BryanU
08-04-2007, 10:00 AM
ChelanMan
July 22, 2007
Chelan, WA
Race Website (http://www.chelanman.com) Photos (http://photos.bryanurakawa.com/GalleryThumbnails.aspx?gallery=27666) Online Report (http://www.bryanurakawa.com/ChelanMan%20notes.mht)
Sarah and I (and Mike Pritchard - who should write a race report :) ) raced the 1st annual ChelanMan Half-Iron – a new weekend of races organized by the Grand Columbian race director. Saturday was a Try-a-tri, Sprint, Kids Tri, and a 5k – Avry did the Kids Tri and my sister and nephew did the 5k. After Avry finished, I rode the hilliest parts of the course to check them out.
Sunday morning, Sarah and I arrived around 6am to the city park in Chelan and did the normal race setup of body-marking, transition setup, 5-10 min jog, wetsuit and a swim – it was already nearing 70 degrees but mostly overcast. Shortly before the swim start, the wind kicked up a bit and I had flashbacks to Ironman Coeur d’Alene. My plan for this race was to swim hard, bike harder and then run (which always seems hard to me) – very simple.
At the swim start, I went out hard and quickly settled into a small group of what seemed to be 3 or 4 people. I drafted a good portion of the swim and felt fairly good – finishing the swim in a new PR of 31 minutes for a half (31:11 - 6th overall). Sarah got cut off early in the swim and spent the rest chasing my group, coming in about 30 seconds back. The sun came out during the swim and stayed the rest of the day.
I had a decent transition other than stumbling a little with my wetsuit – and watched a fast-looking guy jump on his bike while being told that he was in 5th. I hit the bike fairly hard to try to get in touch with the leader and stepped up to 3rd quickly. At the 15 mile turn-around and water stop, I found that I was 2 min back on the leader and soon passed the 2nd place rider. I thought I’d see the lead rider on the 2 mile hill-climb at mile 30-32, but no luck. Miles 33-36 are a long descent, straight into an 8 mile, 1000 foot climb with a few very short descents. In this stretch, some guys were giving me time checks and I started the long climb 3:35 down but was gaining. The rest of the ride I continued to push hard, more to put time on anyone behind that to catch the guy in front – not being a great runner, my biggest hope is to be far enough ahead to not get caught. One note about the bike course is that the water stops were much less frequent that I had expected so I was somewhat dehydrated by the end, though I did what I could to repair the problem as soon as I realized it. (2:31 – 22.1 mph – 2nd overall)
By the time the run started, the sun was beating down and it was around 80 degrees but heading into a slight headwind that made it feel cooler. I started feeling pretty good but definitely working harder than I would like. However, I was in 2nd place and there was no way I was going to slow down! About 1 mile out, I got a cramp in my inner leg, stopped for 2 seconds to try stretching it and then decided to keep going and ignore it until it gave up – luckily it did and didn’t come back. Around mile 2 I got passed. :( I asked how far back the next guy was and he said “Waaaaay back”, which gave me hope and I pushed to keep near him. At the turnaround (mile 5.5), I picked up my pace to make the gap as large as possible when I saw 4th place. Around mile 6, I saw #4 coming the other way and he was young and tall and thin and looked reallllly fast – the type that walks at my pace. I picked up my pace and cadence some more and put on my best show of running form until I was well out of his sight – at the same time calculating that I had about: 1 mile lead on 4th place, 7 miles to go, and was running 8’s to his probable 7’s (1 minute /mile x 7 miles) – placing him next to me at the finish. Not good. No longer running into a headwind, it felt much hotter now and I felt I couldn’t afford to slow down at all so I kept pushing harder, sometimes getting the overheating chills.
Around mile 9, I saw an athlete running towards me while jumping up and down, with arms swinging – it was Sarah on her way out and she appeared to be feeling really good. Nearing mile 10 and cresting a hill, I glanced back, saw no one and decided to walk 10 seconds. With 2.5 miles to go, I was getting a little dizzy and my sight was narrowing. Still holding on to 3rd place, the thought of getting passed was too much and was pushing me to keep the feet shuffling as fast as possible, which now felt slow. The last mile felt like the first 10 as I weaved through town and to the park, where I knew there was still almost a ¼ mile trip around the parking lot to the finish line. Crossing the street to the park, I heard my parents yelling for me but I couldn’t even wave. Auto-pilot steered me around the parking lot, down the chute and across the line. I had held on for 3rd – my first podium finish! (1:42 – 7:50/mile – 8th overall) Total time: 4:48, 1st AG, 3rd OA.
Sarah finished with a new PR of 5:49 - after a difficult ride and a smoking-fast 1:55 run – and crossed the finish line looking as fresh as when she started.
