Buffalo Springs 70.3 Race Report
It wasn’t the result that I was looking for yesterday. The past couple of weeks I have been fighting an illness that I have been some what hiding from a lot of people accept a couple of friends and family. So even though I was resting for the race, I was taking large doses of antibiotics through IV and in pill form, and since it wasn’t directly slowing down my training, I was in large amounts of pain and I was refusing to take the Codeine and other pain killers I was prescribed. Closer to the race, I had reduced my fever started to feel good, but still not peppy, I hadn’t had an appetite the whole week so my glycogen was most likely depleted before the start of the race. This blood poisoning that I had encountered could have not come at a worse time, as I was expecting to have a great showing in Lubbuck, as I had friends there watching, and more importantly I had my beautiful girlfriend Carley watching who came down to visit, and more importantly I wasn’t going to race poorly when she was forced to wake up at 4am on her birthday.
The weather was a change, it was very cold and bad storms had rolled in and viewing the lightening on the way to the race, I figured it was going to be a tough race, and very windy. Since I was using borrowed equipment I didn’t want to crash, and I didn’t want to end up in the hospital as I was getting sick of being sick. The start of the swim, I ran in and cut the corner with the rest of the group, and fell, hurting my foot badly and injuring my injured foot, taking off a nail. I was in a huge amount of pain, and running out of the water I knew I lost a bit of time to the leaders but still in a safe position. Even though I was used to fighting pain, it was no where near what I was going to face next. Getting an already hurt toe with no nail and a Cellulites infected swollen foot in a bike shoe was going to hurt. Every step hurt in and out of transition and I started to get in a groove on the bike, and noticed at the first out and back that the leaders had opened up a big gap but Paul Amey and Brandon Marsh where riding solo behind from the small pack at the front. I wanted to hurt for the next little while and try and keep them in reach. As the wind picked up and the rain started I found that my foot started to ache. I quickly lost motivation and found that I was so scared of crashing I road most of the race in a non aero position as a deep dish wheel and disk set up had me all over the road. Loosing motivation I was passed by 3 people and I was starting to get cold and I was in a large amount of pain and all I could think about was the run that was coming up. This wasn’t my race plan, my race plan was to be as close to the front as I could going into the run, so any pain in my foot would be some what masked by the fact that I was running for a great position and a much needed pay check. After a long slow run, some walking on the down hills to avoid anymore pressure on the front of my foot, I ended up being passed and came 11th.
This is very disappointing as my heart rate was 25 beats below the pace that it was in Florida and past races, so I know the lose of motivation and the pain I was experiencing resulted in a low effort and a poor placing. I am already excited to race next. I was very frustrated over the result but having great friends there watching helped. Since I had slowly put myself out of tough with a top 8 placing I slowly drifted back into a good pace, that made me evaluate what I was doing, I excepted I wasn’t at 100% and that the doctor was right telling me I would be crazy to race on my foot this weekend, and if he saw my foot after the swim, he would have probably pulled me out of the race. I started to experience what racing was all about when I first started racing, and I tried to cheer on all of my friends racing on my way back in who were heading out to start the ½ marathon. When I finished the race, I was pretty bitter, but when I saw Jack Weiss on the sidelines who yelled to me, I couldn’t help to step back and soak in that I am stronger for finishing and there are a lot of people that have loved to race today but couldn’t due to injury or illness so I should be happy to take part in such a great sport with great people and very sincere volunteer crew.
