Race Report: Tri the Parks - Richard B Russell

This was my final tune-up race before tackling my biggest challenge to date: Ironman Chattanooga. I had no real expectations as far as time goals. My purpose for this race was to cross the finish line feeling like I had lots of gas left in the tank, stay in my heart rate zones, and with any luck earn a PR.

Those goals seemed almost impossible considering the obstacles we had to overcome just to get to the race. Here's how it all went down...

Day Before the Race

My day started with my normal pre-race breakfast of pancakes, eggs, turkey bacon and coffee at Ihop with my biggest supporter, my wife. It was nice to sleep in and rest my legs for a change and even though this was Olympic Distance race I knew I would feel better in the race if I felt rested before the start. I spent the remainder of the morning cleaning the car, cleaning my bike, and checking and re-checking my transition bag to make sure I had everything I needed for race day. I took a short nap and ate my bagels, drank my orange pineapple juice, and enjoyed some much needed relaxation until it was time to leave. About 30 minutes before I was headed out to pick up my buddy to go to the race, my phone lit up with a severe storm message: There was a tornado warning in our area. I looked outside in time to see the sky was black and then the rain came pouring down like it hadn't rained in years. I naturally assumed this was my fault for having thoroughly cleaned my bike, but I can't control the weather so I headed out to pick up my friend. It continued to pour the entire way over to his place and after quick tour of his new digs we loaded his bike onto my car and were ready to hit the road. Enter obstacle #1. My car wouldn't start. At all.

No problem you say? Just take a different car. Enter obstacle #2. My buddy drives a BMW convertible that can only hold 1 bike with the top down. It's still dumping an entire lake's worth of rain on us so that's not a viable option. Long story short (too late) we ended up borrowing an SUV with a roof rack. Now it's time for obstacle #3. Since we had to work out a new car situation we were now leaving at 4:30pm. Just in time for rush hour traffic on a Friday afternoon. It was worse than we could have imagined. We got stuck behind a few wrecks through spaghetti junction and didn't move much at all until we got onto I-85 N. We made it Perimeter Mall at 7:00pm (normally 45 minute drive took 2.5 hours) and decided to stop and grab some dinner at Olive Garden. I had a delicious Baked Parmesan Shrimp dish with Ziti Pasta, a couple of bread sticks, and some salad. We ate pretty quick as we still had a couple of hours to drive to reach our hotel. We arrived in Elberton at 9:45pm and I was just glad to be out of the car and looking forward to getting some sleep. That was the plan until 3am when someone's car alarm went off right outside our window and didn't stop for 3-4 minutes. That was plenty of time for me to completely wake up. I went back to sleep, finally, around 4:30 and got in a solid 30 minutes (sarcasm) of sleep before my alarm sounded at 5am.

Race Day

My racing buddies David (left) and Dickie (right).

After reflecting on everything that happened on the day before the race I was determined to take a positive approach. I decided that since everything went wrong the day before the race, everything on race day would be flawless. It turns out that this time my game plan would work out. We got the race site at 6:25 and quickly breezed through check-in. I got my transition area setup and ran through transitions in my head before walking down to the lake for a quick warm up swim to get focused for the task ahead. The weather was perfect. Overcast, but not raining with a water temperature of 84°.

The Swim

I had planned to keep a slower, but still steady pace throughout the swim. The horn sounded and we were off. This was a 2 loop swim and the first loop passed much faster than I expected. Before I knew it I had made the turn around the final buoy and was headed back to shore. I felt good enough to speed up a little bit as I neared the shore and that ended up earning me a new best time on the swim at this race. I popped up out of the water, trotted up the hill and across the parking lot into T1. Swim time: 29:42.

The Bike

T1 went smooth and fast with a time of 1:17 and I was off on the bike. I was surprised at how much of the bike course I remembered. I knew the first 10 miles were pretty fast with exception of one large hill just off the main road out of the park, so I decided that I was going to put my new found skill of mastering the aero bars to good use. I would say I spent 90% of the ride on my bars and felt like I was cruising along at a pretty decent pace with not a huge effort to maintain it. I decided I wasn't going to look at anything but heart rate on the bike or run since that was my focus for the day. This proved to be nice on the bike especially since It removed all pressure to aim for a target pace and allowed me to just enjoy the ride. I noticed that there were mile markers every 2 miles on the bike course and committed to taking in some Infinit drink at each mile marker. This would mean I would drink more often than normal, but since I haven't been drinking enough on my longer rides I knew this would be good practice. It proved to be great as I felt more fueled and energized throughout the bike. I coasted the last short stretch downhill to the dismount line and felt better than I ever have off the bike on an Olympic distance race going into T2. Bike time: 1:15:36 (18.0 mph average)

The Run

T2 was lightning fast for me at just :53 seconds and I was off on the run. I was more determined to perform well during this leg of the race as this is one area that I have struggled with the past 2 times I've raced here. I knew instantly that I was going to be strong throughout the run this time as I felt great and my legs weren't tired in the least. I took it slow on the first .46 miles as this section was on a trail and all uphill. I reached the top of the climb and hit the pavement feeling good. I grabbed a water at the first aid station and took a few sips as I kept running. I dumped the rest over my head to make sure to stay cool. I reached the turnaround on the first lap and was maintaining a great pace. Better yet, my heart rate was in Zone 2 right where it should be. I passed my other friend, David, as he was headed to the turnaround and knew that he was about 4 minutes behind me. This is where my competitive streak made it's first appearance. I knew that his swim wave started 3 minutes behind mine and I've never finished with a better time than him. I was determined to finish ahead of him and make up for missing that goal by :45 seconds the year before. So I  picked up the pace a little bit for the next mile until I finished the first lap. I grabbed another water at the start of lap 2 and walked for about 25-30 seconds. My only walk during the entire run. I turned onto the trail to start my second time climbing the half mile and knew that if I was going to have a good second lap I'd have to pace myself through this climb. I passed a couple of people on the uphill battle and offered words of encouragement as I knew how valuable they can be. I came out of the woods and once again, felt better than expected. I remained steady for the next mile and around mile 4.75 I saw David again. I think I had widened the gap by about :45 seconds, but I wasn't taking any chances. I saw the mile 5 sign ahead and knew that I had tons of gas left in the tank so I took off, increasing my pace with every step. I made the last turn where there were a group of volunteers cheering racers on and gave it one more push through the final .3 miles to the finish line. I knew that I was making good time but was completely surprised to see the time at the finish line read 2:37:09! I had to check my Garmin to see if I saw the time correctly. Once I confirmed that it was, I felt proud to know that I not only felt great even after the race was over, but that I had PR'd at this race by 15 minutes! I also managed to finish ahead of my friend by almost 4 minutes. My run time was only 1:37 off my best 10K time. Run: 49:45 (8:09/mi average)

Overall I had a blast and this race was a huge confidence boost as I head into the final training weeks for Ironman Chattanooga. Congratulations to everyone who raced this past weekend and I hope you all learned something from your experiences like I did from mine.

(Side note: We got back to my buddy's house, and my car started.... go figure)