Providence 70.3 The Bloody, Gory, TMI edition

Ok most peope have read the last post and for the record I'm not too disappointed with my results from Providence but there are a few things I know I could have done better this time around... nutrition, line on the bike course, transition, not deciding to visit the "reading room" at mile 9 of the run. Also there are other things that are totally out of control...such hot fire superstuds showing up from the left coast and down yonder. But instead of focusing on what went wrong I'll probably focus on what went right. First off the bat Three Blazeman warriors came accross the line within in 5 minutes. Also on that note at there were at least 5 of us including the second place woman who did the log roll. Second except for a rather inopportune call of nature I was running on pace to set a PR in the Half Marathon...that is incuding the infamous College hill Climb and descent....if only I had eatten more solid food on the bike. Third accept for the Big Hill at about mile 45 I did all of the climbs in the big ring cranking out massive watts of Beefy New England power....now if I can just get this to translate into speed. Also I'm sort of sorting out the optimal way to fuel for 70.3 a man cannot compete on Gu alone..as it travels through you well like crap through a goose causing you to...well you get the picture...next year there will be some Gu chomps in the Bento Box as well. Without any further Ado the Race Report.





The Swim: Killer Waves Dude!


This could have dual meaning for this race. On the one hand it was a pretty chilly gray morning in Narragansett. The Ocean was frothy as a result of an over night storm system. At one point race control was offering a dualthlon as an option to the weaker swimmers. The other meaning for the killer waves is there were 15 swim waves. Us young guns under 25 went in the 15th wave about an hour behind the pros. We were lucky that the ocean had calmed down a little but it was still choppy. When the cannon went off I had chosen the inside line and watched as the faster pack of about 5 guys went by. By the 3rd Buoy I was in traffic from previous waves. The chop made it hard to sight as I had to stop twice to catch my bearings and also I ended up losing my swim cap about 25 meters from the end. All in all not a bad swim I did it in 27:04 maybe about 40 seconds slower than last year.





The Bike: What do I have to do to break 21 mph.


I hit transition a got my wetsuit stripped off back my swim gear bag and took off on the stomper. I ended up coming out neck and neck with friend Tony from HEAT. I decided my game plan was to keep him in sight for as long as possible. Sadly that lasted all of 5 miles. The ride was pretty uneventful. No one crashed infront of me this year...although I heard a couple of guys had gone down when I was in medical post race. I lost ground on the fast kids from my age group starting at about mile 15. 2 or three guys would get around I'd try to keep them insight or re pass for about a mile or two and then would get dropped like a bad habit. There were a few sections where the road was coned off really narrowly and I couldn't get around some slower cyclists, and found myself risking a drafting penalty, luckily these narrow section didn't last too long...but for some reason I just couldn't get my average speed over 20mph. The entrance into Providence was a little hairy with some tricky turns, rough pavement and railroad tracks...giving a new meaning to Rails to Trails. Sadly this also included another fairly long climb from the mall to the state capital which really hurt the average speed. I hit T-2 in 2:49:24 averaging 19.8mph nearly 5 minutes and 1 mph slower than last year.



The Run: Bust a Gut time.

I got out of T-2 in about 1:02. This year Transition was organized much better. I took off on the Run and Caught up to Gabe from HEAT we paced off one another until College Hill, a 7% grade Vertical wall, Gabe got around me and I managed to catch and re pass him on the plateau. Granted this means nothing as Gabe was on his second lap. I continued along at an insane pace trying to catch as many people with 20-24 on their calves. I managed to pick off about 10 of them and was making excellent progress until mile 8. About that time all the Gu and Fluids in my stomach started to make their presence known. I was left with a dilemma...sacrifice 5 minutes to use the bathroom at mile 9 or sacrifice 5 minutes fighting my body functions. I decided that The first option would lead to a more pleasant 4 miles and post race experience..and hence that was the one I chose. Granted it hurt when I entered the silver box knowing that about 10 of the people I had just passed were going to get back in front of me. After releasing some excess weight I took off like a bat out of Hell ,Hoping that I could eek out a sub 1:40 run split. I managed to pass a re pass some more runners as I tore down College hill for the second time. As I entered the finishing Chute one of the guys ahead of me dropped to do a Blazeman roll...I pushed a little harder to get sufficient distance on the guys behind me and then dropped to do mine. After I crossed and got my medal I met up with Bob and Mary Ann as yet another Blazeman warrior rolled across. 3 in a 5 minute interval...not a bad way to raise awareness.

My run split was a 1:43:06 nearly 5 minutes faster than last year. If I hadn't stopped to use the bathroom I'm pretty sure I would have matched my 1:37 from the Nutmeg State Half Marathon.
All in all it wasn't a bad day, 5:03:08 is respectable but there are still somethings I need to work on and iron out if I want to be a contender.

R.D.