Race Result

Racer:	Mike Guzek
Race:	Over The Mountain
Date:	Saturday, June 19, 2004
Location:	Kings Mountain, NC
Race Type:	Triathlon - International Distance
Age Group:	Male 25 - 29
Time:	2:35:14
Overall Place:	17 / 275
Age Group Place:	1 / 6
Comment:	HOT!! Bring some burgers for this RR....cause I'm cooking!!!!!!!

Race Report:

http://mguzek04.tripod.com/otm04.htm

Over the Mountain is a hilly Olympic distance race that takes place in Kings Mountain, NC. I grew up in NC so this is a good reason to go back. This is my second year doing this race and what makes it challenging (besides the course) is that it's a Saturday race and it's at least a 6.5 hour drive (with no traffic issues) from D.C. On a normal Friday, the ride down to Charlotte/Gastonia is usually about 9 hours, so my girlfriend and I left work early to try to get a jump in traffic. This was to be a busy week for us. I had to get down to my parent's house as quick as I could to hang with them and to celebrate my little sister's birthday we well as see my big sister's 2 month old baby. This occurred from 8:30 p.m. (when we arrived) until 11:00 p.m. (when we went to bed). After the race on Saturday we were scheduled to go to my sister's house for a birthday party for my dad. Late afternoon we were suppose to head to Charlotte for a friend's 30th birthday celebration. I felt like I had a schedule like the President.

On race morning I woke up at 5 and was out the door at 5:30. My girlfriend Melanie remained behind to rest her little eyes a little longer and ride with my mom to the race later that morning. The logistics for this race are pretty hairy with the swim start, swim finish (T-1) and bike finish (T-2) all in different locations. I had to drive from one place to the other dropping stuff off as I went and finally boarding a shuttle to get to the race start. My mom and Melanie where there to send me off. I was the only person on the shuttle holding my wetsuit. With temperature reaching the 90s the past several days the water was very warm and I guess everyone knew that no wetsuits would be permitted, except me. I tried to hide the wetsuit under my arm so I wouldn't stick out but no one was fooled. The race is pretty small with a little under 300 competitors signed up, but it is a NCTS race so it still manages to draw a pretty good upper echelon crowd.

Like the previous days, race day was to get into the 90s and it was already hot shortly before the 8:00a.m. start. Swimming without a wetsuit suited me fine, but I did start to wonder about the possible drag that may occur while swimming in my race jersey. My main concern was the rear pockets and in the end I opted to roll the jersey up inward to my body so the pockets would not be exposed. The jersey stayed like that and I didn't notice any significant drag on the swim. Since T-1 was not at the same place as the swim start, ditching the jersey was not an option.

I have been working with a new swim strategy that seems to be working well. In the past, I seeded myself up front and came out the gate like a raging bull. I felt this was necessary to get clear of the masses and to find fast feet to get on. This however, would leave me suffering in the water several hundred yards later with my fast feet dropping me like a Freshman calculus while my body drowned in its own lactic acid. I have noticed some other really good swimmers actually start a spot or two back off the front line and it seems that their objective is geared less towards a "fast start" and more towards "fast feet." So, while I started up front, I came out just fast enough to stay close to the fast swimmers and assess who I wanted to follow. After several hundred yards I settled behind two other swimmers in the front pack of our wave (35 and under males + Clydesdales). The pace seemed very leisurely but I was content to sit back until we made the right hand turn towards the finish at the midway point. I planned to scoot around these guys and finish first in the wave. It wasn't meant to be as they picked up the pace and when I wasn't in the draft things were much harder so I tucked back in and followed one of the guys right out of the water in second place. My time was 24:22 which was 5th best on the day, up from 7th the year before.

By far, the hardest part of this course is the stretch of pavement from the water exit to T-1. To get an idea of what the elevation profile of this boat ramp looks like, simply open up Microsoft Word and type the number "1"…..I think a lower case "l" works too. It's straight up. I had a pretty slow T-2.

I felt pretty poor on the bike for about the first 15 minutes but eventually settled in and started to pass some folks who passed me in T-1. I really love this course because it's very challenging. There is 2752 ft of climbing over the 28 miles. I had a hard time getting water and calories down as a result of the continuing undulations on the course and my pretty high heart rate. I ended up taking in a bottle of Gatorade and about 2 shots of gel for the 1:20 bike. I was hoping to get another couple hundred calories in me so I would be ahead of the curve and not behind it going into the run. With about 10 miles to go I started to catch the elite females and some of the master male elites from the previous wave that started 4 minutes earlier than mine. One of the fellows I swam with rode with me until around the 20 mile mark where he faded out of sight behind me. Although I was racing as Clydesdale, he was in my age ground and I still wanted to try to take care of business as best as I could in the 25-29 AG.

