Last Sunday I raced the Westchester Toughman for the second year in a row. I was really hoping for the win but with just two weeks since IM Louisville I was unsure how my body would react to racing again. Leading up to Sunday I was feeling pretty good and was confident that if I could manage the damage given up on the swim that I might be able to run the defending champion, Dom Gillen, down. Race morning turnd out to be a perfect morning, I wasn’t too nervous, more anxious to race again.
The swim was pretty straight forward triangle out and back. We had a strong current on the way out but made for a quick return. I think I might have had the best swim so far this year, in a 27:30, coming out of the water I was in second, “Holy Crap!! That never happens” I thought. My parents came to the race so it was comforting to see them at the swim exit, this was the first time my Mom has ever seen me race a triathlon. Derrick Treadwell, who finished 2nd, his wife was at T1 and informed me that I was 4mins behind Dom. I knew I was going to have to ride hard to limit my losses so I went hard from the start. The course is constantly rolling with some pretty good climbs. I had no idea how far back I was but I knew I was riding well as Derrick, who is a national duathlon champion, did not catch me. This was probably the hardest I have ever ridden for a half ironman as I am still trying to find the balance between as hard as I can go and still having legs to run on.
Coming into T2 Derrick’s wife told me I was 6 minutes back, I started doing the math and really thought I could catch him by mile 7 or 8. Leaving the transition my legs felt o.k., we had about a half mile of flat running till we hit the hills.
My first mile was 5:40, feeling pretty good I carried on but a short while later I began to feel the Ironman in my legs. The run course is relentless with hills every mile. My pace was slowing and I was very much aware that I did not have my usual pop in the legs, it was a suffer fest. At the turn around I saw that I was still a good 5 or so minutes back and I also saw Derrick charging hard to catch me. I kept reminding myself that it was just another day of training and I wanted to get the most out of it. I took in some coke around mile 8 and by the last mile started to feel a bit better, could be that the course flattend out as well. I was a bit disappointed but had to think of things logically, knowing that there might be some residual fatigue from Louisville. Either way Dom and Derrick both had a great races and it was great to have my parents there for support. The best part of my day was my bike split as Dom only out split me by 1 minute, last year he put 10minutes into me. So this was huge!!!I was also pleased to have had a pretty decent swim. I am now hopeful that the new swim stroke Doc has had me working on is starting to come together! Also thanks to reading/watching the Wongster’s blog on swim stroke I can see how I am supposed to be swimming.
Thanks to Richard Izzo, the race director, for having me participate in another great event, and to all the volunteers who gave their time on Sunday!! I am actually a little more beat up after this race than IM Louisville as I strained my back pretty good on Sunday, I am hoping it clears up so I can get back to training hard for IM Florida!!!
SD
