Pat Griskus Olympic Race Report.

"I'm not dead yet."- Monty Python

Well ok I haven't posted in nearly three months and any following me is probably like "wait he still blogs?" when they see their status updates. But I am still kinda blogging and now I'm racing this season. Last Saturday I ran the Pat Griskus Olympic Tri at Lake Quassapaug in Middlebury, CT. The race is run out of Quassy Amusement Park at the same venue they run the Rev3 triathlons out of, granted on a slight easier course.

I guess the theme for this race could be new out look, new equipment, new teammates, same old course, bike split and dominating run. I arrived at Quassy at about 6:30 and caught some crap from one of my friends Scruffy from HEAT in that this year I was racing in Waterbury YMCA tri club gear. I'd been coaching their swimmers, training at their facility, and have been put on the board of the club so I had to represent.
This year in addition to new tri clothes I was racing in Pearl Izumi Streak II racing flats and had borrowed Alexei's Aero helmet to see if it was worth the investment, so today was also a test run of the gear I hoped to use in Louisville.
Last year I came into this race after a roller coaster May and June and this year I was a little more settled but still felt kind of unprepared as my training has been nowhere near what it had been in the "Glory Days" of 2008 and 2009. I set up my transition next to Sandra from the Y tri club and a few other of the White Orange and Teal Crew, and made my way down to the swim.

I met up with Neil, my protege from the Y tri club as we waited for Fog to clear off the lake. The race directors mentioned the litany of sponsors and Had Sister Maddona Budder ( yes she was racing here this year, weird I know but I guess Rev's not the only race in the state that can pull big names.) give the invocation and plug her newest book, as well as give us her memories of Pat Griskus, a Connecticut Native and the first amputee to complete the Hawaii Ironman, and was training for his third attempt when he was hit by a truck and killed in Kona in 1987. The Sprint race run every July since 1987 was renamed 1988 in his honor. Finally after about a half an hour and after a couple of chants from the uber bikers for a TT dualathon, the race crew announced a shortened swim. The first wave of men over 35 took off in the mist following a line of kayaks to the first buoy. I went off in the second wave and all the way out to the first buoy it was carnage as people get swimming of the tops of each other and the stragglers from the first wave and tried desperately to sight in the fog. The entire swim I was never really in a clear patch of water as I blowing by guys from the previous wave. I got out of the water in about 9 minutes and hit the mat for T-1 in 11:09 .

T-1 went kind of slow as I had no body glide and struggled to get my right foot free from my wetsuit. I got on the bike pretty quickly and began pedaling like a madman. As expected I did lose a few spots on the opening run out of the park, and on the steep descent at mile 3. I was a little shocked to see Neil's Cervelo P-1 going flying by me so effortlessly. For the first time in my racing career I felt that on of my athletes might actually beat me. I started to make up ground in the hills, pushing higher cadence than power this year, and it seemed like my months of spin classes were paying off until about mile 10 and three steady climbs back to back to back. By the summit of the second climb my heart was beating faster than a jack rabbit's on cocaine, I backed off on the pace and put it into an even easier gear, trying to get my heart rate back to normal. Luckily there was a descent after the third climb so I just coasted for it feathering the brakes a bit so I could make the Sharp right hander at the bottom. Weekeepeemee Rd, had actually been repaved this year but I still took it cautious and got passed. They did the reroute up Crane Hollow Rd, and it's steep ass hill and other than nearly getting taken out by a few serpenting cyclists on this hill the rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. I did pass Ken, "The CT Cookie Monster" Schultz on the last climb of the course something which never happens, but apparently it was because his body was still recovering from the Rev3 Revolution Challenge in which he race both the Rev Oly and Rev Half two weeks ago on brutally hilly courses. I finished the bike in 1:16:29 30 seconds faster than last year so I guess the Aero Helmet may have had something to do with it, or the spin classes or both.

