Time
The horn sounds as the water boils. A thousand brightly colored balloons dance with thrashing arms and legs in the frothing foaming water. My arms act as my own internal metronome, set to a cadence that lives only in my head. Breath, sight, swim. Over and over again. The clock ticks. Garmin is my witness.
The shadows dance as my my chain whispers to me over the sound of the wind and the road. My wheels spin and sing to me as I turn the crank like some wild hurdy-gurdy man. The grayness of twilight gives way to morning. The clock ticks. Garmin is my witness.
The sun beats down as my legs burn, still tired from pushing the big ring round and round. Footsteps in front and behind. Ragged breath. A surge, a push. A cowbell and a yell. The clock ticks, until it stops. Garmin is my witness.
Colonial Beach 2013
I love this race. This was my third year racing in the event and I have written about the course here.
As endurance athletes we place an extraordinary emphasis on time. There is training time, race time, transition time, rest time. We are wed to the clock and the calendar. I came in to Colonial Beach this year with time on my mind. I wanted a PR - a lower, better, time than the the last time. It's almost comical how much emphasis we put on time. Occasionally we need to step back, objective time can be misleading.
Colonial Beach is actually a set of races. The sprint race is run the day before the international distance. I took the opportunity to give back some of my time to the racing community by volunteering for the sprint race. In fact, I had the whole family volunteer. Kelly took a kayak out on the race course and Gavin and Alexandra helped me with an aid station at the finish line. I think we all need to keep in mind that while we do pay to race, most of the folks providing support along the race course are volunteers. I was incredibly inspired by some of the racers and disappointed in the behavior of others. Be kind to the volunteers, without them there would be no racing. Even when they do something stupid it usually isn't on purpose, it is because most of them aren't racers and don't understand. Take the *time* to explain to them what they did and why it wasn't helpful.
There was nothing special about the preparations for this race. It fell in the second week of a three block Ironman build sequence - it was a in a build week. That means that I didn't taper for this race. It was a training race. The week before I did some intervals on the bike and my coach and I agreed on a target power for the bike. Based on my functional threshold power and my previous racing we targeted 230-240 watts. At 140 lbs on my TT bike on flat ground, that is around 23 MPH. It was an aggressive choice.
The advantage to volunteering for the previous race was that I was able to see the effect of the tidal current. The swim course was set up going into/against the tide on the long leg. In the past this would have upset me greatly. This is the first year of racing that I have finally come to grips with swimming with current. It sucks, but we all have to swim in the same current. Get over it, it makes you stronger. However, if all that you are focused on is *time*, then the current is your enemy.
The 40-44 age group was the 3rd wave at Colonial beach. The order was young men, young women, old men, old women, novices and relays. I did a quick 15 minute run for warm-up and a 10 minute swim prior to the start and then waited on the beach for my turn. The horn sounded and the first wave was off. Six minutes later I was in the water.
I felt good. I aimed slightly offset to the mark at a water tower on the horizon and I swam straight. Immediately after the turn I could tell the current was really ripping. I was putting out an effort like I was swimming 1:30 pace and every time I took a breath on the right side I was looking at the same scenery. The funny thing is that as a racer, there is absolutely nothing you can do but to just keep swimming. So that is exactly what I did, I just kept swimming. Later when I downloaded the data it would show that my speed over ground for the long leg was 3:00 minute pace per 100m. Swim: 36:20.
Up out of the water I came. Running hard and ready to ride. I missed my rack. I had to back track. I decided to leave my shoes on my bike for this race. That is new for me and it was a fast T2 for me even missing my rack. It took me forever to mount. I realized that I had no idea how to get my shoes on with them still on the bike. That cost me 20seconds, but I did figure it out. T1: 1:59
The plan was to ride between 230 and 240 watts. I executed to plan. The Colonial Beach course is no easy ride. There's over 1000 ft of elevation change over the 24.8 mile out and back. It was a good ride, but not my best. I was 5:00 minutes slower than I had been the previous year. Bike: 1:04:10
I executed the flying dismount and passed 3 guys going in to T2. That was cool.
