Fort Ritchie race report

Pre-race

OK let’s be clear.  I had absolutely no ambitions going into this race.  Training has been a disaster the last few months and racing hasn’t been much better.  Life, work, and family have all been acting up in ways designed to make racing a chore as opposed to fun.  But, I’m not complaining.  I realize life is like that sometimes, and every season can’t be like my dream season of 2015 when I finished ranked as the #1 duathlete (50-54) in Maryland.

I have been trying to stay positive and keep in mind that my big goal for the year comes later at Ironman AC 70.3.  Knowing this, I decided to race Fort Ritchie with one goal in mind, have a strong second run.  I wanted to prove I can run strong off the bike and if I can’t do it on a 10k, then it will be really challenging to do it in a ½ marathon when September rolls around.

Despite having no ambitions for this race, I have won my age group at this race 2 years in a row. The rational side of my brain, knowing that was unlikely this year was willing to concede the title but the athlete in me was like, “You gotta go all out!  You gotta title to defend!” I pushed that thought aside for the week leading up to the race and was steadfast in my intent to be conservative on the first run and let my power meter guide me on the bike.  That was all well and good until the gun went off.  I saw several my rivals from other races go out at a pace I normally can match.  I had a real internal battle going on.  The rational side saying, “Run conservatively, follow the plan.”  The competitor saying, “Pick it up, stay with those guys!”. Luckily (I guess) my body weighed in and was like, “Today is not our day.  We will not partake in any chasing of said rivals!”  Put another way, I just wasn’t feeling that great.  I attributed this to 3 things.  1) I had a relatively light training week with virtually no intensity.  2) I didn’t do a real warm up since I was “supposed’ to run conservatively.  3) The first mile is a very “un-fun” uphill segment, which made me feel just that much worse.  After what seemed like 10 miles but was only the first mile, I looked down at my watch as it beeped off the first mile. 8:19 pace. That is somewhat conservative for me, the last couple of years I have run around 7:50 or so, still, I needed to pull it back a bit more so I ran 8:24 for the second mile.  The third mile is all downhill so my 7:55 was a lot easier than it sounds, 2 years ago I ran that mile at a 7:28 pace. 

By now all my rivals were out of sight and, to some extent, out of mind.  I zipped through T1 content in the knowledge I could now ride at my own pace.  There is a brutally steep hill right out of T1 and I had originally planned to try and get over it in under 6 minutes, which would be a pretty big improvement from last year. NOPE.  Wasn’t going to happen today!  This let me know right then and there I needed to just enjoy the ride as much as I could.  Luckily, a 3 mile or so descent follows this climb so I could get on top of a big gear and get the legs spinning!  After that descent I was in a valley of gently rolling hills and I began to pick off riders who were ahead of me, it was about this time that I started to feel pretty good. I had downed a bottle of Heed by this time and I was sticking to my nutrition plan to the letter, drinking every 15 minutes and taking in a Perpeteum solid every hour.  I knew the hardest part of the course was still awaiting me so I kept my enthusiasm in check and rode very much within myself.  After leaving this valley the real challenge of the course begins.  An almost non-stop 4.5-mile climb.  There are brief moments of respite, but they are few and far between and there is one beast of a segment that must average 7% for a good mile and a half. I was catching a lot of people on the climb and only 2 people caught me so I felt pretty stoked, and unlike last year I didn’t feel wasted when I crested the top of the climb.  I plunged down the last descent into T2 and was ready for what I knew to be the toughest part of the race.

10K to go!  This has always undone me in this race although, I have improved both years I have done this race and I was hoping this year would be no different.  Last year, just as I started to run up that awful first hill, I cramped badly and had to walk for a bit to shake it out.  This year thanks to a dose of Hammer Endurolytes and Anti-Fatigue tabs, plus the Endurolytes Fizz in my water bottles, no cramps and I felt pretty good over that first mile.  What really surprised me though was how good I felt after getting through that first mile.  I felt strong!  I have usually struggled through my runs, feeling like a run-down battery.  Now I could pick up the pace and maybe even entertain a negative split run (OK so this didn’t actually happen, but even being able to entertain that notion was a step in the right direction!). My mile times started dropping and even the dreaded hill at the 2-mile mark seemed manageable. There were a bunch of runners ahead of me and I was chasing hard and trying to catch them before the finish.  By the 5 mile mark I had caught and passed all of them except for one, and I was pushing hard to catch him.  As we approached the finish I realized it wasn’t going to happen.  This run is a 2-loop course where you must pass the finish to go out on your second loop and I suddenly realized this guy was on his first loop!  I didn’t need to catch him as he was 3 miles behind me!  This lifted my spirits enough that I was able to sprint into the finishing shoot.  I had a new triathlon 10K PR 52:39. 

I had PRed without trying!  Funny thing was I didn’t realize it until I went home and looked through all the data.  What impressed me most was how much of an edge the slightly more conservative run and bike gave me on the final 10K.  I knocked 5 minutes off my final run.  I even out-ran some of my rivals (next time I will try not to give them such a huge head start!) I am now planning to model my 70.3 race strategy by taking a page from this race.  Once again the adage “bike for show, run for dough” lived up to its reputation.  I ended up nabbing 3^rd place in my age group with that run.  Not bad of an old guy!

Peace,

And keep training!