Ok, it has been a while since I have sat down to write up a race report. Back in the day (a few weeks ago) I travelled a long, long way (an hour and a half up the road) to a distant land (Greenwood) to embark on a great adventure (I had a race).
The Festival of Flowers is an Olympic distance event hosted every year at lake Greenwood, and it is a USAT National Qualifier. I was really looking forward to the opportunity to see how I would fare in a race that was going to draw some of the strongest competitors around. I had raced on part of the course before, during the SC Half Iron which is held at the same location, and it is a bit more hilly than the course at Langley Pond. I figured that if I was doing well I could break 2:30 this time around, so I made that my goal. I was shooting for a 27 minute swim (no wetsuits allowed), giving myself three minutes on the transitions, 1:10 on the bike, and a 50 minute run.
My dad and I rode the course the day before, and biked the run portion together. By the way, anybody visiting Greenwood for one of the two races should really look at staying at the Hampton Inn, they usually get the staff in early to set up and open the breakfast area! The bike course has just a few light hills, they are sustained effort without a significant downhill afterwards, so it is really a course of consistency. I planned on pushing just a bit harder on the uphills, but could not really hammer on them or else I would have nothing for the flats! The run was a simple, one-loop 10k with the same properties; consistent but not difficult climbs that really just meant you were running a sustained effort.
Race morning brought a lot of early morning wind, which was stirring the water up and making for a significant amount of chop. Now, I am a strong swimmer, but I can really say that I would rather have a current than chop. The current just slows you down or makes you change course, the chop is constantly in your face making you miss breaths, and as a result altering your stroke and body position as you try to get your head farther out of the water for a clean breath. The first leg of the race was also going to be right into the morning sun, which was beaming quite nicely into our eyes, made me glad for the tint on my swim goggles.
Race start went quite well, although there were one or two people who seemed insistent on swimming in total body contact. I have never had anybody so insistently try to swim in exactly my space (not just the same line, but exactly my space) for fifty or more meters, it was like playing bumper cars with the little kids who don’t ram you but just kind of push and rub, making both of you go slower. I just kept swimming my line, when I could see the bouys through the sun, and eventually he fell off behind me. I would like to say that was due to pace, but more likely it was because he eventually put his head in my right arm pit and caught a solid elbow, which I think just hit the top of his head more than anything sensitive like a nose or goggles.
The swim was pretty rough, and apparrently most people were complaining about the conditions. Actually, a lot of people were saying that they had a bad race, which probably stemmed from having to expend a lot of energy on the swim. I ended up choosing a wide right line for the second leg, letting the current push me into the bouy. and finished the swim in 29:50. While that was behind what I was anticipating, I knew I had posted a relatively good swim for the day.
Within the first mile of the bike I saw my friend Anthony Buzetti walking his bike back. He is recovering from a hip injury just like mine that has severely limited his running, but he has been making up for it by hammering on the bike. Today Anthony was racing as part of a relay team, and his swimmer had finished ahead of me. I stopped to offer him a spare tube, but he was using tubulars instead of clinchers and there was nothing that could be done. He told me that he thought his day was probably over and sent me off with a, as is typical of Anthony, very sincere “have a great race”. So I started biting into the ride, determined to have that great race. Severe and steady for 24 miles, I did not feel like I had all the power in my legs I would like, but I was in a solid place to keep working at the pace. I averaged 21.5 mph for the ride, finishing in 1:07:04.
Out on the run I had to smile inwardly a bit, as experience had shown me that the first mile is a long uphill which appears to be rather flat and I could tell others were struggling to run their goal paces and were close to overload. Nearing the two mile mark I heard a familiar voice shouting a “Way to go Cameron!” I looked to my left real quick and who do I see riding by but Anthony, back in the race and smiling! I did not know what had happened at that point, but I was glad to see him getting to enjoy his day, and that provided a nice boost to the mind with four miles left. The rest of the run clicked by smoothly, again without a feeling of deep power in my legs that I would have liked to have had, but steady. I finished the run in 49:02 for a total time of 2:28:12. I met my goal, and had a solid race, finishing just 5:17 from qualifying for Nationals.
As for Anthony, get this: Shortly after I saw him, a race official rode up and learned of his dilemma. The official said he could help out as long as he did not actually progress Anthony any further along the course. So he got a lift back to the TA for his keys, then to his car to get his spare set of wheels for training (look real close in the photo), then swapped over his rear wheel, and finally got back to the point where he had gotten the flat. He lost 22 minutes, and if you were to subtract that from his actual time would put him around the 55 minute mark, putting Anthony’s pace around 26 mph!