Chance and Doug came up to race the sprint and also cheered me on and I don’t think I could have finished with out knowing that they were watching, and knowing that Carley was up since 4am and standing on her feet for 4hours in the rain watching the race. As much as I wanted to do very well, even though I was out of the money I made a decision to finish and gain the boost in fitness that training and racing produces. I would like to thank everyone for watching and cheering, and especially for everyone that left me voice mails and emails before and after the race. I would like to apologize to all of the people watching online, I am sure my dad was at home trying to figure out if I had flatted on the bike. I would like to thank Alister from Life sport, the training since Florida has gone well, and I have noticeable improvements in power on the bike as well as my running felt like it had reached a whole new level, before I encountered a blood disorder in my foot. We did a lot of hill work on the run, and even though I wasn’t 100% I flew up the hills, I wasn’t able to run down them because of my toes, but I absolutely felt fast and light flying up them. I would also like to thank http://www.colonelsbikes.com/ for a deep dish set that was loaned to me for the race, also Dr. Roberson from www.pathtowellnesschiropractic.com for getting my back set up and ready to rock for the race. There are many people to thank for the support which I will need to send personal emails to, if I forget anyone I do apologize. And of Course, Mike Hay, and Jack Weiss, for everything, at the end of the day I realized they had taught me a lot more than I thought about the sport and sucking up your pride. Also a quick mention to Clay that I have one of your wheels at my place, and I hope your race went well.
A few lessons that I have learned from the race here in Buffalo Springs 70.3
1. Wear a Speed Suit for non wetsuit swims ( I was the only one not wearing it.)
2. Don’t use a disk and deep dish in tornado conditions when you weigh 130pounds.
3. Antibiotics Wreck havoc on your immune system, and even though you feel great, they take there toll on the body.
4. Wheat Grass can’t cure everything.
5. Starting a race with low muscle glycogen storages is like waiting 5mins to start the race once the gun goes off.
I am not sure what is next on the list for July Racing, I should have taken my spot for Clearwater 70.3 Championships when I got a spot in Florida, but for some reason I have set a difficult standard for myself and I do not want to race in Clearwater unless I am ready to come off the bike in the lead group. There is a lot of work to be done, but I need to evaluate everything, and determine the best possible racing schedule to set up me for success. Alister has done a great job and even though this race was not a good indicator of my fitness I am very excited to see the levels I will progress to as the season goes on.
Thanks for reading,
Cheers,Brent
It wasn’t the result that I was looking for yesterday. The past couple of weeks I have been fighting an illness that I have been some what hiding from a lot of people accept a couple of friends and family. So even though I was resting for the race, I was taking large doses of antibiotics through IV and in pill form, and since it wasn’t directly slowing down my training, I was in large amounts of pain and I was refusing to take the Codeine and other pain killers I was prescribed. Closer to the race, I had reduced my fever started to feel good, but still not peppy, I hadn’t had an appetite the whole week so my glycogen was most likely depleted before the start of the race. This blood poisoning that I had encountered could have not come at a worse time, as I was expecting to have a great showing in Lubbuck, as I had friends there watching, and more importantly I had my beautiful girlfriend Carley watching who came down to visit, and more importantly I wasn’t going to race poorly when she was forced to wake up at 4am on her birthday.
The weather was a change, it was very cold and bad storms had rolled in and viewing the lightening on the way to the race, I figured it was going to be a tough race, and very windy. Since I was using borrowed equipment I didn’t want to crash, and I didn’t want to end up in the hospital as I was getting sick of being sick. The start of the swim, I ran in and cut the corner with the rest of the group, and fell, hurting my foot badly and injuring my injured foot, taking off a nail. I was in a huge amount of pain, and running out of the water I knew I lost a bit of time to the leaders but still in a safe position. Even though I was used to fighting pain, it was no where near what I was going to face next. Getting an already hurt toe with no nail and a Cellulites infected swollen foot in a bike shoe was going to hurt. Every step hurt in and out of transition and I started to get in a groove on the bike, and noticed at the first out and back that the leaders had opened up a big gap but Paul Amey and Brandon Marsh where riding solo behind from the small pack at the front. I wanted to hurt for the next little while and try and keep them in reach. As the wind picked up and the rain started I found that my foot started to ache. I quickly lost motivation and found that I was so scared of crashing I road most of the race in a non aero position as a deep dish wheel and disk set up had me all over the road. Loosing motivation I was passed by 3 people and I was starting to get cold and I was in a large amount of pain and all I could think about was the run that was coming up. This wasn’t my race plan, my race plan was to be as close to the front as I could going into the run, so any pain in my foot would be some what masked by the fact that I was running for a great position and a much needed pay check. After a long slow run, some walking on the down hills to avoid anymore pressure on the front of my foot, I ended up being passed and came 11th.
