Syracuse 70.3 Race Report. VEGAS BABY!

Immediately following Lake Placid I was hungry for more. I had outperformed my expectations by far and saw myself as a new type of athlete, vying for World Championship slots. I decided to take advantage of my Placid fitness and do some serious racing late into the season. I raced weekend after weekend and continued to have great results while having an absolute blast. By the time September rolled around, I was starting to wear down a little bit. I still had huge expectations for Syracuse 70.3 midway through September but I had no desire to follow any serious training regiments, so I didn’t. I trained when I wanted to, made up for lost time with friends, stayed up late, ate a few unhealthy meals and enjoyed life for a while. It came time to start mentally preparing for Syracuse and my mental state was nowhere near where it needed to be. I tried desperately to get into the zone for the week leading up to the race but I had a relaxed demeanor all the way up to the race. I knew I would go through with the race but I had no idea if I was prepared to battle for 5 hours on end.

            I packed the truck up and drove out to Syracuse Saturday afternoon with Chris. We chatted on the way over and I had a few realizations. I had trained hard all year, I was in the best shape of my life, and Ironman 70.3 World Championships was becoming a serious possibility. Unsure of whether or not my mind would support my quest, I was finally ready to tackle this beast.

            We settled in and rode the run course Saturday afternoon then went for a quick swim at Jamesville Beach before we went over to Mae’s for dinner. All Friday and Saturday, club members and other friends started sending words of encouragement, reminding me what I was here to do, “Rip up the course“. I had said I was going to do it months ago and people believed I could do it; good enough for me. We drove the bike course and started to make decisions as to where we wanted to go fast and where we would relax a little bit.

            The opening 12 miles of the bike course are the reason the bike course is challenging. The entire distance is essentially one big climb. I knew I was going to be able to move on the flat and rolling roads that came after mile 20 so my plan was to spin up the first 12 miles without killing myself, yet with a purpose. If someone was going to chase me down on the bike course, it wouldn’t be in the first 12 miles. We settled our plans, packed up, and got to sleep around 10 with an alarm set for 4 am., a relatively good night of sleep considering my prerace habits.

            The morning started exactly as everybody feared, 42 degrees on the drive over to the state park. Chris and I set up our transition, I had my bike checked out and a cable replaced, then we got back in the car and sat with the heat on for 20 minutes, trying to get feeling back into our feet. There was no way to trick yourself for this race, it was going to be a cold morning. I threw a jacket into T1 just in case I was freezing getting out of the water.

            Luckily, males 18-24 and 50+ were wave 4. I remember being somewhere around wave 13 last year, starting about 45 minutes after the race started. I took a look at the lake and made a decision. Everybody I had to beat was starting with me and I wasn’t going to let anybody touch me on the swim. I had been swimming great all summer and this race was not going to be any exception. Right off the start, a group of about 4 guys swam a quick 500 meters before things started to break up. By the first turn, I found myself alone with one other young guy, presumably an 18-24 AGer. I hung with him until the turn and told myself I would drop him on the way back to the beach. He proved to be much more difficult to drop than I had planned and it wasn’t until he turned at the wrong buoy and began swimming up the middle of the course that I saw my break. He was inevitably going to be chased down by the kayakers and I was ready to take off. I swam hard all the way back into the beach and got out of the water with nobody else in sight. The time wasn’t anywhere near where I wanted it to be but I was set up for a great day already.

            Getting out on the bike took a little bit longer than I expected since I decided to forego the jacket and pull on arm warmers. The arm warmers ended up being the perfect decision despite costing a little bit of time in T1. I executed my race plan, got out of the park fast and began ascending the tough 12 mile section. I didn’t see a single person the entire climb which was a good thing although it clued me in that I was in for a lonely day. By mile 30 I had yet to see another athlete until Karma decided to take its toll. Coming to an intersection I was unclear where to go. The police officer at the intersection was clearly pointing left so against my gut feeling, I went left. Very quickly, the roads became unfamiliar and I turned around to head back to the intersection. I had gone off course by about 0.3 miles, costing me a good 1-2 minutes. As I approached the intersection, the swimmer that went off course took the lead. I was upset but I knew it had at the very least leveled the playing field between the two of us.

            I got back on course and caught him then he dropped his chain and I got a little lead on him. He passed me about 5 miles later and I never saw him again the whole race. I spent the rest of the bike course trying to make up for lost time. I had calculated that I was going to be very close to 2:38 as a split unless I started moving. There was a 5 mile section where I averaged 25.5 and was able to get off the bike just under 2:37.

            Heading out of transition, I saw a man from Buffalo who set the tone for the entire run. He saw my BTC jersey and as I passed him, he said “Way to make Buffalo proud, go run down the pros!” I had an immediate confidence boost and while I knew I could run 1:50 and still break 5 hours, I wanted to lay the hammer down. Clicked off the first mile in 6:18 which I decided was a little fast so I backed off to 7 minute miles and rocked through 6.55 miles at 6:50 pace. I couldn’t believe what was happening as I am traditionally a very average runner. I thought my Garmin was getting a poor satellite reception or that something was out of whack.

            I finished the race, very satisfied with a 1:33 half marathon, 2 minutes off of my PR and a 70.3 PR of 7 minutes. People had been telling me I was the first AGer to come through but I knew there was at least someone ahead of me who I did not believe was a pro. I quickly learned that it was indeed someone from my AG ahead of me and I counted my Vegas slot out. I relaxed, grabbed some food, and got a massage. When I checked back at the results, I saw the posting of Vegas slots per AG. Miraculously, I saw that males 18-24 had been granted 2 slots since we had 31 athletes start. I immediately ran to Valvo, Mae and Chris and celebrated! I was super pumped! I had entertained the idea of earning a spot but never thought it would actually happen. I got my slot and registered for the race. Time to spend a lot of hours suffering in the hills to get ready.

            This, by far, has to be my greatest accomplishment in my triathlon career even though it was somewhat of a fluke. It was nice to beat one of the guys that snuck ahead of me in Placid but none of my experience would have been remotely possible without the support from the BTC. I had just about counted Syracuse out of the equation and it ended up being my ticket in.