T-2 was also a little slower than normal as I tried to squeeze my feet into my new racing flats. I took off in just trying to get back the plethora of spots I lost on the bike, which was a lot more than usual as the short swim put the uber bikers in closer proximity. I passed Ken again on the hill and just tried to turn over as fast as I could, last year I had felt flat on the first loop of the run this year I was flying as I tried to see how far back I was to Neil. By the turn around I had a gauge, less than a minute and although he was looking strong, I knew that I was about a minute faster on the 10k, it might be Ken Glah vs. Pauli Kiru at the finish line but I knew I had it in my legs to catch him. Scruffy made a comment that he was coming to catch me as I spotted him less than a minute behind on the turnaround. I knew I needed to increase the tempo so I hit the Nos on the flat, and grinding up the hill for the first time. The pain of my efforts became clear when I had to slowdown and rub out a side stich at the top of the hill. I jogged lightly for about 200 feet and then kicked up the pace again. "Must catch Neil." I thought to myself. I spotted him at the turn around about 30-45 seconds in front "He's mine." The catch was almost like Crowie's passing Chris Lieto in the 2009 Ironman I came along side stood neck and neck for a bit then was gone. As I came up from behind I noticed he was wearing a new set of Peral Izumi's "Damn Obi Wan has taught you well." I said as I went by. We laughed, and then I continued my onslaught on this run course. I had felt my bike had been too slow and I was taking it out on this 10k, because if you bike like a bitch you better run like a rockstar. I noticed by the turnaround I opened 30 sec. on Neil and Scruffy was a further 2 min. back. As I ran past I gave Scruffs a razing for his comments on the Previous loop. "What happended to catching me dude?" " How dare you negative split." or something like that he shouted back. I made my way up the hill a lot stronger on this loop than the previous with no cramps, and managed to cross the tape in 2:11:43 my 10k Split was a 41:50 only 4 seconds slower than last years.

Overall I was in 110th place part of which I chalk up to the short swim, the other to the stacked field at this race. I was 8th in my Age Group, Neil was 9th less than 2 minutes behind. Overall except for some blistering on my heels from the new flats the equipment worked out well, and I was glad to see my fitness level seemed up to snuff. My next race is in two weeks at Ironman Providence 70.3 and that will be a better test of my preparedness for Ironman, as well as my re-entrance into long haul Tri.

Happy Training
R.D.

And so it begins...The 2010 Pat Griskus Olympic Triathlon Race Report

Well this year I've Age Grouped up. I'm no longer in the "I just came here from a kegger." Age Group. While I was hoping my first Foray into the 25-29 Age group would have been at a half Ironman, circumstances and the fates had a different plan. And so for the first time since 2007 I kicked my season off at the Pat Griskus Olympic Triathlon in Middlebury, CT. For all of you who did REV3 we race out of the Quassy Amusement Park but this course is just a tad more forgiving. If the race name sounds familiar it should. I do the Griskus Sprint every July but when the schedule of the Patriot Half in Freetown, MA changed last year I decided to shoot at the longer distance. This year with scant resources and scant training I rolled into Middlebury just hoping to get through the race in one piece, hopefully in the top half of my AG and try to gauge where I'm at at this stage in the game.

The Swim: 23:51
The swim for this race is somewhat easier than the Sprint as it is a point to point loop instead of a straight out and back. Still the dash to the first buoy might as well have been the Ironman. It was a really chaotic jostle for position, and I found myself stuck in traffic for a while. After the first buoy I broke a little wide and found some free water and began to close in on the leaders. By the third buoy I had found my rhythm It took me half the swim to reach the chase pack but I managed to get out of the water in 8th place nearly 3 minutes behind the leader in a time of 23:51.

