Eagleman 2006

This year’s Eagleman Triathlon was the toughest of the three years I participated in it. It was brutally windy all day long and it never seemed as though you had the wind to your back. The swim course was confusing due to bad information at the start and the trip back from the turnaround was horrible. There were constant choppy swells that would swamp your entire head every time you tried to get a breath of air. It seemed as though with every third stroke, I would breathe in a lungful of water.

My race plan was to do the second half of each leg harder than the first. This is exactly what I did, but on the swim, the extra energy I spent was fighting the waves and chop instead of propelling me faster. It was very difficult to sight on the return, so I concentrated on swimming 10-15 strokes before I would look up again. Psychologically, this was working for me as every time I looked up I could see the next buoy marker getting closer. I wasn’t sure when I would ever finish, but it seemed as if all of a sudden, I could see the exit ramp to the swim. I was relieved and exited the water in 39 minutes. I wasn’t too disappointed with the time considering the conditions, but I wasn’t exactly happy.

A fellow competitor whose bike was next to mine remarked how horrible the swim was. I agreed it was terrible and got on with the business of getting onto my bike. I made it out of transition in a decent amount of time and felt good as soon as I started pedaling. My bike felt really good, especially since I just had it tuned up. At about 1-2 miles into the bike, where the first sharp right hand turn is, I angled wide to turn sharply into it. For some reason my wheels slipped out from under me and I went sliding along the asphalt. I landed on my right hip, in the same place I had done so a couple of years earlier and suffered a baseball size mark of road rash. I heard and saw my bike go sliding down the street, but other than a dropped chain, it seemed to be in good condition. I almost started to ride with the chain off, but fortunately someone riding by pointed it out to me. I could just imagine what would have happened had I slammed on the pedals with the chain not in place.

The road rash stung, but I was glad my tri-suit didn’t get ripped. I was able to pull my shorts over the rash to keep it protected from the sun. The crash did knock my derailleur slightly out of true and I had to deal with miss-shifts and the occasional jumping chain, which was no longer silky quiet. Once back on the bike, I proceeded with my race plan of taking the first half of the bike easy. The crash definitely gave me a moment to pause and helped me slow down and regroup for the first 28 miles. Once that mark passed, I increased my pace and started to pick off dozens of other cyclists. No one passed me again, except for a couple of the top younger age groupers who started in a later wave.

I caught Todd with about two miles remaining in the bike. I finished about 30 seconds in front of him, making up for the 6 minutes he had me on the swim. We exited T2 together. I ran what I felt was a comfortable pace with Todd right behind me. I tried to engage him in conversation, but he said wasn’t really able to talk at the moment. The first four mile markers showed a pace of around 7:25. This was faster than I wanted to go for the first half of the run, so I pulled my pace back and let Todd go ahead. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to push my pace enough at the end to recapture the lead. I either should have dropped him for good when I was in front of him or slowed down after the first mile maker to stick with my plan. At first I didn’t believe the mile markers since I felt my HR was much too low for the pace I was running. I figured that the first two may be off, but once I saw that mile 3 and 4 were showing the same pace, I knew I was going too fast for my plan. I think by running too fast in the beginning, I sacrificed speed at the end.

During the remainder of the run I was not able to take down any nutrition. I was spitting up whatever I put inside my stomach, although I wasn’t feeling particularly nauseous. I would just burp up a bunch of bile colored liquid and spit it out. It didn’t see to be affecting my pace much so I paid no attention to it. I didn’t stop at all on the run. I even peed while running, which is a first for me. It’s nice to know I could do that.

Todd was waiting for me at the finish to cheer me across the line. I was a little tired by now and had to sit down after I collected my finishers medal. After that, it was a quick trip to the medical tent to get my road rash cleaned and time to get some food. I was feeling pretty good after the race and except for my rash, I was feeling no pain at all.

Rob, Todd and I eventually found each other after the race. We didn’t hang around for very long and started to get ready to leave. While packing the car Todd posed for a “ham it up” picture on his victory. Robert had done all of the driving to the race and Todd and I were going to split it on the return. We made one food stop along the way to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which were eaten on the side of the road.

I discussed the race with my coach afterwards. He admitted to me that it was a good, but not great performance. I was a little disappointed with it myself, but I really shouldn’t be since this isn’t my “A” race. I didn’t push myself to the level I know I am capable of doing and I wasn’t supposed to for the race. I need to remember that this was a training race, with the big one still to come in July.