USAT Age Group National Championships - Cleveland
Nats was a lot of fun, but it didn't start out that way.
The week before the race I didn't have time to switch my bike over to race configuration and do the necessary maintenance until the last minute. I worked on it for about 90 minutes Thursday evening, which included lubing the rear brake cable that has been lazy to pop back into place after I release the brake. This was the same problem I had before IMCT 70.3. In Connecticut, the bike maintenance folks replaced the cable and made it better but it still wasn't right. Since my disc wheel isn't true anymore I was nervous that if I didn't get this addressed it would start rubbing again. As a matter of fact, the way I found out that the disc isn't true is that after Musselman 70.3 when I was walking the bike back to the car I could hear and feel the rear brake rub every time the wheel did one revolution. This could have started happening during the race at Musselman, but I doubt it since the time for the bike leg was decent.
Friday morning, I got up early and went to work finishing the bike set up. I changed the chain, did a bunch of other maintenance and then remembered that I still needed to adjust the brakes to handle the wider race wheels. There wasn't enough adjustment in the barrel adjuster on the rear so I went ahead and loosened the screw that clamps the caliper to the cable. As soon as I did that, 3/4's of the wires in the cable fell to the ground. The dingbats that "fixed" it in Connecticut over tightened the screw. Sigh. Fortunately I keep 2 extra cables in my toolbox, 1 for brakes and 1 for shifters, just in case. I congratulated myself for being prepared and then went about fixing it. As I worked on other small stuff I started to get very anxious about the time. I planned to leave for Cleveland at 10 am, but by 9:30am I was getting very anxious that I wasn't on the road yet. It is only a 4 hour drive, and I had until 6pm to rack my bike, but I just kept getting more and more nervous that I wasn't on my way yet. I'd had enough, so I declared the bike done without taking it for a ride, threw my stuff in the truck and hit the road.
5 minutes after I got on the road, I remembered that I forgot my parking pass for Sunday. Crap. I turned around, went back to get it and remembered that I also didn't have my shallow front race wheel for use in windy conditions. Once I had them both and got back on the road I felt better. Anxiety was over with and at this point I was content to just let the weekend unfold. The drive to Cleveland was uneventful. Ryan and I texted a couple of times to check on where to meet. He was nice and waited about 20 minutes for me to show up at the race venue. Since we hadn't made any firm plans on when to get together this really worked out pretty well. When I was about to pull into the parking lot, I called him to find out where he was. His answer? "Right next to you, you just pulled into the empty spot beside me." It was cool to see each other. Ryan really helped me stay calm by walking me through the process of getting through registration, etc. without having to think about it. We wandered the expo a little bit where I picked up a nice cycling jersey. The two goody bags each came with a Cleveland/USAT trucker cap that is pretty good and a race shirt. The only thing left to do was to check my bike in. Ryan agreed to wait 5 minutes while I rode it for a quick mechanical check. I walked over to the pedestrian/bike path and noticed that it was shifted into big ring front and little ring back. That's going to be a pain to get started. I hit the shifter about 3 times to get into an easier gear, reached down to pick up the bike and spin the pedals and snap. The rear derailleur cable broke. Sigh. This happens to me about once a year and I know to check for a frayed cable before big races. I had checked it at home and it seemed fine. Oh well. I walked the bike back over to Ryan and asked if he minded waiting 15 minutes while I did some parking lot maintenance. I was guessing that I could fix it faster than it would take to get it through the mechanics and the tent. Also, after a bad experience with the mechanics in CT I'd rather give it a go myself. After about 10 minutes and the required amount of swearing I had a new cable in place but I just couldn't get the derailleur to behave. Sometimes it ignored half the cog, other times just the 2 easiest gears. Another 10 minutes and 5-6 attempts at taking it apart and putting it back together and I figured out that the cable at the shifter wasn't seated quite right. Once I got the cable straight at the other end it all came together pretty quick. I did a 5 minute ride. The shifting wasn't great, but it was good enough and there were enough people around that I couldn't really get a decent ride check anyway. F it. Time to check the bike and let the cards fall where they may. I really appreciated Ryan's patience during the field maintenance exercise. Ironically, I wasn't worried about getting it fixed. I'd been anxious enough for the entire day so at this point it was just another problem to work. We drove away from the venue, got checked into the hotel ate some tasty Panera Bread dinner and called it a night.