I got off the bike feeling really good and doing very well overall. My bike time was 1:19:31 and was 10th best on the day which was up from 16th the year before, so I was very happy with that. T-2 was a bit of a debacle as my shoe somehow came off my bike after I dismounted. By the time I realized it, was about 50 ft into T-2 and I told the volunteer holding it to just toss it to me. Apparently this guy never played baseball or anything requiring a throwing motion because my shoe rolled out of his hand and dribbled to a stop about 10 feet in front of him. I ran back and got it for fear of an abandonment penalty and ran to my rack. The layouts of the racks were a little confusing and I couldn't for the life of me figure out where I was. The fact that this was not the same place at T-1 made it that much more complicated. Eventually I figure it out and tossed on my hat and grabbed my race number and headed out. I saw my family cheering madly for me as I headed out and tried to look as good as I could for the photos they were taking. I swear my 2 month old niece called my name.

Initially on the run I felt ok. The run starts off flat for almost a mile and then has a long descent followed by a long climb. The top of the climb is the run turn around so you return by doing another long descent and climb followed by a flat stretch. If you do this twice, you are doing the 6.2 mile run that comprises the run portion of the Over The Mountain triathlon! It was now about 10 o'clock and temperature were getting really hot. I started to get just a little light headed on the way out and I started to regret not being more diligent about taking in calories on the bike. They were serving Ultima on the course which has next to no calories in it. Fortunately I had a gel flask, but it contained caffeinated Hammer Gel and I didn't want any caffeine because I was concerned that that might create more problems. I soldiered on but nearing the conclusion of my first loop I realized that my speculations were true, I was feeling the onset of a bonk. I realized I had to get something in me so I sucked back on the gel at the turn around (action photo to the left) and mentioned to Melanie that "I think I might be starting to bonk." She responded with intensity shouting "Don't bonk! NO bonk!" while pointing at me and jumping….I sort of felt scolded. But she was right, and while my pace slowed on the second loop because of general fatigue, I never in fact went KABOOM!!

On the second loop, I was passed by a super fast runner in my AG which put me in second. Several hundred yards from the finish line, the fellow that I swam and biked with went around me. I convinced myself to take the challenge and stay with him. I managed to stay right on his shoulder as we approached the right hand turn to the finishing chute. Although we may have been running a pace in the low 7s or upper 6s at this point, I still couldn't help….even just a little to feel like I was getting ready to out kick Greg Bennett to the finish line to win an ITU race! Right before the turn I opened it up and accelerated past Bennett (or whoever he was) to finish one second ahead of him (action photo left). Run moments like that don't often happen to me so it salvaged what was otherwise a fairly dismal run performance. As I barreled passed the finish line I went straight to a tent where they had cold towels and water. Before I stopped running, I nailed my head on a metal bar at the top of the tent and then collapsed on top of cooler. I was super hot and now my head hurt.

My run time was 47:45 which was 2 minutes slower than the year before which was disappointing. I did however jump from the 51st best run to the 31st. I ended up winning the Clydesdale division by 20 minutes and finished second in my AG. I was 17th overall. It was great to see my mom and sister (and 2 month old niece!) cheering me on. In the end I was very happy with my swim and bike, but pretty disappointed in my run. I have a few "reasons." Perhaps it was the half IM the week before or the 7 hour drive the day before? Perhaps it was the conditions-hot and hilly don't suit me at all. I am taking some comfort that the run splits this year look several minutes slower than last year across the board, including the top run split of the day. After the race I got to hold trophy as the top clydesdale, but I got to hold something even better....my niece! This was her first triathlon so I wanted to make sure she got the full experience, sweat and all. She started crying (going anaerobic) so I quickly handed her back to her mom to get the HR down and get her back into Zone 1 intensity. She is pretty young so I want her to focus on building a good aerobic base before getting too serious.

The rest of the day was spent at birthday parties eating burgers and dogs…..I am good at triathlons….I am great at cookouts.

Le Grande Cheval
(The Big Horse)