Spirit of Racine - Last Stop Before Madison

The short version:
I had an excellent race this past weekend at the Spirit of Racine. Second time for the event 5:11:36. I felt like I really went out to race the event this weekend, and had an absolute blast. Still one of the best courses and well organized races I have raced.

The (really) long version:

Well the “fun” really began for this race about 3 weeks ago when I got a phone call from the hotel that I had made reservations at in april calling to kindly inform me that they had to cancel my reservation due to overbooking. Great, thanks. Quickly went to the internet and found the next closest hotel, just south of the Milwaukee airport.

Saturday-

It is overcast and raining here in Chicago. The 10 day weather forecast for Sunday had changed several times every day ranging from 20-60% chance of rain. The before leaving it seemed as if the weather might hold at least until the afternoon. So I drive up to racine and complete registration. I learned that the water was a balmy 56 degrees. Sweet, it’s a great thing that I have a full sleeved wetsuit, but 56 is still chilly. I had trained in Lake Michigan here in Chicago earlier in the summer when the temp was in the high 50’s, but lately it has been beautiful approaching the high 60’s. I head down to the transition area and check-in my bike. Cover the drive train, handlebars, seat with plastic bags and say goodnight to the bike.

Next we head up to Milwaukee to the hotel, and rest for a little before going to dinner. The original plan was to go to an olive garden for the breadsticks and salad. So we drive about 15 min, find the olive garden and learn of the 60 minute wait. Jeez, I mean seriously 60 minutes. So we walk outside and right across the street is another Italian restaurant. So we cross 6 lanes of traffic and get seated right away. The food was great, and we were done eating by the time we would have gotten food across the street.

Back to the hotel, watch the weather channel, there is a huge line of thunderstorms in Iowa / eastern Wisconsin moving on toward us. Off to sleep.

Sunday-

4:20am, the alarm goes off, and it is time to wake up, get dressed, pack the car, and drive to the race. Look at the radar one more time and whatever is left of the storm is out over the lake, nothing left to the west. Sweet.

Arrive at the race and find a parking spot about 3 blocks away, excellent, this will make the end of the day much better. I bring my race stuff to transition area. The temperature is comfortable but the visibility is horrendous, maybe 200 feet, and getting worse as we get closer to the lake. I make the requisite stop at the port-o-potties and then head off to transition to unwrap the bike and set up all of my stuff.

As everything is set and I am ready to go the race director announces that there is a 15 minute delay due to the fog. The coast guard won’t let the race start until the visibility is a little better at the shore. Apparently, they are unable to see the last buoy before the turn into the shore. Luckily the buoy’s were only 50-100 feet off of shore or the race might have never started. I look at my numbers and realize they have already started to wear off so i ask for some family help in reprinting them.

The masses start the mile walk down the shoreline to get to the swim start. The sight of athletes disappearing into the fog was quite surreal.

When we finally get to the start we are informed that the rolling start delays have continued. An hour later at 8am the race directors were given the go-ahead for the race and the pro wave took off. After that just like clock-work on 3 minute intervals each heat started the journey.

At 8:12 the horn sounded and I ran into the water to begin the race along with the rest of my heat. We were able to run about ¾ of the way out to the first buoy before starting to swim. And then crap was that water cold. 55 degrees. The two swim caps really helped to dampen some of the chill. After the first several minutes of swimming my body was warm enough that I could tolerate the water. Then I was able to settle into my swim, switch from breathing every 2 to breathing every 4 and find some feet to swim with. Sighting was definitely interesting as the visibility was so poor. It was also a challenge because there was a guy about 20 meters in front with a bright yellow cap that I kept confusing for the buoy. I keep swimming and make it to the final turn and head for shore. There were a bunch of people that missed this final buoy. I get out of the water and look at my watch. Huh? 10 minutes faster than last year…really…how is that possible?…is the watch still working?…did I miss part of the course?...was there a really strong undercurrent?...am I just that fast?

I trudge my way through the sand up to transition. My hands and feet are still a little chilled from the swim so it takes me a minute to get coordinated to put on shoes, socks, and gloves. Helmet and sunglasses are on, and we’re off. Start the odometer and I am off up the hill and onto the course.

The first 10 miles of the bike felt great. I was cruising around 21-22 mph and really enjoying my time despite the fact that I couldn’t see much due to the fogging of my sunglasses. There was still some fog that was lifting and it was overcast. There were a lot of people out there up until mile 35. I had to fight for clear airspace several times, making some passes that required a little extra energy but I just didn’t like the idea of sitting behind someone. There were A LOT of officials on motorbikes and I didn’t want to get caught up on one of these big packs. So I let a couple go by, I found some road and enjoyed my ride. I saw a couple of people on the side of the road. One looked like a blown tire. I saw some guy take a corner a little too tight and wiped out. He slid sideways into the drainage ditch, popped out of his cleats, rolled one more time, stood up and walked away from the crash. Looked like some road rash but hard to tell as there were a bunch of people all around as we were turning. There was a cop at the intersection who was talking to him and made sure he was ok. I kept riding around people and then around mile 35 the course entirely opened up. There was no-one out there. There I passed someone and chatted with them for a little around mile 40 then trailed someone else by about a ¼ of a mile for a while. Didn’t really see many others until back on main street. I guess the huge crowds had managed to get in front of me and my pace of around 21-22 was holding off the others. I cruise down the final hill and manage to get off the bike unscathed ready for a run.

Bike time 2:37:28 avg speed 21.3

Back into transition, change shoes and socks, out to the run. Wait, first things first. Mandatory stop in the port-o-potty. Off to the run. By now the sun had come out, the clouds had cleared, the fog gone, and could see beautiful blue sky. I am out running and really feel good, it takes a little to get my legs working again, but I feel much better than I thought I would have after the 21.3 mph ride.

I complete the first lap and look at my watch. For the first time all day I start doing the math. I am at the turn around pretty close to 4:15. I had run the first 6.6 miles in under an hour. I start thinking that if I can keep close to the same pace I will break 2 hours for the half marathon and have a chance to beat last years time by 30 minutes. Wow, where am I going to get this energy from. Let’s just hope that the new nutrition plan on the bike of consuming nearly 700 calories in the 2 hours and 30 min that I was out there was going to be enough to start.

I keep running, I find someone that I tag along with from about a mile, I like his pace and he is motivating me to keep running. After a little I leave him and keep running. One last turn around and I keep trying to push back home but it is a challenge, I walk through a couple of aid stations, try to get fluids, salt, tabs, some solid gels as well. Finally mile 12 and I am excited to finish. I ran through the zoo with some other guy and we talked about all of the food we were going to eat once we got to the finish line. The burgers on the way home, watermelon, anything really. We ran down the last hill together and I let him go.

I hit the final stretch and start to hear the crowds and music. I look back down at my watch and realize that I am about to smoke my time from last year. I turn around, no one else around, head into the finisher’s chute smiling from ear to ear with excitement.

Run – 1:58:02 avg 9:01min/mile

Total – 5:11:36

440/1360 finishers

52/121 30-34 age group

Overall it was a great day. I am trilled with my time, ecstatic about the run, and happy that the nutrition and hydration seemed to work out. Thanks to my family and friends that came out to watch, and take pictures. I think they are all getting practice for how to be a spectator in Madison.

One day later I am not too sore, will probably try to walk around a little later and maybe swim tomorrow. Then one last push for some big miles before Madison.