Rich’s Victoria New Balance Report

Victoria New Balance Half-Iron Triathlon (June 20th)

Summary

This past weekend, I did the Victoria NB Half along with 400 others. It was my first half and 4th Tri. I hit my goals, and had a good experience. The bike was painful (lower-back pain), but the other legs were really good. This was the first tri were I felt really good about my swim, both during and also when I looked at the results later. Sweet!

Pre-Amble

On Friday, we jammed the car and car-box full of Tri and camping gear. We also had my bike on the bike rack up top, and 2 other bikes (Mina and Annie's) on the back of the car. If that's not the definition of a sport's car, then I don' know what is. We headed North toward BC, for the race in Victoria. I love visiting BC, both because it is a great place, and it is a return to home soil.

Saturday rolled around for packet pickup, bike check-in, mandatory meeting and a kid's race. The line for packet pickup seemed to grow longer and longer. Wow. The sun was blazing down, so I was wondering a little bit about the conditions for the race. Rain was apparently in the forecast, but there didn't seem to be any evidence of that. We went up with another family, so out of the shared pool of 4 kids, 3 did the kid’s race (ages 4 through 7). My son missed it due to a major faux-pas of mine. Ooops.

The swag for this race was great. We got a non-hooded sweatshirt-style jacket that said "NB 15" on the front in huge letters, commemorating the 15th running of the event, and New Balance sponsorship. We also got a metal drinking bottle that read "Powered by Chocolate Milk". Very cool. Any rumors of the death of the dairy lobby are vastly overblown.

Race Morning

Sunday at 4:30AM rolled around early in our tent. I quickly got up and started into getting some food together. I had some definite problems doing that, but eventually got it together. I first could not find the matches for the camp stove, and then could not get it lit. Ahhh. Perfect timing. I didn't really start eating my breakfast until just before 6AM. Oops. Won’t repeat that.

Swim

We got to the race with no time to lose. By the time I had my suit finally on, we had six minutes to go. Geez. So much for a warmup. I quickly headed down to the water for a waste-level water-start (definitely my favorite type). About three minutes later, the gun went off, and we were off, for our 6:45AM start. I probably placed myself a little too far back, but also didn't have to deal with very much of the hazards of mass starts. There were 400 of us.

The swim was pretty uneventful. It was a diamond-shaped 1900m course (one pass). About 800m in, I found myself in-between two people, and we swam together (not really by design) for the rest of race. I actually tried to pass them, but that didn't work. It probably did, however, help with my time a fair bit. My placing wasn’t dramatic, however, this swim felt really good and gives me a lot of confidence that I can continue to pull in my time on this leg. I guess you could say that I’m finally a reasonable swimmer!

Swim split (1900m): 33:10 – 92nd place

Bike

The race organizers sent us all a mysterious message a week before the event that read: “we had to change the course due to construction and added a pretty steep hill; change your back cassette if you want any chance of getting up it.” OK.

I quickly got onto the bike, and started into the second leg. I could immediately tell that my legs were not there. This was surprising since the Half swim is only marginally longer than the Olympic distance, which I've done twice and not had the same experience. Anyway, after about five klicks, my legs mostly came back to me. Odd. Unfortunately, my weak legs were soon replaced by lower back pain. The pain only went away when I stood up and stretched, or when I was climbing hills. This situation took *a lot* of the fun and enjoyment away from the bike. I had been a bit worried about the bike, having skimped on longer rides, so I guess my worries were well-placed..

The horrible hill didn't end up being all that bad. It definitely slowed us all down *a lot*, but was OK. On a Tri bike, I can imagine that it would have been harder.

The first lap went pretty well. I passed significantly more people than passed me, and my legs felt pretty good. I played cat-and-mouse with a bunch of folks, some of which I kept behind me and others that I kept in eye-sight. Soon into the second lap, I started getting passed by a lot of folks. I was able to pull a number of them back in during the lap, but the second lap was a significant net loss. By the last third of the bike, I was starting to feel a lot of weakness in my legs. Coming into the end of the race, I had the distinct feeling of “there is no way that I could do two more laps of this course”.

I'll need to re-group on my bike leg, to get better. It is pretty clear to me that the big time wins are likely to occur on this leg.

