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Comments: Note that overall has 5-6 relay teams and 3 Elite Men in front of me as well. So, we watch the Open divisions head off on their starts. Dan's is behind my wave and he moves off to the side to wait to enter the "corral". Kevin and I join our wave which is Men 45+. Kevin's still joking around prior to our wave starting too. We cheer on the Women 45+ and Relays as their wave starts and next it's our turn. Still joking around a bit but then getting close and all wish each other well. And counting down....30 sec....10 sec...annnnddd.....WE'RE OFF! I say goodbye to Kevin because as expected, he's off like a shot! I'm doing okay and kinda just running at the moment while I test my foot out. About a 1/4 mile later and I decide to pour on speed! Passing a good number of folks as I do so since running is my forte usually. It's only 2 miles and I figure I can turn and burn a bit. As I might've mentioned, it's a nice day for this but a bit humid...so sweat's really dripping already with the effort. The course is rolling through this first part and we come to a nice downhill section which I glide down and then tackle back up. On the main park road now and mostly rolling terrain again. About a 1/2 mile from transition (perhaps a bit closer), something in my left foot gives and I go into pain! I attempt to run through this to get me to transition which pretty much works, but I am definitely not doing well and starting to fast limp/run, never good....grab a cup of water before T1 from the nice kid volunteers though I had to double back just a bit cuz they weren't ready for me. What would you do differently?: I was doing quite well up until the point that my foot went into pain. I probably would've had a sub-7 for the first run had it not been for that.  Transition 1
Comments: 102 overall...Note that overall has 5-6 relay teams and 3 Elite Men in front of me as well. OH MY! My left foot is in such pain! But, I'm working through it as best I can to get me through T1. I had a bit of a problem getting my bike shoes on due to the foot issue and was being just a tad bit careful not to pull on or jerk my foot to make things worse than they are. And gosh, as I leave transition, I'm limping in some pain getting to the bike mount line. But, chuckle a bit to see the gal in front of me do exactly what I did at my first du - she's wearing her water bottle she had on the run :) She realized this just before the mount area but decided to just keep going. So I reach the mount area and get clipped in, left foot complaining all the while with any sort of pressure I put on it. With 26 miles, hoping the pedal pressure won't compound things. What would you do differently?: I did okay in T1 and think if my foot hadn't been hurting so much, I could've gotten through it a bit faster.  Bike
Comments: Note that overall has 5-6 relay teams and 3 Elite Men in front of me as well. Get going on the bike course. Decided not to wear sunglasses as it's early morning and sometimes they make things too dark in the shaded areas....but....my aero helmet visor has completely fogged due to the high humidity today!! I try desperately to clear it to no avail! Argh! So, try best I can to deal with it but I'm very concerned that I won't be able to see something on the road like this. At least I had previewed the course last week so I pretty knew what to expect along it. After getting out of the park, leading up to the first turn is a nice downhill but I'm not enjoying it as much as I'd like due to my visor issue. But make the first turn and I'm in a fairly large group of folks here comprised of my wave and also some of the women that went out ahead of us. It's somewhere along this first part that I flipped up my visor to see which was SO much better! But it wouldn't stay up! :( Grrrr! Well, just going to have to keep flipping it up, which was a CONSTANT annoyance the rest of the ride and really quite a safety issue, especially when it went down coming up to this slight "S" bend and then a downhill after the bend! I just held onto the aerobars and hoped for the best with not seeing much and feeling the road beneath me! While I was becoming okay with flipping my visor from time to time, I'm also riding in a group of several other guys. We're all jockeying for position here along the course depending on our abilities. Hills are usually my nemesis, so a couple of these guys can pass me here, only to be passed by me down the hills. And this continues for much of the first lap with all of us having to pass slower riders as well as being passed by much faster riders from the waves behind us. Somewhere close to the end of the first lap and before 144, a few of the guys ahead of me aren't exactly in sight any more. There is at least 1, maybe 2 who still are. But, I'm still racing my race and moving quite well. My left foot is a constant nag, though, especially if I have to do any climbing and put additional pressure on it! Zooming down a nice hill not too far from the transition area and I seem to be catching one of the guys I've been tracking. But not too long after this and club member Patty Clements has caught me essentially saying "Hi!" since she recognizes my "Mercury Endurance" race kit. Patty passes me for a bit and is closing on this guy too. A moto ref then appears and I thought for sure we would all be caught for drafting since we're kinda close. Not today, thank goodness. Well, another downhill comes along and I essentially leave Patty and this other guy behind, pushing to get the first lap done. Up the final real hill here on the course, some rollers, pass by the cheering crowd at transition, and done with the first lap! On to lap 2....visor problems continue of course. Going up a short hill here to start lap 2 and having to work my way around a few slow riders while doing so. I decided to take two Clif Bloks and a swig of Powerade from my aerobottle to keep me fueled up. Field's now spread out a bit more though there are still a good number of folks to pass and faster riders still catching me every now and then. I thought Patty would catch back up because she is a fast triathlete on the bike when we're on group rides together. That might be somewhat because I don't wear an aero helmet when just riding nor do I usually ride with my tri bike. In any case, one guy from the original group I was in is still with me from time to time. He's definitely better up the hills than me and I'm better down hill. So again, trading