August 13, 2016 - USAT Olympic Distance National Championship

Approaching the finish line on the red carpet!!

 Wow I was actually there!  There in Omaha Nebraska participating in the 2016 USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships.  This event is exclusive.  To participate in this race you have to be invited.  Invites come from one of four methods:

• Finish first place or top 10% of age group at a USAT event
• Finish in top 33% at a regional championship
• Top 33% at previous years National Championship
• Be a member of Team USA

I actually received 3 invites this year.  It was such an honor and a thrill to be there racing with the best athletes in only my 4th full season of Triathlon

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This event was top notch.  To make it even more special I won some sort of a luck contest and also was invited to hang out in the VIP area.  Not only me but Julie too!  This is normally an area that only people who win 10 events in a year get to be in.  I have no idea why they invited me but I was not gonna complain!  I didn't have to wait in any lines for anything and Julie had a shady comfy place right along the finish line to hang out and wait for me.

Julie and I drove about 500 miles from Denver to Omaha on Thursday and stayed in a Homeaway rental in Council Bluffs Iowa.  The rental was actually on Lake Manawa which is about 20 minutes from Carter Lake where the event was held.  The rental was nothing special but we made it home for the weekend.

On Friday we went to the packet pickup and the race Expo at Carter Lake.  This was my 10th triathlon so far and by far the most impressive and the largest.  It's hard to put into words but I felt really special just being a participant in this race.  Once I got over being overwhelmed, I retrieved my race packet (backpack) and wristbands in the "VIP area".  There was one wristband for transition entry/exit and one for VIP area entry.  The race packet contained race stickers, disposable timing chip, race tattoos, swim cap, race shirt, race hat, large clear plastic bag and several other freebies.  I really like the race shirt and hat and I was excited about putting on the race tattoos.  In all my other races they wrote my number on me with marker so this was something new.

Wow, look at all those bikes in transition!!!

Next I put my race sticker on my bike and checked it in at transition.  These guys are serious about security of the bikes.  When you enter and exit transition they compare your bike number against your wristband to make sure you have the correct bike.  You may hear me say this several times but this was the largest transition area I have ever seen!  There were 2048 finishers so imagine an area large enough for over 2000 bikes and tri gear!  Not only that but holy cow some of the bikes are intimidating.  I ride a Trek Domane road bike with aero bars and a dual position seat post.  I have standard Bontrager wheels, nothing special.   The entire setup cost me maybe $3000 including the bike fit.   Most of the bikes I saw in transition were Triathlon bikes with racing wheels.  Some of these bikes cost well over $10,000.  Everyone says the engine (leg muscles) is the key but when everyone else has fancy equipment it makes you wonder...  Back to earth, my transition spot was right in the middle.  I took the time to make sure I knew where it was when entering from both the swim and bike entrances.  It was a good jog but not too tough to find.

Next we walked around the Expo.  There were several rows of vendors selling everying a Triathlete could ever want.  My big purchase was a USAT Nationals bike shirt and a new foam roller. 

Next we drove to the Omaha convention center and listened to a USAT rules briefing.  It was actually pretty interesting and informational.  They talked a bunch about bike rules and how to avoid getting penalized.  Seems the most popular areas to get penalized are passing offenses on the bike and starting in the wrong (earlier) swim wave.   It was amazing to me how people try to cheat to win.    Leandra Cave followed this with a presentation on how to stay motivated and enjoy racing.  After this we drove the bike course and headed back to our rental for dinner.  The bike course had a couple hills but seemed really flat (surprise surprise, more to come on this).  I was looking forward to an easy fast ride......

Those that read my blog regularly know what I had for dinner.  You guessed it, chicken, pasta, bread sticks and salad.  Julie and I opted for homemade even though there was an Olive Garden a couple blocks away.  After dinner I spent time getting everything ready for the race.  This included putting race stickers on my swim cap, bike helmet, gear check bag and also putting my number on my run belt.  We were not allowed to bring backpacks into transition so I had to put everything into the clear plastic bag.  This bag then had to be taken back out of transition and could be used for gear check.  They would not allow the race to start until all bags were out of transition.

On Saturday, transition opened at 530am and closed around 730am.  We arrived there around 6am since I like to have extra time to make sure everything is setup the way I like.  I was one of the lucky ones.  My start time was 8:04am on Saturday morning.  Some of the age groups didn't start until after 10am. It was hot and humid from the start and I didn't realize how much of an issue the weather would be for me.  Below is a picture of my transition area.  My new yellow towel made it easy to find my transition spot among all the others.

My bright yellow towel makes my transition spot easy to find!!

 About 30 minutes before the swim start I took 3 Endurolyte capsules and about 10 minutes before I ate a Cliff Mocha gel.  Carter Lake water temperature was 82 degrees which mean no wetsuits.  I was nervous about the water being too warm but it was perfect.  It was a greenish color but wasn't nasty to swim in.  This was my first time racing 1500 meters (just under a mile) without the wetsuit.  The swim course was marked really well and they gave us an opportunity to warmup before the start.  Below are a couple pictures of my wave (about 111 old dudes) walking down to the water.  The warmup area was to the left and the swim start was to the right of the floating dock.  It was a strange sensation walking on the moving dock.

