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 3rd place in my age group with that run. Not bad of an old guy!
Peace,
And keep training!
