Tag: CPTC

IRONMAN 70.3 Steelhead Race Report [August 14, 2016]

Posted on by Anthony

Another month, another race. After a breakthrough performance last month at IRONMAN 70.3 Muncie & securing my spot at the 2017 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships, I took a few days to recharge and recover before starting another training block.

Christina and I spent a few days training around the flatlands and cornfields in central Indiana before heading to Benton Harbor on Saturday. We arrived at Jean Klock Park around 2pm for race packet pickup – the registration line was incredibly long but thanks to our All World Athlete status, we skipped the line and breezed through registration in 10 minutes.

Afterwards, we did a short shakeout swim in Lake Michigan. Water temps were much warmer than I had expected…the one previous time I had stepped foot in Lake Michigan was during my 2010 trip to Chicago where water temps were in the low 60’s.

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Little did I know, the warm water temperatures would result in a non-wetsuit legal swim portion of the race.

Race Day – Sunday, August 14th, 2016

Swim: non-wetsuit announcement meant that I wouldn’t have the chance to swim in my Zone3 Vanquish wetsuit. Being in Wave #5, I started 16 minutes after the first wave along with the relay team swimmers. I lined up on the left side of the group in an attempt to avoid the thrashing and kicking of other swimmers that populate the middle and inside lane (right-hand side). Within a few minutes of the swim, I had found some feet to follow and decided that it was a comfortable pace. I spent the rest of the swim in the slipstream and reached the beach in 39 minutes and 38 seconds.

Although this is my slowest swim since last year’s Ironman 70.3 Eagleman, I had exited the water feeling very relaxed. Drafting for nearly the entirety of the 1.2-mile swim portion of the race proved to have saved tons of energy.

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Transition #1: Slapped on my Rudy Project aero helmet AND put on bike gloves for the very first time in a triathlon!

Bike: The legs were feeling super strong in the first hour of the bike, producing 245 watts of normalized power at 26mph. The roads were super bumpy and I was relieved to have worn my bike gloves. However, I had dropped one of my water bottles early on and had to grab a bottle at an aid station with about 10 miles left. The second hour of the bike was a slight fade, dropping my average power down to 241 watts for the 56-mile split. To my surprise, I was able to better my 70.3 Muncie time of 2:12:14 down to 2:11:59, a personal-best in time & power.

 

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Transition #2: Quickly racked my bike and sat down to clean off the sand covering my feet before putting on my New Balance RC1600 racing flats.

Run: There was one goal – to run even mile splits. Once out of transition, there were five other guys immediately up the road for me to pin down. I passed those guys within the first couple of miles and once I started the 2nd loop of the run, there was a lot more company. Nothing out of the ordinary happened as I ticked off each mile. With about two kilometers to go, I picked up the effort towards the finish, gave Christina a high-five as she passed me going the other way. The 13.1-mile run resulted in 1:27:03.

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Total race time of 4:23:44, a 2nd personal best finishing time in the half ironman distance.

Coming out of the water 29th-place in the Men’s 25-29 age group, the consistent bike and run combination ultimately placed me in 2nd-place [& 14th-place Overall].

Despite the unseasonably warm water conditions and losing a water bottle through the bumpy roads of south-western Michigan, IRONMAN 70.3 Steelhead provides an enjoyable race experience. Did I mention that they had CHOCOLATE MILK at the finish? Chug!!!

Thank you to all my sponsors, friends and family.

Special shoutout to Christina’s parents for being our race ‘sherpas’!

Thank you for reading 🙂

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.

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^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! 

United Airlines NYC Half Marathon [2016]

Posted on by Anthony

Just 8 days removed from a 1:17:30 personal best at the Rock n Roll Washington DC 1/2 Marathon last week, I was able to bounce back quite quickly with some high intensity training. Or maybe it was all the chocolate milk I chugged. Either way, going into Sunday’s NYC Half Marathon, I was confident that I could better my result from Washington DC. After all, Harlem hill is much shorter than the Rock Creek Climb.

 

On race day, I woke up at 4am, out of the house at 4:30, picked up Karen, scooped up Derek, and carpooled into Manhattan. We landed in Chinatown a 5:30, hopped on the uptown 6 train to Central Park. Derek and I arrived at the UPS baggage trucks around 6:15, so we had plenty of time to chat with other running friends.

NYC Half Tip: When driving to the NYC Half, park your car in Chinatown so you can hit up some delicious Chinese cuisine post race!

By 7am, we we had passed the security gates into Central Park. We jumped into the corral at 7:15, with only 15 minutes before the start of the race.

After the instructions from NYRR’s Peter Ciaccia, we were off!

In the first mile, I was able to stay on Derek’s heels. The plan was to stay with him throughout the race, but even the best laid plans are still subject to outside variables…one of those variables, my legs. After descending down Harlem hill, I had lost Derek by a few seconds. In fact, I lost contact with the large pack. Where were my legs? My turnover felt consistent but the pack kept on creeping away.

After running through 5km in 17:48, I knew that it would be tough to keep the pace for the next 16km. Harlem Hill always seems longer on race day and after getting to the top of it, the legs were screaming. I put my head down and tried to extend my stride as I hit the rolling hills throughout the west side of the park. According to NYRR, I hit the 10km mark at 36 minutes flat.

After leaving Central Park, I found a couple of guys to tuck behind…but that did not last long by the time we got to the West Side Highway. For the next few miles, I tried my best to keep the rhythm going. It was hard. I was getting passed. My legs were shot. And my form was definitely starting to fade. The 3rd 4km split was an 18:11, which clocked me in at 54:11 for 15km. Another 5km in 18:39 got me to 20km at 1:12:50. At that point, I knew that a sub 1:17:30 was in the bank, but was sub 1:17?

Thank you Tom F. (Dashing Whippets RT) for taking this shot of me running down the West Side Highway.

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So, it came down to how fast I could run 1.1km…4 minutes?

Well, 4 minutes and 1 second.

So after a tough 13 miles… from getting dropped in Central Park, running up Harlem Hill alone, trying again and again to regain my rhythm, I sprinted as fast I could down the finishers chute and crossed the tape in 1:16:54. A personal best (for now).

Thank you Central Park Track Club – New Balance! It was fun to see everyone on course!

This was certainly not the race I wanted to execute. Anytime I positive split the second half of a running race, when I should be kicking it into overdrive, is a disappointing and mentally challenging, uncontrolled part of the game. But like I said up above, even the best plans can change in an instant. This race has helped teach me how to adapt to factors that I can control and to roll with the ones that I cannot.

Thanks for reading!!

…for the next few weeks, I will be enjoying some more cycling (and a little less running), as I transition into multisport and triathlon season.

 

See you out there & Happy Easter!!!

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