The Bike: 1:16:59
I had a really quick time in T-1 as I had really loaded up both my calves and wetsuit with suit juice so I could yank it off fast. I had just had my cleats redone on the pedals so I was able to do the whole preclipped pedals mount maneuver which also helped save some time. The only thing that might have cost me was I forgot to take my Gu's out of my transition bag and as this was an Oly, I didn't mount my bento box to the frame. As I pedaled out I sort of realized thhis mistake and decided I was going to have to take my calories from Gatorade as I had no substantial nutrition. The first mile was kind of hesitant as I slid my feet in my shoes. I know I'm going to have to work on this for next weekend's sprint and the Griskus Sprint coming up in July. Once I got in I developed a pretty good pace. I lost some positions on one of the major down hills at mile 4 but I was surprised at how much my power climbing had helped me develop. For some of the major climbs at mile 6-10 I was leap frogging with a guy from my age group, an older guy on a guru and a kid Chris on an Orbeca. The older guy and the kid on the Krestel got away from me on the descent and Chris got around me on Weekeepeemee Rd. ( probably the ancient Indian word for many pot holes.) Weekeepeemee is dangerous as most of the road is pitted and patched but it is also a downhill so it turns into a risk vs. reward area. You can make up a lot of time going aero and hammering but just as easily find yourself going over the bars. The course marshalls sent us up a detour as one of the sections on the course was covered with pea gravel. The detour took two miles off the bike course but sent us up a brutally steep grade. I managed to get around Chris again and tried to climb the best I could. My lower back was killing me and I was really needing a Gu/ Hammer Gel/ Banana some sort of nutrition. We were rewarded with a much shallower grade up Flanders Rd. Once we were directed back to the Original course and then the descent down Rt. 61 ( where Josie had crashed last April.) I managed to stay infront of Chris on this section and pulled away as we went back up Middle road Turnpike and up the familar hills of the last 4 miles of the Sprint course. It was about this time I got passed by the women's leader. So I made it my mission to keep her in sight. I got passed by a kid from Georgetown on the final climb and managed to limit my losses. I had started the bike in 8th and maybe lost about 20 spots which for me isn't great but isn't horrible either.

The Run: 41:32
I managed to execute my dismount perfectly and got in and out of Tranasition really quickly. Josie was working as a transition marshall and was screaming for me along with Robin Griskus and some of the other race directors. I started the run really hard granted part of me felt like I was running on an empty tank. I managed to catch up with and pass the kid from Georgetown on thhe downhill at the first mile marker. He caught me by the turnaround and would run the hill together. We passed some volunteers and I made a comment about more cowbell. That seemed to give a little light hearted ness to the situation. We talked about pace and strategey and how sweet that beer was going to be at the finish. As we ran up the hill I knew my opening pace had been too hard as I got a wicked side stitch. I managed to keep Mike from G- town in my sights at the turn around at the park, but he left me in the dust as we began loop 2. The second loop I find tends to be a little better as you have more targets to try to catch. Indeed I was starting to regroup and was feeling a little bit better at the bottom of the hill. People kept screaming I was flying and crusing on this run but I wasn't feeling it. My legs felt like lead, I was bonking hard core, essentially I was just hoping to match the 42 minute run I did here back in 08. At the aid station before the uphill. I caught Marc from Staten Island. Marc and I had swapped the lead in the 20-24 AG last year at Park City. We touched base real quick and then I was past and started cranking up the hill. The entire second loop I noticed I kept gaining ground on the women's leader. If I could just get up to her and around I might salvage 42 minuutes. I also nooticed the guy directly in front of her had a "C" on his leg the symbol for the 25-29 AG. I had to pass him. As I ground up the hill the gap got closer and closer. At the top I managed to get around the guy with the "C" on his calf and set my sights on Cassie Maximenko the women's leader. The gap dwindled and as we approached the park I was on her shoulder. Part of me thought " Maybe I should back off and let her celebrate her victory as there is not another chick in the same zip code." The other part of me was thinking about the dude I just passed I didn't want to get punked at the line yet again. I kicked it into gear and got around Cassie, she kicked right back and got me by a foot on the timing mat. I looked at my watch 41:45 ( I had hit start in T2). It was my fastest 10k ever.

Total time: 2:23:57 66th overall 10th out of 27 in AG

Looking at the stats from the race which also was USAT's Northeast Regional Championship I'm pretty pleased with my performance. I did take away a few lessons that I sort of already knew:

1. Take gels with you on the bike!
2. Pace sensibly
3. In a short race it's alright not to use every one of the aid stations, you don't always need water or gatorade every mile.
4. Practice the barefoot mount as it might have cost me 30sec.-1 min. in the opening mile.
5. Ride more.
6. Lift more.

