Race Report - 70.3 Florida

Hello hello hello!  Back from Florida, another great trip in the books, another great weekend of racing.  I’ll say it: I’m one lucky hombre.

If you don’t care about the Florida beach scene, snake forecasts or the Lance Armstrong hoopla, you can scroll down to the actual race report section.  Otherwise grab some popcorn and enjoy.  It was quite a weekend.

Pre-Race

Gettin' the bike built up...
mighty fine bike.

Contrary to Wildflower, the trip to the starting line was much smoother for this, my second pro outing (thank God).  I met my cousin Dan the Man at the airport in Orlando, as planned.  He had agreed to come down from Connecticut for the weekend to run race support and take in the scene.  And of course, while it hardly needs restating, Lance Armstrong was going to be in the race.  We’re both big fans, so we had high hopes for a great weekend.

The days before the race felt really luxurious when compared to a couple weeks ago.  First and foremost, we had a rental car.  Both of our respective cars are getting on in years, so we both appreciated the peace of mind that comes from cruising around in a new, sporty, pleasant-smelling, reliable Nissan Sentra.  Nothing against my minivan Claire (although she is on my short list after the stunt she pulled down in CA), but as the saying goes, nothing parties like a rental.

Second, it was really nice to get to the area a couple days ahead of time.  I had an entire day to build my bike back up from the travel crate, test ride it and work out all of the kinks.  I was able to eat well, get plenty of sleep the second and third nights out (the night before the race hardly matters anyway), and it was all really low-key.  We stayed with some friends in Tarpon Springs, who showed us an excellent time in an area of the country we’d never been to.  Turns out there is a lot to do down there, and I hope to go back someday when I don’t have to keep my body in working order.

Cruising Clearwater Beach, beating all of the babes away with clubs, 8:30 pm, nearly bedtime

Saturday we drove to the race site in time to check in, rack my bike in transition and catch the pro athlete panel, which is when the Lance fanfare began.  I do not envy his lifestyle.  He couldn’t find any time away from the spotlight, with people constantly reaching out to him for pictures and autographs and handshakes.  He handled it all with grace and charm, but I got to think it’d be exhausting.  But then again, the guy is an endurance animal, so what am I even saying?

Left to right: Lance Armstrong, Michael Poole, David Kahn, Nina Kraft, Jessica Jacobs, Amanda Stevens, Mandy McLane

Side note: more than Lance’s words, which are always articulate, I was particularly encouraged to find out that two of the other athletes on the pro panel (David Kahn and Amanda Stevens) are both docs.  Apparently there can be life (and triathlon, more specifically) after med school.  That has been a bit of a concern for me lately.

After the panel was the pro athlete race briefing in a nearby multi-purpose room, which was nice to actually attend this time (I missed the one at Wildflower because I was screwing around at Dayton Auto Repair about 150 miles away).  I was prepared to tell everyone that Dan was my coach just to make sure he’d get in, but nobody asked us any questions.  26 male and 18 female athletes ended up making it, and Lance sat right behind us, which was pretty cool.  We heard all about the swim (very oddly shaped), bike (not a push-over, as everyone had expected) and run courses.  They opened it up for questions, and I very nearly put my hand up.  You see, going into this event my buddies had been doing their best to psyche me out with all their talk about snakes and gators.  I hate snakes, scared to death of them.  Their efforts actually worked pretty well, and I was pretty well psyched-out.  I was going to ask if there was any real concern about being mauled or poisoned, but no one else seemed even remotely bothered, so I figured it wasn’t a problem.

I will confess that after the meeting I had hoped to shake Lance’s hand.  I even had a line prepared, something like “Glad to have you here, Lance.”  Classic.  Safe.  But as soon as business was adjourned the fanfare continued, with a bunch of other athletes, race officials, and coaches competing for his attention.  So we slid out the door with about half the crowd, content and oddly proud to be among those who just treat him like a normal human being.  It certainly is what I would want if I were in his shoes.

That night we made the mistake of going into Downtown Disney looking for ice cream.  I think we set a record though, for least time and money spent in that absurd goat parade (about 20 minutes and zero dollars).  Got a few hours sleep at the Comfort Inn and then it was race day.

Race Report

I woke up at 4:00am local time, which was 1:00 in the morning back in Portland, but felt surprisingly good as I ate a couple PB&Js and bananas.  Got things set up in transition, which felt like being in a fish bowl.  Literally hundreds of people were surrounding the pro transition area, all pointing cameras and cell phones to try and catch a glimpse of Lance.  We all went about our business.  I didn’t see any snakes in the lake even though it was 84 degrees (perfect snake mating temperature I hear), so I jumped in a few minutes prior to 6:30 and got the blood pumping a bit.  Star-Spangled Banner, everyone lined up, and then the cannon went off.  In the opening scramble for position I ended up bumping into Lance’s feet a bunch, but that was the last I saw of him until much later in the morning.

The sun came up just minutes before the race start.
The men's field is out in the water warming up, near the end of the dock.

