like my coffee before racing, and I love the cycling tan lines. Call it weird...but for me, tan lines show dedication and commitment. The harder I work, the faster I go. The faster I go, the farther I get. Now lets give this thing a shot!