Likewise I have made some major improvements:
1. Big gear work on the bike means more climbing power.
2. Work on transitions pays dividends.
3. A properly executed dismount is not only a thing of beauty but quick and pain less.
4. Lift more.

I still have a somewhat long training season ahead and I'm hoping to do a late season Iron or Half..so hopefully I can iron out some of the bugs and get my first AG win since 2007. It's been a while but if I can pull a 10th in the midst of a meltdown, what am I capable of when everything is together.

R.D.

Homelessness, Stress, and I want to compete damn it....

Well the past three weeks have been an emotional roller coaster to say the least, I've been thrown through the ringer and on top of it all I just want to sign up for a couple races and get some primal rage out of the system.

Three weeks ago my parents lost their house. A friend of the family offered us a place to crash while he vacations on the coast for the summer so that was an exceptional act of kindness on the part of him and his family. I'm still planning on moving out but to know I've got a semi stable roof over my head while I scrounge together a security deposit is a good thing. I've had some anger and resentment building and it was approaching a head but thankfully I didn't do anything too rash.

Josie got married last weekend and found out she is expecting a baby girl.


After Josie's wedding my car's battery died so I was left car less and homeless in the same week. Without the car ( which was storing my bike) there was no way I was going to get to the pool or go for rides so my training nosed dived as did my endorphins leading to a massive break down on Tuesday night.

I spent some time with the GF but I had a mini melt down mid-week. Seriously this girl should be up for the medal of honor for having to deal with my crap. essentially my breakdown was I felt unworthy of her. The breakdown went along the lines of she comes from a decent fairly stable family. She has worries that would be considered more or less normal. She cute, she's smart, she's emotionally stable what does she want with a freak like me that's homeless, car less and living off the stop and shop 2 for $0.89 Ramen Special, when she could have a strong, stable, financially secure gentleman ( read : Angry Runner.) that could buy her anything her heart desires annd give her the time attention and stability every girl should have. So essentially I just sort of broke down because I felt like she could do better than me. Which led to a whole long tearful conversation which I will not discuss here but essentially that girl is a keeper.

My plans to keep my perfect steak alive at the Patriot Tri came to a violent end as I looked at the bank account this morning and there was no way I was going to swing the $200 entry fee. I still have meek hope for the Griskus Olympic but I've got to see what hits the account overnight. Despite all the crap that has happened to me in the last 3 weeks I still want to race. I'm a triathlete it's what I do. It's in my blood. For too long I've sat round as a whiny bitch I've got nothing left to lose so I should go out and make my competition pay for my pain and pay dearly.
People have always marveled that I can take the beating of half and full ironman's pretty well, essentially it's because the physical doesn't hurt as much as the mental. I mean you run a marathon your legs cramp tough shit. I'd rather run 3 marathons back to back than to try to keep the stoic face and try to keep it together on the outside like I've had for the last couple of months. People speak of mental toughness, I'll be the first to say I'm not mentally tough I just know I've got to get up in the morning and go to work, and try to do something. I sulk, I bitch but I got to keep moving though I feel like I can't. There were days still are days I look at my situation and feel hopeless, but I still get up and still keep doing what I have to do, because nothing is going to change if I sit on my butt crying and watching CSI dvds all week.
So I really want to compete this year...maybe because it's an escape of the torture daily life has become or maybe it's my way of "sticking it to the man" I've got talent and somedays it feels good to know you just laid the smack on the guy with a $10k P-4, a $200/month training plan, personal massuse, thearpist for his cat, and the executive challenge grab bag hanging from his handle bars. It makes the ramen taste a little better and go down a little smoother on Monday afternoon.

R.D.

Dancing on the pedals....

Alright it's midweek and it's a little late to be doing a recap of my Staurday ride but it was just too awesome not to mention. I met up with Josie on Saturday to get my first ride since Providence in. (My burnout is almost cured I'm just having a hard time dragging myself to the pool.) We were going to do our 100k loop of doom, but the bridge on Nettlehollow was closed for repairs so we were left with 2 options.

