Racin' and the Honey Badger

"Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must move faster than the lion or it will not survive. Every morning a lion wakes up and it knows it must move faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It doesn't matter if you are the lion or the gazelle, when the sun comes up, you better be moving."

I am sure many of you have seen the youtube video of the honey badger, however,if you haven't, you should watch, it is pretty funny. (click on link above)

Since the last post, I have raced twice and both times back on the east coast. About 4 weeks ago, I particpated in the Angels Race, which is a sprint triathlon back in Winston-Salem, NC, my ole' stompin' grounds. I have done this race before, but not since 2004. It was good to return home and have a good hit out with old buddies. As luck would have it, I squeeked to the finish line first just in front of one of my old training buddies, Keith, in 2nd place. As always, Mick puts on a great race and I was a reminded that NC is very lucky to have the triathlon community it does.

Last weekend I headed to Anderson, SC to do the Rev3 half. This half was put in the schedule just after IM Louisville so that I would stay motivated to keep my training going. I can't lie, right after IM Lou I started to mentally struggle with training a bit and I figured if I got a race on the schedule, I would keep it movin'. So we did and I signed up for Rev3 SC. I didn't have a lot of expectations, but the only pressure I put on myself was to continue with my "PR" season. So far this year, I have set PR's at just about every race that I have done in either the swim, bike, run or overall time. I wanted to keep that streak alive. The only other expectation was to continue to chase the goal of breaking 1:30 in a half off the bike.

Now to be honest, I thought I was going to have a PR swim. Had a good warm up swim the day before and I thought I could creep into the 26:xx "arena," but to no avail that didn't happen. I swam my standard 28:xx. What was a bit frustrating, was that I was in the lead chase group and there were 4 of us. One guy was off the front a bit and then 4 of us in a pack chasing. With about 400 meters to go, I got dropped after some battling for feet and the pace picked up a bit. Not sure what happened, but I lost 25 seconds in that last 400..hmmmmmm. Guess I'll do a bit more work in the pool to sharpen up for Arizona.

Well out of T1 and onto the bike, I was really itchin' to get movin' on the bike, after all, Marilyn and Chris came to the race and she was up the road. Sue is one tough cookie to be chasing, but never the less, it gave me good reason to chase and keep the pace high. Marilyn started 5 minutes ahead out of the water and I thought I would put a minute or two on her in the swim and then have 2-3min to catch up on the bike. I started well and passed the 3 guys that dropped me in the first 10 miles. I kept riding, up the hills, around the corners, looking for "M", but no "M". Hmmmmmm, well, keep hammering! So I did, finally around mile 45'ish, I saw this lil'red bike and up the way and it looked just like Marilyn, all tucked in her aero position hammering. I finally rolled up to her and it went a little something like this:

John: "Heeeeeeyyyyyyy Marilyn, whatszzzz up?!?!"
Marilyn: (in a high voice) "Hey MAN!!!"
John: "Where have you been, I have been chasing you ALLLLL day, damn, your killing it!"
Marilyn: __________________ (she looks at me, smiles, turns her head back up the road, and then proceeds to rip my freakin' legs off!!!)

Apparently there was too much chatter, she told me later it was just time to ride. Nothing like a little tough love from your coach. :) Well, the ensuing 20 minutes was pure pain as "M" dropped me. Thankfully there was a fair amount of downhill the last 5 miles that I was able to catch up. The good thing was it dropped 2 guys that had been riding with me for a bit, so now I was going to enter T2 on my own with no pressure.

Out onto run, I was able to get into my pace early on. On the out and backs, there were a couple guys within striking distance behind me, so I knew I couldn't slow up. Around mile 5, the eventual 4th place guy overall came by me. Over the next 3 miles, he opened up a 30 second gap and it was slowly but surely growing. I kept my head up and kept telling myself to continue with my race, just maybe he'll come back. Between mile 9-10, I closed the gap and caught him at the bottom of the hill at 10. Boy was I stoked. All of the sudden I started to feel better and I couldn't believe that I was actually pulling someone back in....that doesn't happen in my races typically. I probably...PROBABLY.... no I did get a little too excited and when I went by him, I picked it up a bit. You know the usual, hold your breath as you go, hold the best running form you have had all day, nice little smile and look smooth for that split second of the pass. Then, once your by, you can start grimacing again and breathing hard. Well, per my usual issues, my hamstring begain to cramp about an .5 mile after "the pass" and the 15-20sec I gained, well you know how the story goes......I lost it. Grrrrrrrr. At 11, he passed me while I was trying to manage my "issues." Thankfully and not long after, I was able to get back to pace but by this time, he was up the road 25 seconds. So back to where was I was earlier in the day. Well, I kept up, but I knew this time that if I could get back to my race, I could catch him again, he was hurting the first time I passed him and the only reason I was re-passed was because of my own pace, he was still going the same pace. Well, the next 2 miles were pretty exciting, tough, fun, nauseating, and new for me. I began to bring him back in. Hold on, seriously, John bringing someone back in..no way! Well, with .5 mile to go, he was 5 seconds in front of me. At this point, I knew it was going to be a nail biter! I caught him at the beginning of the finish line shoot which was about 50 meters long. I pulled up to him shoulder to shoulder and looked over. I made my move and began my....uhhhhh hmmmmmmm.....sprint, or as some may describe as a cramping, hemiplegic, festinating, spastic shuffle towards the line. He looked again and saw me going, he responded just a bit faster than I and edged me at the line.

All in all a good race. I was able to keep my "PR" season alive with my fastest run split in a half ironman to date, only :19 seconds of my goal of breaking 1:30. My minor cramping issues are getting better. I have seen them show up later in the day in every race, one day I'll get to the finish line before they slow me down!! My bike was solid, the Rev3 SC course is tough, very relentless, so even more happy with my run split of that type of bike.

Now its back to the grind for one more hit out of the season, Ironman Arizona in 5 weeks. Hopefully this race will be the culmination of an awesome season for me thus far and I'll continue on that "PR" streak!

Until then, one foot in front of the other as the weather begins to change here in Boise. Luckily I have my trusty training partners for a few more weeks before they go away for half the year and I'll drag Jeff out for the last few as he recovers from Kona.

Keepin' it rollin',
Crazy J