Finger Lakes Tri
I just had a fantastic weekend that happened to include a race, so be forewarned the rest of this race report is going to have a pronounced lack of humility. You probably should stop reading now.
I've got Barrelman 70.3 coming up in 2 weeks which has become an important goal race for me. When my friend Scott said he was going to race Finger Lakes Tri (9/8/19) with his son a few weeks ago, I signed up right away. I've never done FLT before. The timing was perfect as a tune up race for Barrelman. This is also the race where my mind was blown 10+ years ago when I showed up to cheer on my friend Chris. Watching Chris planted the seed about triathlon years before I ever developed an exercise habit and it was going to be pretty special for me to jump in the water and swim way out into the lake just like him.
Sunday, which was race day, was also the last day of the biggest 4 week training block that I've ever done. I set a goal to do 20+ hours of training for 4 weeks in a row. I managed 21:26, 20:57, 21:46, 24:24 and snuck a 14 hour hike in the middle that wasn't in the totals. I'm still shocked that I pulled off that 4 weeks. With so much volume on my legs there was no way that I was going to "race" FLT. I was there to "participate" only. Since I wasn't going to "race" Sunday I went out and did the new weekend habit of riding a hundred miles. It was a really nice ride. I got to explore some new roads and other than some scary fog for about an hour the weather was fantastic. The century ride wasn't easy, but I didn't exactly push it either. I was just out turning the pedals for 5 hours and 40 minutes. After the Saturday long ride I switched the bike over to race mode, but skipped all maintance/configuration changes that could be deemed optional. After all, I was not going to "race" on Sunday, just hang out with friends like Scott, Drew, Ryan and Rae.
Sunday morning, I woke up before my alarm went off, so I hit the road and got to the race early enough to get a really good parking space. The swim had been cancelled from toxic algal blooms, so it was really now just a duathlon. I've only ever raced 2 duathlons before. They were both very small races and I placed first overall in them both. FLT was going to kinda, sorta spoil that record but whatever. It was really just a fun run. I didn't study any of the race course or pay attention to any details at all. My original goal time of when to show up at the race was carefully considered by ignoring the race guide and texting Scott to ask when he planned to be there. He likes early. I'll just plan for whatever he says. The important detail of what wave I'm in and when will it start? That was left up to Rae. She asked when I was starting and after being unsatisfied with an answer of "dunno" did me the solid of looking in the athlete's guide for me.
When we got close to the time my wave was supposed to start I wandered over in the direction of the run course. I didn't actually know where the start line was going to be. I asked a volunteer. They didn't know. I looked over towards transition and could see people starting to filter my way. I must be close. I went off to do some light running to warm up and after a few minutes saw folks standing in the road. That must be the start line. I went over, did a stride out once and lined up. I kept looking around. Where were the fast people? I asked other people, "Where are the fast people?" They thought I was joking but I wasn't. This was all very confusing. We got the two minute warning. What is going on? Where are the usual suspects that I should line up behind? My anxiety started to kick in. Get me out of here. I don't want to do this. I asked the guy next to me, "why do we do this again?" He answered, "To stay young." Decent answer, but nope. I really would much rather be almost anywhere else.
We were told to 'go'. Crap. Well, let's sprint out for a bit. Crap. I'm catching the lead bike and he isn't pedaling fast enough. I shouted ahead and told him to hurry up or get out of the way. 100 yards in. Where are the fast people? I shouldn't be in the lead. Oh well, it won't last. Soon someone will catch me and I can shut it down. 200 yards in. Crap. Why hasn't anyone passed me? This is stupid. Where's the turnaround? I just kept running wishing someone would pass me. I got to the turnaround about 1/3 of a mile in. I turned, looked back and WTF. Why is there nobody behind me? I must have had a 200 yard lead on the front of the pack that was chasing me. I kept running hard in a completely confused state. As I neared the end of the 1 mile start in an area about 100 yards from transition with nobody around except a volunteer I yelled out "What the F*ck". This isn't supposed to be happening. I totally messed up how to get into transition. It wasn't a confusing setup but I hadn't even looked that morning so I was completely disoriented. When I got inside the fence, I immediately ran past my bike. Wait. Where did I rack? Oh, right...over there. I doubled back, threw my bike gear on and started to run to the opposite side. I hope that's where the bike out is. My glasses were completely coated with dew so I couldn't see anything. I got to the mount line, hopped on with a complete lack of coordination and started to pedal away. Where's the course? The volunteers here were great and keeping me on track but I really had no idea what I was doing.
