Ann Arbor Triathlon Club

I heard about the Traverse City Triathlon from a friend of mine last week and signed up just before the online registration deadline Thursday night.  Sadly, this meant that I missed out on the great TC Tri t-shirts that were included in the early bird race packets.  Sigh.  Next year I'll make sure to sign up on time...

The triathlon took place midway up the Old Mission Peninsula, just north of Traverse City.  For those who have not visited the peninsula, it is formed of steep glacial hills covered with vineyards, orchards, and woods--beautiful and challenging for biking.  The transition area was located on West Bay in a sheltered cove overlooking Power Island.  The harbor drops off precipitously from shore and contains some of the deepest, bluest water on the bay; it was a perfect place for the swim leg of the race.

I awoke to the pitter-pat of showers on Sunday morning and felt a sense of foreboding that the race would take place in the rain.  This dread increased as I drove through more rain from my folks' place in Suttons Bay on the way to the race.  Fortunately, the rain ended by the time I got to Traverse City and the roads were dry when I arrived at the race site.  Even better, the sky was beginning to lighten and I could see broken clouds off to the west. The day soon dawned clear, cool, and glorious. What a relief!

Packet pickup was in a park near the transition area and only a handful of racers had arrived when I drove up around 6:30am.  I wasn't expecting to see anyone I knew and so was pleasantly surprised when a fellow club member, Jason Adams, pulled into the space next to mine in the parking lot.  He was in town on vacation and had had the foresight to sign up for the race before he left. 

Jason is a great guy and a formidable triathlete, being an especially fast runner.  This was to be his first Olympic distance race and he was eager to compete after a week off from training.  I have to say that it was really enjoyable racing with him and representing the Ann Arbor Tri Club together.

The race was put on by Endurance Evolution, a new company started by two members of the Traverse City Triathlon Club.  If this was the first triathlon that Endurance Evolution put on, you couldn't tell; the event was very well planned and executed.  It's clear that they benefited both from Running Fit's triathlon equipment and expertise; I didn't notice any of the hiccups that are common in first time races.  Kudos to EE and Running Fit!

Setting up in transition, I met up with a racer from Team Toledo and one from the Tri Kats club in Kalamazoo.  Being the perpetual good sport, I made sure to congratulate both on their teams' performance in MERCRS.  (Team Toledo once again took first place and Kalamazoo came in second.)  Both men were good natured; the guy from Tri Kats was especially gregarious and soon was regaling an ersatz group of athletes with triathlon stories.  It was nice to finally be competing without the pressure of winning points for the club.

The swim course consisted of two laps around a set of buoys in Bowers Harbor.  The race director claimed that the water was 74 degrees, but I think he was referring to the Kelvin scale and not to Fahrenheit; it was chilly!  I felt sorry for the handful of racers without wetsuits.  Despite the cold, the crystalline water was a delightful counterpoint to the mucky swim I endured in the Ohio River last weekend during the Buffalo Trails Triathlon.

I was in the first wave and we started precisely at 8am.  Thankfully, my wave was small and we spread out quickly and didn't swim over the top of each other.  I took it easy and had a steady, pleasant swim.
 
Nearing the end of my second lap, I was momentarily worried that I would still be in the water when the first sprint wave started at 8:30am, but surprisingly I made it out with several minutes to spare.  Even more surprisingly, Jason was only a few body lengths ahead of me.  I'd expected to be far behind, but must have swum faster than I thought.

We exited the water and were happily off on our bikes in no time.  By this point in the morning, the clouds were a distant memory, there was no wind, and the temperature was about 65 degrees.  What could be better?  I threw myself wholeheartedly into the ride.

I have biked the peninsula in the past, but had never ridden this exact course.  We rode north from the transition area up the gentle, rolling hills of Kroupa Road, eventually wending our way to Center Highway and over to the east side of the peninsula.  The only major hills on the course were on Smokey Hollow Road on the east side and on Gray Road as we crossed back over the spine of the peninsula to the western shore.  The hills were not murderous, though I did pass one cyclist who was walking his bike on the Smokey Hollow hill.  Fewer than ten cars passed me the entire ride and the scenery was phenomenal.  Talk about gorgeous!

