I only decided to do this race about 2 weeks prior to it. Normally a pool swim, St. Louis suffered from an extended power outage resulting in damaged pool pumps and the triathlon becoming a duathlon. That’s fine with me, even though my swim has improved substantially, I still like duathlons better; at least I think I do…

One of the few race organizations in the St. Louis area to get a duathlon right, the race started with a 1.9 mile run, followed by a 12.5 mile bike, and then a 2.8 mile run. I lucked out and was put in the first wave, along with Shawn O’neal and Mike Barro, two competitors that I knew would be some of my toughest competition.

I started out controlled on the run figuring I should keep Shawn in my sights on the first run, hopefully not lose too much on him on the bike, and then maybe pull him back on the final run. Turns out I wasn’t moving quite as fast on the run as I should have been and Shawn slowly pulled away from me. However, we came into the transition area and I was only about 15 seconds back. Mike Barro was running really fast and was not in view leaving the first transition. I didn’t really know much about him so I wasn’t sure if I would pull him back on the bike or not…

The bike course was three laps of a 4 mile course, starting out with a relatively steep section, changing into something a little less steep and then turning and heading back with some nice downhill. Very little of the course was flat, either up or down…

The really nice part about being in the first wave is the course was empty in front of me; later competitors would have to deal with congestion issues. Compared to two weeks earlier, the bike felt great, I was a lot more comfortable on the new aero bars than I had been. However, I was still missing some of the power I used to have on the hills. It was doubtful that I would catch Shawn, but I was hoping that I might at least see Mike. Unfortunately, I pulled into T2 still stuck in third place.

It is always the responsibility of the athlete to know the layout of the course and the transition. I never have a lot of sympathy for athletes who run out of transition wrong, even when it is me… I assumed the run course went back out the same way the first run went, but I was wrong and after wasting 15 or 20 seconds I was finally on course with a little extra adrenaline pumping.

Eventually I arrived at “the beast”, a long up hill slog. Somewhere around this point Shawn passed me heading the opposite way and then several minutes later Mike Barro ran past. I realized I wouldn’t be catching either of them that day. Eventually I finished in 1:01:31, 8th overall and 2nd in my age group. Turns out there were quite a few of St Louis’ top triathletes there, some of them starting in later waves.
Full Results

A big disappointment for me was that Eric Buckley who had beaten me at Show Me State Games duathlon also beat me here. Only by 25 seconds though, maybe things would be different at Alligator Creek in a week…

Wow, what a suprise! I went in this week for a follow-up with Dr. Andrews to find out how my facial nerves are recovering from the surgery to repair my fractured mandibular condyle (click here to read/see about original accident). Instead of hearing how well everything was going, I hear that I’ve somehow managed to break the titanium plate that was holding my jaw together… This was the first time he’s ever seen anyone do this! According to him it must be “my naturally occuring high levels of testosterone” and then he said I’ll be okay as long as “I keep my ratio of epistosterone to testosterone within the legal limit…”. So, back to a liquid diet, this time strictly liquids for at least four weeks. Needless to say, this has thrown a wrench into my “upcoming events” schedule.

I had heard lots of good things about the Concreteman triathlon and had always wanted to do it, so I decided that this would be the year. I drove down on Friday evening and spent the evening with Eric and his wife Alicia as well as Eric’s friend, Dustin. We had a fun time going out to the Springfield brewery and then I retired early so I could wake up before dawn.

It probably hadn’t been the greatest idea on my part, but I had gotten in a new set of Hed aero bars and front tri spoke to replace the stuff lost in the crash on Thursday and had decided to try replacing the bars on my own. So race morning found me at race site making some final tweaks to my aero bars. Finally, I felt like I had them setup well enough to race on so I headed to the transition area.

This was my first open water swim of the season and the first since the accident. I was a little nervous with my hand, but I felt like I was now a fast enough swimmer to avoid the melay of multiple swimmers passing me and swimming over me. 1,000 yards was going to be a long swim, but I felt ready for it. Turns out it was a long swim and I probably wasn’t as ready as I should have been, but when are you ever… The layout of the course was poor as we turned directly into the sun and couldn’t see any buoys for a while, that probably slowed things up considerably and my pace only ended up being 1:53 per 100yds. Everyone else seemed a little slower as well though, so maybe the course was a little long as well. But it was done, first open water swim out of the way!

After a quick transition, I was out on my bike speeding away. I soon realized the importance of a more through inspection of a new handle bar installation. Once out on the course and in the aero position for a few minutes, I noticed the bars were too narrow. Not so much at the hands, but at the elbows, I was feeling really pinched in the shoulders. So, for the next 17 or so miles, I not only battled the hills and course, but I was constantly shifting trying to get comfortable. I’ll never know how badly this affected me, but I only ended up with a 20.19 mph average. I was glad for the end of the bike and I put all my effort into a smooth and fast T2.

T2 didn’t go quite as smoothly as I might have hoped. I had forgotten that during an aquathon a couple of weeks back, the liner had come out of my shoe and had folded in on itself when I had put it back in. So now I’m standing in T2 trying to fix my dang shoe! Finally, I get the shoe fixed and on my foot, probably causing me to lose about a minute or so of time!

