Buffalo Springs 70.3 Race Report

Well, I’m finally back from the Buffalo Springs 70.3 and I’ll do my best to put the experience into words. Before I get to the race report I just want to thank Claudia, my brother and his wife and my Dad for making the 12 hour drive from Missouri to come watch me race. Living so far apart we don’t get to see each other much, so I was happy they were there.

The morning of the race was gorgeous. I arrived at transition around 4:45 in the morning and started to set up my bike and layout the rest of my race gear. Water temperature was a warm 75.6 degrees and my new sleeveless wetsuit was the right choice. For those of you that follow this blog, you know that swimming is difficult for me. Not so much proper stroke and technique (even though I can always get better on my technique), but the anxiety and lack of comfortableness (is that a word?)in open water swims. I have certainly put in plenty of pool time, but once the race horn goes off and the hundreds of swimmers start thrashing around, all bets are off. I was in wave six and we began the swim a little after 6:30. I stayed near the back and off to one side at the start just to avoid as many swimmers as possible, but the way the course was laid out made that plan a little difficult. The swim course at Buffalo Springs is basically a rectangle that you swim counter-clockwise. From what I heard they were having trouble with people cutting a portion of the beginning cove so the set up a buoy at about 100 meters that we all had to swim to and then we took a 90 degree turn and started the rectangle. This led to a huge traffic jam, but I am proud to say that I didn’t freak out and even though I had more hands slapping and grabbing my legs then I would have liked I stayed focused and kept swimming. The rest of the swim was pretty tame and I didn’t have any major problems. I was hoping to finish the swim as near 40 minutes as I could and was very pleased to get out of the water in 35 minutes. 

And there we go!

Transition was smooth and with the help of a wetsuit stripper (not what you think ;0) I got to my bike and was ready to go. Unfortunately, they had a single lane exist for the bike out and I literally waited in a line for 45 seconds to get out of transition because of all the people trying to get out at the same time. The bike course at Buffalo Springs is pretty tough. Challenging hills, head wind, and rough roads made it an adventure. I started out and after two initial hills out of the lake I settled in and tried to focus on the task at hand. I started to have a sick feeling though when I began to get passed by dozens of people. My speed was slow and the more effort I gave it seemed the more people passed me. I smelt rubber burning a little bit and looked down to make sure my tires weren’t flat and they seemed to be alright. My initial thought was that all these racers that were passing me would gas out later on and I would pull them back in. My bike has been real strong lately and I had confidence that whatever was going on would correct itself later in the race. I was very wrong. I kept getting passed and even when someone would pass me and I tried to draft for a couple seconds to get my speed up, I couldn’t maintain it and was dropped within a couple seconds. After a good swim I felt that I could have finished the bike in the 2:40-2:45 range. Instead I finished the bike in 3:12. I averaged about 17 mph. To put it into perspective, when I started doing triathlons a year and a half ago, I was averaging about 18 mph and that was on an aluminum road bike without aero wheels, aero bars, clip peddles, and aero helmet. To say I was a little dejected would be an understatement.

So now what? I entered Buffalo Springs 70.3 to evaluate all the hard training that I have put in and finish in a strong 5:10-5:30. The bike portion of the race had not only killed my time, but my hamstrings and quads felt like I had been doing squats for three hours. This is where the mental aspects of the sport kick in and it can be hard to get a hold of yourself. I decided to make the best of the race and vowed to have a strong run and just chalk-up the bad bike portion to a fluke. I put on my shoes and hat and began the 13.1 mile run. 

Gretchen McElroy had told me the run was tough and that the hills during the course are not to be taken lightly, but honestly how bad could they be? Very bad. I began the run and was able to average about 7:55 miles for the first three miles and then the wheels fell off. At the beginning of mile four is the first big hill. It is very steep and goes on for days! I would say 75% of the people going up the hill were walking, but I wanted to keep my pace going and decided that I would keep jogging, even if it was at a crawl. That lasted about 100 yards and then my walking began. I know everyone is different, but for me walking is the surest way to a downward spiral during a race. My legs get really stiff and it is a struggle to get them running again. For the rest of the course I ran and walked off and on. Not very proud of the effort, but I can honestly say that until I started doing triathlons I had never experienced my body just shutting down. You can talk about heart, courage, determination and all the other aspects of racing, but when your body says “NO” it means it. I finished the race in 6:26 and was glad to see the smiling faces of my family and girlfriend. I really didn’t have many words to say to them and was glad that I had sun glasses on, because self-confidence and pride were running a little low. 

I managed to sit in the lake for a little bit and cool off and then talked with everyone about the race. My family was amazed at how great the race was and thought that I did fantastic, but I explained to them my goals and how bad my bike was and that it really wasn’t a very good race at all. My brother took a look at my bike and sure enough we found out the problem. My front brake was rubbing the entire bike portion of the race. Imagine driving your car with the emergency brake engaged. While it was nice to know that my training hadn’t failed me, it was heart breaking to come to the realization that all the preparation for this race went out the window, because I didn’t have my bike set-up probably. Francois, my coach, said these things happen and we will move on and get ready for the next race and not to dwell on it too much.  

On a side note, many times (myself included) athletes have a “poor me” mind set. We say things like “my front brake was rubbing”, “my goggles fogged up”, “I have blisters”, “my nutrition was off”, any number of phrases come from our mouths. In conjunction with the Ironman race at Buffalo Springs, they also had the Handcycle 70.3 Championships. The men and women who participate do not have use of their legs and complete the entire course with only their arms. I can’t begin to tell you the physical and mental toughness of these men and women. No matter had bad my race was I’m very thankful to be out there competing and have the utmost admiration for all those pushing their selves to the limits.