The swim was an improvement for me, even if the time doesn’t show it.  Because this was the first time I’ve ever been able to swim with a pack.  As the opening melee settled out, a lead swimmer emerged with a chase pack close behind, then a few in-betweeners, then a second pack with me, and finally a few stragglers.  The pace felt really easy in my group.  So easy that once or twice I even tried to make a go of it, but I found myself working considerably harder and not putting much distance into the bunch.  In the end I decided to stay put, and cruised for the majority of the swim.  The leader exited the water in about 23.5 minutes, with the first chase group (including Lance) about 1.5 minutes back.  My group hit the beach another 3 minutes later, in just over 28 min.  So not too bad for a non-wetsuit swim and a course that was shaped like a pair of pants (six 90-degree turns doesn’t really make for fast swimming).  I felt comfortable coming out of the water, not gassed, and it was nice to run into transition with some company.




Lance out of the water in great position.

Photo by Elizabeth Kreutz




I exit the water, also in great position, but that's all relative.  Great position for me.
Apparently I'm also crying, like a delicate little pansy of a man.



...and onto the bike.  I just passed that other guy behind me in T1.
The only advantage to not having a skin suit I guess.



I had a decent turn around, making up a couple positions in transition and hitting the bike course without delay.  I felt it was an honest bike circuit, with something like 1,600 feet of climbing, pretty tame (especially after Wildflower… 5,300+ ft of climbing!) but hardly flat.  I passed a couple more dudes in the first two miles as I cranked out into the heart of Polk County.  I didn’t know it at the time, but I was out of the water in 15^th so at that point I was riding in 11^th, solid!  But then I was passed by a big Austrian man pushing a huge gear around mile 5.  So he basically became the carrot I was chasing for the entire ride, which was excellent.  Turns out it is really helpful to have a guy who is slightly faster than you riding just down the road.  He kept me honest and didn’t let my mind wander.  I stayed focused and didn’t drift of the pace.  I had a good music thing going this time too, not the same two lines of Kanye on loop in my head, but an actual song I knew the words to, Baba O’Riley by the Who.  I even yelled “Out here in the fields!” a couple times when I was really in the middle of nowhere.  And then somewhere around mile 20 Behind Blue Eyes popped in.  I was groovin’, no loose water bottles, no rubbing brake pads.  Conditions were perfect.

The first half was nice and open with a helpful wind, so I covered miles 0-28 in 1:05 or so.  I was stoked when I saw my watch, and figured if I could hold on I’d ride around a 2:10, which for me is really crushing.  Well the second half of the course didn’t let that happen.  Things started rolling up and down and eventually pointed us back into the wind, so I covered the second 28 miles in closer to 1:10.  I still finished up in a hair over 2:15, my best ever, and with the 10^th fastest bike I was right in the mix, with most pros riding 2:12-2:25.

First bike pic of me to make it onto my blog.  In Maura's defense, it is very hard to photograph
someone who is moving so fast.  Although Dan was able to do it.

Well, except for one, that is.  Lance was in a world apart.  He stormed the bike so quickly they had to rush the last few swim waves to make sure the roads would be clear in time for his return to transition.  It was pretty insane to witness.  Now I know what Jan Ulrich and so many others felt like, when they were in great form but Lance just couldn’t be contained.  He ended up riding 2:01 or something stupid, nearly 11 minutes faster than anybody else.  Strava tells me he averaged 399 watts for two hours, which is such an enormous figure it makes me want to leap to me feet and clap/laugh/cry all at once.  By his own admission, he was really feeling it.

What you can't see is the 400 watts.  How do you compete with this?
Photo by Elizabeth Kreutz

I ended up reeling in two more dudes toward the end of the bike, so I made it to T2 in 10^th position.  The Austrian I’d been chasing ended up riding about a minute faster than me, so I jumped out of T2 and hoped he wasn’t much of a runner.  I got him in my sights and started to work away at him. 

The run course was on par with the bike route, I thought, in terms of fairness.  It was a 3-lap circuit around the lake, with a lap being roughly 4 1/3 miles long, which set itself up nicely for the spectators.  And there were two rolling hills back-to-back right out of transition.  I hoped to hold 5:50-6:00 min pace, which would have meant ~25:15-26:00 per lap.  Running is what I’d consider my strongest leg, so it seemed pretty manageable.



More or less the vision I had when we
passed each other.



Then about halfway up the first hill I saw the Austrian slow to a walk.  Just as I caught him at the top of the hill he pulled off the road into the bushes and yakked.  (He finished the day but I’m sure the run was an unpleasant affair for him.)  I felt ok and pushed the downhill segments.  Then a little later I saw Lance for the first time since the swim start.  The course did a little lollipop for the fourth mile before heading back through transition to start the second lap.  I came out of the lollipop on my first lap just as he was entering it on his second, meaning he was a full 3 miles ahead of me on the road.  And he was moving well.  We ran past each other in opposite directions, almost brushing shoulders.  It was pretty cool to see him in action.  I could tell he had a huge gap.

