Sea 2 Summit Race Report
Sea to Summit Triathlon –
This started with a season review with Tim Cronk & my mention of wanting to do more fun things with my fitness (see my other race reports for the Austin Rattler MTB100). Tim tosses out this race that starts in a tidal estuary of the Atlantic on the border of Maine & NH and ends 101 miles away on top of Mt Washington. How could I say no?
Aside from meeting the RDs qualification standards (sub 13 hr IM or other equivalent results to convince him you can finish this in a timely manner) you need to provide your own Sherpa on race day. Given the point to point layout of this race, your sherpa picks up swim gear at T1, leap frogs you during the 92-mile bike course as your mobile aid station, prepares your required running gear at T2. The race officials inspect your required gear to go up MT Washington, a mountain known for some of the worst weather in the world. Your sherpa also collects your bike at T2 and leap frogs you during the 92-mile bike course as your mobile aid station, repair vehicle and general support.
I put the word out and ENer Cary Blanco is always eager to do anything with any race and jumped in immediately. For me this race was to be considered a big training day. It is 4 weeks prior to Lake Placid and provides a solid big training day format. Thus, I didn’t take it that seriously… In the words of JW – “do as I say not as I do.”
Cary & I drove up to the race site on Friday, getting there for the last 5 minutes of the mandatory pre-race meeting. From there we stopped at a local market, checked into the hotel & went next door to 99 and grabbed some salads then to bed. We woke up at 3:45, packed up and headed to the race site. Getting there at 4:30 for a 5AM start… Without Cary, my day would have been over. If IM is the epitome of commercialization of our sport, this race is the polar opposite. The transition area wasn’t even sectioned off, just a couple of long bike racks in the middle of a field. The assistant RD helped me secure a spot, I loaded up the bike, laid out the bike gear. Got online for the porta-potties and was a bit worried that I wouldn’t make the start. Cary thoughtfully asked me about pumping my tires, I simply replied, 95 please… Without him, I’d have been riding at 65 PSI all day…
I now was anxious, while I wasn’t “racing” this event, the start always gets me anxious. Water temps were reported to be 68 degrees at the race site & 58 at the one turning buoy way off in the distance ¾ mile away… Well the RD decided that we would have an inwater start & asked everyone (all 55 of us) to get in the water for his pre-race instructions. Then he said “starting in 5…” And off we went. I am a slow swimmer, and was worried I would be dropped by such a small group. I found myself quickly being very comfortable and enjoyed the cold spots that came up infrequently. I knew that high tide was a half hour before we started, so when I got to the turnaround buoy at 22 minutes, I had a feeling the way back would be tougher.
Sighting on the way back was easy, I was trailing another competitor by about 20 feet and the water was glass, so I just swam inside their wake, great experience that would never happen in a larger race. I came out of the water in exactly an hour (my predicted time) and noticed the water level was now about a foot lower than when we got in hence the outgoing tide.
Got on the bike, a bunch of new items on the bike, this wasn’t a race for me, so I was hoping that “nothing new on race day,” would not curse me. But, had new shorter (167.5) cranks, new Torpedo bottle & great looking Kiwamitri kit that I just had made up to promote my about to be launched executive coaching business. First order was to start the Garmin to follow the downloaded course as I had no idea where I was going and this was an open course with only 50 cyclists who were starting out with a good 20-30 minute spread. The course has 5000 feet of climbing, 2000 of which are in the last 14 miles. I got to work, wasn’t focused on nutrition as I was doing a fasting workout for the first two hours and primarily went with water, eventually adding a couple of cliff bars & two bottles of Gatorade to the mix. Cary finally passed me around 10 miles out, I was actually a bit nervous that he had a car problem or something since I had seen what were clearly other sherpas driving by.
The race has a great character. As is the norm for me, I passed a fair number (in this case 12-15) people on the bike leg. While no one else had any idea there was a race going on, I saw 10-15 of the same sherpas all day long. At the beginning of the long climb to Pinkham notch (Which I have ridden before) I came to a traffic light we needed to honor with three other competitors. I ended up dropping all of them by the time we got to T2.
At T2, the Assistant RD (a doc) has you remove your glasses and checks you out to see if you are safe to head up the mountain. He passed me along & I took this transition very slowly, for ten minutes, I joked with Cary & Heather. Off I went trotting uphill on the shoulder of the state road, I was surprised as to how fast I was running. As you enter the parking lot & start up the trailhead, it isn’t long before I came across another competitor & we started to speed hike.
Myself and this guy stayed together and were soon joined by two others. Running the remainder of the trail isn’t an option due to the steepness & the highly rocky nature of the trail. You eventually hit a flat spot as you enter the bottom of the famous Tuckerman’s ravine, until you shortly begin climbing a trail that is essentially rock steps.
Somewhere in this section both legs cramped up and I was dropped by the group. I did some stretching and got going. In a short distance the trail turned much steeper and was in places a rock scramble. This is where I shine & I quickly re-gained and past the three others. The entire way up you get a steady stream of information & encouragement from the hikers on the trail. At one point, I was told I was the 2nd place guy. I knew that wasn’t possible, and he replied, “you’re the 2nd racer I saw, so you’re second in my book!” That encouragement gets you far.
The last mile is probably the toughest. Over 5000’ you are in thinner air. While you wouldn’t notice it walking around the summit, you do feel it trying to negotiate rocky terrain as fast as possible, with a water laden pack on you. Also, it was an uncharacteristically hot & sunny day for Mt Washington. Though hot in this sense, meant 60s dropping into the 50s. There were a number of points in that last mile where I just wanted to sit down on a rock & cry. That was a first, but this was really tough going, and I have summited Kilimanjaro!
Eventually, you see people at the top cheering you to the finish and you crest into the parking lots.. not quite done yet, a series of stairs take you to the top of the mountain. One competitor caught me at this point and was gentleman like in allowing me to take my time ahead of him. He told me that I had earned it… my response was that he should pass as he was clearly earning it. I was relieved the next day when I saw he was 21 years younger than myself!
Bottom line, don’t take a race like this lightly, a 4.8 mile run up one of the most treacherous mountains in the world, is exactly that!
It turned out to be exactly what i was looking for something very fun with my fitness!
Comments
BTW - how do you like your Roka and how does it compare to your previous wetsuit? Is that the Maverick Pro or X?
@ Paul - it's the maverick pro. Had a 2xu that was my newbie tri suit from when i entered the sport in 2010, so this is night and day compared to that .
Also, there were a few guys here prepping for Norseman, the talent pool in this event is ridiculous. If you are interested (or anyone else) will be doing the SOS (http://sostriathlon.com/) Sept 2017 (sign up in October 16) it's a little more than an hour from my house, so I'll gladly put a group up for a few days...
The version of you from the dashboard (from years ago) would not have made it!
Congrats!
Great report. Thanks for sharing. I'm envious. When life calms down a bit, I'd love to some cool stuff like this.
MR
Like MR, I am a bit jealous of what you accomplished at this venue and super happy for you. You've been representing strong this entire cycle on both the training and racing front making this a stronger team!
Wishing you great skill next weekend Ironman!
SS
Cool ... great mental preparation not only for LP, but Leadville as well.