The bike course is a big loop with a 1/3 mile tail that gets us out/into transition. The tail is a closed traffic lane divided with cones where we ride on the left so that the bikes don't cross over when athletes are both returning and still going out. This was the only thing I knew about the bike course. I got through the cones and a little while later was out on route 5+20 where suddenly I came upon an SUV on the side of the road with his flashers on. Huh? He saw me and started driving. LOL. It was the lead vehicle. This was not supposed to happen. WTF. Oh well, my legs won't last. They were tired from the big weeks after all, but I might as well have some fun. I chased him up the big hill and around the corner where we turned off of the busier road. We are now about 15 minutes into the race and clarity strikes. Duh. I'm in the first wave. There are 3 waves. The first wave is 45+ men. The second wave is women. The third wave has all of the fast dudes. I'm in the old dude wave. <<Smack Forehead>> Well, I don't know how long it will last but this is fun. Let's see if I can catch the lead vehicle. Hey, I'm getting pretty close. Cool! Legal drafting! Damn, he just pulled away again. Tease! I had a blast. It was a little windy at times up on the big hill but the handling was manageable. It was really nice riding in the middle of the road. Shoulder? Meh. I've got a lead vehicle! Yay! If he can drive 25mph in the middle of the road I can too! There were 3 fast descents. At some point in all of them I wound up in an upright position and hitting the brakes. This is fun and all, but I'm not "racing" I'm "participating". Ok, yeah, I was racing at this point but it wasn't a goal race so who cares about being a little faster/slower. At one point when we had a right hand turn and yield sign onto a slightly busier road my carefulness became validated. The timing of an oncoming car made the lead vehicle have to brake harder than expected. If I was in aero, I would have gotten uncomfortably close to hitting him. I wasn't. All was good. The closer we got to the end of the bike the harder I wanted to push so that I could thank the lead vehicle. I was lucky enough to stay in the lead until we got back to the tail/coned area where he couldn't drive. I really wanted to say something. I hoped he would have his window down. Instead, he slammed the SUV into park and jumped out really fast to cheer me on. I sat up going through the corner, pointed over to him and screamed, "You are f*cking AWESOME!!!". Good times. No, GREAT times. I started heading through the tail pretty quick. There wasn't a lot of area in my lane. I started thinking about what it would be like to pass/get passed here. Crap. Disabled bike in front of me. "OUT OF THE WAY!!!" "OUT OF THE WAY!!!" The second time I yelled he heard me. There were 2 people and 2 bikes in my lane. One of them had a mechanical and the other person was helping. They were sprint racers on the way out so when the problem was encountered they did the logical thing and moved to the empty lane. The lane I was coming in on. I didn't have enough room to get around of them if they had not reacted and moved. Whew. That was close. A couple hundred feet later...crap. "GET THE F*CK OUT OF THE WAY!!!!!!!!" A sprint racer didn't like being clogged in traffic. He wanted to pass. He didn't have room to pass, but there was a nice empty lane for him to go around. The problem? It was my lane and I was going 26-28 mph at him. He pulled this move at almost the exact worst possible time. When I yelled, he saw me and got startled. His front wheel went wobbly and he almost dumped his bike in front of me. He got back out of my lane with about 10 feet before I hit him. Whew.
