BlogApril 4, 2008 California 70.3: what a rough start to 2008 Having had a few days for the race to set itself in my mind, I figure it's time to do a race report for my first triathlon of the year. My Tri-Scottsdale friend Adam Gugick came along as he was competing in his first ever Half Ironman. He kidded around about heavy celebrations on Saturday night after me taking a big breakthrough win. I assured him that even after a third last year winning any 70.3 isn't easy, let alone perhaps the most well-known event on the calendar. California 70.3 Half Ironman is the unofficial official start to the professional triathlon season. It's a challenging course, and always has an incredibly competitive field. Seeing Craig Alexander and Andy Potts on the start list, I knew the odds were that nobody other than one of them would take the victory. Conceding this, I was confident I could at least get third again and that races need to be raced as anything can happen out there! Everything went well leading up to the start, business as usual. Having not raced yet this year, getting everything ready was a little bit awkward. As the season goes on this becomes more natural but the first race of the year, for me, there's always the constant, nagging,"What am I forgetting?" Into the water swimming out to the start it was COLD! Everybody was making comments about it, and that's just what racing is like in March! We only had about three minutes to swim the one hundred or so yards out to the start buoy so I made my way out. Unfortunately, I noticed my goggles leaked a little bit. I had no problem swimming in a pool the day before, and this make/model of goggle is all I've worn the last two years because they never leak at all and are always comfortable. Bobbing in the water, I licked them, tightened them up a bit, and prepared for the gun. I figured it was a fluke-deal and perhaps they'd just need a little straightening out. As the gun fired I was way out right with my buddy Heath Thurston. He's a good swimmer and he told me to hop on his feet, stay out of the mess, and around the first buoy 500 yards in we would cut left and join the group probably near the front. A year ago I wouldn't have the confidence to do this, but my swimming has gotten substantially faster (5-10 seconds per 100) in the last 3-4 months so I figured this strategy would be a low-risk way to get the job done. I wanted to make the "main" group as I did last year but hopefully with less effort this time. After exiting the water, I would then be rested and ready to go when it came time to ride the bike. I got a clean start and was off. Unfortunately, within 50 yards my goggles were full of water! I stopped, this is absolutely the worst time in a whole triathlon to stop but I had no choice. I drained them of water and took off sprinting again, Heath was long gone at this point! 25 yards later, goggles full of salt water! I stopped again. This was disastrous... I tried to get them to seal but they were just letting air in. At this point I considered swimming back to the start and calling it a day as I'd only gone maybe 100 meters and the goggles didn't work three times now. This ocean boat harbor has lots of bird waste, some boat oil, and whatever else one could imagine in it. Probably not ideal to swim for 1.2 miles without goggles! Also, the sun rises on the way back in, and with that considered, this is a challenging course to follow even with the best dark goggles on working properly. BUT.... This was a race, and I was here to RACE!!! Also, I rested a couple of days for this event and wanted to get a solid day of work in. So, I threw the goggles to one of the paddle board dudes and off I went chasing with no goggles in last place by a mile. I wish somebody could have predicted that my goggles wouldn't work prior to the start, then at least I could prepare for how bad it would suck and maybe make a group because I wouldn't have stopped to mess with them. About three hundred yards in I caught a group, it was clear right away these dudes were some serious non-swimmers. My goal was just to find any group and follow them as my sighting ability wasn't strong not being able to see too clearly. All I could think about is how it would be worse on the way back! I dropped this group as I looked ahead and saw a guy teetering off the back of a large group. I set a goal to catch him, a couple hundred yards later I did. Around a buoy we went and I was glued to his feet. The effort level was low but I knew that I was better off following this guy as I had to rest for the bike and I couldn't swim on my own anyway. Eyes burning, I sighted less and followed his bubbles the best I could. About two minutes later I got a tap on my back with a kayak paddle. We had gone the wrong way! Sweet, this was going from bad to worse. I stopped, figured out that we had to go back, saw how remarkably far the main group was ahead of us, and took off swimming all out in that direction this time relying only on myself. Now I would be swimming the rest of the way with no draft, much harder than I would be swimming drafting in a group. Also, I wouldn't be seeing a whole lot as I was swimming without goggles into the sun. Lastly, I would probably be losing even more gobs of time to the group I needed to be in. Off I went. It was mostly a game of pinball on the way back. Swimming with my head down the best I could until somebody on a paddleboard told me I was going a little askew. As I swam in and up the boat ramp it felt good to touch land and finish what was certainly one of the worst starts I've ever had to a triathlon, and definitely the worst one this year! Off and riding I hopped on my new Tri-Sports/Felt DA bike. This steed felt great and I immediately was passing dudes. I saw the clock read about 27:00 minutes as I got out of the water and that Potts would have gotten out on the lower side of 22:00 minutes. I had some work to do. Immediately I was passing lots of guys from the pro wave. It's deceiving though, as I realized that in 42 starters there are always lots of good swimmers and many of them don't bike too well. I stayed honest, and rode hard. I set little goals, one was to challenge myself to ride harder than I had planned to get back in the race. Another, was to not get passed by anybody all day. At about mile thirty I had passed about 20-25 pros and was riding alone. Jay from Triathlete Magazine motorcycled up and let me know that the Italian Cigana and Steve Larsen were 90 seconds behind me. Two ex-Euro-pro cyclists chasing me, it would be fun to try and hold them off. Onto the big hills around mile 35 I was still catching people but losing my legs a bit. My huge effort in vain on the swim, and my slightly-harder-than-usual early bike were starting to catch up with me. Larsen rolled by at mile 40, he was looking great. I wasn't feeling great and couldn't go with him. I rolled into transition having caught a couple more guys and was excited to see some top guys still in T2. Eventual 5th place Richie Cunningham was running out along with some other fast guys. I had literally raced my way somewhat back into the event. I charged out of T2 and glanced at the clock to see my time. Somebody told me I was in thirteenth and I quickly calculated that I had biked ~2:20. Pretty good for being all alone on a tough-coursed windy day! I also knew I had blown up and lost a few minutes over the last fifteen miles so for the first time all day I had a smile and felt slightly optimistic. My legs right away felt good running and I caught and passed a couple guys who weren't enjoying it. Around the first of two out and back turnarounds I saw my position and knew I would have some work to get into the money. Before the race, I vowed to only lay-it-on-the-line if there was a chance to make money. (top 8 places) Me being in roughly 12-15th place this was going to be unlikely and I put in one last surge back to the transition area to see if I could pick some guys off. Didn't happen, I was still running in the same area so I put it on cruise control and just ran the last few miles of the race. Normally, this isn't my style, but last year after laying it all out at this Half Ironman I had some residual build-up two weeks later at Ironman Arizona. I wasn't going to make the same mistake again in an effort to get 11th, or 9th, or whatever instead of 15th. So, I ran it in and was pleasantly surprised to be in 15th. Considering the day and trouble I had, and the class of the field, 15th out of 42 is far from disappointing. Andy Potts won in a sprint over Alexander, the odds makers were right again. In looking at the results It's easy for me to draw up a scenario if my goggles hadn't leaked in which I would have been third again, and certainly in the top five. Like anybody trying to compete at the top of any sport, perhaps my confidence goes always slightly beyond my ability but I like to think not. It's sometimes these tougher races that make me hungriest for the better results, especially when I know I have it in me just around the corner! See everyone at IMAZ, Lewis Oh yeah, my buddy Adam finished his first half in 6:15, I didn't win but he seemed to celebrate anyway! Lewis « Back to Blogs |
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