1. Ride 47 into Washington which isn't necessarily a bad thing except for an 11% grade descent on a narrow road.

2. Go back down 47 the way we came and head on to 132 and do a loop of the Griskus Olympic course.

We decided to tackle the Olympc route, or as I have called it in previous posts Connecticut's Alpe du Huez. Coming off my success of pushing ridiculously large gears at Providence I decided to power up the climbs in the big ring for as long as possible. Josie took notice on one hill as she rode along side me..."Are you in the big ring?" "Yep", I said as I puffed along. She droped back in behind me so as I got toward the summit of some of the hills I was expecting to look back and see her right on my shoulder. I looked behind me and she was still grinding up the thing. know she's normally a better climber than me so I continued to attack the hills expecting that she would regain her prowess and blow by me like I was standing still. For the first time in a while I was really enjoying being in the saddle and I was hammering. The Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin in my mind giving the color commentary. "He is absolutely tearing this field to pieces, just look at the gears he's using he just oozes power." "This is the man of old we are used to seeing, taking no mercy on the hills, he's going out until he wins or cracks." Josie caught back up on Weekeepeemee Road, at one point I thought she had hit my back wheel when I heard a slight thud and rubbing sound. I pulled away on the decent and had about a 2-3 minute lead as I got to the top of the last hill. We made it back to the car and called it a day after 35 miles. Apparently the thud, rub sound I heard was "no ejecto technology" failing her for the first time as one of her water bottles got launched out of her rear cage.

I need to ride like this more often. Just attacking climbs like my life has no other meaning. So tonight I have a post work ride out on the same course. I'm hoping that I can get back some more cycling prowess as I ramp up for Park City, which will be a flat fast time trial.

"He's dancing on the pedals now and he will not be denied..."
R.D.

To Enter or Not to Enter the Middlebury Trifecta...

" I think Cam Brown's going to have his work cut out for him in 09." me in an email to Catherine

"Well when you beat him next year..." Her reply.



Alright the above conversation was me referring to IM Canada Winner Brian Rhodes, but her reply speaks for itself, granted if I ever beat Cam Brown I think I would have quite the argument for a pro card.

Ironman New Zealand for 2009 is looking like it could happen but I'm still up in the air (I've done a lot of homework and price checking. I could still go for under $3k), I know I've got an Iron late in the season ( Arizona), peer pressure is trying to get me into a more budget/schedule friendly race in Florida, While part of me wants to make Kona before I turn 25 the other part of me is saying wait and yet another part is screaming give up on it all together. Well back to Cam Brown, it seems if I can't get to him the tri gods have arranged that maybe Cam Brown will come to me.



Everyone knows every year I race the Pat Griskus Olympic and Sprint Triathlons. Both races are staples on my schedules because they are on my normal training routes , through Middlebury, Woodbury, Washington, Bantam and Bethlehem CT..Well now a third race has been added to the schedule. Heather Gollonick ( don't think I spelled that right) has decided to go the path of Pro-triathlete/race director..well as fate would have it she chose Middlebury CT as the site of the 1st Rev3 Triathlon. Well the race is a half iron and has committed several top pros, including Bree Wee, Desiree Ficker, and the aforementioned Kiwi, Mr. Brown.

This really has the gears turning, before I found out about this race I was planning for a very limited race schedule in preparation for "Operation School Bjoern" ( all in good fun man) with my opener being either the Patriot Tri or the Pat Griskus Olympic as my opener, The Pat griskus Sprint and either Park City or Niantic being boredom killers, and Nutmegman or Mighty Hamptons as my final prep for IM AZ. But now with a Half Iron thrown into my stomping grounds, I feel like I'm stuck in an old school under armour commercial as the words "We must protect this house!" are echoing in my head.

Needless to say my inner Risk benefit analysis computer is working overtime.

Pros:
I know the routes, I know the lay of the land, hell I train and have raced on these same routes before.

Pros in the Greater Waterbury Area...well I know I won't receive press coverage because I'm not from one of "The" Towns, Middlebury,Southbury, Woodbury, Washington, Nauguatuck, Watertown.... but local athletes going up against the world's best might make some head lines.

