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Ironman Maryland – Champion’s Sherpa Report

Posted on October 24, 2015October 24, 2015 by Anthony

a perfect weekend.

Last year, 3 weeks before Ironman World Championships, I was convinced to participate in Ironman Maryland…for fun. The race features a two loop swim in the Choptank River, a two loop pancake flat bike and a completely flat run, making it ideal conditions for a fast race for most athletes. At this year’s event, the race got pushed back by two weeks due to residual effects of Hurricane Joaquin that caused major flooding and high winds. Little did I know, the date change was a blessing in disguise!

This was the first time that Ironman successfully postponed a race. They were very accommodating, allowing athletes to check in until the late hours on Friday (Saturday race). After racing Maryland last year, it definitely made things more streamlined, especially knowing where to park, the location of registration and course conditions.

On Friday, Christina [the racer] and I [sherpa] made our way down to registration. We quickly checked in by 10am and even had a nice chat with one of the volunteers who was also racing – thanks Beth!

I gave the bike a wheel change and some final touches before we headed out for a quick spin around Cambridge. We followed up the ride with a short shakeout jog on part of the run course, which also happens to be the first portion of the bike course! With the bike checked in, run done, our pre race activities were nearly complete, sans swim.

Race Day – October 17, 2015

Our alarm went off at 4am, followed by breakfast and tons of coffee! Temps were in the low 40’s and were expected to go up to the 60’s throughout the day. We made our way into transition around 5:30am. Nutrition was prepped, tire pressures were topped off, transition bags were double checked and nerves were at their all time high!

Due to gusty winds near the swim start, the swim was shortened from a 3.8km two loop swim to a 3km swim two loop swim. The front pack of swimmers easily lapped the slower swimmers when going onto their second loop of the swim. Christina swam a 45:36, placing her 5th out of the water in her age group. She made it quickly through T1 and was on the bike in just a few minutes. While everyone else was getting overdressed for the bike race portion, Christina did not bother with wearing gloves or arm warmers – such a good call!

My job was done for now, so I went for a quick 10 mile easy run to check out the entire run course. Drew had spotted while running so I made a quick change before heading out to lunch at the High Spot with his crew from Ohio. While waiting for our food, we were all glued to our phones, constantly updating the tracker. My friend Kevin was out on the bike course and had spotted Christina passing 1st place around mile 58. The tracker was not updating so I headed back to transition for updates and confirmation that Christina had taken the lead!!!

Tim Smith, from Brooklyn NY was first off the bike and the eventual winner. Christina got off the bike with a personal best split of 5:10:11 [2nd fastest overall]. I spotted her on the final turn towards transition with a 3-4 minute lead on 2nd [Kristin White]. She looked super fresh coming out of transition and was running 7:30 min/mile pace!

I spent the next 3-4 hours calculating the gap from 1st to 2nd place, bouncing around the run course on my road bike and cheering like a lunatic! Thanks to the 2.5 loop run course, I was able to see the runners come by about ~15 times before rushing over to the finishing line.

Christina won Ironman Maryland with a time of 9:42:56.

What I witnessed throughout the day was not only the accumulation of hard work over months of training. No, I got to witness something even greater.

Much like an oyster turns a grain of sand into a pearl, I had the privilege of seeing Christina’s race unfold, revealing the pearl that has been growing and improving with each race and workout.

A very well deserved overall win + punching her ticket to Kona 2016.

+ Sherpa [a.k.a. Race Support] is fun and exhausting, but there’s really no better feeling than to see someone succeed amongst adversity. Those who have done it can relate (Thanks Mom & Dad!)

My next race (and last of 2015) is Ironman Arizona on November 15th. As things lighten up, I will be posting my Louisville race report promptly.

Thanks for reading!

Happy Thanksgiving! – Looking Back, 2013.

Posted on November 28, 2013November 28, 2013 by Anthony

There are so many things that I am thankful for. The ones that are on top of my list goes to the unending support of my family & friends throughout my journey into triathlon.

thank you for listening to my unending talk about training
thank you for not judging me when I ate double meals
thank you for trying to understand why I compete
thank you for being there

I wanted to take this time to quickly reflect on my 2013 season…

This was only my second year competing in triathlons and the hard work has definitely paid off. The training through the winter months of late 2012 and early 2013 got me mentally and physically strong for the long season. I debuted my season at IM70.3 Syracuse and finished in 5th in my Age Group. At the time, I was training for my debut Olympic distance race; the NYC Triathlon. If you had told me at Syracuse that I would later win my AG and finish the race in 2 hours and 9 minutes, I would have given you a quick laugh. Winning my age group wasn’t new to me, but I considered the NYC Triathlon as a competitive race – I was super nervous during the 2+hour swim start wait…

A week after the NYC Tri, I tried my luck at the NJ State Triathlon. Same distance, different venue, and a much hotter day. The swim was one of my bests, considering that the lake we swam in was in the upper 80’s (no wetsuit). I finished strong but had left much of my legs out on the bike course, leaving me a bit wobbly during the run.

