The Dam Sprint Triathlon
Being that this was my first year in the North East, I have been hesitant to formulate a concrete race schedule. As it turns out, the New England triathlon scene has a lot to offer! After a great start to the season at Syracuse, I was hungry for more. Throwing wood on the fire, Bri told me she wanted to get back into the triathlon scene after a 9 year hiatus. It wasn't long (less than 3600 seconds) before we had picked out The Dam Sprint Triathlon in Amesbury, MA. One of the things I liked about this race is that it was true to distance, rather than many sprints with abbreviated 400-500m swims. Bri was less enthused, but it did mean we got to spend a few evenings together swimming outdoors at the local Charlestown pool (distance unknown, on good days 37y and days when Im swimming slow 43y).
Race week preparation went well. Knowing I had signed up for Musselman the week after I didn't want to taper too much the week before so I kept the volume and intensity fairly high throughout the week. Two days before the race I threw in some 30"-30"'s to give the legs a taste of high-intensity that they hadn't experienced for far too long. The way my legs felt as I rode into work that day suggested I may have made a mistake, but only time would tell.
Race morning Bri and I loaded up the car and drove 45 minutes north to the small town of Amesbury, MA. Not having competed in a local race for a while we were thrilled at the ease of picking up our packets and setting our stuff up in transition. We had so much time in fact that there was time for a nap (Bri) and music listening (Greg) in the car before the race. Honestly, I HATE sitting around in transition and watching people set there stuff up as I wait for the race to start. It makes me super nervous, so I often recluse to the car where I can listen to some tunes and try to de-stress.
The water that morning was calm and peaceful, for which I was very grateful, especially with Bri racing. The "elite" field was small, which I enjoyed as it meant I would hopefully be able to find some clean water. Having gotten in a solid warm-up I planned to really step on it until I hit the first buoy and evaluate from there. Feeling really good, as I reached the buoy, and not seeing anyone on either side of me I focused on keeping my turn-over high and not falling in to my 70.3 pace. As I got out of the water I glanced back to see I had opened up a pretty substantial gap. Unzipping my Roka wetsuit as I ran into transition feeding off the energy of being first out of the water for the second time in my life!
Swim time: 10:44 (no strava, Bri had my Garmin 920 XT #HubbyOfTheYear)
Unlike Syracuse, my "quasi flying mount" went much more smoothly this go-round. In less than a minute I had my feet strapped in to my Garneau Tri-400 shoes and I was ready to roll. One of the best things about being first out of the water is getting to follow the lead moto. There is something that just feels bad ass about riding behind a motorcycle, its definitely motivating! It took a while for my legs to come around, but I remained calm as I knew it was a product of the heavy training the preceding weeks. By the end I was pushing some pretty good watts and felt ready for the run!
Bike: 30:34 (logged on the Garmin 500, Im not giving up all my data!)
Setting out on the run without a watch it was pretty hard to evaluate the state of my legs. After what felt like 10 minutes of running I came across the first mile marker, YIKES I thought to myself, hopefully I am carrying a pretty good lead off the bike. Reaching the turn around I immediately realized I had been running uphill almost the entire stretch out. Opening up my stride I took advantage of the free speed on the way back home, crossing the finish line and securing the win. Man did it feel good to run a 5k like that at the end of a race!
Run: 17:19
Race time: 1:00:39
After my race I waited around for Bri to come back from the bike and then ran along with her. It was nice to get to watch her finish the race and dig deep. At the awards ceremony I got to chat with second place finisher, Wattie Ink athlete Gabe Dakowicz who was coming off a solid race at Rev3 Quassy and shared some insight about other worthwhile local races, thanks Gabe!
Musselman 70.3
Before I discuss anything related to this race I need to start by thanking Alyson Fletcher and the wonderful WheelWorks traithlon squad in Boston for telling me about this race and letting me crash with them at their AirBnB the night before. Without them, there would have been no Musselman for me. THANK YOU.
This year the race happened to fall on a weekend when I had told Bri I would drive up to Rochester with her for a gathering of young historic preservationists. Fortunately Lake Seneca (Geneva, NY) was less than an hour away, making this a perfect escape...I mean opportunity. Heading into the weekend I was a bit anxious about some lingering aches from the weekend before but they managed to clear up by race day....as they usually, do.