It's in early June, which if I'm not doing NZ is when I traditionally start my season.

Cons:
$250 entry fee!

Swimming at Quassy....could be good, could be bad...could be ugly...

I'll post more on this as I get more details.

R.D.

Pat Griskus Olympic Triathlon Race Report.

There are several reasons why I decided to do Connecticut's hardest Olympic Distance Tri, a week after Eagleman. The first is it's a tradition, every year since 2006 I have used this race as my "season opener", it was my first Olympic race so it holds a lot of nostalgia. The second or rather third reason is it is Connecticut's best of the US qualifier so it attracts a massively competitive field. The 2008 edition also held another more practical reason why I was racing, it was my trial run, for Hell week, how would my body hold up after a half ironman, when I would try to ask it for all it had again. I was about to find out.

I arrived in transition after picking up my bags the night before ( and flashing the Ironman New Zealand T-shirt.) I set up next to a new HEATster. I met Gary, Raf, and a few other guys and Ken " Mr. Invincible" Davidson, from Shoreline. Now for those that don't know Ken D. he is BADASS! 4 years ago Ken broke his collar bone and 3 vertebrae in a horrific bike crash, he came back a year later, and last year conquered the course where he was nearly killed. we had swam masters together for a year, and sort of have a competition within a competition between each other, when ever we're racing. Irregardless, I got my stuff ready because I was in the first swim wave, and unlike some towns that come to a stand still when there is a race in town, Middlebury, CT had complained about our PA system, so until 9 AM there would be no PA and the loudest Volunteer had to use his vocal chords to corral us to the swim start. Tom Wilkas and crew went through their normal pre race spiel on how they've put this race on for 7 years and haven't had to Emergency Evac any one. The first wave took their spots for the start. I set up far wide hoping to avoid the crushing masses at the start.

The Swim: That's the way uh-uh I like it uh-uh!

An air horn went off to signal the start and after a quick dash, I was in water deep enough to swim. I began to pull away with a group of 5 guys and by the first buoy we established ourselves as the main contenders for the first leg. One guy broke away at the turn while the rest of us drafted and paced off of one another. Unlike Eagleman there was no wrestling. I stood a little wider, and the other competitors gave a little more room. There were no Kona slots at stake, just bragging rights and a a cushion on the bike, so there was no need to get dirty and break out the brass knuckles. The second bouy went well, 2nd and third place broke away a little so as I rounded the corner I noticed glare on the water. I tried to keep 2nd place directly infront of me. I noticed as soon as I got out of the glare zone we were on a direct line to the last bouy. I noticed the pack was starting to thin out. 1st place was gone 2nd was pulling away, 3rd was to my left and 5th was tucked in on his feet. The approach to the beach seemed to take for ever, I would take 5 strokes sight and the bouy on the dock didn't seem to get any closer. The third place swimmer caught up to second and finally after what seemed like and eternity I hit the beach. A volunteer in the water called out my split as being 24:54...I was a little slow on the run up to transition as I hit the mat at 27:09 40 seconds slower than last year.

T-1: You ever just have one of those days.....

When I hit T-1 I pulled off my wetsuit. Once again I was a little slow getting it off the ankles. I lost about two slots then got on my bike. My plan was to do the bare foot slip in like I did in Maryland, but as I mounted and began to pedal away, one shoe flipped upside down and snapped off. " Shit!" I muttered to my self I got off the bike ready to toss it to the ground so I could grab my shoe. " I'll hold it I'm an official." Tom Wilkas, the race director said to me as he took hold of the Stomper and I grabbed my shoe and put it on. I thnaked him grabbed my bike and slid my foot into the other shoe as I rode away. I had lost at least 10 spots and had added at least 2 min. to my bike time, since I had already crossed the timing mat. T-1 time: 1:19.

The Bike: See elevation Profile below.

