Fired Up!

Nine days of pushing my limits is finally over. Getting out of bed on that last day was especially tough knowing what was in store. It took me two hours to get myself warmed up enough that I could pretend to give the Spring Thaw Duathlon a try. Amanda had to talk me into it. I'd done enough and didn't need this. I'd have some brothers/sisters at arms out there too, so not showing up would be disrespectful.

Amanda and I traveled to the race with the real McCoys, arriving with barely enough time to get situated. That meant I spent more time in bed and less time fussing over the details, so I was pleased. I was amused by the serious chatter being reported back to me. A few wanted badly to beat me and even more simply wanted me to lose. I just wanted to use the race for good training that I'd have trouble pushing myself through on my own.

All that disinterest in self torture at 9 AM disappeared when the race started. I made a quick assessment of my condition in the first minute and locked into my pace. It was evident from the start that my legs were running on low battery. I fell behind immediately. This race is more notorious than most for runners going out hard, so I let them go. My splits were nearly identical, which moved me up a large number of places overall. Dietz was well ahead with another guy.

A quick T1 got me past some, but it was the bike leg that sorted things out. Conrad was just ahead of me, so I made him my target. He's a strong athlete, so catching and staying with him turned out to be all I could handle. My legs were so fatigued that there was blood in my lactic acid. About halfway out on the bike we'd passed everyone we were going to. At the turn, I could see that Sam was in the lead by a fair margin. Given that Dietz typically goes out too hard, Sam would be my bet to win this thing. Conrad and I gave chase to Dietz, but would never catch him. Conrad spits a lot, which got me thinking. Did he think I was drafting, which would have him spit often to get me to back off? Conrad is a great guy, so I doubt that's the case. Either way, I was keeping a close eye on the legal draft distance, avoiding the spit in the process, and adding a little distance for good measure. Mike McCoy was steadily moving up on us, but unfortunately he wasn't able to catch us before T2.

T2 went quickly, but Dietz was leaving when I entered. I did my best, but started the run about 20 seconds behind him. Catching someone who's a faster runner is rarely more than wishful thinking, but I needed motivation. I told myself that I could catch that guy, despite knowing he was likely to widen the gap by a bit. My legs were shot, which is precisely the condition I train them for. I tried to send some encouragement Conrad's way as I took off, but some sort of mumbled sentence came out. It was that way in my brain too, so I'm not sure what happened. Dietz was in sight the whole time. He pulled away for a lap, then I started to reel him in. Overall, I think I might have out split him by single digits. He never looked back, which means he wasn't worried about being caught. He's injured and I'm worn out, so it's a wash either way. I was in it for the chase and it was awesome to push through that and end up 3rd overall. I'm really glad he was there. Sam was able to hold us off for a win (48:51) in course record time by :03. McCoy closed the gap a bit on Conrad to finish 5th overall (51:27) with the fastest master's time ... ever. He smashed the master's record by 2:06! Amanda just broke an hour with 59:59. What I find most impressive about that is her 7 hour brick (5 riding and 2 running) the day before. She heals up like Wolverine and I limp around and whine for hours.

We rode back to Mike's house after the race and had a nice picnic. We sure needed it after the ride up Charles Rd. and all those steep rolling hills that I nearly gave up on. We finished the day with a 2K swim. It's all over now and I'm looking forward to some time to sleep and recover before the Wenatchee Marathon next week. Thanks to all the troops for coming out and supporting us and the many athletes from around the area for the kind words of support. To be that close to the front after such a tough stretch of days was a very encouraging sign. I've been missing my motivation, but found it again and am all fired up.