Augusta 70.3; When dreams don't become reality

I ended my 2011 triathlon season this past weekend with the Augusta IM 70.3. This was my second IM70.3 but technically my first. My first was IM Steelhead 70.3 but the swim was canceled so I don't count it. It was more of an expensive training weekend.

Anyway, why the title you say? I had looked forward to Augusta since August of 2010 when I decided that I wanted to make it my A race of 2011. So over a year of anticipation. I told myself that as long as I stayed healthy then I would be more than ready. Famous last words. About 4 weeks before Augusta I changed my shoes up but not my mileage. I didn't realize I had changed from a neutral shoe to a mostly neutral with some stability type shoe until it was too late. Yes I should have researched but I've never really payed much attention to shoe types. LESSON LEARNED. After the first long run I had strained my calf and soleous and was unable to bear weight. I should have known it was my shoes when I couldn't tie the injury to any specific incident. So of course I kept trying to run and just had no improvement. My training dipped pretty badly. 2 weeks before Augusta I was contemplating not even going because I wasn't sure what the injury was and what damage I would do in competition. I ran a total of 10 miles that week. One week before Augusta I ran 6. I knew at this point my A race was shot. I had barely trained on the run for nearly a month. My goal had been to run a 4:40 but that was replaced by just finishing the race.

Race Morning
It was kind of a blur. I woke up at 4:30, 3:30 my time. I need to pick A races that are in my time zone haha. Went downstairs and had some breakfast, eggs and a waffle and drank some gatorade. After that I headed downtown to catch the shuttle to transition. This was the first race I had done where the start, finish, and transition were not in the same place. But the volunteers did a great job and the logistics were flawless. When I got to transition I dropped my stuff off and then went to meet a twitter friend. We talked at his bike for a few minutes before I headed back to set my transition up. As usual I was not nervous. Once I had set my transition up it was time to throw everything I would need after the race into my "dry clothes" bag and head to the second shuttle to get a ride to the swim start. I got to the swim start about 3o minutes before my wave. So I dropped my clothes off and jumped in the porta potty line. Now that I had taken care of that it was time to head to the start, which was now 10 minutes away. No time to stretch. I got my wetsuit on and into my wave about 5 minutes before they ushered us onto the dock.

Swim - 1.2 miles 24:28
This was a pretty fun swim for two reasons. It was all down river and it was wetsuit legal. So it was like floating on a small raft while going down a water slide. The current was strong enough that we kept having to swim backwards to get behind the line while we waited for the countdown. They counted us down and I was off. The first 200-300 feet were pretty rough. It was like a cross between a water polo match and a Slipnot concert. Actually since we were all in wetsuits, it probably looked like a bunch of seals trying to make it to land without getting hit by a great white shark. Anyway, once the chaos cleared and we all found our way it was a pretty smooth swim. Apart from the constant sea weed getting wrapped around my head and arms it was a blast. I kept feeling like I wasn't swimming hard enough then I would look over and see the bank just flying by as the current propelled us. I'm pretty sure I barely kicked the whole time.

Tranistion 1 - 3:17
This was a pretty long transition distance wise, which for me worked out for the best. usually i'm still huffing and puffing when I hit the bike. But this was long enough that I had settled down by the time I jumped on my bike.

Bike - 56miles 2:36:46
The bike was a little more calculated this time compared to Steelhead. Since I didn't count Steelhead, I ended up just going all out to see what I could do. I rode a 2:30 that day and had 0 legs. I mean they were fried. So for Augusta I knew I wanted to back off about 1 - 1.5 mph on my avg for the day. Which I did. Unfortunately with my lack of training it didn't really do me much good on the run, but we'll get to that. So the Augusta course is one rolling hill after the next. Which I'm used to. The night before I had dinner with the Central Flordia Tri team and I listened as their coach explained how to pace and to watch out for these "hills". I think I heard the word steep at one point. I knew coming from Flordia that the hills he had seen would not look nearly as big to me, but I still listened. It was a fun course aside from a few rodes that were in bad shape. I felt good until about mile 50 and that's when I knew the day was going to get a lot harder. The lack of training had finally hit me. I began to struggle to maintain my speed. In hindsight I probably should have just let myself slow so that I could have taken some juice with me on the run. But I didn't. I held my speed until the end of the bike. I had wanted to hit the run at the 3 hour mark because "Surely I can run a 13.1 in under 2 hours". More famous last words. I ended up hitting the run at the 3:07 mark. Now I needed a 1:53 13.1.

Transition 2- 1:58
Pretty simple as always. Run in and put your bike up then put your running shoes on and leave.

"Run"- 13.1 miles 2:08:19
As I left for the run I knew I was going to struggle. I didn't know I was going to suffer, although I should have expected it. The temps were rising and the humidty was kicking in. I barely made it to mile 1 when the wheels began to come off. Yes you read that right, M I L E 1. That is a bad feeling when you know you have 12.1 to go on a two loop course. I ended up having to run walk the rest of the way. My 6.5 mile split was 57:59 and my second loop was a whopping 1:10:20. That's painful to even admit but it is also the fuel for the offseason. As the run drug on I continued having to walk and run, walk and run. I knew I wouldn't break 5 hours, I knew I would be under 5:30. I just had nothing in my legs. If I tried to run a long stretch, the heat and humidity would get me and I'd have to walk to get my heart rate back down. At two stations they had sprinklers. I stood in them. Yes stood, as in stopped moving and just stood in them.

Knowing that my A race was over and I would not be putting in some phenom level time, as I had dreamed nearly a year before, I had to distract myself and stay positive. So I watched the other athletes, some struggling and some excelling. I read the signs of people watching. I thought about my season and all the things I thought I would accomplish and how I had fallen short on all but 1 of them. I thought about next season and how I wanted to do it different. I was happy for the older men who seemed in such amazing shape. The oldest I saw pass me was 58. It encouraged me and reminded me that I have time and success doesn't happen overnight. It was during the run that I decided I was not going to remove my athlete bracelet until next season. I decided I would wear it as a constant reminder that if you don't put in the work, you will not reach the result that you aim for. I also decided on the run that I would not attempt a 140.6 until I had properly prepared and competed in another 70.3.

When I crossed the line, which happened to be with a twitter friend of mine that I had met the day before at the CFL team dinner, I stopped my watch and looked down. 5:14:48. I knew most of my friends would say how great that was. I knew I would be told I should be proud. I also knew I had started slacking off in my training and my diet since July. I knew I had shown up at a race, injured or not, under trained. I had merely survived a 70.3. Then I was encouraged. If 5:14 is what I get for being un prepared and just merely getting by, then look out when I show up ready. Look out when I train hungry. Look out in 2012 when I come back with a vengence.

Today I start my off season training and the images from Augusta will be in my mind every single day until I toe the next line at a 70.3 next season. The memory of being embarrassed on the run and being cheered on by bystanders to try and keep running and to not walk, will give me the fuel I need to put in the time and training needed to not survive a 70.3 but to burn up a 70.3.

With that I would like to say thank you to all my friends and family who cheer for me and encourage me everyday. I know you don't like to see me be hard on myself, but that's just how I am. I will never be satisfied with a performance until I feel that I fired on all cyclinders. But I know I couldn't do any of this without the support that I get.

Thank you to my beautiful girlfriend Kayla. You will never know how much you inspire me to be better at everything in life. I love you so much.

Thank you to Base Performance Nutrition. You truely are an amazing company with an amazing product. The friendly service and great products make it easy for me to be a continued customer. Whether I'm sponsored or not, I will use BASE.

See it. Believe it. Do it.