The race was on Sunday so Saturday afternoon I packed up the car in Rochester and made the short drive down to Lake Geneva. One of the cool things about Musselman is how supportive the town is of the race. There is a huge wall next to packet pick-up that athletes over the years have signed. See below my new, and very tall, friend friend Kristof of the Wheelworks multisport signing the wall. I expect I was the first, but hopefully not the last, to write "Team Every Man Jack" on this mural.
After picking up our packets and cleaning our bikes at our awesome AirBnB we headed to the small town of Penn Yann for dinner. On the way to dinner we learned that Penn Yann is short for Pennsylvania Yankee, and we enjoyed checking out their downtown, home of the world record pancake (and the dog that ate it).
Race morning I subjected Leah and Kristof to my usual pre-race soundtrack (an eclectic mix featuring Breaking Benjamin, Martin Garraix, Twenty One Pilots, and THE Notorious BIG). After setting up in transition and exchanging pleasantries with the athletes around me (in hopes they'll watch out for my stuff as I go sit in my car) Kristof and I headed back to the car in hopes of finding him a charger for his phone (his Garmin died and he is well aware of the adage that if its not on strava it doesnt count). Unfortunately, our request for a charger was not very well received by the 50y old gentleman next to us, who we could tell was disgusted with our millennial desire to constantly be connected, so Kristof would have to race blind and without "kudos."
Unlike Syracuse, I decided the water was warm enough to get in a bit of a warm-up before the race. After splashing around for a few minutes I assembled next to the rest of the 25-39y wave and waited for the race to start. As an aside, ALL races should have bigger waves like this, especially if individuals are in contention for the overall. It sucks to lose to someone who started 5' behind or in front of you! Following a similar strategy as the week before I decided to swim HARD for to the first buoy. My efforts into a pretty fierce chop seemed pretty futile and it was made worse by the gap that the dolphin diving athlete next to me was creating. At the first buoy I judged myself to be in about 4th or 5th and kept swimming hard. After the second turn we headed back to shore and into a canal with the waves at our back. The sun was bright and I couldnt see where I was going, so I relied on the splash of the athletes in front of me. I hoped that if they were ahead of me they were fast enough to have some idea as to where we were going. Fortunately they did, and because of it I had a pretty darn good swim.
Swim: 26:22 (shoutout to Roka for getting me under 27 twice in a year now!)
In Amesbury it took a while for my legs to warm-up. This time it didnt. After getting my shoes on I was ready to ride my new Felt IA10 to its fastest 70.3 bike split yet. I loved racing on the IA4 last year but the electronic shifting is a total game changer. The first 17 miles of the course were into a bit of an uphill headwind, after which you are rewarded with a downhill tailwind on a wide open road. Averaging almost 30mph for 10 miles, I thought to myself how crazy it is that some guys can ride this fast almost the entire race! Somewhere around mile 45 of the bike the lead moto headed down a road that said "no outlet." If I had to make one complaint about this race it would have been this ~2mi section of pretty much gravel road. Rather than worrying about flatting I chose to focus on all of the gravel grinding I have done in Shenandoah County, VA as a college student and enjoyed the challenge.
Bike: 2:16:40 (57 miles)
As I headed out of transition I heard the announcer ask me what I had done to the rest of the athletes as there was no one in sight. The first mile I ran along next to the race director who was using his phone to broadcast it on social media which was pretty neat. While some of the course was flat, it certainly had some very steep hills and many were unpaved gravel or on grass. Having been pretty busy with work the week leading into the race I really hadn't had much of a chance to check the run profile, but the first 7 miles were definitely mostly uphill. At one point my bike escort, who insisted on riding about 3/4 of a mile ahead and scavenging the water at the aid stations, said something about me having a 12 minute lead, which was almost 6 minutes off. With about 2 miles to go I really felt the day taking its toll so I slowed down at one of the aid stations to pound some gatorade and take a GU. It did the trick and for the second weekend in a row I was fortunate enough to be the first to cross the line.
Run: 1:22:35
Overall: 4:08:24 (2nd fastest time at the 70.3 distance)
After the race I got to chat with Pat McDonald of The Finger Lake Times who wrote a nice piece after talking to myself and women's champion, and new course record holder, Jennie Hansen. At the beginning of the season I had plans of racing The Boston Triathlon (next weekend), but I have decided that after two weekends of racing it would be best to forgo this event so that I can let the body recover and keep my eyes on 70.3 Worlds in September.
If you've made it this far, do me a favor and log onto ironman tracker and give my buddy John Savage a follow next weekend as he takes on his first full IM at Santa Rosa. He has been training his ass off and is going to totally crush it!
As always, thanks for reading!