This is very disappointing as my heart rate was 25 beats below the pace that it was in Florida and past races, so I know the lose of motivation and the pain I was experiencing resulted in a low effort and a poor placing. I am already excited to race next. I was very frustrated over the result but having great friends there watching helped. Since I had slowly put myself out of tough with a top 8 placing I slowly drifted back into a good pace, that made me evaluate what I was doing, I excepted I wasn’t at 100% and that the doctor was right telling me I would be crazy to race on my foot this weekend, and if he saw my foot after the swim, he would have probably pulled me out of the race. I started to experience what racing was all about when I first started racing, and I tried to cheer on all of my friends racing on my way back in who were heading out to start the ½ marathon. When I finished the race, I was pretty bitter, but when I saw Jack Weiss on the sidelines who yelled to me, I couldn’t help to step back and soak in that I am stronger for finishing and there are a lot of people that have loved to race today but couldn’t due to injury or illness so I should be happy to take part in such a great sport with great people and very sincere volunteer crew.
Chance and Doug came up to race the sprint and also cheered me on and I don’t think I could have finished with out knowing that they were watching, and knowing that Carley was up since 4am and standing on her feet for 4hours in the rain watching the race. As much as I wanted to do very well, even though I was out of the money I made a decision to finish and gain the boost in fitness that training and racing produces. I would like to thank everyone for watching and cheering, and especially for everyone that left me voice mails and emails before and after the race. I would like to apologize to all of the people watching online, I am sure my dad was at home trying to figure out if I had flatted on the bike. I would like to thank Alister from Life sport, the training since Florida has gone well, and I have noticeable improvements in power on the bike as well as my running felt like it had reached a whole new level, before I encountered a blood disorder in my foot. We did a lot of hill work on the run, and even though I wasn’t 100% I flew up the hills, I wasn’t able to run down them because of my toes, but I absolutely felt fast and light flying up them. I would also like to thank http://www.colonelsbikes.com/ for a deep dish set that was loaned to me for the race, also Dr. Roberson from www.pathtowellnesschiropractic.com for getting my back set up and ready to rock for the race. There are many people to thank for the support which I will need to send personal emails to, if I forget anyone I do apologize. And of Course, Mike Hay, and Jack Weiss, for everything, at the end of the day I realized they had taught me a lot more than I thought about the sport and sucking up your pride. Also a quick mention to Clay that I have one of your wheels at my place, and I hope your race went well.
A few lessons that I have learned from the race here in Buffalo Springs 70.3
1. Wear a Speed Suit for non wetsuit swims ( I was the only one not wearing it.)
2. Don’t use a disk and deep dish in tornado conditions when you weigh 130pounds.
3. Antibiotics Wreck havoc on your immune system, and even though you feel great, they take there toll on the body.
4. Wheat Grass can’t cure everything.
5. Starting a race with low muscle glycogen storages is like waiting 5mins to start the race once the gun goes off.
I am not sure what is next on the list for July Racing, I should have taken my spot for Clearwater 70.3 Championships when I got a spot in Florida, but for some reason I have set a difficult standard for myself and I do not want to race in Clearwater unless I am ready to come off the bike in the lead group. There is a lot of work to be done, but I need to evaluate everything, and determine the best possible racing schedule to set up me for success. Alister has done a great job and even though this race was not a good indicator of my fitness I am very excited to see the levels I will progress to as the season goes on.
Thanks for reading,
Cheers,Brent
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