Race Report: Chelanman Olympic-Distance (7/18/09)

I snacked on Cheerios as Royce and I drove to Lake Chelan on race morning. If you are on a cycling team, do you know the guy who will offer to tow you back to the group- only you can barely hold his wheel because he's so strong? Well that guy is Royce and I knew he would have an excellent race on the Half-Iron course. My thoughts, however, were on racing well at the Olympic-distance.

The Swim Start

Just before the swim I experienced something that I had previously only dreamed about- an entire row of vacant porta-potties sat just begging to alleviate liquid anxiety. This being my 4th season of racing, I wasn't nervous about the difficulty of the event or the pain involved, but curious to see how my past year of training would reduce my time. 

As this year of training was heavily chlorinated, I found an aggressive position for the swim. In doing so, I bumped into Jacob Dietz, a fellow alumni of my undergrad university and all-around great guy. 

Standing alongside Dietz as he checks his watch


There was the obligatory countdown, a quick push off the sandy bottom, and the race was underway. Rather than reign in my- and everyone else's- propensity to take it out too fast, I specifically address a fast start in training. As I consider myself competitive in the swim leg, I like to gauge where I am in the field by starting out and maintaining a high position. Following this logic, I swam an elevated pace for the first 200m or so and then settled in to a good rhythm. That's when it happened. I noticed the buoy line.

Shakespeare should have written sonnets to the buoy line. A rope just 4 feet below the surface kept each buoy in a straight line and I followed it with monk-like devotion. The swim itself was majestic. It was like swimming through a bottle of water, the lake was so clean. Visibility in the azure blue water was excellent, although, had the buoy line not been there, sighting would have been impossible for the 2/3 of the course that heads directly back into the low-lying sun.

I felt good during the swim, but didn't know what to expect coming off of my recent training. The very time-intensive application process to medical school had, shall we say, inhibited my training in the previous month, and I'd only swam 5x instead of the usual 5x per week. I always enjoy the swim, however, and especially the final surge into the beach. Watching the bottom come into view, dolphin kicking out of the water, and sprinting/wobbling towards transition as I peel off my swim cap and goggles. I pride myself, if wrongly sometimes, on my transitions and was soon onto my bike and out on the course.

The Bike
The course parallels Lake Chelan and offers some breathtaking views. Views that I chose to ignore as I dug my chin into hopefully hold an enhanced aero position on the fast flat section leading into the short, but significant, climbs near the turnaround of the bike. I was impressed to see Zoot-sponsored Kalen Darling so far ahead of the competition (and myself) following the turnaround. I know Kalen's older brother and had the pleasure to meet Kalen before the race. In seeing him later on at Whitworth's pool, I came to know him a little better and can say that he is a great guy with a very promising future.

None of this was on my mind during the race, of course. Before the turnaround at the peak of a climb there was a bottle station and I sat up and refilled my aero-bar mounted standard bottle with the plastic bottle held out by the excellent volunteers. Making the quick turnaround, I rode back on the surprisingly hilly section of the course before reaching the flat section again and powering on towards T2. I did try to ride conservatively, however, as I was hoping to greatly improve on the run and knew that in this race that was where the most time was to be had.

The Run

Attaching my race number belt just after exiting Transition

In regards to the run, let me now take the opportunity to advise those reading this about the importance of proper equipment selection, and the importance of continually testing and optimizing that equipment. You can see in the above photo that I am wearing waffle spikes, and if you look scary close, no socks. This system worked for me in my race last August, on mostly concrete, but failed miserably here. On the flat and very fast out and back run on the shoulder of the bike course, I would develop 8 blisters and a very painful sensation in both knees. I have now fully internalized the importance of checking race-day equipment functionality before the race, rather than blindly trusting past methods. Suffice to say that after a solid swim (24:33) and a decent, given the hills, bike (1:11:06), my run collapsed into a 50:20 sufferfest that was a full 8min slower than my goal time of 42min. Though the principal cause was certainly the pain derived from a very poor choice in footwear, I also realize that I should have utilized greater frequency of speed, tempo, and threshold run workouts during my training in addition to making an even more concerted effort to lose weight (I'm 6'3'' and weigh +/- 200lbs). It's the bad races that you learn from the most, however, and I'm very glad to say that I came away with several lessons from this race:

-A proper taper is essential. Rather than simply taking the week off from training, as I did, I will do short race pace efforts and check my race-day equipment one final time during this week. 

-Proper nutrition is essential. I did not take any gels on the bike and this could have contributed to the slower run time. 

-A reduction in weight from 200 to 186 would not only greatly improve my cycling, especially when roads turn upward, but also (in accordance with the 1-3sec/lb lost theory) lower my 10km time 1:27 - 4:20. 

 My goals following this race are to average 1:20yrds/min pace in the swim at my next race, ride a 1:08 followed by a 42min run, and optimize my nutrition during the month of solid training to perform my best next time around. 

Running towards the finishing chute

Overall, I would rate the Chelanman Olympic Distance as a great race. Here are some bullet points:

-very nice location at Lakeside Park, but a large portion of the transition is on a rather steep slope, so get there early to get a good spot. 

-there's a nice performance t-shirt that's since become my principal running shirt

-great level of restroom facilities, water, and energy gels near transition

-the best swim in terms of water quality and course marking I've ever raced or could imagine

-a challenging and scenic bike course. Although, after the turnaround at the top of a hill, congestion from the out and back course combined with cars traveling both directions to make for a dangerously congested section of road with cars squeezing between racers filling both shoulders of the roadway. 

-run events held during the triathlon make for a busy run course, but it gives you more targets to run down.

-very nice post-race food and atmosphere.