Goodyear, Arizona
Then a shocking realization
hit me. The bike ride is only 12 miles. When Christian realizes that he is so
far ahead of me he may taste victory and ride that bike like a demon to beat
me. Prior to my crash, Christian was riding no longer riding significantly slower
than me. Now don’t get me wrong, I am still faster than he is, especially as
the miles wear on, but this race is only 12 miles. I had no idea how much of a
lead he had. The shocking realization I had, was that if I didn’t crush the
bike course, Christian may beat me, and I would never hear the end of that.
Even the thought panicked me.
Long before I reached
transition, I knew that I was going to have quickly get out on that bike course
and catch Cjristian. I had to change shoes, I knew that he did not, which was
another time advantage he would have to put even more distance between us. I
would be changing shoes while he was riding 20 mph away from me. I shouted like
an inpatient pro at the World Championships at the people who had set up camp
just past the bike mount line and were blocking my way. I jumped on my bike and began to crank.
Breathing like a freight train, I redlined my heart rate and began to pass
rider after rider as I hunted the boy. I put 50 riders behind me and still I
could not see him. My legs were beginning to burn. I wondered how long I could
ride like this before my legs started to give out. One thing about a reverse
triathlon is that you can burn your legs to cinders because you don’t have to
worry about having to run after getting off the bike.
I had taken in no
water during the run. I tried sipping some water on the bike but I was working
so hard that I kept burping it up. That never happens on the bike for me.
The bike course is
three 4 mile laps. By the end of the first lap I could finally see Christian
ahead of me. That brought me some relief. As I approached him I backed off a
little to let some strength return to my legs. When I passed Christian, I
wanted it to be definitive. I wanted him to believe I was much faster than him
and there was no point in trying to pursue me. I hit the gas and passed him,
only my 4 mile sprint had cost me and I discovered that my legs had paid a heavy
price. I was not able to pass Christian with the show of strength that I had
hoped for. Damn! 8 miles to go and he is going to believe he can stay with me.
I didn’t look back, but I just knew he was pursuing.
Having put Christian
behind me I tried to relax a bit until I had another troubling realization.
When I began to envision my T2 transition, I realized that my transition area
was basically the bike mount line. I
always do this because I want to shorten the amount of time I spend running in
bike shoes. But I had forgotten that this was reverse triathlon. I now had a
long run in bike shoes all the way to the bike mount line which was as far away
from the pool entrance as you can get. (I wondered why no one was grabbing what
is normally a coveted spot when I set up - now I realized why) Christian had
set up with the fast guys just because he wanted to be like them. Christian also
did not care about bike shoe issues since his run would be in his running shoes
so he had set up right at the pool entrance. To make a long story short, I
realized that Christian had already put all his transition travel in and just
had to pull off his shoes and helmet and he was right there ready to enter the
pool. I on the other hand had over 100 yards to run in bike shoes to my
transition and then another 100 yards to run back to the pool entrance. In
other words, I needed to get a serious lead on Christian during the bike in
order to insure that he did not beat me to the pool. And so ended any thought I had about
relaxing.
I accepted my fate and
knew that I was going to have to hurt. I told myself that the pain I would
experience for the rest of the race would be more tolerable than the pain of
losing a TRIATHLON to Christian. With legs burning and lungs heaving I
continued to pass scores of riders. The course was now littered with slower
riders beginning their first loop. I could tell that many of the riders could
hear my breathing long before I pulled up beside them. I pushed and pushed
having no idea how close or far Christian was behind me.
I hit the transition
and ran as fast I could in my bike shoes to my transition area. I tore off my
gear like it was on fire and burning me. I grabbed my goggles and went running
full bore to the pool. I think a few people were a bit startled to see this
huge man running barefoot as fast as he could towards the pool. As I hit the
entrance I could see Christian reaching his transition area. We met face to
face as I turned left towards the pool. I was glad that I go to see him,
otherwise I would have wondered the whole swim whether he was in the pool ahead
of me. When we saw each other in transition I think we both knew it was over.
Christian has become a great swimmer, but there is just no way that he can take
me in the pool without a lead. I swam
hard anyways because I love erasing all those runners and cyclists who managed
to get ahead of me. I finished and then sat on a start block very tired. That
was a rough 59 minutes. I ended up finishing only 2 minutes in front of
Christian.
Although I had not planned
to race at 100% effort, Christian forced me to race all out. Having raced at
100%, the results are very telling for me. My run was near exactly 1 minute
slower than last year. 15 extra pounds can explain that. The more troubling
numbers are my bike times. I was over 3
minutes slower and a full 2 miles an hour slower than last year despite
absolutely giving everything I had on that ride. My swim was about 15 seconds slower also.
Over-all I lost 4 and a half minutes from last year.
Out next triathlon has
a longer run, which will give Christian even more advantage. I am suddenly very
motivated in my training and my weight loss. I guess I should thank Christian
for keeping me from getting soft or complacent.