Endurance Evolution did a very good job of stationing volunteers along the bike course so that it was difficult to make a wrong turn.  The volunteers were also very friendly and helpful; they cheered loudly as we cycled past giving us a nice boost.  Clearly, they succeeded in recruiting enthusiastic people.

For me, biking is the weakest leg of the race and I was passed by quite a few people.  Still, I kept up as best as I could and tried to maintain a speed above 20mph on the flat with some success.  I managed to tail the last guy to pass me and keep him in my sights for the remainder of the course.

Returning to transition after about an hour and a quarter, I encountered the only minor glitch of the race:  Congestion.  I had expected most of the sprint athletes to be gone by the time I got back, but instead arrived to find a mass of people running (and still biking!) out.  The volunteers were doing their best to direct everyone, but it was still chaotic. 

Here, too, I had another surprise:  My parents had made it to the race to cheer me on!  Since my father has advanced Parkinson's, I knew that they were going to try to come but harbored no great hope that my father would be up for it.  Fortunately, he had felt OK and, with the help of my partner Kevin and my sister, they had made it.  Seeing him there, perched on the seat of his walker and smiling brightly, I got choked up; I knew that this could be the one and only race of mine he sees...

Somehow, I kept it together enough to wave to him, fight through the crowd, rack my bike, don my shoes and take off.  This is when I realized that I'd taken it too easy on the bike course; my legs were itching for a fight and I was obliged to let them pound it out.  Even though I knew I was passing mostly sprinters, I relished the glory of speeding past runner after runner. 

The Olympic run course overlapped the sprint course for the first mile and a half so it was awhile before I was alone with the long course folks.  Here reality set in and I saw that a lot people were ahead--far ahead--and I would have to push it hard to pass anyone.  My legs said, 'No problem!' though, and duly sped up.   I picked up enough speed to catch at least five other runners, including that gregarious guy from Tri Kats.  He was good natured about it, though, shouting 'At least you're not in my age group!' as I ran past.

The run course was eccentric and doubled back on itself twice before heading for the finish.  Unbelievably, on the way back, I saw that Jason was still behind me.  He was running hard and faster than I was, but I had put enough distance between us on the bike that it was unlikely he would catch up.  I had expected him to run exultantly past me at any moment.  All of my planets must have aligned for this race.

The finish line was a bit of a chimera.  Just when I thought I had made it and could see the finish line shimmering in the distance, I was instructed by the all-too-jovial volunteers to run in the opposite direction!  The fatigue was beginning to catch up to me by then and all I wanted was for the race to be over.  Please, sir, can I just be done?  No way.  I was told firmly that I had another half mile to go.  I felt my resolve sag, but what could I do but continue to run?  It was like taking a victory lap without the victory.  I pressed on and ran around the park before finally being allowed to finish.

Fortunately, the race officials made up for the tease of the finish line by packing it with plenty of cheering fans.  I felt truly adored as I staggered across to roaring applause and saw my parents waiting for me at the end.  It was like a race out of fiction; a once in a lifetime event.  I will be forever grateful.

Epilogue

It turns out that this was my fastest Olympic distance event so far.  I placed fifth out of 13 in my age group and was 24th overall out of 84 participants.  While this may not sound exceptional, for me it's darn good; I've struggled to be in the top half in each of my previous triathlons.

After the race, we packed up and headed over to the Jolly Pumpkin for a well-deserved post race meal.  The perfect finish to a perfect day!

Here are transition tips courtesy of Jim Young who was another winner of the Great Transition Challenge:

I'm not coordinated enough to get my bike shoes on, but I've found that all I have to do in T1 is get my feet in the shoes so:

T1: If you are not comfortable getting your feet into biking shoes while riding (like me), leave them wide open on the ground at T1, slip your feet in and get out of T1. Fasten your feet into the shoes as soon as you get a chance.

T2: I've also not mastered removing my biking shoes while riding, but three velcro straps on biking shoes seems to be a bit faster than 2 velcro straps and a 1 ratchet strap. You can release all three straps on both shoes at the same time (one hand each) when back in T2.

T2: I usually attach my number belt during T1 so there is one less thing to do during T2 (when I'm more tired out) but I suppose that may be more of a T1/T2 trade off than overall time saving. I put the number on my back during the bike ride and then move it to the front sometime before the run finish.

Not likely to be anything unique here, but these hybrid approaches work OK for my until I can figure out the running mount/dismount....

- Jim