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AT MiamiMAN: USAT LC NC

Al TruscottAl Truscott
in Races & Places 🏁⛺

Two years ago, the ITU announced that its 2017 long course (4k/120km/30km) world championships would be in Penticton, BC, a five hour drive from my home. Not only close, but a distance which seems on the sane side of racing, but still an endurance challenge - 8 hours or so at my speeds. To get there, I needed to qualify for the USAT national team at its 2016 long course (half iron, in this case) national championships in Miami, Nov 13, 2016.

So thats why I'm flying back and forth across the country, 6+ hours each way non-stop from one corner to another, over a four day weekend. Then racing on a perfectly flat bike course in South Florida farmland and running 13.1 miles through the Miami Zoo, past alligators and giraffes in 84F heat. In the six months before, I'd covered 3640 miles on 100 bike rides, swam 150,000 meters, and run 120 times for 620 miles, so I was certainly ready to race.

I figured I could do 37:30 in the small inland freshwater lake (76F, wetsuit legal), and that's exactly when I came out. On the bike, I was gunning for a 20.6 mph average speed, again, my precise outcome. I'd been planning on 56 miles, of course, or 2:45. But the ride was 2 miles short, so I ended up just a shade under 2:38. Transitions, I;d had no idea how big the field would be - nearly 2000 participants in the half iron, long course duathlon, USAT NC Aquabike, and Olympic distance race made for a long transition area - but I'd planned on 7 minutes, and got 5:40.

So by the time I hit the run, I was feeling pretty good. Turns out I was 5the (out of 20) after the swim, passed one guy on the bike, and in the first two miles, passed another 65-69er who was struggling with his run (he'd end up walking a 3:08). The heat, as usual, was slowing me down a lot. The best I could muster were 10 minute miles with my HR @ about 138 (my max is near 160), and I felt if I didn't want to blow up, I'd have to keep it there. A lot of water on my head, ice down my shorts, and switching between water and Heed every mile, and I kept a pretty steady pace. In the last mile, another guy in my AG roars past me. I tried keeping pace, but saw my HR quickly rise past 147 towards 151. I may have been able to sustain it for the last mile, but visions of J Brownlee in RIO went through my fogged brain, and I backed off to my personal redline for that day, on that course.

Turns out the winner went 5:05, and 2/3/4 were bunched around 5:31, +/- 50 seconds. The speedy guy ended up 2nd, I was gaining on 3rd, but ended up 30 seconds short. I had the 3rd best run on the day. But I felt great about the results: I had conquered the heat by running thru most aid stations, not blowing up or slowing down, and nearly hit my top end goal of 5:30 in temps which slowed me by 12 minutes on the run over my speed when its in the 60s. Afterwards, I spoke with the guy who ran by me. He's from Wisconsin, so certainly not coming from warm training weather. He'd done IM FL the week before. And his open half marathon time this year was actually a minute slower than mine. So hats off to him for his sub 2 hour performance on that run. It always cheers me to see someone who executes to that level, and I told him he had a lot to be proud of.

What I didn't say, was, I intend to not let that happen again, in Penticton next August.

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