Saturday morning came early. I didn't sleep well. The pillows just weren't right and I kept waking up. Oh well. I was glad to be on the way to getting this thing done. We drove to the Cleveland Browns stadium to hitch a ride on a bus to the race venue. Ryan made for an excellent co-pilot as the highway had been closed down and we had to figure out for ourselves how to get to the stadium. The highway was closed for some silly triathlon that was going on. Sheesh. After a quick ride to the stadium we went about getting transition setup. I stared at things for way longer than I needed to, hit the bathroom more times than I thought possible and then Amy (DrBart) showed up an hour later to set her stuff up. It was awesome how calm and confident she was. Ryan was in an earlier wave, so we lost track of him soon after transition closed. Amy and I hung out for well over an hour waiting for our wave to be called. It was great getting caught up. The swim for the olympic distance race had been cut short from 1500 meters to 750 meters because of rough water, but the joke among athletes was that they were trying to limit our exposure to the low water quality.
The waves were coming in pretty good with 3-5 foot swells, but the water was actually pretty swimmable. I've had a much harder time in smaller waves. These were very predictable so you always knew where and when they were coming. I just focused on getting comfortable in the water and getting to the first buoy. Once I got to that first turn buoy I never saw another buoy until I was on top of it. I don't entirely know why sighting was so difficult. The sun was in a bad position, but it was doable. The waves were big, but out in the lake not nearly as big. It just seemed like every time I looked I just couldn't figure out what to focus on. No big deal. There were plenty of swimmers to my left and more to my right so I can't be doing too poorly. Once I got out of the water I started getting excited about racing. Up until this point I'd been pretty blasé about the morning. I was glad to be there, but with no defined goals I wasn't really amped up to race. Once the "race fee" of "swimming" was paid then it was time to have some fun. I was 102 out of 160 coming out of the water.
I got into transition to find that my helmet and sunglasses had been scattered. No big deal. I got everything and went out on the bike. After the first 100 yards or so when we got onto open road I just started hammering it. I was having a blast blowing past everyone. It took plenty of effort, but the burn in my legs really wasn't that bad. There was no time on the bike that I didn't think I could go harder, I just wouldn't be able to maintain harder for very long. I like the bike course a lot. They closed a 4-6 lane highway for us to race on and then there was a tour of some of the main surface streets in Cleveland. The pavement condition was generally pretty fast with minimal maintenance issues. The only pavement that I didn't like was a concrete surface on a long bridge. There was a lot of texture to the road, presumable for icy winters, that caused a lot of bouncing around. This was also the fastest part of the course and it really isn't a lot of fun going airborne at 38 mph even if it is only for a smidgeon of a second here and there. I got passed zero times. The results have me at a 24.3 mph avg for 40km. I was 46 out of 160 after the bike.
I got out onto the run with minimal issues, but my legs just didn't want to turn over any faster. The first few hundred yards are a steeper hill, but not steep, when you run up an on-ramp to the expressway but then the next mile or so is a continuous incline. The hill isn't bad at all, but it seems to go on forever. On the descent from this hill, I saw Amy coming towards me. I screamed "Go Amy" and a bunch of other stuff as loud as I could. At the same time I was yelling like a fool, I passed a women on the right and gave DrBart a high 5. Just then the woman I passed called out, "Hey, I'm Amy too. I thought you were cheering for me!" At this point I started screaming, "Go Amy Toooooo" and gave her a wave. I thought it was funny. I have no idea what she thought. I just kept looking for a comfortable pace and spun along. The results have me at 6:53 pace for the 10k, but the course was a little bit short. Garmin has me at 6:58 pace. I don't think I could have run this 10k any faster, but I am 100% certain I could have maintained the same pace for a half marathon if I needed to. My stamina was fine this day, just no speed, which makes sense because I've been doing a lot of longer fun stuff without any speed. I think I was passed by two people, that weren't in my age group. I was 34 out of 160 after the run.
