Event: USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships (olympic distance)
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Date: August 11, 2018
Weather: Mostly sunny, 70s, winds light and variable to start, shifting to NE 5-15 mph
Scoring: By age group (132 males aged 60-64), gender (1607 male), and overall (2892 male/female)
(So you may scold me for waiting almost two years to finally publish this race report. Even worse, I've ignored doing any posting since the 2012 season. I am now 64 and took last year (2019) off from racing (see reasons at the bottom of this post). So with time a little heavier on my hands due to everyone's racing season getting x'd out because of Covid-19, it allows me now to fill in about six years worth of blanks.)
Things were looking doubtful as to whether I’d even be able to race starting a couple of weeks prior to AGNC Cleveland.
That’s when I started experiencing pain in my right glute and upper thigh when running hills. Pain was enough to force me to see my ortho guy a day afterwards. He suspected a herniated lumbar disc, and an MRI confirmed 2 of them. He wanted to give me a corticosteroid epidural injection, but I said I’d first like to look at the WADA banned substances list. Sure enough, they are banned for use in-competition. (These are different from anabolic steroids which are banned for use at all times.) So part of plan B involved taking prescription strength Advil. To this and among other things I added different stretches to my routine, avoided hills, used ice/cold therapy and started prerace taper a little earlier and deeper than usual. I did however do a shortened, simulated race early in race week – interestingly the endorphin rush from swim and bike (no pain issues there) and focus on good form helped me avoid most of the pain when I did the simulated run. With that result we decided to make the trip to Cleveland as originally planned.
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Date: August 11, 2018
Weather: Mostly sunny, 70s, winds light and variable to start, shifting to NE 5-15 mph
Scoring: By age group (132 males aged 60-64), gender (1607 male), and overall (2892 male/female)
(So you may scold me for waiting almost two years to finally publish this race report. Even worse, I've ignored doing any posting since the 2012 season. I am now 64 and took last year (2019) off from racing (see reasons at the bottom of this post). So with time a little heavier on my hands due to everyone's racing season getting x'd out because of Covid-19, it allows me now to fill in about six years worth of blanks.)
Things were looking doubtful as to whether I’d even be able to race starting a couple of weeks prior to AGNC Cleveland.
That’s when I started experiencing pain in my right glute and upper thigh when running hills. Pain was enough to force me to see my ortho guy a day afterwards. He suspected a herniated lumbar disc, and an MRI confirmed 2 of them. He wanted to give me a corticosteroid epidural injection, but I said I’d first like to look at the WADA banned substances list. Sure enough, they are banned for use in-competition. (These are different from anabolic steroids which are banned for use at all times.) So part of plan B involved taking prescription strength Advil. To this and among other things I added different stretches to my routine, avoided hills, used ice/cold therapy and started prerace taper a little earlier and deeper than usual. I did however do a shortened, simulated race early in race week – interestingly the endorphin rush from swim and bike (no pain issues there) and focus on good form helped me avoid most of the pain when I did the simulated run. With that result we decided to make the trip to Cleveland as originally planned.
Over 3,000 triathletes competed on August 11, a picture perfect
day at Edgewater Park just west of downtown Cleveland. And my AG had 145
registered, of which 132 finished the race – the largest M60-64 field
ever. Key goal going into the 2018 season was to earn a Team USA oly
distance slot at nationals – needed a “top 18” finish (but see postrace
discussion below). Despite the stacked field and sciatica problem felt I
had a good shot at it.
The swim for the oly race Saturday took place in safe conditions
after a forced sewage overflow into Lake Erie earlier in the week had briefly
produced elevated bacteria levels.
The M60-64 wave was one of the early ones to go off – luckily for the older guys the water was relatively calm (the surf kicked up later on, producing 2-3 foot waves, rollers and stronger currents for the later AGs). But coming out of the water I looked at my Garmin and found I was almost six minutes slower than expected ! At that point It would have been easy to lose my mind, ditch the race plan and focus instead on the other triathletes. Fortunately, while running the L O N G path partly through beach sand to T1 I passed a guy from my AG and we shared notes for about five or six seconds. He told me he couldn’t believe what his watch was showing either.
You’d expect USAT, our governing body, to get the swim distance right at its marquee event of the year. But my GPS after the race showed 1,800 meters, with 1,500 being standard – and not much zig zag. Still unbeknownst to me at the time I emerged 28th out of the water, so a lot of ground to make up to grab 18th place at the finish line.
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| After being told to back up a few meters, the largest M60-64 field in AGNC history - 36 years to that point - awaits the starter's horn . . . |
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| . . . aaannnddd they're off ! |
The M60-64 wave was one of the early ones to go off – luckily for the older guys the water was relatively calm (the surf kicked up later on, producing 2-3 foot waves, rollers and stronger currents for the later AGs). But coming out of the water I looked at my Garmin and found I was almost six minutes slower than expected ! At that point It would have been easy to lose my mind, ditch the race plan and focus instead on the other triathletes. Fortunately, while running the L O N G path partly through beach sand to T1 I passed a guy from my AG and we shared notes for about five or six seconds. He told me he couldn’t believe what his watch was showing either.