Yes that is a really steep hill at about the 15 mile mark, but I'll get to that. As I left the Amusement park/Transtion area the road was going gently down hill. The asphalt was smooth as glass, and I was able to kick it in the big ring and really hammer, granted I got passed by Heaster Wolfgang ( or I think it was Wolfgang, all I know is he was wearing a tri fitness jersey and had incredible bike handling skills.) and a member of Team Timex on his pimped out Trek TTX. Then we turned to the side roads I was determined to try to take as much of and advantage on these flat/down hills as possible. I was getting passed by maybe 2 or 3 people but not the endless parade of cycles that had streamed by in years past. At least not until mile 3. As seen in the profile mile 3 goes down hill in a hurry and it also has some of the most treacherous corners on course. I'm usually on the binders so I can make the corner ( although one year in the sprint race I wiped out half way down the hill in the wet.) My brakes squeeled some GU2O must have spilt on the front caliper they squeeked half way down the hill as I tried to burn whatever was on them off. I made the first sweeping left hand corner and let off the brakes then feathered them for a sharp right hander then let go in the turn and coasted spinning my legs forward and getting no tension on the chain. I got passed by only 2 riders better than last year. We made our way down the back roads before shooting across route 6 and up route 47. At this point the road was starting to roll just a bit but not too bad. As we approached the Route 47 Route 132 junction we took a right and went on to Route 132 and toward the merciless hills of Bethlehem ( Claire and I have ridden 47 toward Washington). Not the suffer fest began. The first couple of climbs weren't too steep. I managed to take them in my 23 on the rear cog ( yes sadly I did not throw down on a climbing cassette so I man handled these hills with a 12-23 if anyone wants to get me an early X-mas gift a 10 speed Ultegra 12-27 would be greatly appreciated) I spun most of the way up getting out of the saddle occasionally. Each hill took more and more out of me. I magaged to get around one of the guys who passed me but now noticed the stronger cyclists were showing up. The riders started their parade past this crazy swimmer type. At the 10 mile mark Ken D. showed up and got around he could tell I was suffering as we made our way up the deciever. On 132 there are 3 major climbs, 2 back to back past a dairy farm and a few bed and breakfasts, I like to call these the sisters, the third hill is the deciever, when you start descending thinking the worst is over you are suddenly hit with this wall that you have to spin up, and then the descending begins. When I got to the top Ken was already kicking it into the big ring and cruising at full tilt. I had gotten passed by 2 others and kicked it into my big gear and began to coast down trying to follow Ken's line. I was aero for a little bit then got into the bull horns, there was a tight right hander coming up. I wowed way up for it and turned on to Weekeepeemee Rd. the most pox scarred piece of pavement in Litchfield County. Seriously, this thing looked like it had just survived a meteor shower, artillery barage and some 10 year old's failed mining attempt. I was going down in the bull horns, as I coasted a long two morons in their rice burners decided to visit some friends on this road forcing me to stay wide right, needless to say I hit a pretty big divet and nearly popped a front tire, if I can't have kids in 5-10 years I'll know why. As soon as the cars passed I was abel to go back to traversing the mine field, staying as close to the right as I could to let other faster/more daring/ skilled/insane riders past. We made a sharp left on to some pretty senic side road. I swear, it looks like a scene out of the Tour or the Giro, the road curves up and you're riding past this farmer's field and decrpid yet scenic little house. I got passed by the women's leader at this stretch. The road continued to curve up then it leveled off as you took a left on to Flanders Road. Now Flanders is decieving, the road looks flat but it is gradually going up hill. As you near the sumit you pass the Bendictine Abbey of Regina Laudis ( if you see any cars with hot chicks turning in there scream at the top of your lungs " Don't do it. Not Yet!")I think that this part of the course was added for a reason, at this point of the ride you are so hypoxic or so sick of hills you are either having a religious experience or are bargining with the almighty that you will donate you zipp wheel fund to the starving kids in Africa as long as you don't have to climb another hill.Finally you reach the top and are rewarded with a bottle from the aid station ( I didn't take) and turn right on to Route 61, the road goes down in a hurry and you find yourself reaching speeds you never thought possible on a bicycle, then it rolls a little bit and then it goes down hill with several curves, I mixed between the aero bars and bull horns as I sped through some of the more technical turns then shot accross route 6 on to the last stretch of heavy climbing. The women's second place rider went by as did some dude on a trek as I tired desperately to climb. Finally we crossed onto Middle Road Turnpike and the grade lessened as we took on the last part of the sprint course. One small hill, a speedy descent and I got around the trek. Another hill and the trek got around and once again I passed on the descent, finally the last hill the half mile grade with that damned smiley face. I got into the smallest gears I could muster determined to stay seated the entire climb, I got around the trek again and one dude on a Specialized with aero wheels, the second place woman was still about 200 meters up the road. I got out of the saddle to summit it Then quickly kicked into the power gears for the descent, I was passed by the Specialized, as we screamed toward the turn back on to route 64. There was a little bump on which the dude on his trek got back around as I slipped my feet out of my shoes and prepared for the descent back to transitition. I slowed up for the right hander back into the park and got passed by 2 other riders. I dismounted and ran into transition. I threw on my flats and race belt along with a visor and took off for the run. Bike and T-2 time: 1:25.06. 2 min. slower than last year.

