Eagleman 70.3

OK, so the half iron distance is a little bit longer than Olympic distance. And having only raced two of those it was tough not to be slightly apprehensive about the Eagleman, but it’s been a goal of mine for a while now – I think I signed up in August of last year, almost on a whim – and I knew I’d put in the time. All that was left to do was that actual race.

Fortunately, my friends let me drive down Friday night and stay at their beautiful beach house near Ocean City, MD. (I have to say, it was nice enough that leaving for the race was almost disappointing) So while my total driving mileage was a bit longer, it meant a few short drives on the day before the race, as opposed to one long one. Tried to sleep as much as I could Friday night, but having cut all my workouts back to half last week I’ve haven’t been sleeping as much as usual. But I felt fairly rested and headed across the eastern shore early Saturday afternoon to wade into the craziness that is a sold out half iron race.

I have to say, if I got nothing else out of the weekend, I was certainly entertained. Is there a nerdier group of athletes on the planet? (And I am so not exempting myself here, though at least I wasn’t riding a Cervelo!) There is definitely a herd mentality to triathletes and I am considering starting to do odd things in races where I feel like I’ll do well, just to see if others follow suit. (Mark my words, if any of the Harrisburg or Pinchot races get warm enough to disallow wetsuits, I WILL do one rocking only an old school Speedo. Yes, I’m serious.) As a group, we are certainly a funny bunch. Fortunately, we’re also collectively pretty nice and the vibe of the race was very positive!

Met up with Kara S. in the afternoon and it was nice to have some company for a while. I’m used to kind of wandering around races alone so it was good to have someone to talk to. Once we picked up all the free stuff and got our bikes racked we headed back inland so she could go chill in her hotel and I could meet up with my parents and sister (and their dogs) who had come all the way down from NJ to see me race, which was very nice indeed!

Sat around in their hotel for a bit just relaxing before heading back (again) to the race site where I was one of about 60 or so athletes taking advantage of the group tri-camping going on at a local high school. (It was nice not to be the only weirdo for once!) Apart from the massive thunderstorm during the night it was actually extremely comfortable and I woke up easily at 4:15 (!) for my pre-race bagel with peanut butter, all the while feeling rather calm. It was a good feeling knowing that I had done almost everything in training I had planned and now was going to get to test my methods to see if it all worked.

Got to the race very early which made parking a breeze. Hit up transition right away (early enough that I was mistaken for a volunteer!) to get marked and use the bathroom, thus avoiding the rush that I knew would be coming shortly. (Big hint, bring your own TP to these events, it will make your life SO much better!) Spent a little time putting everything in order for transition then found my family and nice spot in the grass to chill for a bit. (Interesting note, if you’ve sprayed your legs with Pam pre-race, you may find that dogs become VERY interested in you!)

Finally, an hour after the first athletes went off, it was my turn. The water of the Choptank was a balmy 75 degrees making me grateful for my sleeveless wetsuit. It was also surprisingly calm which was a touch disappointing as I hoped rough water might give me an advantage, but as soon as the horn sounded it was time to stop thinking and start swimming! It didn’t take long for a few of us to go off the front. Two guys went ahead and I jumped into a group of three for the first 500 meters or so. For once it was overcast enough that I was regretting my normal dark goggles. Couple that with the yellow caps of my wavemates being the same color as the buoys and my bad eyesight and finding my way was a bit of a challenge, but I had a nice rhythm going and felt very relaxed.

By halfway through the swim there were just four of us out at the front of the wave. I felt really strong but consciously tried to keep my pace mellow since there was still a lot of racing to be done after the swim. (Seriously, that swim could be a little longer. 25 minutes worth of a 5 hour event doesn’t seem all that fair to me!) Exited the water 3rd in my wave in a time of 24:50, which was right on the pace I’d hoped for. Since it hadn’t felt hard at all I took it as a good sign. I was little concerned about the two guys ahead of me, but when I checked the results I’d still finished with 9th fastest swim (including pros) of the day. Guess I just happened to have some other fast dudes in with me!

Had a nice smooth transition, passing more than a few guys, and made my way out onto the course. Flat is truly an understatement for this one. I could have practically done the whole thing on a fixed gear! I think I used three of my rear cogs the whole day, one for headwinds, one for crosswinds and one for tailwinds! The temptation to start hammering was strong, but I knew I would be wise to try and keep things quiet on the bike for a while. Having never raced more than 40k, I really didn’t know what kind of speed I could sustain. It took a lot willpower (Ha!) to not push, but I hoped it would pay off by the end.

