Kinetic Half Triathlon Race Report (5.14.16)

Posted on by Anthony

After this past weekend, I can finally say that triathlon season has begun! Going into this race weekend, I had laid down a very high volume block of cycling, slightly neglecting swimming and running. Can you blame me though? I love riding my CEEPO Viper!

2016-05-13 11.07.51 HDR-2

On Friday (the 13th, AHH!), Christina and I went out for a shakeout ride

in Arlington and did a quick loop at Hains Point in Washington D.C. We tried to avoid the rain and headed out as early as possible, but still got rained on halfway into the ride. No worries – I had planned on completely cleaning and tuning up the bikes after the ride anyway. This was the first time we went out on our matching CEEP2016-05-13 18.51.07O Vipers. 
After the ride, we headed down to Spotsylvania, and after 2.5 hour of traffic on the I-95, we arrived. The house we were staying at was next to Lake Anna, so we did a swim before dinner. Good news – my wetsuit still fits!

Race Day – Saturday, May 14th, 2016

Virginia-Maryland Triathlon Series, the organizers of the Kinetic Half, offered all athletes the option of race-day packet pickup, which is an excellent selling point for their race series.

We arrived at Lake Anna State Park by 6am, grabbed our packets and set up our spot in transition. By 6:30am, everything was ready to go!

At 7am, I started with about 95 other guys in the first wave. 36 minutes later, and swimming very comfortably, I entered transition with a couple of other guys. With the swim done, I quickly mounted my CEEPO and went to work!

The bike course was rolling terrain throughout. We went out 10 miles, before doing two, twenty mile loops. Overall, I felt very comfortable on the bike. Power output was roughly 3.5 watts/kg, which was right on target. The ride was my favorite part of the day, especially since I was able to sneak under the 2 hr 20 min mark at 2:19:26, giving me the 3rd fastest bike split on the day.
A 60 second transition and I was off on the run. The course was 3 loops of rolling hills, totaling to just under 800 feet of climbing. On the first loop of the run, I was able to manage a 6:45 average mile pace. I was content was that pace2016-05-14 12.32.32 but my legs would disagree, as my second and final loops were significantly slower, as I dropped to 7:04 average mile pace for the 13.1 miles (1:32:45 run split).

 

I crossed the finishers line at 4:31:42, setting a half ironman triathlon personal best.

On the day, I finished 11th overall and 3rd in the Men’s 25-29 age group.

Post finish, I quickly headed back to transition to grab my phone (not to make a call, but to take photos!) Knowing that Christina was going to finish soon, I briefly rinsed off in the lake – the 65 degree water was super refreshing! And shortly after, Christina crossed the finishers line in

4 hrs 51 min, claiming the top women’s spot with her first win of the season (and personal best!)

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2016-05-14 14.19.32The Kinetic Half was an eye opening experience since it clearly showcases my strengths and weaknesses at this point in the season.

 

 

Next Up: Rev3 Quassy Olympic (June 4th)

 

 

Thank you to all my sponsors and everyone out cheering at Lake Anna State Park!

New Jersey ½ Marathon, Long Branch NJ (May-1-16)

Posted on by Anthony

After qualifying for the 2017 Boston Marathon at this year’s Los Angeles Marathon, there was no reason to race another 26.2 miles before the triathlon season, so I downgraded from the full marathon to the half.

Sunday, May 1, 2016

I drove down on race morning and got to Monmouth Park a few minutes before 6am. The race started at 7:30, so I plenty of time to pick up my race number, chat and take pictures with friends and sneak in a short warmup jog.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BE3RxA3PDv5/

^Can you spot me?

The first wave to go at 7:30am were the wheelchair athletes. A minute later, the Elite wave started. And then another minute later, my wave started. I’m still unsure why the race director did not start my wave at the same time as the Elite wave…especially since the Elite wave consisted of both men and women running the half and full marathons. Nonetheless, that meant I had some ‘rabbits’ up the road to chase down.

After hitting the first mile at 5:45, I actually felt pretty relaxed. I crossed the 5km around 18 minutes and by the 10km mark, I had faded slightly, clocking in at 36:38. The fade continued and by mile 7, I decided that I would continue my efforts until I hit the 10 mile marker. I crossed 10 miles around 58 minutes in, then dropped the pace down to 6:30 for the remainder of the race.