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| Running from swim venue to transition wearing a green cap. An AG cohort (pictured to my right) and I are about to share some quick notes about a seemingly endless swim phase |
You’d expect USAT, our governing body, to get the swim distance right at its marquee event of the year. But my GPS after the race showed 1,800 meters, with 1,500 being standard – and not much zig zag. Still unbeknownst to me at the time I emerged 28th out of the water, so a lot of ground to make up to grab 18th place at the finish line.
But now knowing I wasn't alone in my skepticism about the swim course length, I returned to focusing on my own race. Going in I knew that T1 and the bike phase would be competitive strengths. The surge started in T1, where I turned in the 4th fastest effort in my AG. Much practice stripping a full sleeved wetsuit and doing a flying mount at the bike mount line paid off. That plus improved running (more on that below) helped me pass six fellow AG'ers in during my 3 1/2 minute transition.
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| A sea of bicycles await their riders one day before the race. |
But once on the bike the first of 3 mishaps took place. While rolling along I broke 2 of 4 rubber shoelaces on the left bike shoe during foot insertion. I'd practiced this multitasking move and executed it perfectly in several smaller races. But the added task of safely navigating through a crowded first mile here, caused several errant blind insertion attempts. Fortunately the shoelace closest to my ankle somehow held up. The missing shoelaces forced me though to race a little more conservatively than planned. Plus had to navigate around several rough spots scattered on the remainder of the bike course (I had scouted the bike venue the prior day and helped me plan accordingly). Despite all that, the ride through revitalized and picturesque downtown Cleveland, the city once labeled “the mistake by the lake,” was enjoyable (perhaps enjoyed it too much!) By virtue of the 14th fastest bike split I was able to pass twelve guys while being overtaken by two in the AG. That moved me up to 13th position at the bike leg's conclusion and just one minute off 10th place and the last podium spot.
The final two minor problems occurred in T2. I overran my spot there and had to backtrack, costing 5-10 seconds. Then I didn’t tighten my speedlaces enough – had to stop after mile one of the run to fix that – costing another 5-10 seconds. By the time I left T2, unbeknownst to me I was in 13th place, with my historically weakest leg (the run), including potential sciatic pain and plenty of unexpected lakefront terrain upcoming.
Fortunately the more measured bike leg helped me conserve energy, plus had no pain issues during the run. The work put in to dial in my nutrition plan, plus all the HR zone 2 and hill, brick and acclimatization mileage run during training paid off. Resulting weight of 163 was 10 lower than last year – all setting me up well for the run this day. I was passed by 4 AG ers on the run but that was fewer than I expected. Was able to glance down occasionally from the lakeside heights – a beautiful setting for the run - to see that the Lake Erie surf had picked up dramatically (the Coast Guard instructed the race directors to cancel the swim leg of next morning’s sprint race due to unsafe conditions). Didn’t see my wife at all during the race until the top of the stretch run with 200 meters remaining. After looking at the tracking app on her cellphone she yelled out to me “looking good, 17th place.” No one within sight to try and catch, and no one behind to overtake me.
Crossed the finish line with the 28th fastest run leg in AG but more importantly, the 17th best overall time in AG. Felt quite happy with this result, but suspense lingered for several more hours . . .
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| About to cross the finish line. The guy behind me was in a different AG. |
Crossed the finish line with the 28th fastest run leg in AG but more importantly, the 17th best overall time in AG. Felt quite happy with this result, but suspense lingered for several more hours . . .
So for Worlds qualifying purposes they recalculate everyone’s place based on the “age up rule.” For me that would be the M59-63 AG. USAT didn’t publish out that result until during the awards ceremony downtown late in the afternoon. I finished 20th in the age up results earning a provisional qualification (top 18 qualify automatically, rolling down to 25th place) so my heart sank a bit. But awards ceremony attendance is mandatory to claim the Team USA spot. My wife and I then noticed that 4 of the top 10 in my AG didn’t show up for their podium award, so chances for my receiving a slot confirmation rebounded. I’ve since been informed via email from USAT that I received a roll down slot. Although I went ahead and put down a $50 deposit to hold my place until next summer when race registration fees come due, for a number of different reasons it’s currently looking unlikely that my spouse and I will make the trip to Switzerland a year from now. Triathlon racing and summer workouts took a toll on me physically, and thinking seriously now about taking a year off from tri racing. Increased injury risks at the even greater volume needed to put in at least a respectable showing at Worlds is a concern, not to mention that it would also interfere timewise with other things the two of us are looking to do together next year. So we’ll see – regardless I am very happy with the way this race and my entire season turned out.
