Thursday, October 29, 2009

Humbled by racing with 13 other Countries......

25 Oct 2009- Alanya Turkey

So this weekend I made a 6 hour voyage up the coast of Turkey for an Olympic distance Tri. It was a long trip and we left here at 1:30am since we cannot get off base after 2am. I went with another buddy from here on base and it was his first tri. We made really good time getting there since there was no traffic. We did not have a hotel lined up so once we found where the transition area was we picked a near by hotel so the logistics would be easy come race day. Here is a picture from the hotel balcony, transition area is in the bottom left corner. Upon arrival we got in an early morning swim and then went and registered. For $70 the race entry included: A T-shirt, race entry, swim cap, race numbers, Pasta dinner, and a post race dinner that was AWESOME because it had FREE BEER well the food was awesome as well!!! So that was the good thing they did provide quite a bit for a great price.

Now onto race day. Well here is where everything kind of changed and it was obvious why it was only $70. First off having a race start at 2pm was different, they had the mens and womens ITU race before the Age Groupers which was fine, but I noticed last year in Korea I did a very similar race and it was much more organized. So with the afternoon start my nutrition was all messed up and I ate a big breakfast but chose not to eat lunch since we were starting at 2. Well they decided they did not have enough room in transition area for all the age group bikes so we had to wait till the womens race was over to set up our transition area. So by the time everything was said and done we did not get started till 3:30, which would have been fine but daylight saving went into effect on race day. So by the time I was coming in from the bike it was getting dark out and by the run it was really dark out.

Swim-

So the swim was going to be my first open water swim without a wetsuit. I was fine with this because my swim had come a long ways since last year. I swam in my opinion really well at Wild Flower with a 26min swim and thought I could possibly go 28-30mins. I figured I would be a little slower since the recent fracture/crack in the radial up in Germany. But I did not think I would swim as slow as I did. I came out of the water in 31:31. The good thing about the swim is I was on some peoples feet for most of the swim but lost the toes with about 400M's to go.

T1- This was a real struggle since my Tri Suit had torn in Germany from the crash and I did not realize it till a week before Alanya. So I did not have time to order another one and went with a shorts and shirt option since that was the only option. Having to put on a tight tri top after being all wet was really a pain and took some time.

Bike-

Well the race was not suppose to be a draft legal race but just like Korea no one really cared. So I came out of the water behind the 3rd main pack. I pushed hard right off the bat so I could try and catch a small group of 3 in front of me and we could push toward the 3rd pack. Once I was with them we tried to work together but only 3 of us were doing the work and the other guy was just hanging on. So after about 1 1/2 laps we caught the third group. The plan that we had talked about was to go right by them and not let them latch on with us. Well we ended up all merging together and had a group of about 15. I did not want to be with the big group and made a big push and myself and one other person broke away from the group. So I had a really strong bike and felt really good. There was only one scare while riding in the group when a dog was out in the road. We had seen a dog take out 2 people earlier in the day and one guys bike got pretty messed up, see pictures below. So other than that the bike portion went really well.

T2-

Went really smooth compared to T1 and I felt like I had some go in the legs.

Run-

Felt really good and consistent throughout the run. There was one hill on each of the 5 laps that was right after the transition area. It was steep and then on gradual hill for about 200M. I felt good and it was nice to run at night since it was a little cooler. I think I pushed a little to hard on the bike because I had a decent run but felt like I could of been faster if I would have stuck with that 3rd pack and just stayed in the draft. Still really happy with the run and felt really good running in my Zoot race flats, I have decided to use them for Clearwater.

Swim- 31:31 69th/128
T1- 1:21 (SLOW)
Bike- 1:01:07 8th/128
T2- 1:02
Run- 44:17 32nd/128
Overall- 2:19:17 36th/128 (PR by exactly 5mins, went 2:24:17 at WF)

Overall it was a really good day and I felt good with my results in terms of time. In terms of my placing I was really disappointed but realized with 13 countries represented it was a big international race that brought a lot of fast people. I guess that is what happens when they offer money for the age groupers. I have come to learn that with every race there is a positive thing and from this race I gained a lot of confidence with my bike time and reassured myself that that is my strong point.

A BIG THANKS goes out to LtCol Timothy Brock who was deployed out here to Turkey about 3 months ago. He was out here and did not have a bike to train on so I let him use my Trek 1200 for his stay out here. In return he has decided to help me out for this race and covered my entry fee. Thanks TIM!!

The view into the harbor from the hotel room. This would be where part of the swim took place and finished.


On the pre race day ride. That mountain is back where transition area and the hotel was.

The transition area is in the middle of the picture where the red tent is, kind of hard to see. But this is the view from out hotel.

The pro's bike that hit the dog. Snapped his fork in half.

Myself and Berlin getting ready for the race.
The "P4", the first time I have seen one in person and my bike the "P3". 2 of Cervelo's top of the line bikes in Turkey. The P4 was from Israel and was sweet. I actually was faster on the bike than him, so its not about the bike its about the "motor" ;)