Now I’m out on the run and I feel pretty good. In short order I several runners. However, as I had come in off the bike I had seen several of my “competitors” heading out several minutes ahead of me. One of them, Jason Holland I hoped I could catch, the other, Landon Hough had looked to be way too far ahead. Then I hear footsteps coming up behind me. I slowly get passed but not decisively so I pick up my pace and tuck in behind this person. A couple of minutes late I hear someone cheering him on, it’s Eric Chavez. I don’t know if I had ever raced him before, but I knew he had beaten Landon in a tri earlier this year so I decide this run is going just fine.

It’s a 5 mile run and I can’t remember the last 5 mile race I had done, so I’m definitely hurting. Eric continues to set the pace and the miles slowly tick by. Soon we catch up to Jason which I had kind of doubted I could do. A few times I felt like I could speed up a little and drop Eric, but I decide to stay with him and not risk blowing up. With about a mile to go, Eric picks up the pace and I struggle to match it. Soon I can’t and I slowly watch him pull away. It’s all good though as he’s in a different age group and he’s helped me run at 6:47 pace for 5 miles! I end up 5th overall and 1st in my age group!!

Despite the fact that swimming was actually now one of my strongest areas, I opted to do the duathlon this year. I was still concerned with my fragmented trapezium and a mass start in a swim was a sure way to get hit or hit someone else with the hand. So, I found myself lined up with a small field for the start of the duathlon.

Unlike most duathlons, the Show Me State Games starts out with the bike and ends with the run. So there we were all straddling our bikes waiting for the start. We hear the triathletes starting the swim, but nobody tells us to start. Finally after a little confusion we’re told that we were supposed to go when the first wave of triathletes started, but now they were going to start us 5 minutes late with the second wave of triathletes. Finally, the second wave started and this time they actually relayed the start to us and we were off… The bike is a 21 mile course with lots of hills, the first one coming at us right upon the exit of the park. Right off the bat several people sprint up the hill and I begin to wonder if I’ll see them again. However, I’ve got my disc wheel on so I figure the hills will be a little slower but I’ll hopefully catch everyone on the flats. Sure enough, once past the first few hills there were some nice long flat stretches and soon I was with the front three.

Most of the ride ended up being the front 4 of us staying together. Not exactly drafting, but none of us were able to separate from the others. I made several attempts to surge away, but I’m pretty sure they would jump into my draft during those surges. I decided I was better off riding controlled. We all ended up coming into the transition basically together. I was a little behind and was only the third person out on the run. I felt pretty good though and despite the fact that I had only run 7:30’s after the bike at Rec-Plex, for some reason I thought I would be able to outrun everyone.

Within the first mile or so, I had caught the second place guy and was closing in on the front runner. However, once we reached the turn around he seemed to pick up the pace and I couldn’t go any faster. To make matters worse, the third placed guy I had passed earlier now came back and passed me. I was fading fast and I started worrying about the fourth place guy. Fortunately I had enough of a gap on him to hold him off. I ended up 3rd overall with a 22mph average on the bike and a 7 minute pace on the run. Not the greatest, but I’ll take it…

Ok, so I’ve posted my race report regading the Rec Plex Triathlon, that might raise the questiong, what tri-bike are you racing on now? I originally had been looking at some high dollar bikes, but ended up getting a frame off Ebay, a Felt S22 for $450. It was a 2005 model that had never been built up and was painted with the 2006 colors. Apparantly it was a crash replacement, really sharp looking frame for a nice price. Part of the settlement with the insurance regarding my old bike was that I could keep the remains, so I ended up being able to use most of the original Dura-ace components.

I probably could have done most of the work, but I felt a lot better having someone else do it so I took it in to Walt’s Bike shop. They did an excellent job and for a total of $800 I had a new Felt S22 with mostly Dura-ace components. So now I had a great tri bike, maybe a little less than before, but nice regardless, now I just needed a good fitting. Ken and Diane Hood who run Bodymechanix Athletics also do bike fitting, Ken who is a rep with Compu-trainer uses his Compu-trainer in their fitting sessions. So July 1st found me in Springfield MO with the Hoods getting fitted on my new bike. Not only did Ken do a great job doing the fitting, Diane performed a little physical therapy and helped straighten out some crookedness in my back… By far the best fitting I could have gotten. Once Ken had everything set up, he made adjustments getting me as aero as possible, but each time checking my power on the computrainer to make sure we wern’t sacrificing power for aerodynamics. Fortunately I’m still somewhat flexible, at least in my back and I was able to get extremely aero while mainting my power, at least what

power I still had after Cape… In addition to the fitting, Ken worked with me for a while on the computrainer doing some “spin scanning”, working on my pedaling efficency. $125 was a great deal, definitely worth the trip to Springfield, I would highly recomend Ken to anyone looking to improve their fit/aerodynamics on a tri bike.

Bodymechanix Athletics