Two Steps Forward and One Step Back

Two steps forward and one step back, that was the net result of this week’s Milkman Triathlon in Dexter, New Mexico. Before I get into the details I want to congratulate all the El Paso and Las Cruces athletes that participated. It was nice to see so many El Paso Tri Club and Run El Paso people there. Not only did the two groups have a high participation total, but both groups brought home more than their share of hardware! Great Job everyone! I also want to congratulate the Milkman racing staff and all the volunteers. The race was very well done, as always, and the amount and variety of post-race drinks and food was spectacular.

Waiting for the Swim start

Ok, time for the race report and the good and bad that took place. This being my second full year in the sport, I realize that every race is a learning experience and too soak in as much knowledge as possible is very important. I had a plan coming into this race to better last years’ time and really push myself on the bike and run. I also wanted to try-out a new wetsuit and see how it felt before I use it in Lubbock in three weeks. First, lesson of the day: Plans change.  

Out and back 500 meter swim

Race morning was very pleasant and when I went down to the lake to test the water temperature it felt a little cold. As a note to those of you who have not done an open water swim before, I’m  willing to bet all open water at 6:30 am feels a little cold so don’t freak out about it. If you’re expecting bath water temperature it just isn’t going to happen. At 7:15 am the race director announced that the water temperature was 74 degrees, so I decided to go for a little warm-up swim and then decide if I was going to wear my wetsuit or not. 74 degrees is a very nice temperature and even though it feels cold getting in, your body will adjust and pretty soon it will feel just fine. As many more experienced racers can tell you a great number of open water swims are done at 58-65 degrees, so 74 degrees is nice. I decided not to wear my wetsuit and that was my first mistake. It wasn’t a mistake because of the temperature, but for the fact that I had wanted to test my new wetsuit, and just because the water temperature was nice, doesn’t mean I should have abandoned my original plan. Yes, I would have been a little slower in transition, but the whole point was to try the suit out. So now I’ll be at the pool doing a workout in my suit and won’t have the benefit of using it in a race environment.

 

The Milkman Triathlon uses a wave start to begin the race, so I was part of wave #3 that consisted of men and women in the 35-39 age group. I was feeling great and couldn’t wait to get started. I have put in a good amount of time in the pool this season and wanted to see if the hard work was going to pay off. The gun sounded to start my wave and I quickly began my swim. I wanted to get a fast start just so I could avoid all the bumping and thrashing that occurs at the beginning of a swim. As I began to swim I was taking a breath every two strokes (As I always do), but after around 25 meters I realized I was not breathing OUT! This led to me not being able to catch my breath and just like that, my swim was falling apart. Since I was ahead of ¾ of the swimmers I didn’t want to just turnover on my back and get swam over, so I started to breast stroke. I was able to make forward progress, but didn’t catch my breath until the 250 meter mark. As I looked at my watch I was at 6:15 (Never a good sign when you can look at your watch during the swim)! I was able to start my freestyle stroke at the 250 meter mark and felt really comfortable the rest of the way. I was feeling very frustrated but happy that I swam the last 250 meters in 4:11 and finished the swim at 10:26. Not a good time at all and I had spotted the leader in my age group over a minute and a half and the elite racers in the field a full 3 to 3 and a half minutes.

Transition to the bike went fine, even though the pity party I was having probably cost me a few seconds, but I knew in order to get back into this race I need a strong bike. I headed out on the bike and hammered as hard as I could. The road was rough. I didn’t remember it being so bad last year, but this year I didn’t find a part in the course that wasn’t jolting my bike all over the place. I passed a ton of people and caught everyone in my age group except the leader and even though I was pedaling hard I felt that I had plenty left for the run. 

Transition into the run was smooth, but I do have a little advice for those new to the sport. I wear socks during races. I know many people that have been in the sport for a while don’t, but I don’t like the feeling in my shoes when I don’t have socks. Remember though that if the race begins in the water and you put on socks afterwards to ride the bike, the water will run down your leg and your socks will soak it up. When you get done with the bike, your socks will be swollen because of the water and you might have trouble getting your shoes on. I already have my shoes tied and just slip them on after the bike, but it is harder to get them on if your socks have soaked up water. The run course at the Milkman is flat, but a mixture of trail and pavement. As I was finishing my bike I saw the person in my age group that was leading heading out on the run and I wanted to run him down if possible. Overall I had a solid run and finished it in 21.20, but I just couldn’t catch the leader from my age group. He ended up beating me by 50 seconds and the minute and a half lead I gave him in the swim was my undoing.

The good news is that I beat my last years’ time be over three minutes and felt strong on the bike and run. I also didn’t feel bad on the swim once I caught my breath, so I’ll take that as a positive. Bobby Gonzalez won his age group and finished 3^rd overall and Albert Lugo and Cid Lopez finished first and second in the 40-45 AG and also 4^th and 5^th overall. Both had incredible races and I don’t look forward to moving into that age group next year. Jim Kehrle had a great race and took first in his age group and Greg Garcia finished with a strong third place showing in the 45-49 AG. Laura Bernal finished in third for her AG and did a great job out there! 

I look forward to racing the Buffalo Springs 70.3 in three weeks and just want to remind everyone that is going to get your hotel room soon. Rooms seem to become scarce every year for this race so book early.