Devil Challenge Recap

Sunday was the last tri of the 2013 season and it ended with a bang!  I came through with back to back wins in the WI Tri series!

My plan going into this race was to lay it out on the bike.  The more I race, one thing becomes very apparent...if you can't ride towards the front you'll most likely not be in the hunt for a podium, regardless of how small/big the field is.  This is more or less true across all distances.  So yeah, after talking with Will, the ride was going to be a calculated hammerfest.

Race morning we were greeted with miserable weather.  I don't know what it is about this race, but every time I race Devil's Lake, it seems to be cold and rainy.  My apologies go out to all racers, volunteers and spectators ; )

I made sure to get a solid warm up prior to race start, this was especially important with the cold conditions.  Everything went off without a hitch and I headed to the beach.  When the horn blew I dolphin dove as far out as I possibly could because of the shallow water.  This is much faster than swimming (at least at my swimming level) but really tore my feet up.  The rocky bottom combined with the run to T1 left the bottoms of my feet battered and bruised.  But when the adrenaline is flowing, that doesn't matter!  With one of the faster swim times and the fastest T1 I was out on the bike with the lead.  As exciting as that was it was short lived.  While trying to get my left shoe strapped, it came completely loose, so I had to spend some time going slow trying to fix that.  However, once I was done with that dumb mistake it was game time.  From that point on my head was down.  I quickly took over the lead and didn't look back.

The bike course was slightly different this year due to construction, but it wasn't much easier.  The last 3.5 miles before the turnaround involve a lot of climbing.  When I hit the half way point I knew my best chance at making up time was on the descent.  The roads were wet, but I'm fairly confident with my descending abilities in the rain.  This was no time to let off the gas.  I think I came into T2 with nearly 2 minutes on 2nd place!

Getting my legs loose was my biggest priority at this point, so when my calves were cramped up at the run start I was slightly worried.  Luckily, I had an awesome cheering section at the end of the parking lot and my legs loosened shortly after.  I was running solid until the turn around, at which point I was able to see how big of a lead I had.  2nd-4th place were a decent ways back so I was able to cruise it in the rest of the way.  Rounding the final corner was a ton of fun!  This was my 4th time racing Devil's Challenge, so to take the win was a really nice surprise.  Its amazing how far consistency and dedication can take you.  Big shout out to everyone who raced, the conditions were far from ideal.  Also a big thanks to everyone who stuck it out and cheered.  It was great seeing some close friends at the finish, and my girlfriend Ali!  She made post race much more bearable, even though I was freezing and my clothes were completely soaked.  A BIG thank you : ) It was also great to see Scott, Bobby, Jay and Jordan rock the relay teams division!

Sugar River RR - First Win!

Its been a busy last couple of weeks, so naturally keeping up with this blog goes out the window.  Its been pretty uneventful from a training aspect.  Since Rev 3 Dells half IM, I've been focusing on getting my right leg healthy.  I'm still not exactly sure what was wrong.  After getting some ART and massage done, and talking to some people, it sounds like some general tightness that's just taking a long time to work out.  I'm still able to bike/run hard without pain, so I'm not concerned about an overuse injury.  The last week has been great, feeling like I'm back in the swing of things!  That's a great feeling : )

This brings me to a more exciting topic, I got my first WIN at the local Sugar River sprint tri!  This was one goal I had going into the 2013 season.  I had been sort of close in the past and knew I had the legs coming into the later part of this year.  Being injured had me slightly concerned, but come race day I pretty much threw everything I had into the bike, which proved to be a wise move.

As I was packing to go race morning, I decided this would be my first non wetsuit race.  To not have that temptation, I didn't even bring my Helix.  After getting a solid warm up in I headed to the swim start, where pretty much everyone else had a wetsuit on...go figure!  Since my goal was to win, I swam as hard as I could and came out around 5th or 6th (I think).  The one plus of not having a wetsuit on is a quick T1, so I came out on the bike in 2nd.  Nick Langer had a very solid swim so he was the guy to chase.  When we got out of Belleville my legs were really feeling like crap, my only focus was to maintain my distance back from the leader until my legs came around.  About 3 miles in we hit the first climb, which was also when the gap started to come back, so I put in an all out attack up the hill.  I was thinking at this point "either he's going to have to work to come with or I'm dropping him now".  I thought I was going to puke on that climb but the move worked!  What followed was a big descent which provided me some time to recover, and more importantly get my HR down.

The rest of the ride I felt alright.  It was a blast having a lead vehicle to follow for the first time!  SO thankful I had the RDE van to look at, because my visor was fogged up to the point I could hardly see (thankfully I didn't crash!).  Lesson learned...

Coming off the bike

I ended up having the fastest bike of the day, but was unsure of my lead to 2nd.  This run hurt.  A lot.  There were a lot of turns so I didn't see anyone until the out and back.  Guys in 2nd and 3rd looked strong...all I could do was keep a high turnover and hold on.  Luckily, my pace was faster than I had thought and I came across the finish about 1 min before the next guy.  Rob the announcer made for a good laugh, calling me the "shirtless wonder" as I finished.  Its a funny thing, feeling like I'm about to spew, being elated to have a solid race and laughing all at the same time.  As always, shout outs to my coach Will Smith, Wattie Ink Team Eilte, Powerbar, K Swiss (for some awesome shoes!), and all of the other great Wattie team sponsors.  2013 would not have been the same without the support!

This weekend is the last tri of the year for me (I think...) at Devil's Lake, which tends to bring a larger field and good talent.  Here's to some good weather on Sunday!

Finish!