When the race was done, Ryan found me right away. His wave started so much earlier that he was able to cheer me on when I came off the bike and when I finished the run. It was awesome having him around. I lingered around the finish line for Amy to come through. It took her longer than I expected, but I'll let her tell that story. After the race and a brief nap, Ryan and I met Amy and her parents for dinner. It was very cool getting to know them and get a tour of their "barn".
Saturday night, there was no issue with the pillows. I was so freakin' tired that I fell asleep and slept like the dead all night. When the alarm went off we started the whole process all over again but this time it was for the sprint edition which is a 750 meter swim, 20k bike and 5k run. I had a parking pass so we could drive right to transition on Sunday. I got my stuff setup and was staring at it for an embarrassing amount of time when the announcer called out that there was an athlete that was missing a helmet and needed to borrow one. I ran over to a volunteer and asked where the announcer was since I had 2 spare helmets. The athlete was right there! She was very happy. It turns out that the valet at the hotel lost her car keys. Her helmet was in the car. Doh! We walked over to the truck where she got to pick which one to use. It turns out she is from Buffalo and lives near UB. I went back to transition and stared at my stuff some more while basking in the warm glow of good karma and then it was time to go watch the swim start.
At the swim start I met up with Amy one more time and we chatted while waiting for the race to start. This time I was smart and brought the athlete's guide so that it was easier to follow which wave was about to go off and how long I had before mine. The water this day was very calm. When it was time, I did a warm up and lined up in the middle of the pack. There was a lot of contact with other athletes and on a couple of occasions I did a weird side stroke move where I could use both hands to shove someone off of me as hard as I could. Just like Saturday I had a terrible time sighting but there were plenty of people to go off of. I came out of the water 45th out of 85 people in my age group.
In transition, my neighbor's bike was twisting in the wind and blocking 3 of us from being able to rack. I gave it a gentle nudge, really, honest, it was a gentle nudge! It spun around 180 degrees and then fell off the rack over onto the other aisle. Oops. I felt bad about that, but it was going to be a pain to go get it so I left it there. Sorry neighbors! Once I got out on the bike, it was just like yesterday and I started to hammer. I had dreams of breaking 25mph average. The bike on Sunday was half the distance of Saturday so it seemed plausible. What I didn't realize is that the short course also had 80% of the elevation change that the longer course had. In any case, I started flying past people. Just like Saturday, nobody passed me. There were a couple of times that I passed people and they acted like they were going to keep up and/or draft. Silly competitors. If I go past you 1-3mph faster than you were already biking then hitching a ride really won't work out for you even if it does give my evil side something to do as I make you suffer. On the way back on the bike at the top of the concrete bridge there were some police officers lingering around. It seemed like a weird spot for them to be, but I shrugged it off. I learned from Ryan later that when he was at the same spot earlier in the race there was someone that had gone up on the bridge with the intention of jumping off. When he went through, the person was sitting on the wrong side of the concrete barrier and a police officer was talking to them. It sounds like they were brought down safely. The results have me at a 24.2 mph average. I was 26 out of 85 after the bike.
The run course was essentially the second half of the Saturday run which meant the long hill at the beginning had been removed. It was a nice run course but there were a lot of twists and turns. I ran the best that I could, which apparently was almost the exact same speed as the 10k on Saturday. Sunday's 5k run was 6:55 pace on Garmin compared to Saturday's 10k pace of 6:58. Speed? What speed? I was 22 out of 85 after the run.
After the finish I went over to congratulate a guy in a Team USA kit. He was one of many people I flew past on the bike, but was one of only a couple people in my age group that caught me on the run. I immediately congratulated him for running me down and his response was, "Nice bike, you went by me like I was standing still. I had to check my speedometer after that to see if I was!" Yeah, thanks. Hehehehe. Ryan found me soon after and we went over to stalk transition to get out bikes and out of town ASAP. I loved the races both weekend but once I crossed the finish line I was ready to be gone. As we were packing up the woman that borrowed a helmet stopped by. It was nice to know that everything worked out for her too.