I got to transition without being passed. This was a big surprise. I did a wildly uncoordinated dismount that showed I did not deserve to be in the lead. I heard a volunteer yell to dismount before the line. My thought? Yeah, I know, the other guy already told me that. About halfway through transition a guy runs up behind me and shouts, "on your left". Oh, now that makes sense. I must have gotten caught at the dismount line by the actual leader. I really hope I was not inadvertently blocking him when we came through the tail/coned area. Thinking back about the timing, I don't think I did. I just hope I'm right. If I was blocking, sorry! I'll never do it again :-)
I switched over to a different pair of running shoes. One of the goals of this "race" was to test out a blister strategy on the Nike 4%'s. About a half mile into the run, when we were in the woods/swamp area I looked down at my watch. 7:30 pace. Hmmm, it feels harder than that. Oh well, I guess all of the hard training has caught up with me. No big deal. I do need to hold off the old guys though. I can't come this far and take second in my age group. I ran comfortably hard for a while and just tried to find a good balance. The only way this day is a failure is if I hurt myself. After coming out of the woods I saw Ryan coming the other way. I shouted out to him that he needed to come get me. I knew he wasn't feeling well and was fighting off a sickness, but with me at 7:30 pace he could probably get me. That would be cool. A while later at about 2 1/2 miles into the run when I was on the road with minimal tree cover I looked down at my watch again. It flickered between 6:30/6:15 pace. Well that doesn't make any sense. It never jumps that far so quickly. Stupid GPS. I must still be running 7:30ish. I hope none of the old guys catch me. I'll just keep running by feel. On the second loop I started to wonder if I might be running really well. There were several fast guys, like Ryan, that I saw in roughly to the same spots as the first loop. Hmmm. Oh well, just keep running and let's see what happens. About 5 miles into the run I was caught behind a City of Canandaigua truck that was driving down the course. She could only go so fast because there were runners ahead of her. I was gaining on the truck though and there weren't good options to pass with runners coming the other way. I yelled ahead at her. She didn't hear me. I yelled again, "Hey, I'm catching you, GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!" She laughed. WTF. A few moments later she came to her senses and pulled over to the side of the road. I was annoyed but my mood got better when Rae was coming the other way and yelled out my name. Cool! I was getting a little hazy at this point, maybe from the truck tailpipe, so I didn't see Rae but that had to be her. This is going to be fun. I wonder if I can catch her. I started bearing down and pushing. A guy in this stretch didn't want to let me pass. He kept accelerating. 100 feet later I dropped him like a bad habit. After I got around the circle and had to be behind Rae I couldn't see her. Oh well, just keep pushing. At about 5 1/2 miles I could see her 100 feet ahead. Darn. I didn’t think I'd be able to close the gap before I split off for the finish line so I shouted as loud as I could, "Hey, Rae! I'm coming for you!!!". Hehehehe. To my surprise I did catch her pretty quickly, and now I know why. According to Garmin I was running sub-6 minute pace at this point in the race. I didn't know this at the time though :-) I just knew that it hurt and that racing was stupid and that I shouldn't be out here and that, well, just lots of whining was going on inside of my head. When I caught Rae, I blurted out as loud as I could, "Racing SUCKS!". OK, That felt good. Time to drop the hammer and finish "participating". I flew through the gravel paths to the finish line as strong as I could. When I crossed the line I heard the announcer say, "Here comes our second athlete across the finish line. It's, umm, Bruce Rogers!" He sounded confused by my presence. I know I was.
After the race I sat down on the podium steps and just tried to recover from the morning. Wow, that was hard. There were some medics nearby so I asked for an ice pack. I didn't need it, the weather was perfect for racing but it seemed like a good idea to do something. After all, there was still more running to do.
Prior to the race, Rae agreed to keep me company for an easy 10 mile run afterwards. I love running with her. The conversation comes easy. The time goes by fast. The only thing we have to worry about is running too fast. There were a bunch of times during the run that one of us would have to tell the other one to slow it down. I really don't remember much from the time I finished my race until the time she finished hers. I know I hung out at the Grim Reapers tent, chatted with Ryan and others and that at some point she arrived. It wasn't clear how we would fit the run in, but she was game to run what we could while the rest of the field waited for the awards to start. We got some funny looks/comments from different race crew since we were back out there running but it was all good. There was one guy that commented about how fast I was at the start when we saw him. That was a really nice thing for him to say. The extra attention that we got from people was small, but honestly it made me feel a little bit like a rock star to be recognized. We got a really pleasant 4 miles in at 8:45 pace and then paused for the awards ceremony. After the awards, Rae's husband (a.k.a. Mr. Rae) was very gracious and agreed to hang out for a bit so that we could get 6 more miles in. It was really very nice of him. I'd done some math in my head and thought I needed 46 more minutes to get to 25 hours for the week. Apparently, I'm not very good at math. The 6 miles took almost 53 minutes (8:46 pace) which should have put me over the top. When I got everything entered into my training log it became clear there has been an accounting error. Week 4 finished up at 24:24. It isn't 25+ but it's still a fun number and at the end of the day who cares? I'm thrilled to have gotten through these 4 weeks and inadvertently proven that my fitness right now might be the best it has been since 2015. This summer has definitely been the most I've enjoyed racing in a long time.