Adam, my training partner had already racked his bike, so I knew I had some work to do. Visor and shoes on! Off I went. T2: 1:29
Coming out of transition there is a 100 yard spur they have you run so they can get the distance right. I saw a guy that was really moving and I made it my goal to catch him It took me over a mile to pick up that 100 yards and I came through mile one at 6:15. All I could do was go hard and hold on. The leader came at me at mile 3 and I could start counting where I was in the standings. The young guys all owed me 6 minutes - one mile, at the pace I was running. I caught Adam at mile 4 and I knew that there weren't that many older guys in front of me and I was making ground. As I turned the corner to head for the finish I saw one of the coaches from Richmond Multisport and she yelled at me to go hard that I had a chance at the Masters podium. I kicked it up a notch and nearly sprinted the last 0.2 miles of the race. Run: 39:45 (7th best run of the day)
I didn't get my PR. My total time was 2:23:30. Five minutes slower than the result from 2012. Yet I finished in the same spot for the overall, 19th. I missed 3rd place Masters by 59 seconds, but I did get 1st place in my age group. Does the time matter? Not in the the way you think it does. My 4:51 Half at Rev 3 wasn't a PR, but it was the first race that I scored over 90 points in. My 2:23 at Colonial Beach wasn't my best Olympic, but it was the best I could do on tired legs in the middle of an Ironman year. It might even be good enough to cement my average score over 90, which will put me in contention for my first All American season. It's not all about time. Sometimes, it's about a solid effort and not quitting.
I felt good. I aimed slightly offset to the mark at a water tower on the horizon and I swam straight. Immediately after the turn I could tell the current was really ripping. I was putting out an effort like I was swimming 1:30 pace and every time I took a breath on the right side I was looking at the same scenery. The funny thing is that as a racer, there is absolutely nothing you can do but to just keep swimming. So that is exactly what I did, I just kept swimming. Later when I downloaded the data it would show that my speed over ground for the long leg was 3:00 minute pace per 100m. Swim: 36:20.
Up out of the water I came. Running hard and ready to ride. I missed my rack. I had to back track. I decided to leave my shoes on my bike for this race. That is new for me and it was a fast T2 for me even missing my rack. It took me forever to mount. I realized that I had no idea how to get my shoes on with them still on the bike. That cost me 20seconds, but I did figure it out. T1: 1:59
The plan was to ride between 230 and 240 watts. I executed to plan. The Colonial Beach course is no easy ride. There's over 1000 ft of elevation change over the 24.8 mile out and back. It was a good ride, but not my best. I was 5:00 minutes slower than I had been the previous year. Bike: 1:04:10
I executed the flying dismount and passed 3 guys going in to T2. That was cool.
Adam, my training partner had already racked his bike, so I knew I had some work to do. Visor and shoes on! Off I went. T2: 1:29
Coming out of transition there is a 100 yard spur they have you run so they can get the distance right. I saw a guy that was really moving and I made it my goal to catch him It took me over a mile to pick up that 100 yards and I came through mile one at 6:15. All I could do was go hard and hold on. The leader came at me at mile 3 and I could start counting where I was in the standings. The young guys all owed me 6 minutes - one mile, at the pace I was running. I caught Adam at mile 4 and I knew that there weren't that many older guys in front of me and I was making ground. As I turned the corner to head for the finish I saw one of the coaches from Richmond Multisport and she yelled at me to go hard that I had a chance at the Masters podium. I kicked it up a notch and nearly sprinted the last 0.2 miles of the race. Run: 39:45 (7th best run of the day)
I didn't get my PR. My total time was 2:23:30. Five minutes slower than the result from 2012. Yet I finished in the same spot for the overall, 19th. I missed 3rd place Masters by 59 seconds, but I did get 1st place in my age group. Does the time matter? Not in the the way you think it does. My 4:51 Half at Rev 3 wasn't a PR, but it was the first race that I scored over 90 points in. My 2:23 at Colonial Beach wasn't my best Olympic, but it was the best I could do on tired legs in the middle of an Ironman year. It might even be good enough to cement my average score over 90, which will put me in contention for my first All American season. It's not all about time. Sometimes, it's about a solid effort and not quitting. 