July 22, 2007
Chelan, WA
Race Website (http://www.chelanman.com) Photos (http://photos.bryanurakawa.com/GalleryThumbnails.aspx?gallery=27666) Online Report (http://www.bryanurakawa.com/ChelanMan%20notes.mht)
Sarah and I (and Mike Pritchard - who should write a race report :) ) raced the 1st annual ChelanMan Half-Iron – a new weekend of races organized by the Grand Columbian race director. Saturday was a Try-a-tri, Sprint, Kids Tri, and a 5k – Avry did the Kids Tri and my sister and nephew did the 5k. After Avry finished, I rode the hilliest parts of the course to check them out.
Sunday morning, Sarah and I arrived around 6am to the city park in Chelan and did the normal race setup of body-marking, transition setup, 5-10 min jog, wetsuit and a swim – it was already nearing 70 degrees but mostly overcast. Shortly before the swim start, the wind kicked up a bit and I had flashbacks to Ironman Coeur d’Alene. My plan for this race was to swim hard, bike harder and then run (which always seems hard to me) – very simple.
At the swim start, I went out hard and quickly settled into a small group of what seemed to be 3 or 4 people. I drafted a good portion of the swim and felt fairly good – finishing the swim in a new PR of 31 minutes for a half (31:11 - 6th overall). Sarah got cut off early in the swim and spent the rest chasing my group, coming in about 30 seconds back. The sun came out during the swim and stayed the rest of the day.
I had a decent transition other than stumbling a little with my wetsuit – and watched a fast-looking guy jump on his bike while being told that he was in 5th. I hit the bike fairly hard to try to get in touch with the leader and stepped up to 3rd quickly. At the 15 mile turn-around and water stop, I found that I was 2 min back on the leader and soon passed the 2nd place rider. I thought I’d see the lead rider on the 2 mile hill-climb at mile 30-32, but no luck. Miles 33-36 are a long descent, straight into an 8 mile, 1000 foot climb with a few very short descents. In this stretch, some guys were giving me time checks and I started the long climb 3:35 down but was gaining. The rest of the ride I continued to push hard, more to put time on anyone behind that to catch the guy in front – not being a great runner, my biggest hope is to be far enough ahead to not get caught. One note about the bike course is that the water stops were much less frequent that I had expected so I was somewhat dehydrated by the end, though I did what I could to repair the problem as soon as I realized it. (2:31 – 22.1 mph – 2nd overall)
By the time the run started, the sun was beating down and it was around 80 degrees but heading into a slight headwind that made it feel cooler. I started feeling pretty good but definitely working harder than I would like. However, I was in 2nd place and there was no way I was going to slow down! About 1 mile out, I got a cramp in my inner leg, stopped for 2 seconds to try stretching it and then decided to keep going and ignore it until it gave up – luckily it did and didn’t come back. Around mile 2 I got passed. :( I asked how far back the next guy was and he said “Waaaaay back”, which gave me hope and I pushed to keep near him. At the turnaround (mile 5.5), I picked up my pace to make the gap as large as possible when I saw 4th place. Around mile 6, I saw #4 coming the other way and he was young and tall and thin and looked reallllly fast – the type that walks at my pace. I picked up my pace and cadence some more and put on my best show of running form until I was well out of his sight – at the same time calculating that I had about: 1 mile lead on 4th place, 7 miles to go, and was running 8’s to his probable 7’s (1 minute /mile x 7 miles) – placing him next to me at the finish. Not good. No longer running into a headwind, it felt much hotter now and I felt I couldn’t afford to slow down at all so I kept pushing harder, sometimes getting the overheating chills.
Around mile 9, I saw an athlete running towards me while jumping up and down, with arms swinging – it was Sarah on her way out and she appeared to be feeling really good. Nearing mile 10 and cresting a hill, I glanced back, saw no one and decided to walk 10 seconds. With 2.5 miles to go, I was getting a little dizzy and my sight was narrowing. Still holding on to 3rd place, the thought of getting passed was too much and was pushing me to keep the feet shuffling as fast as possible, which now felt slow. The last mile felt like the first 10 as I weaved through town and to the park, where I knew there was still almost a ¼ mile trip around the parking lot to the finish line. Crossing the street to the park, I heard my parents yelling for me but I couldn’t even wave. Auto-pilot steered me around the parking lot, down the chute and across the line. I had held on for 3rd – my first podium finish! (1:42 – 7:50/mile – 8th overall) Total time: 4:48, 1st AG, 3rd OA.
Sarah finished with a new PR of 5:49 - after a difficult ride and a smoking-fast 1:55 run – and crossed the finish line looking as fresh as when she started.