My goal time - though relatively arbitrary – for the bike leg was 2:30, which would require me to hold 22 mph for the ride. I passed the halfway mark in 1:10 and still felt totally fine and relaxed. So things were definitely looking up! I was surprised I hadn’t seen Kara yet, since she only started nine minutes ahead of me, but I figured I’d either missed her or she was just flying on the course…

Somewhere around the middle I was passed by three guys from my age group who were traveling in a rather ‘questionable’ group. I tried not to pass judgment, but it didn’t look like the most ethical bit of racing. Oh well, nothing I could do but my best and hope things worked out. It was a little scary how unaware of their surroundings some people on the course were and I had few close calls trying to pass people who were constantly drifting to the left, but got through most passes unscathed so I suppose all’s well that ends well.

Around mile 33 I spotted a very familiar looking jersey, and sure enough it was the red Orbea I was looking for! There was Kara trucking along like the wind! I couldn’t believe how fast she was going! No wonder it took me so long to catch her! You’re all going to be impressed when you read her race report!

The back half of the Eagleman course is just as flat as the first part, but this time there was quite a headwind and my ‘take it easy’ strategy was about to pay off. A lot of people slowed way down here with a combination of fatigue and air resistance and I was very pleased to see two members of the ‘questionable’ group of three up ahead and pass them easily. I rolled through the second half in 1:09 for a total time of 2:19:31 at 24.4 mph, 34th overall split. I definitely think I could have gone a bit faster, but then, I’ve never race a half-marathon after riding a bike 56 miles before… Oh wait, I’ve never raced a half-marathon at all!

Hit T2 and got a quick glimpse of my dad cheering which was nice. I briefly what my family had been doing the whole time I was out on the bike as two hours is a lot of time to wait around, but before I knew it I was pulling on shoes (with the rare addition of socks) and heading out onto the run course. What did I get myself into here?!

“Keep it calm, keep it calm, keep it calm…” was my mantra as I started the run. I still felt really good, but knew I had a long way to go. I was trying to just maintain a reasonable pace and was curious to see how fast I was actually going when I hit the first mile marker… 6:55! ‘Ok,’ I thought, ‘that’s probably a little too fast to maintain, just chill out a bit.’ So I relaxed some more and actually fell in with another guy from my age group that I’d caught up with. ‘Alright, here comes mile marker #2… 6:45!’ I got a little nervous as this seemed far too fast for a someone of my limited running abilities, but going any slower felt like a walk. I kept on like this for a while and after my 5th sub-7:00 mile I actually started to think ‘I am going to have a really good race. I should try to remember everything because really good races don’t happen all that often…’

One of the nice things about being in a late wave was always having someone to catch, and by the time I’d hit the turnaround I’d only been passed by two people, neither one whom was in my age group. I tried to race calm and smart, pouring lots of water over myself and taking sips of Gatorade occasionally. (Though by mile 6 my stomach was starting to rebel a bit having been fed only gels, Heed and Gatorade for the last 4 hours. I’ll have to rethink this a little. I successfully avoided bonking, but may have been overzealous in my caloric consumption…!)

Things didn’t really start to hurt until mile 9 when my pace fell a bit to 7:25s (which I was still ecstatic about) but by then I was checking my watch and starting to realize that I was definitely going to come in under my ‘best case scenario’ time of 4:30. I was pretty excited by that! At mile 11.5 I got passed by the same guy who got me at the end of the Columbia Tri but stayed strong and ran my last mile in a 6:58 to finish with a total time of 4:21:04, including a 1:33 half marathon which shocked the hell out of me. All that running (and some of Josh’s sneaky speed) is gradually starting to work!

I ended up with a total time of 4:21:04, one I was very pleased with. Unfortunately, the male 30-34 age group (and I’m actually 29!) was by far the fastest one of the day. 3rd through 6th place were only separated by 90 seconds, but my 6th place finish kept me one spot out of the trophies… Even still ended up in 33rd overall, and 20th when you take pros out of the mix. Given that it was my first try at the distance I’d have to say I really couldn’t ask for anything more.

Well, OK, I could ask for one more thing… My age-group had two slots to Kona and three to Clearwater. Despite some issues with finding the slot tent (and some more issues with dashing off to my car to retrieve my checkbook when they wouldn’t take a credit card. Visa is apparently not EVERYWHERE you to be…) I scored a spot to the 70.3 championships in the fall! While I’m not sure if I’ll be gone working by then, I am quite excited as getting a slot was my stealth goal for the race. I didn’t really mention it, but I’d had to say I am very happy to have earned one…

I followed the race up with triathlon's unofficial fourth discipline, eating! Having spent the past month dropping a few extra pounds to make the run a little easier, it was awesome to have a huge ice cream sundae upon returning home! Apologies for the long winded report, but if you’ve made it this far, thanks for listening! See you at a race soon!