Final race stats:
I've got Barrelman 70.3 coming up in 2 weeks which has become an important goal race for me. When my friend Scott said he was going to race Finger Lakes Tri (9/8/19) with his son a few weeks ago, I signed up right away. I've never done FLT before. The timing was perfect as a tune up race for Barrelman. This is also the race where my mind was blown 10+ years ago when I showed up to cheer on my friend Chris. Watching Chris planted the seed about triathlon years before I ever developed an exercise habit and it was going to be pretty special for me to jump in the water and swim way out into the lake just like him.
Sunday, which was race day, was also the last day of the biggest 4 week training block that I've ever done. I set a goal to do 20+ hours of training for 4 weeks in a row. I managed 21:26, 20:57, 21:46, 24:24 and snuck a 14 hour hike in the middle that wasn't in the totals. I'm still shocked that I pulled off that 4 weeks. With so much volume on my legs there was no way that I was going to "race" FLT. I was there to "participate" only. Since I wasn't going to "race" Sunday I went out and did the new weekend habit of riding a hundred miles. It was a really nice ride. I got to explore some new roads and other than some scary fog for about an hour the weather was fantastic. The century ride wasn't easy, but I didn't exactly push it either. I was just out turning the pedals for 5 hours and 40 minutes. After the Saturday long ride I switched the bike over to race mode, but skipped all maintance/configuration changes that could be deemed optional. After all, I was not going to "race" on Sunday, just hang out with friends like Scott, Drew, Ryan and Rae.
Sunday morning, I woke up before my alarm went off, so I hit the road and got to the race early enough to get a really good parking space. The swim had been cancelled from toxic algal blooms, so it was really now just a duathlon. I've only ever raced 2 duathlons before. They were both very small races and I placed first overall in them both. FLT was going to kinda, sorta spoil that record but whatever. It was really just a fun run. I didn't study any of the race course or pay attention to any details at all. My original goal time of when to show up at the race was carefully considered by ignoring the race guide and texting Scott to ask when he planned to be there. He likes early. I'll just plan for whatever he says. The important detail of what wave I'm in and when will it start? That was left up to Rae. She asked when I was starting and after being unsatisfied with an answer of "dunno" did me the solid of looking in the athlete's guide for me.
When we got close to the time my wave was supposed to start I wandered over in the direction of the run course. I didn't actually know where the start line was going to be. I asked a volunteer. They didn't know. I looked over towards transition and could see people starting to filter my way. I must be close. I went off to do some light running to warm up and after a few minutes saw folks standing in the road. That must be the start line. I went over, did a stride out once and lined up. I kept looking around. Where were the fast people? I asked other people, "Where are the fast people?" They thought I was joking but I wasn't. This was all very confusing. We got the two minute warning. What is going on? Where are the usual suspects that I should line up behind? My anxiety started to kick in. Get me out of here. I don't want to do this. I asked the guy next to me, "why do we do this again?" He answered, "To stay young." Decent answer, but nope. I really would much rather be almost anywhere else.
