benbiggles
06-03-2007, 06:44 AM
Hey everyone,
Glad to be back and it was nice to see so many of you at Issaquah on Saturday. The team put out a tremendous performance with some great results. The results have not been posted yet but to my knowledge we took 'five' AG titles and 2nd and 3rd overall female and male respectively! Not sure too many other teams can profess to that.
Anyhow my race report - Race morning dawned clear and mild, perfect! I awoke at 4am and proceeded with my normal pre-race routine of coffee, porridge and playing with the dogs. Arrived at the race venue with Cindy nice and early, registered, sorted out my bike etc in transition and warmed up. For those of you interested my warm-up routine is a 10-15 minute run at an easy/moderate pace (generally building) followed by a good length swim where feasible. I was amazed at how warm the water was, it really must have been nice weather while Cindy and I were out of the country, you lucky devils.
Okay so the self-select ELite wave - A little bit of a joke this as it seems there are clearly some not quite so elite people who decide for whatever reason to compete in this wave, it did not effect me but I know frustrated people in later waves. I swam hard from the gun as you have to in such a short race (hence the importance of a good warm-up). Thought I was in the lead group heading to the first buoy but then realised there were a couple of guys further down the course, no way any of us could bridge that gap even if we had wanted to. Swam shoulder to shoulder with Scott Seamster I think and eventually just drifted on to his feet in the final leg just to compose myself for T1. Exited the water I guess in around 5th-6th and had a very clean transition, leaving t1 in 4th. After a small error at the first turn on the bike I rode strongly and soon put distance between myself and Scott (Seamster). I could see some young guy up ahead riding shirtless and figured he was not a biker, soon reeled him in and thought at the time I was then in the lead (how wrong I was). I did not see the race leader (Ben COllins) until he was headed back after the turn. He had maybe a minute or so on me I figured although with no watch or computer this was a guess. I made the turn (successfully!) and seemed to have a cushion back to third and fourth and then a couple of big packs drafting annoyed me a little! I resisted saying anything as I did not want to waste any energy however it niggled at me that some of these guys were great runners (Brady Brewer etc) and may run me down. Blocked these thoughts out and tried to hold rhythm coming back into town. I felt I biked okay, gears were not syncing so well but not a huge problem. Legs cramping a little periodically which was strange, I put it down to a combination of jet lag and having been crammed into an aircraft for 12 hours or so on the Thursday.
Arrived at t2 in 2nd position and again had a very smooth transition. My left quad cramped as I got off the bike and I prayed it eased off during the run (it did). Settled into a good pace with a nice high cadence (for me anyway) and proceeded to click off the miles, not sure how fast I was running but I would guess at 6:10-6:15's based on my RPE. Managed to hold off the fast running Scott Seamster until about 4km's and then ran strong to the finish coming in 3rd overall and 1st AG. I was pleased with this result off the back of my recent vacation and lack of any speed work.
Awards - Now I am not a trophy hunter nor do I particularly crave the spotlight however lots of age group athletes race to get some recognition for all there hard work and after hanging around with some other team members for the awards only to discover they were only announcing the overall male and female winners sucked! We all work hard in our training to be competitive in our divisions and to get no recognition for this is terrible in an event that financially does very very well. I STRONGLY recommend those of you that raced and feel the same provide such feedback to the race organisers, I know I will.
A big CONGRATUALTIONS to all fellow team members who raced, it was a great day and will hopefully serve as our season opener with more great races ahead of us all.
Cheers
Ben
Glad to be back and it was nice to see so many of you at Issaquah on Saturday. The team put out a tremendous performance with some great results. The results have not been posted yet but to my knowledge we took 'five' AG titles and 2nd and 3rd overall female and male respectively! Not sure too many other teams can profess to that.
Anyhow my race report - Race morning dawned clear and mild, perfect! I awoke at 4am and proceeded with my normal pre-race routine of coffee, porridge and playing with the dogs. Arrived at the race venue with Cindy nice and early, registered, sorted out my bike etc in transition and warmed up. For those of you interested my warm-up routine is a 10-15 minute run at an easy/moderate pace (generally building) followed by a good length swim where feasible. I was amazed at how warm the water was, it really must have been nice weather while Cindy and I were out of the country, you lucky devils.
Okay so the self-select ELite wave - A little bit of a joke this as it seems there are clearly some not quite so elite people who decide for whatever reason to compete in this wave, it did not effect me but I know frustrated people in later waves. I swam hard from the gun as you have to in such a short race (hence the importance of a good warm-up). Thought I was in the lead group heading to the first buoy but then realised there were a couple of guys further down the course, no way any of us could bridge that gap even if we had wanted to. Swam shoulder to shoulder with Scott Seamster I think and eventually just drifted on to his feet in the final leg just to compose myself for T1. Exited the water I guess in around 5th-6th and had a very clean transition, leaving t1 in 4th. After a small error at the first turn on the bike I rode strongly and soon put distance between myself and Scott (Seamster). I could see some young guy up ahead riding shirtless and figured he was not a biker, soon reeled him in and thought at the time I was then in the lead (how wrong I was). I did not see the race leader (Ben COllins) until he was headed back after the turn. He had maybe a minute or so on me I figured although with no watch or computer this was a guess. I made the turn (successfully!) and seemed to have a cushion back to third and fourth and then a couple of big packs drafting annoyed me a little! I resisted saying anything as I did not want to waste any energy however it niggled at me that some of these guys were great runners (Brady Brewer etc) and may run me down. Blocked these thoughts out and tried to hold rhythm coming back into town. I felt I biked okay, gears were not syncing so well but not a huge problem. Legs cramping a little periodically which was strange, I put it down to a combination of jet lag and having been crammed into an aircraft for 12 hours or so on the Thursday.
Arrived at t2 in 2nd position and again had a very smooth transition. My left quad cramped as I got off the bike and I prayed it eased off during the run (it did). Settled into a good pace with a nice high cadence (for me anyway) and proceeded to click off the miles, not sure how fast I was running but I would guess at 6:10-6:15's based on my RPE. Managed to hold off the fast running Scott Seamster until about 4km's and then ran strong to the finish coming in 3rd overall and 1st AG. I was pleased with this result off the back of my recent vacation and lack of any speed work.
Awards - Now I am not a trophy hunter nor do I particularly crave the spotlight however lots of age group athletes race to get some recognition for all there hard work and after hanging around with some other team members for the awards only to discover they were only announcing the overall male and female winners sucked! We all work hard in our training to be competitive in our divisions and to get no recognition for this is terrible in an event that financially does very very well. I STRONGLY recommend those of you that raced and feel the same provide such feedback to the race organisers, I know I will.
A big CONGRATUALTIONS to all fellow team members who raced, it was a great day and will hopefully serve as our season opener with more great races ahead of us all.
Cheers
Ben