The humidity of August came. No racing, just more training. I locked down a cycling coach. I was suddenly doing workouts that continually tested my mental strength. I dug deep. (Thanks Jim)

September was a critical month, which started off with the Toughman Half Ironman in Westchester, NY. It was my chance to defend my age group win from 2012. Jim had me hold back so that I wouldn’t peak too early in my training. And so, I held back on the bike, and ran my way towards a 4:43 finish, successfully locking in the AG win. On 9/11, I was hit by a Mercedes GL – the road rash hurt, the bruises spread, but it made me stronger. I lost a couple days of training, and gained two very long trainer rides. That sucked, but I finally caught up on some movies. By the end of September, I was fully recovered (at least that’s what I told myself, repeatedly) and competed in the Westchester Triathlon. 3rd place in my age group was good enough…didn’t peak too early.

October, more training and fought a pretty nasty week-long cold.

November proved to be the best. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. I lived with two other Team Refuel teammates. We spent the weekend, “joined by the hip”! The fun culminated to a 10:01:46, Ironman Florida, and a spot on the coveted age group podium (3rd).

Thanks for reading.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

After watching so much football, my best attempt at a stiff arm. Port Jeff Brewery Porter. Amazing packed inside a Growler.

New York City Triathlon (7-14-13) Race Report

Posted on July 20, 2013June 2, 2014 by Anthony

I’ve had some time to reflect upon my performance at my first NYC triathlon, coincidentally also my first Olympic distance race. Going into the race, I have never done a 40km time trial on my bike. Yes, I’ve competed in many stand alone 10 km running races, but I didn’t know how my legs would hold up after 60+ minutes of timetrialing.

The first thing I wanted to know after the race were my numbers; more importantly, I was interested in my overall time. Because I was in the Men’s 24 & Under age group, we were the proud recipient of starting dead last, nearly 30-45 minutes that the first professional male had already crossed the line in Central Park! (Yeah, that’s two hours after the race began) So here it is, the numbers as they stand from my DEBUT OLYMPIC DISTANCE TRIATHLON:

Time trial swimming! No matter what people say about the Hudson River, the water was quite nice to swim in! And nothing beats a point to point swim, especially when this swim runs parallel to the shoreline from North to South. I posted a rather mediocre swim time when compared with my closest finishers. Nonetheless, I’m content.

40KM Time Trial. The course is straight forward, ride north, turn around, ride south to 56th street, turn around and head back to transition on either 72nd or 79th street (there were two transition areas). I left transition and cyclocross mounted my bike right before the technical climb onto the west side highway. It took me a couple of minutes to really settle in and dial down on my wattage. My Garmin is set to lap every 5 miles so that I can get my 5 mile splits. The first split averaged just over 200watts. At that point, I felt ecstatic! My heart rate was probably around 165-170 BPM (I don’t wear a HRM for races). I knew I had a tough 10km run in Central Park, so I decided that the current output of 200 watts was the tempo that I would use for the rest of the bike portion. And so, lap by lap, I averaged 200+ watts, which equated to about 22.5-23mph average. I am still a newbie when it comes to wattage so this is my only point of feedback.

I hit a mental bit of a grey area coming out of T2. My T2 was relatively slow since I had to fidget with my socks, wasting a good 10 seconds. I’ll be sure to practice my sock implementation…smh

Going into the 10KM run, I knew that I was not going to run a PR (that being a 36:28). But that wasn’t a time that I needed. Because the Garmin showed 1 hour & 30 minutes, I only needed 44 minutes to finish below 2:15. Sub2:15 was my goal.

The next 39 minutes on my feet was the most self-surprising experience!! Not only did I have enough energy to finish, but I had the drive to run a negative split. The first mile clocked in just over 6:50, which included a climb from transition onto 72nd street. From mile 2 to the finish, the run was generally the same as a 5 mile tempo workout. “So I said to myself, I’ve done this multiple times before with CPTC. I know all the hills!” And then at Mile 3, I heard someone cheer my name – it was Coach Tony from CPTC! Coincidentally, that was the part of the run when I really switched gears, opened up the stride a bit and found 6:00min/pace. I was then negative splitting with only half of the run to go.

Harlem Hill came and gone. The museum mile. Then down Cat Hill. A right turn onto the 72nd Street transverse. A loop around the fountain. And the finish chute. (Thanks Ken Tom for greeting me at the fountain, taking an awesome action shot!)

Race complete. 2 hours and 9 minutes.

Tag: recap

Ironman Maryland – Champion’s Sherpa Report

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Happy Thanksgiving! – Looking Back, 2013.

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New York City Triathlon (7-14-13) Race Report

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