 

After running 13.1 miles through Monmouth County and Long Branch completely alone, I found myself running down the finisher’s chute in 1 hour and 19 minutes. Although I would have been completely content with slowing down, giving high fives and enjoying the crowds near the finish area, I had no choice but to speed up in the last bit to finish in JUST under 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Finish time – 1:19:50, 10th place

The race was a fun experience and I took home exactly what I wanted – a hard solo run effort on fatigued legs. I would have liked to wrap up this 22-hour training week by cheering on the marathoners, but Mother Nature had other plans, and with downpours, I decided that the best course of action was to warm up, get back to the car, and start the recovery process.

Congrats to all the 2016 Novo Nordisk New Jersey Marathon and Half Marathon finishers. Shoutout to Otto, Pace Team Coordinator, and his team of 45+ pacers!  (Pretty much everyone I knew running was a pacer).

 

Next up is my first triathlon of 2016! 

May 14th – Kinetic Half Ironman, Lake Anna, Virginia

See you out there! 

Boston Marathon Weekend “Race-Vacation”

Posted on by Anthony

This past weekend marks the longest time I have spent in Boston! I was there from Friday through Wednesday, highlighted by all the touristy stops, the B.A.A. 5km on Saturday, over 180 miles of cycling over 4 days, and, of course, spectating the 120th edition of the Boston Marathon.

Friday was very relaxing. I picked up Christina from Logan airport in the morning, then we spent the rest of the day checking out the sights and sounds of Boston. We did an easy 4 mile run and checked out the marathon expo. In the evening, we met up with Karen and Sean for Regina’s Pizza in Allston. It was great to catch up with them!

On Saturday, we walked from the hotel to Boston Commons for the B.A.A. 5km. The 2.5 mile walk took us just under 40 minutes. I’ve never warmed up for a 5km by walking 2.5 miles, but you know what they say…”always try something new on race day!”

[If you follow me on Instagram, you might remember my collision with a car on March 31st – the event left me with abrasions, bruises and a very tender right LCL. I went from running 50 miles a week to virtually 0 for two weeks. A few days before the 5km, the knee pain had subsided, giving me hope that I can restart running again. But was racing a 5km a good idea?]

In short, the 5km went well with a finish time of 17:31. That put me 96th overall in a field filled with a lot of fast professional runners.

2016-04-16 10.36.36

We spent the rest of Saturday doing touristy things, checked out Quincy Market, went to the Sam Adams brewery tour and eventually had dinner at Stephanie’s on Newbury.

On Sunday, I woke up super early and headed out for a 3 hour bike ride out to Dover. Saw some turkeys on my way out and then some more on my way back to Boston. The ride got pretty chilly in Dover, with temps dipping down to 27 degrees. I was back at the hotel before 8am for a quick shakeout run with Christina. Good thing she was having breakfast so I had a generous window of time to shower and prep for the run.

2016-04-17 09.14.15

Later that day, we did more touristy things – checked out Quincy Market a couple times, visited the New England Aquarium, and walked along the Freedom Trail.

Marathon Monday!

We got up nice and early and was out of the hotel by 6:30. We got shuttled to Boston Commons where we met up with Team Chocolate Milk teammates Dougin and Jill. They all got on the cheese buses around 7:30…so that left me with 4+ hours to kill before I could spectate the race.

I jogged back to the hotel – a quick 2.5 miles from the Commons. I got on the bike and did a quick 47 mile ride out to Concord. I had a route planned for 50 miles but once I got to Concord, there was a parade going down one of the main streets so I had to take some side roads to avoid the crowds. In the end, I still got some good sweet spot efforts on the bike and was back at the hotel before 11am.

I spent the rest of the day spectating and tracking the marathoners. It was an unusually warm day so everyone that I was tracking had faded on the latter part of the marathon (which allowed me more time to cheer along the course). Karen and I met up and cheered at Coolidge Corner. Christina was wearing a pink hat so that was the item to spot. And to our surprise, there were a lot of pink hats! Nonetheless, Christina passed Coolidge Corner (mile ~24) and looked strong. Later on we met up at the finish and had dinner & post-dinner night caps with Dougin, Jill and Christina’s parents.

All in all, I had a very enjoyable and relaxing time in Boston and Cambridge. I got to spend some quality to friends and experience the glory of the 120th running of the Boston Marathon. I look forward to running the 121st Boston Marathon next year! 

 

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