The week before the race I didn't have time to switch my bike over to race configuration and do the necessary maintenance until the last minute. I worked on it for about 90 minutes Thursday evening, which included lubing the rear brake cable that has been lazy to pop back into place after I release the brake. This was the same problem I had before IMCT 70.3. In Connecticut, the bike maintenance folks replaced the cable and made it better but it still wasn't right. Since my disc wheel isn't true anymore I was nervous that if I didn't get this addressed it would start rubbing again. As a matter of fact, the way I found out that the disc isn't true is that after Musselman 70.3 when I was walking the bike back to the car I could hear and feel the rear brake rub every time the wheel did one revolution. This could have started happening during the race at Musselman, but I doubt it since the time for the bike leg was decent.
Friday morning, I got up early and went to work finishing the bike set up. I changed the chain, did a bunch of other maintenance and then remembered that I still needed to adjust the brakes to handle the wider race wheels. There wasn't enough adjustment in the barrel adjuster on the rear so I went ahead and loosened the screw that clamps the caliper to the cable. As soon as I did that, 3/4's of the wires in the cable fell to the ground. The dingbats that "fixed" it in Connecticut over tightened the screw. Sigh. Fortunately I keep 2 extra cables in my toolbox, 1 for brakes and 1 for shifters, just in case. I congratulated myself for being prepared and then went about fixing it. As I worked on other small stuff I started to get very anxious about the time. I planned to leave for Cleveland at 10 am, but by 9:30am I was getting very anxious that I wasn't on the road yet. It is only a 4 hour drive, and I had until 6pm to rack my bike, but I just kept getting more and more nervous that I wasn't on my way yet. I'd had enough, so I declared the bike done without taking it for a ride, threw my stuff in the truck and hit the road.
The waves were coming in pretty good with 3-5 foot swells, but the water was actually pretty swimmable. I've had a much harder time in smaller waves. These were very predictable so you always knew where and when they were coming. I just focused on getting comfortable in the water and getting to the first buoy. Once I got to that first turn buoy I never saw another buoy until I was on top of it. I don't entirely know why sighting was so difficult. The sun was in a bad position, but it was doable. The waves were big, but out in the lake not nearly as big. It just seemed like every time I looked I just couldn't figure out what to focus on. No big deal. There were plenty of swimmers to my left and more to my right so I can't be doing too poorly. Once I got out of the water I started getting excited about racing. Up until this point I'd been pretty blasé about the morning. I was glad to be there, but with no defined goals I wasn't really amped up to race. Once the "race fee" of "swimming" was paid then it was time to have some fun. I was 102 out of 160 coming out of the water.
I got into transition to find that my helmet and sunglasses had been scattered. No big deal. I got everything and went out on the bike. After the first 100 yards or so when we got onto open road I just started hammering it. I was having a blast blowing past everyone. It took plenty of effort, but the burn in my legs really wasn't that bad. There was no time on the bike that I didn't think I could go harder, I just wouldn't be able to maintain harder for very long. I like the bike course a lot. They closed a 4-6 lane highway for us to race on and then there was a tour of some of the main surface streets in Cleveland. The pavement condition was generally pretty fast with minimal maintenance issues. The only pavement that I didn't like was a concrete surface on a long bridge. There was a lot of texture to the road, presumable for icy winters, that caused a lot of bouncing around. This was also the fastest part of the course and it really isn't a lot of fun going airborne at 38 mph even if it is only for a smidgeon of a second here and there. I got passed zero times. The results have me at a 24.3 mph avg for 40km. I was 46 out of 160 after the bike.
I got out onto the run with minimal issues, but my legs just didn't want to turn over any faster. The first few hundred yards are a steeper hill, but not steep, when you run up an on-ramp to the expressway but then the next mile or so is a continuous incline. The hill isn't bad at all, but it seems to go on forever. On the descent from this hill, I saw Amy coming towards me. I screamed "Go Amy" and a bunch of other stuff as loud as I could. At the same time I was yelling like a fool, I passed a women on the right and gave DrBart a high 5. Just then the woman I passed called out, "Hey, I'm Amy too. I thought you were cheering for me!" At this point I started screaming, "Go Amy Toooooo" and gave her a wave. I thought it was funny. I have no idea what she thought. I just kept looking for a comfortable pace and spun along. The results have me at 6:53 pace for the 10k, but the course was a little bit short. Garmin has me at 6:58 pace. I don't think I could have run this 10k any faster, but I am 100% certain I could have maintained the same pace for a half marathon if I needed to. My stamina was fine this day, just no speed, which makes sense because I've been doing a lot of longer fun stuff without any speed. I think I was passed by two people, that weren't in my age group. I was 34 out of 160 after the run.