We were told to 'go'. Crap. Well, let's sprint out for a bit. Crap. I'm catching the lead bike and he isn't pedaling fast enough. I shouted ahead and told him to hurry up or get out of the way. 100 yards in. Where are the fast people? I shouldn't be in the lead. Oh well, it won't last. Soon someone will catch me and I can shut it down. 200 yards in. Crap. Why hasn't anyone passed me? This is stupid. Where's the turnaround? I just kept running wishing someone would pass me. I got to the turnaround about 1/3 of a mile in. I turned, looked back and WTF. Why is there nobody behind me? I must have had a 200 yard lead on the front of the pack that was chasing me. I kept running hard in a completely confused state. As I neared the end of the 1 mile start in an area about 100 yards from transition with nobody around except a volunteer I yelled out "What the F*ck". This isn't supposed to be happening. I totally messed up how to get into transition. It wasn't a confusing setup but I hadn't even looked that morning so I was completely disoriented. When I got inside the fence, I immediately ran past my bike. Wait. Where did I rack? Oh, right...over there. I doubled back, threw my bike gear on and started to run to the opposite side. I hope that's where the bike out is. My glasses were completely coated with dew so I couldn't see anything. I got to the mount line, hopped on with a complete lack of coordination and started to pedal away. Where's the course? The volunteers here were great and keeping me on track but I really had no idea what I was doing.
The bike course is a big loop with a 1/3 mile tail that gets us out/into transition. The tail is a closed traffic lane divided with cones where we ride on the left so that the bikes don't cross over when athletes are both returning and still going out. This was the only thing I knew about the bike course. I got through the cones and a little while later was out on route 5+20 where suddenly I came upon an SUV on the side of the road with his flashers on. Huh? He saw me and started driving. LOL. It was the lead vehicle. This was not supposed to happen. WTF. Oh well, my legs won't last. They were tired from the big weeks after all, but I might as well have some fun. I chased him up the big hill and around the corner where we turned off of the busier road. We are now about 15 minutes into the race and clarity strikes. Duh. I'm in the first wave. There are 3 waves. The first wave is 45+ men. The second wave is women. The third wave has all of the fast dudes. I'm in the old dude wave. <<Smack Forehead>> Well, I don't know how long it will last but this is fun. Let's see if I can catch the lead vehicle. Hey, I'm getting pretty close. Cool! Legal drafting! Damn, he just pulled away again. Tease! I had a blast. It was a little windy at times up on the big hill but the handling was manageable. It was really nice riding in the middle of the road. Shoulder? Meh. I've got a lead vehicle! Yay! If he can drive 25mph in the middle of the road I can too! There were 3 fast descents. At some point in all of them I wound up in an upright position and hitting the brakes. This is fun and all, but I'm not "racing" I'm "participating". Ok, yeah, I was racing at this point but it wasn't a goal race so who cares about being a little faster/slower. At one point when we had a right hand turn and yield sign onto a slightly busier road my carefulness became validated. The timing of an oncoming car made the lead vehicle have to brake harder than expected. If I was in aero, I would have gotten uncomfortably close to hitting him. I wasn't. All was good. The closer we got to the end of the bike the harder I wanted to push so that I could thank the lead vehicle. I was lucky enough to stay in the lead until we got back to the tail/coned area where he couldn't drive. I really wanted to say something. I hoped he would have his window down. Instead, he slammed the SUV into park and jumped out really fast to cheer me on. I sat up going through the corner, pointed over to him and screamed, "You are f*cking AWESOME!!!". Good times. No, GREAT times. I started heading through the tail pretty quick. There wasn't a lot of area in my lane. I started thinking about what it would be like to pass/get passed here. Crap. Disabled bike in front of me. "OUT OF THE WAY!!!" "OUT OF THE WAY!!!" The second time I yelled he heard me. There were 2 people and 2 bikes in my lane. One of them had a mechanical and the other person was helping. They were sprint racers on the way out so when the problem was encountered they did the logical thing and moved to the empty lane. The lane I was coming in on. I didn't have enough room to get around of them if they had not reacted and moved. Whew. That was close. A couple hundred feet later...crap. "GET THE F*CK OUT OF THE WAY!!!!!!!!" A sprint racer didn't like being clogged in traffic. He wanted to pass. He didn't have room to pass, but there was a nice empty lane for him to go around. The problem? It was my lane and I was going 26-28 mph at him. He pulled this move at almost the exact worst possible time. When I yelled, he saw me and got startled. His front wheel went wobbly and he almost dumped his bike in front of me. He got back out of my lane with about 10 feet before I hit him. Whew.