Heading down to the swim warm up area.

Walking down to floating dock leading to the start area.

When it was time to start, we all jumped into water and held onto the dock.  Once they said go we started kicking and splashing our way to the first buoy.  Surprisingly there was very little contact with other swimmers.  I had hoped to draft behind someone but it didn't work out for me.  I'm not a very fast swimmer and really don't know how to draft.  Something else to learn in the upcoming season(s)!  The swim was not tough but did take me 37.5 minutes to complete.  I was happy with this time since it was close to my expectation.  In the photo below you can see my wave swimming towards the first buoy.  It is amazing how quickly some of the swimmers get out in front.  I'm pretty sure I was one of the swimmers towards the back of the pack.

I'm one of those guppies in the water!!

The worst part of the swim was the fast swimmers in the wave behind mine barrelling by me.  I have no clue how people swim that fast but it was impressive.  Once I finished my swim, the volunteers helped me out of the water and onto the finish dock and I started running towards transition.  Julie captured a great picture of me below as I was running up from the swim exit.

He's out of the water and still smiling!!!

My transition from swim to bike went great.  According to my Garmin it was over 2/10 of a mile from the water to the point where we could actually get on our bike.  It was all grass or carpet so running on it wasn't bad.  While in transition I took 3 more endurolyte capsules.  My nutrition plan for the bike was to drink Hammer Perpeteum and water.  Below is a picture of me pushing my bike through transition.

Slowly making my way out of transition to the bike course.

At the start of the bike ride I felt pretty good and was moving at a decent pace.  I had hoped to average 20 mph pace for the ride.  I noticed early on that I was sweating more than normal and started to feel sluggish.  I think the humidity got to me.  When I arrived at the only hill on the course, it kicked my butt trying to get up it.  Don't get me wrong, the hill was tough with an 11% grade at parts, but I've trained on hills so this shouldn't have been so difficult for me.  After conquering the hill I pushed through the next 18 or so miles.  I was passed by a bunch of faster bikes and bikers which was kinda frustrating.  Then again I passed several folks as well including a couple in my age group.  At the end of the ride, my time was 1 hour 20 minutes on the bike.  This was about 1 mph lower than my expectation but I kept my head up and tried to hustle off the bike and onto the run.  Below is a picture of me at the finish of the bike ride.

Fist pump as I finish up the bike ride!!

In T2, I took the opportunity to take more Endurolytes and to pour water over my head.  Unfortunately T2 ended up taking me over 4 minutes since I forgot my running belt and had to go back for it. This was only the start of a miserable run for me.  At the start of the run, it was hot and humid and the run was pretty much on an industrial road where there was no escaping the sun.  I pushed through the first mile and a half at a decent pace but then just felt wiped out.  I dumped water on my head at the stops and also tried to drink water too but it just didn't help.  I really can't explain what happened other than I felt wiped out. 

The 10K run took me 68 minutes to complete.  I also had problems with my Garmin and thought I was on my last mile only to find out I had another mile to run.  This resulted in more walking. The two high points of the run were seeing me running on the big screen as I ran on the warning track of the TD Ameritrade baseball stadium and crossing and the finish line.  At the top of this blog is the picture of me running as I approached the finish line.  As I approached the finish they announced my name and that I was from Colorado.  That was pretty cool and assured me that I had finished!  After crossing the finish line, they hung a really cool finishers medal around my neck and gave me a much appreciated wet cool towel.  Below is a picture of me with my medal and towel.

Enjoying some refreshment and sporting my new finisher's medal!!

Julie did a great job taking pictures and supporting me throughout the event.  It was great to have her there to congratulate me at the finish and to help me keep things into perspective.  There was some seriously tough competition at this race and I finished towards the bottom of my age group.  Finishing 99th out of 111 in my age group did not feel too good but Julie helped me to realize that I was blessed to just be participating in this event.  I learned a few things, gained some perspective and gained some more experience and had a great time.

Julie asked me if I would do the event again.  This is a really tough question to answer.  My thought at this point is that I would need to get better first.  Then again, who knows what I will do if the invite should come my way....

On Saturday evening we went to the Old Market in Omaha and walked around the various shops.  We had a delicious dinner at the Upstream Brewing Company.  On Sunday morning, we took our time getting packed up and spent about an hour just watching Lake Manawa.  A nice an relaxing morning before attacking the 500 mile car ride home.

 

The numbers:

What:  USAT National Age Group Championships 

            (Olympic distance:  1500 meter swim, 40K bike, 10K run)

Total time:  3:13:36  (99/109 age group, 1005/1097 men, 1737/2048 overall)

Swim time:    37:37  (91/109 age group,   963/1097 men, 1725/2048 overall)

T1 time:          2:45   (82/109 age group,   922/1097 men, 1582/2048 overall)

Bike time:   1:20:02  (90/109 age group,   962/1097 men, 1463/2048 overall)

T2 time:          4:15  (107/109 age group, 1078/1097 men, 1995/2048 overall)

Run time:    1:08:55 (103/109 age group, 1017/1097 men, 1787/2048 overall)

What's next for me:

8/27/2016 - Boulder Sunset Olympic distance Triathlon

9/24/16 - Tour De Cure (Diabetes) Metric Century Ride