I came back through transition at the end of lap one in 25:45, not bad.  But then the pace started dropping off.  The hills took it out of me on the second go-round, thank God Dan had positioned himself midway up the first one.  His words of encouragement were quite welcome.  I came out of the lollipop for the second time and passed Lance about 100 yards sooner than I had on the previous lap – which meant he was running faster than I was.  I applauded him for staying on it, even though he must have known he had an untouchable lead with only a mile and a half to the finish.  I ended up splitting a minute slower, 26:50, on my second lap.

That’s when the pain really set in.  Up the two hills for the final time, I told Dan I’d see him at the finish, and did my best to hang on.  Ended up splitting a minute slower still, 27:45 for my final time around the track.  Good enough for a 1:20:20 half marathon, not bad, but still disappointing.  7^th best run of the day, but I know there is more speed there.  I crossed the line and staggered up to 7^th place finisher Chris Bagg, another Portland-based pro.  He told me I’d come 8^th, which I was surprised and happy to hear.  Until this time I had no idea where I was in the standings.  4:07:55 for this effort, which I am quite pleased with.

Up that damn hill, for the third time.  Bunch of age groupers had also made it to the run course by this point.

Post-Race

Post race was one of the best parts of the whole trip.  With some time to kill, and on a hot tip from our friends, we were able to sneak into Disney and spent the afternoon lounging in the awesome pools of the Polynesian Resort.  Hit up the Orlando Brewing Company for a couple beers, dropped Dan off at the airport, then beat it back to Tarpon Springs, where I ate like a king and slept for 10 hours.  Turns out you can pack a lot into a day if you start it at 4:00am.

Take Aways

I always like to start with the obvious: I’m thrilled with 8^th place overall, BOOYAH!  A fine showing, and more importantly, some serious improvement from my last outing down in California.  Still a few stupid mistakes, but nowhere near the celebration of incompetency that was my effort at Wildflower.

SWIM: It was great to swim with a pack, and now that I know it’s doable for me, I need to make it happen every race.  And also continue to work on my water-awareness and sighting.

BIKE: I am quite content with the bike.  More and more I think my position could be improved, and that it’d be nice to race with power.  But those aren’t really things I can remedy at this point.  What can I actually do?  I suppose some longer training efforts would be good, so I don’t fall off the pace in the last 10 miles.  And time to start up my weekly bike interval workouts.  I love those, and they really work.

RUN: The biggest place for improvement remains with the run.  I’m coming up short there, and I don’t like it.  The most obvious answer is more specific training, i.e. some speedwork and longer efforts off the bike.  I’ve got a solid base at this point and am happy to be injury free, so time to ramp up the intensity.  Also a factor would have been the Florida heat.  When I crossed the line around 10:38am it was nearly 90-degrees and 55% humidity, which is tough.  In those kinds of conditions an even split is really like a negative split… I guess.  But I’m starting to think nutrition might be a culprit as well.  In both races I haven’t bonked, but I’ve lacked the zip I like to have when I finally get off the bike and settle into my favorite part of the race.  So some more experimenting with nutrition, some more training, and we’ll see what happens.

Lastly, this race was only two weeks after my last one, and I could actually feel the added fitness.  I seem to have absorbed Wildflower well, and I am pleased with this new-found power and durability.  I hope to keep it building through the next three weeks.  Next up: Boise 70.3 on June 9^th.  Home turf, gotta love it!

Not a bad scene at the Polynesian, compliments of Walt.

Thank Yous

First big thank you goes to cousin, travel partner, and brother-in-arms Dan the Man Tavelli.  Dan met me at the airport, took care of the rental car, drove me all around Florida, warded off all the snakes, always stopped when I needed a restroom, ate meals with me, laughed with me, snuck into Disney with me, ran race support, took a bunch of great photos, bought me dinner, and put up with my entire pre-race, raceday, and post-race routines, not to mention my occasionally off-color sense of humor.  I didn’t do anything for him.  Our relationship was pretty one-sided for the weekend.  Dan, truly, I can’t thank you enough for sharing this experience with me.  Was one I will never forget.

Peg and Barbara, who housed us and fed us in Tarpon Springs for an appreciable length of time.  They also shared with us the ins and out of the local economy, most notably the Magical World of Disney, where we more than got our money’s worth.  I know the pleasure of our company didn’t in any way measure up to your exceeding acts of generosity.  Couldn’t have done the trip without your help, so thank you both so much.  Looking forward to coming back soon.

I don’t have any sponsors, but this is where your names would be prominently featured.  If you’re interested in getting in on this action don’t hesitate to drop me a line.

Might as well thank all of my future sponsors, so you know I’m being serious.

Most importantly, all the volunteers who put on this event in the fine locale of Haines City.  Yours is a wonderful little community, and I enjoyed my time in Polk County immensely.  And last but not least, my twitter and blog followers, whose interest and support keep me in the race.  I don’t do this for myself, you know, I do it for all of you.

Of course I’m kidding.  I totally do it for myself.  But I’m glad some of you are interested in following along.  Thanks for everything!

Cheers,

Andrew