Twin lakes race report
William Jones
 
Race Report for Twin Lakes in Palatine, Il.

Sunday June 26, 2005, was the official start of my triathlon season! I would first like to start off by saying that the Palatine race was very well organized and over-all it was a great time with great people. I went into this race with moderate expectations, as I know I have a little way to go yet to get my fitness into top form. I would say that some of my training protocols have changed (for the better) and I wanted to “test the waters” to see where I’m starting off at.

At about 4:50am Mr. Finch aka Speedy Gonzalez, picked me up to head to the venue. We approached seeing the swim area and it was calm and smooth as glass. I thought … cool just like being in a large pool. I haven’t done any open water swimming this season, so I knew the swim may be a little challenging. We picked up our packets, got everything set up, said our hellos then it was race time.

I purposely requested to be put in the slow wave thinking that maybe I can break free and avoid the thrashing I took at Accenture last year. As our wave lined up, nobody seemed too interested in being the first off. I decided to step on up and just take a wide line, hoping to avoid any confusion …… the horn goes off and it’s time to start to go to work. The guy lined next to me had the same idea on the wide line and we were close to the same speed, so I thought I’d try something I’ve only read about … drafting! I was at the guy’s feet, then at his hip for a little bit. I guess I should have trusted those feet, because he started to angle in for the turn, but I stayed to far wide and had to make up the difference. As I was sighting, a strange thing came over me … I noticed that I was passing some of the stragglers from the previous waves. For me it’s been the other way around for the past three years of me doing this sport. So I was feeling pretty good about my swim so far. Because I haven’t worn my suit in a while, it was taking me a little time to adjust my body balance, but by the last 1⁄4 of the swim, I had it all re-figured back out. Heck maybe I shouldn’t have worn it! I got to the swim exit, looked down at my watch …14:56. Now that may not be the best time in the world for a half mile swim, but heck it was the best I’d done to date in the last 3 years. I ran to transition (something else new for me) it took me a minute to get my suit over my feet, but I felt pretty good, grabbed my bike and off I went.

This year (thanks to Harold) I’ve been participating in time trials. After I mounted my bike, I hit my computer and I thought …. go into TT mode! I normally track my cadence, this time I set it to Ave MPH. After we got out of the park, I started to turn it on. Initially, I kept my pace in the upper teens for the first mile as I hydrated and took on some nourishment, then I started to work my way through the field. I was comfortable doing about 21-23 MPH. As this race was draft legal, I would turn it on for a bit (intervaling) then catch my wind as I drafted. There was one guy on a mountain bike that rode up on me, saw my tri club uniform and said, you’ve must have been doing this for a while. I have never talked to anyone during a race, but heck, we exchanged comments back and forth. He said this was his first race and I said, you’re ave 22mph on a mountain bike, you ain’t doing bad! After that, I took off and a few minutes later, he’d catch back up and say, I’m like a bad penny, you won’t get rid of me that easy. At that moment, I realized that this was actually fun and playing cat and mouse had it’s place in a race from a psychological stand point. Usually on the bike, I get to a point where my body is asking me why am I doing this to myself and what did I have to prove?! On that day, my psychology was to have fun and pass as many people as I can. At about mile 14, my mountain bike buddy came upon me again. This time I didn’t have any words for him, but I had one thought …. Eat my M’n F’n dust. At that point, we were making one of the final turns and I hit it as hard as I could. Needless to say, I didn’t see that guy until the end of the race and by the way, he did thank me for inspiring him to push it. The bike portion had now come to an end. I hit my bike computer and it said, I ave 20.1 mph. I initially thought, Hey that’s about what I had been doing in my earlier TT’s. I also thought, hey you know you slightly short changed yourself, because I never once went to the big ring and I had trained in the big ring for the past two weeks.

I got back in transition, chucked the bike and took off for the run. The first mile I was a little tight. I’ve done no brick work-outs to date this year, but knew that it would take about the first mile for my legs to get to working right. After the first mile things began to get a little better. I walked through the first aid station to hydrate (I lost my water bottle on the bike that was loaded with my carbo pro) then took back off. I had to walk a couple of times to get my heart rate back down, so I wouldn’t produce that heavy mucus I suffer from at about that point in the race. Well, it happened anyway and I dealt with it. At about mile 3, I was having another mucus attack and had to get it out. A guy on the course jokingly told me to pick that stuff up. I know he was only kidding with me, but he had a decent pace so I said to myself …. I‘m going to beat that guy to the line. Again, this was the first time where I used a different type of psychology to get me through the race. I saw him again at about a half mile to go. I ran right up next to him and just slightly passed him. He responded by coming right up along me and saying … I hope we have one more hill …. “I love hills” he says. I’m thinking to myself, Oh so this guy thinks he’s going to drop me. I keep my pace constant and at about a 1⁄4 mile to go we did hit a little incline and I do mean little! I started to edge away from him on the incline, I heard him say go ahead and at that point, I looked in front of me and saw about 7-9 people and thought … there’s no way I’m going to let them finish before I do. I already saw the finish line, it had to have been about 100 yards away or so. I took off like I stole something! I literally sprinted around the turn passed all the people that were in front of me and finished stronger than I ever had!

My ending time was 1:48 and some seconds. Per my polar, my splits were 14:56 swim, 3:34 T1, 42:58 on the bike and my cateye said I ave 20.1 MPH, 2:12 T2 and ended with a 45:36 run. I ave 172 BPM, which had me at LT the whole way! My results are a little off from the “official” time for each event, but seeing they didn’t have timing chips, I figured they averaged the times with the transitions. In any event, I walked away from that event, feeling very proud of myself and my efforts! Unlike events in the past, where I always thought to hold back because you have another event to do after this segment, I pushed myself in each event not worrying about what was to come next. I think I learned something about the sport and myself that day. The lesson is to learn to live in the right here and now and let the future take care of itself. I also learned to use other people in the race, wether they knew it or not to fuel a more competitive nature. It sure took my mind off some of the pain I was feeling. Finally, I think that I learned to have “fun” during a race. Normally I don’t find any fun in it, but more of a nagging urge not to give in or give up and just finish. I figure this was a good start for a hopefully great season. The Toronto Waterfront tri is next on 7/17/05 and I expect to kick a little butt up there, so wish me well!