The Run: The base is strong but the legs are weak.

As I headed off on to the run I passed a few of the cyclists that had beat me in at the same time I was passed by 3 or 4 faster runners. My legs felt like lead the Half Iron the week before combined with the Mountain Stage bike course had taken a huge toll, yet despite all this my breathing was fine, my lungs felt great but my legs just couldn't turn over. We started down the hill and I passed 2 guys one of whom stopped to "water the grass". At the aid station I took water and gatorade, the water went over my head and the gatorade went to fuel my tiring legs. One guy in a heat jersey got around me. I kicked it up, I wanted the honors of being the first HEATster across the line ( although I lost that to Wolfgang....I doff, my timex visor in respect.) I surged on the hill where I lost an age group podium in the sprint last year. We got back to flat land and the turn around at the park and I was caught by Gary, we decided to pace each other and reel in some of the runners from the Shoreline Sharks. My sights were set on Ken, he usually got me on the bike but I would often re pass on the bike, sadly that would not happen today. Gary and I kept a good pace, I made the comment about my shorts chafing, ( they don't have a normal cycling pad, like most zoot products, but rather a recessed soft fleece pad, they're great to ride in but the raised seams can hurt like the devil in the run.) We got down the hill again and down to the flat turn around. We started back and at the aid staion Gary accelrated we passed a few guys including one dude from Shoreline, but my tired legs could not keep up with Gary, as he acclerated up the hill like a house on fire. I kept him in sight as we summited but he continued to break away. Then reality hit as the shoreliner I had just passed made an attempt at a come back, I kicked it up a knotch and got around him as we turned down the finish chute, thankfully it wasn't long because I don't know if I had the legs to beat him in a 100 meter dash. I finished in 2:36.19 about 20 sec. faster than last year. My 10k split was 42:49 almost 45 seconds faster than last year.

I didn't medal in the age group as most of the studs came to play. 1st was a 2:15 low 2nd a 2:15 high 3rd a 2:16 4th a 2:26 and my self at 2:36. the most inspirational athlete in this race was John from Milford. John lost both of his legs to a bacterial infection 4 years ago at age 17, since then he has been racing in a hand cycle, and experimenting with prostetics. He had swum on a relay last year and this year was doing the whole enchilada. He was leaving T-2 shortly after I finished, he became the first person to finish any of the Griskus races using a hand cycle and push chair, quite an accomplishment considering the brutality of the race. He finished in about 3:30, which I found out after the race that he is using for a trial run to his first Half Iron in Providence on July 13, also he still managed to beat some of us more able bodied competitors, can you say BADASS! I could go on about the post race, but nothing really special happended I met a fellow Zoot Gu guy, another Blazeman Warrior, caught up with the HEATsters, guzzled some brew and met up with a CENTri guy, and oh yes, like every year dropped $5 on raffle tickets and still didn't win crap. I'm begining to think that I'll win the Sprint race before I win anything in that darn raffle.Well that was Saturday in Middlebury. This week will be devoted to long training miles, and hopefully reversing my Middlebury Curse on July 9 in the sprint after seeing how I stack up with some of New England's elites on July 5th at the Patriot.

The Latic Acid Filled Warrior

R.D.