REV 3 Old Orchard Beach, Maine

Last weekend, I headed 8- hours north up the east coast to Old Orchard Beach, Maine for my second REV 3 race of the weekend. The start list was extremely deep with 37- male pro starters, making it the largest non- drafting pro field I have ever raced.

Swim:
21:31, 90 seconds behind the leaders.
The swim was a run in to the Atlantic, a big rectangle, and long run out to t1 (0.3 miles). I got out pretty poorly on the start and found myself getting clobbered by the large pro field. I broke out of the second pack by the bouy at 400 meters, but did not catch the front pack. It was a bit disappointing because from the splits, there was a pack around 20 minutes and a second pack at 22 minutes with me lying in the middle. I did love my new Roka Maverick Pro and that made me feel much more comfortable than I ever have in a wetsuit swim. I have never enjoyed wetsuit swimming, but with this suit it feels much better.

Bike: 1:00:37, 24.8 mph
After the long run to T1, I got out of my wetsuit quickly and onto the bike in a sea of age groupers doing the half. It was fairly congested initially, but it broke up shortly thereafter. I was soon caught by part of that second group and I rode with Alex Willis, Vezina (CAN), and Justin Roeder for the majority of the ride. With the pro rules of staggered riding, it definitely makes for an interesting "dance" when the field is so large. We rode through a few fast swimmers, and we had a few people ride through us that retrospectively, I wish I had tried to go with. I felt like I was riding hard for 5 miles but the remaining 20 felt very comfortable. There was a group not too far up the road that rode mid 57 minutes. That may have been a bit too fast but I think I am getting close to that speed.  We came off the bike in 20-22nd position.

Run: 34:05, 5:30 pace
This was my best 10k in a triathlon of this season. I have been focusing a lot of biking/swimming for the past 1.5 years and I lack a lot of the speed I had when I ran track PR's. That is ok, because I am starting to get some of that back as I have been able to workout with my roommate, Andy Weaver, and the high school kids I am coaching. With getting the other two sports caught up to my running, I am feeling like a more well rounded triathlete. Just 2- years ago, I would swim decently, bike very slowly, then run a low 32' run. That was not effective to "race" a triathlon, so I am happy with my progress.

Next up is Savageman 70.0 distance triathlon... What? yeah, that was an interesting choice to sign up for that as my first long course triathlon! I am excited to race it and get a taste of this monstrous race.

U23 World Duathlon Champs

This last weekend I had the opportunity to race U23 World Duathlon champs in Ottawa.  This is an ITU event and brought in quite a lot of talent. Only being 8.5 hours from my house, it was a great chance to get in an ITU race.  It even had a local feel as my mom, girlfriend, and her family came out to support.

Ottawa is a beautiful city and it was great to get there a few days before the race.

Onto the race. I had put in some great workouts heading into this race with a recent 3k just under 9:00 feeling comfortable and thinking that would be the pace for the first 5k of the race. I was a bit off as we took off and the first run was 14:35 for the leaders.  I ran mid 15:20s and was left in a bike pack of 6 that worked pretty well but we were unable to bridge up. I could feel similar calf cramping to last year's world du champs, so I was determined to stretch that and not let it lock up.

The bike had a very technical section each lap (3 lap course) with a crit style 4- corners and two chicanes and a 180 all rolled up together.  We could not ride this before the race, so it was a bit difficult seeing the scene for the first time.  As each lap went by, the turns felt more comfortable and it was a nice technical reminder.  At one point, a seagull was right on the apex of a corner we were coming to. Thankfully nobody hit it, but I thought that bird was about to get popped.

On the second run, I could feel my calves hurting a bit, so I eased into it.  It was only a 2.5 km run though, so that slow start certainly hurt my chances at a great split.  I finished up 12th overall for the U23 elite world champs.  Not the result I had hoped for, but not a bad day.