Buffalo Springs Lake Triathlon 70.3

Buffalo Springs Lake Triathlon is one of the few 70.3 races in which one can acquire a qualifying spot to the Hawaii Ironman World Championship in Kona. There is really only one slot per age-group available, but my age-group commonly ends-up with two. I won't explain how that happens here, suffice it to say I had to come in first or second, or someone whom finished higher than me had to decline to accept their spot. Not likely.

This race marked my first "official" attempt at doing just that, qualifying for Kona. It was my only real intention for doing this race. The venue is well, eh, and the 13 hr drive to Lubbock, Texas is nothing I'd like to do on a regular basis. Let me back-up.

I decided to do this race a bit late. It often does not sell out as most of the full Ironman distance races do and so I had the opportunity for a late entry. Still, I knew when I signed-up that the timing was bad. The race would be less than two weeks after a 10-day trip to Europe during which I would not be able to train optimally. When you're trying for a Kona slot, and you need to be perfect, less than optimal is bad. Still, I thought I'd take swing at it.

Prior to my Europe trip, I raced Deuceman (see previous post) and had a half recovery, half-maintain fitness week before I left. I had a great time in Europe and did some running, less cycling (stationary bike), even less swimming. I tried to kick things back into gear when I got home, but jet-lag and too much Guinness took their toll and I went into race week feeling less than fit.

When you're racing for a PR weather can be a determining factor. When you're racing to best others in your division, it just really doesn't matter. You're all in the same boat. But, here's the run-down anyway. I'd expected it to be blistering hot and humid on race day and I'd taken advantage of the Arizona climate and done lots of training in the hottest part of the day to try to acclimate. However, race day temps were seasonably low and the wind was high. The water temp was "wetsuit legal" but that's about all. The very-warm water had many scratching their heads; wetsuit or speedsuit...? I don't, OK didn't have, a speedsuit, but after a short swim the day before in a wetsuit, I bought a speedsuit at the expo. I was SURE they'd say no wetsuits. The water was just too warm. The call on race morning proved me wrong, nearly everyone donned their wetsuits and I followed suit, no pun intended. It would just be too much of a disadvantage for me and the water was rough. I thought it the best choice.

I navigated the swim better than I have recently, but the water was very murky, and in the low light you couldn't see past your wrist never mind feet in front of you. So, drafting was difficult at best. I came out of the water, looked at my watch, and thought I was out of contention already, at least two minutes off the pace.

The bike felt bad. My legs just felt sluggish and the wind was gusting enough for me to lean into it during some segments. Around mile 25 the rain kicked in and became steadily stronger, toward the end becoming quite heavy. I rolled into T2, checked my split and was fairly certain I was out of contention. I was good six minutes off the required bike pace. There was probably no way I was going to run fast enough to make up the time. I'm not being defeatist here, I'm just stating the facts. Still, you never know what's going to happen, so you press on.

I got to my rack and all of my stuff was SOAKED. My shoes could not have been wetter if I'd swum in them. I squish-squashed out of T2 and I had to stop early, something just felt wrong, like I left a gel pack in my right shoe. I pulled to the side, took off my shoe, and...nothing. Just soggy, soggy shoes and no socks. I held back some in the first half of the run, as planned, but toward the end, I was huffing and frothing, thinking of every motivational thing I could to push the pace, but it just wasn't there. I passed Heather Golnick with about 1k to go and actually asked if she'd read the calf of the guy in front of me. She was as astonished as she should have been. What the hell was I thinking. The answer came: "no". I could barley crack 6:30's according to my Garmin and I knew I needed to run 6:20 miles or better. My legs had been cramping since mile six and I knew I'd been on the ragged edge. I didn't have the legs. Too much time off.

I finished in 4:34 with blood-stained shoes. Wet + no socks = no skin. Not a bad time given the hilly course and windy conditions. But, like I said, everyone was in the same boat and four other guys in my AG had smacked it. The second Kona slot rolled-down to third. I, being in 5th, missed it by about six minutes. No "I woulda, coulda, shouldas" though. I went as fast as I was capable that day, but not as fast as I'm capable of. I know that. I did get a qualifying spot to the 70.3 World Championships in Cleawater, Florida on November 23rd. To quote Carl from Caddyshack, "So, I got that goin' for me."