Finally, the dismount area was in sight. I pulled up to it, and started dismounting, to hear my buddy and Vo2 Multisport team-mate Lee (also competing) say "Hi Rich". Wow. That was a surprise. Lee and I dismounted at exactly the same time. Nice Bike, Lee, who came out of the water after me.

Bike split (87km): 2:46:27 – 31.4 kmh/19.6 mph – 67th place

Run

I love the run. It is a comfortable leg for me and the one where I have the most control. My first lap was really strong. I passed a lot of the folks that had passed me on the bike. In particular, I was looking for 507 and 508 (in sequence by pure happenstance). I had gone back and forth with those two guys on the bike, and I wanted to see if I could catch them. I caught them both on the first half of the first lap. I did get passed by some really fast folks (presumably on their last lap), but they had “E” written on their legs, so I was good with that.

Soon into my second lap, my watch beeped at the hour. I quickly realized that the beep on my watch, -- must be 11AM -- signified that I had 45 mins (give or take) to my goal time of sub 5h. I continued to push along, with a growing desire for that goal time, and lots of gas in my legs to make it happen. Eventually, I felt someone come along side me, but not pass. I looked to my left and saw that 507 had caught up with him. He said “I’ve been chasing you all day”. OK. I thought that I was the one chasing him! I said “We really have spent a lot of time together, today.”

At this point, I picked up the pace, with the hopes of dropping my new-found friend. His response was “I guess we have to hold this pace until the end.” Ouch. We stayed side-by-side for about 2 kms, passing by a number of folks and doing 6:30 miles or better. I pulled ahead, pushing the pace even higher, and he ran a step behind me. I was really hoping to drop him, and thought that I was on the verge of that. He then got a step ahead of me, and he stayed there for a while. He eventually pulled further ahead, and I lost him. He would end up with a final time 1:13 better than mine. At this point, I crashed (mentally and physically). I ran more slowly (8 or 9min miles) for a about a km and a half. By this point, I had only about 3km left in the race. My goal time came back to mind, and my legs came back. I pushed as hard as I could for the remaining 3k, picking up another 5 or so folks, including 2 or 3 “H30”-marked (my AG) legs. Picking up AG spots at the end feels pretty good, and I knew I wouldn’t be giving up any of them this time. For information, 507 was actually in the AG above mine.

The finish line came into sight and I passed through it in 4:57. Goal met. The pic below was taken about 100m before the finish line.

Run split (20km): 1:33:06 -- 4:40m/km or 7:26m/mile -- 10k splits -- (45:36/47:31) – 33rd place

Final time: 4:57.08 – 46th place – 5/27 AG – 42/230 Sex

Post Race

Happy … I was left really happy after completing the race, and hitting my goals (sub 5h; top 25%). I remember thinking that a half seemed very daunting, after finishing my first Tri, an Olympic, in September. A half is definitely harder, but truly not that much harder, just a lot longer. I can definitely do another one of those, and in fact am, given that the next race in the Subaru series is July 4th, in Vancouver (including an ocean swim).

Racer 507 and a few others that I had spent time with on the course came up to me post-race and chatted. Everyone was super positive about it all. I really like a sport where you can be pretty competitive, but leave that on the course, and then just enjoy your shared accomplishments with your fellow athletes.

I do realize that this race was a tad short, so not a 70.3. The major take-away is that my time wouldn’t be the same for a real 70.3, except maybe one with a super-flat bike. The distances were close enough that there is no question that a true 70.3 distance is “within reach”.

I had an awesome support crew, both leading up to and during the race. First, Annie and the kids were super supportive leading up to the race. During the race, my family and friends did a lot of cheering, which definitely helped. And last, I raced with four other Vo2 Multisport team members, who have a lot more experience than me, and who gave me a lot of support and advice leading up to my first half. One of the team members produced goal times (per leg) for us, derived from our last race. It was helpful to see the kind of splits that I should shoot for, and to keep those in mind during the day out on the course.

The pic below was taken about 15mins after I was done. You can see a carton on chocolate milk in the crook of my left arm. A local grocery store – Country Grocer – was one of the sponsors and had provided the post-race spread, including a ton of chocolate milk. Mmmm.

Cooling off my burning quads! I’m second from the right. I eventually submerged myself, which felt *so good*. We were hardly the only ones doing this.