When the race was done, Ryan found me right away. His wave started so much earlier that he was able to cheer me on when I came off the bike and when I finished the run. It was awesome having him around. I lingered around the finish line for Amy to come through. It took her longer than I expected, but I'll let her tell that story. After the race and a brief nap, Ryan and I met Amy and her parents for dinner. It was very cool getting to know them and get a tour of their "barn".
Saturday night, there was no issue with the pillows. I was so freakin' tired that I fell asleep and slept like the dead all night. When the alarm went off we started the whole process all over again but this time it was for the sprint edition which is a 750 meter swim, 20k bike and 5k run. I had a parking pass so we could drive right to transition on Sunday. I got my stuff setup and was staring at it for an embarrassing amount of time when the announcer called out that there was an athlete that was missing a helmet and needed to borrow one. I ran over to a volunteer and asked where the announcer was since I had 2 spare helmets. The athlete was right there! She was very happy. It turns out that the valet at the hotel lost her car keys. Her helmet was in the car. Doh! We walked over to the truck where she got to pick which one to use. It turns out she is from Buffalo and lives near UB. I went back to transition and stared at my stuff some more while basking in the warm glow of good karma and then it was time to go watch the swim start.
At the swim start I met up with Amy one more time and we chatted while waiting for the race to start. This time I was smart and brought the athlete's guide so that it was easier to follow which wave was about to go off and how long I had before mine. The water this day was very calm. When it was time, I did a warm up and lined up in the middle of the pack. There was a lot of contact with other athletes and on a couple of occasions I did a weird side stroke move where I could use both hands to shove someone off of me as hard as I could. Just like Saturday I had a terrible time sighting but there were plenty of people to go off of. I came out of the water 45th out of 85 people in my age group.
In transition, my neighbor's bike was twisting in the wind and blocking 3 of us from being able to rack. I gave it a gentle nudge, really, honest, it was a gentle nudge! It spun around 180 degrees and then fell off the rack over onto the other aisle. Oops. I felt bad about that, but it was going to be a pain to go get it so I left it there. Sorry neighbors! Once I got out on the bike, it was just like yesterday and I started to hammer. I had dreams of breaking 25mph average. The bike on Sunday was half the distance of Saturday so it seemed plausible. What I didn't realize is that the short course also had 80% of the elevation change that the longer course had. In any case, I started flying past people. Just like Saturday, nobody passed me. There were a couple of times that I passed people and they acted like they were going to keep up and/or draft. Silly competitors. If I go past you 1-3mph faster than you were already biking then hitching a ride really won't work out for you even if it does give my evil side something to do as I make you suffer. On the way back on the bike at the top of the concrete bridge there were some police officers lingering around. It seemed like a weird spot for them to be, but I shrugged it off. I learned from Ryan later that when he was at the same spot earlier in the race there was someone that had gone up on the bridge with the intention of jumping off. When he went through, the person was sitting on the wrong side of the concrete barrier and a police officer was talking to them. It sounds like they were brought down safely. The results have me at a 24.2 mph average. I was 26 out of 85 after the bike.
The run course was essentially the second half of the Saturday run which meant the long hill at the beginning had been removed. It was a nice run course but there were a lot of twists and turns. I ran the best that I could, which apparently was almost the exact same speed as the 10k on Saturday. Sunday's 5k run was 6:55 pace on Garmin compared to Saturday's 10k pace of 6:58. Speed? What speed? I was 22 out of 85 after the run.
After the finish I went over to congratulate a guy in a Team USA kit. He was one of many people I flew past on the bike, but was one of only a couple people in my age group that caught me on the run. I immediately congratulated him for running me down and his response was, "Nice bike, you went by me like I was standing still. I had to check my speedometer after that to see if I was!" Yeah, thanks. Hehehehe. Ryan found me soon after and we went over to stalk transition to get out bikes and out of town ASAP. I loved the races both weekend but once I crossed the finish line I was ready to be gone. As we were packing up the woman that borrowed a helmet stopped by. It was nice to know that everything worked out for her too.