I got to transition without being passed. This was a big surprise. I did a wildly uncoordinated dismount that showed I did not deserve to be in the lead. I heard a volunteer yell to dismount before the line. My thought? Yeah, I know, the other guy already told me that. About halfway through transition a guy runs up behind me and shouts, "on your left". Oh, now that makes sense. I must have gotten caught at the dismount line by the actual leader. I really hope I was not inadvertently blocking him when we came through the tail/coned area. Thinking back about the timing, I don't think I did. I just hope I'm right. If I was blocking, sorry! I'll never do it again :-)
I switched over to a different pair of running shoes. One of the goals of this "race" was to test out a blister strategy on the Nike 4%'s. About a half mile into the run, when we were in the woods/swamp area I looked down at my watch. 7:30 pace. Hmmm, it feels harder than that. Oh well, I guess all of the hard training has caught up with me. No big deal. I do need to hold off the old guys though. I can't come this far and take second in my age group. I ran comfortably hard for a while and just tried to find a good balance. The only way this day is a failure is if I hurt myself. After coming out of the woods I saw Ryan coming the other way. I shouted out to him that he needed to come get me. I knew he wasn't feeling well and was fighting off a sickness, but with me at 7:30 pace he could probably get me. That would be cool. A while later at about 2 1/2 miles into the run when I was on the road with minimal tree cover I looked down at my watch again. It flickered between 6:30/6:15 pace. Well that doesn't make any sense. It never jumps that far so quickly. Stupid GPS. I must still be running 7:30ish. I hope none of the old guys catch me. I'll just keep running by feel. On the second loop I started to wonder if I might be running really well. There were several fast guys, like Ryan, that I saw in roughly to the same spots as the first loop. Hmmm. Oh well, just keep running and let's see what happens. About 5 miles into the run I was caught behind a City of Canandaigua truck that was driving down the course. She could only go so fast because there were runners ahead of her. I was gaining on the truck though and there weren't good options to pass with runners coming the other way. I yelled ahead at her. She didn't hear me. I yelled again, "Hey, I'm catching you, GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!" She laughed. WTF. A few moments later she came to her senses and pulled over to the side of the road. I was annoyed but my mood got better when Rae was coming the other way and yelled out my name. Cool! I was getting a little hazy at this point, maybe from the truck tailpipe, so I didn't see Rae but that had to be her. This is going to be fun. I wonder if I can catch her. I started bearing down and pushing. A guy in this stretch didn't want to let me pass. He kept accelerating. 100 feet later I dropped him like a bad habit. After I got around the circle and had to be behind Rae I couldn't see her. Oh well, just keep pushing. At about 5 1/2 miles I could see her 100 feet ahead. Darn. I didn’t think I'd be able to close the gap before I split off for the finish line so I shouted as loud as I could, "Hey, Rae! I'm coming for you!!!". Hehehehe. To my surprise I did catch her pretty quickly, and now I know why. According to Garmin I was running sub-6 minute pace at this point in the race. I didn't know this at the time though :-) I just knew that it hurt and that racing was stupid and that I shouldn't be out here and that, well, just lots of whining was going on inside of my head. When I caught Rae, I blurted out as loud as I could, "Racing SUCKS!". OK, That felt good. Time to drop the hammer and finish "participating". I flew through the gravel paths to the finish line as strong as I could. When I crossed the line I heard the announcer say, "Here comes our second athlete across the finish line. It's, umm, Bruce Rogers!" He sounded confused by my presence. I know I was.
After the race I sat down on the podium steps and just tried to recover from the morning. Wow, that was hard. There were some medics nearby so I asked for an ice pack. I didn't need it, the weather was perfect for racing but it seemed like a good idea to do something. After all, there was still more running to do.
- 1:37:41
- 1st place in my Age Group (2nd place was 21 minutes behind)
- 1st place in the 45+ wave (2nd place was 14 minutes behind)
- 1 mile run (6:12 pace)
- 19 mile bike (22.6 mph official, 23.1 mph watch)
- 6.2 mile run (6:30 pace)