places quite often during perhaps the first quarter of this second loop. But, somewhere along one of the downhills, I leave him behind and I'm not challenged any more. Somewhere along Ae Mullinix Road, I see I'm catching one of the guys in the original group and just before the turn onto Daisy, I'm able to pass him. Remember him for later. So moving fairly well still along Daisy and I think someone else passed me up one of the hills but as I turn onto 144, I see I'm catching him back. I turn onto the final 3 miles of the bike section somewhat chasing after this guy. I'm closing and think I may have passed or come really close on the last uphill section. It's here I take my last two Clif Bloks to get powered up for the run followed by Powerade again. This seems to work really well for Sprint distances and hoping it does the same here. Well, whether I passed this guy or not doesn't make much difference after that hill as the turn into transition appears not too long after the final climb. Get out of my shoes on the short straightaway just before the dismount line and my left foot complains. Balance on one pedal and stop smartly just before the line which gets a nice comment from the volunteer. However, my foot is in pain as I hobble and limp run into T2! What would you do differently?: For this course elevation profile and my equipment, I had a good bike segment. Definitely ensure my visor isn't having a problem like this again. A constant source of aggravation, especially when it flipped back down. My foot bothered me but I was able to overcome that limiter here I think. Transition 2
Comments: 76th overall...Note that overall has 5-6 relay teams and 3 Elite Men in front of me as well. Well, things are NOT good coming into T2 as my left foot is in pain. My T2 time is still okay but really could've been under a minute. Grab everything after getting on my shoes and run out of transition best I can, which isn't saying much because I'm limp running here and in pain to boot. What would you do differently?: My foot was really the limiter on time here. I could've been under a minute I think but I was slower getting to my rack space than normal. Plus I probably was a bit more careful putting on my running shoes. Run
Comments: Note that overall has 5-6 relay teams and 3 Elite Men in front of me as well. On the 2nd run now and I'm just SO slow with the limp running I'm doing. Race director Danny Serpico recognizes me and says "GO DAVE, GO!" I yell back that I can't cuz I'm in pain and injured. We start up a hill and I'm definitely limping here, going MUCH slower than I normally would. I see if there's any sort of gait change I can do and kinda hop for one stride. A guy in my AG catches and asks if I'm cramping after he saw me do this. I explain a bit what's going on as he leaves me behind. Then another guy in my AG catches, recognizes my tri kit, and give me a word of congrats for a good bike. This is the guy I passed just before Daisy Road as I recognized him from his tri kit too. He also asks what's going on for the run here. Explain to him as he also leaves me behind. As much as my foot hurts, being passed like this is just not doing anything for me mentally. But, I already decided that I'll do what I need to do in order to finish. Grab some Gatorade and water at next aid station. Head down hill coming up to mile 1 and....what's this???? Kinda all of a sudden, my foot is telling me that it's okay to run now. I'm not understanding how this is possible now, but I'm not going to question it! Off I go! Up the hill I just went down and pass the first guy in my AG who saw me hop and let him know things have worked out and I'm running again. He gives me words of encouragement as I press onward. Then not too long after that and probably close to mile 2, I catch this other guy in my AG and let him know the same thing. He's concentrating on the run and doesn't really say anything but I'm thinking he might've been a bit surprised to see me come back and pass him...again. Shortly after this, I see Kevin off to the right side and I'm CATCHING HIM! I ask him what's wrong as I pass and he says his nutrition was off, perhaps making him ill. The humidity with the full sun can do that to folks too although it wasn't too early in the morning. Still, kinda made me feel bad for saying he was going to win. He would've too if he could've held together for the 2nd run. Alas, he decided to take the DNF :(. Some days it's just like that. Well, I'm now coming to the completion of the first lap on the 2nd run and caught one of the Relay folks. While I'm running beside her, recant my story about how I know Relays are running past because usually they just blow my doors off. Sure, there are faster runners in the AGs but they're usually not running too much faster than me, especially not during the second run of a du. And just as I'm saying this, a fairly fast relay person zips on by me. "See?" I say to her? ;) Well, I move by her and stay right so I go by transition to start my second lap for this run. Hopefully, I'll be back here in a bit to go left and finish :) Incredibly, I'm not feeling pain from my foot and am still able to really run! So I just continue to pour on the speed as best as I can! Come down hill to the turn around and thank the volunteer who recognizes me and says I'm burning up the course. That gives me a boost and I continue to run back up the hill passing folks along the way. Last bit of Gatorade and water after mile 3 and glance at my watch. It says 25 something which gets me a bit down but also boost me up because I'm pretty sure it only said 9:30 for the first mile. That means I've punched things up to somewhere around an 8 pace or perhaps a bit better. So, press onward! As Dan was telling me earlier as we warmed up, this last section before the finish is a bit difficult because it is uphill and it's the last final part before the finish. So it plays on you just a little. I'm now going into kick mode and breathing heavily to the point of panting! Move to the left now (yea!) and pumping arms/quicken my pace for the final push to the Finish! I've got folks cheering me on and hear my name from the announcer being called as I'm Finishing!! What a race! What would you do differently?: If it hadn't been for my foot, I actually think I could've finished much better than I did. Perhaps next year! I put my effort down as Average mostly due to the foot injury. 3/4 of it was fairly good, though. Post race
Warm down: As usual, I'm understandably a bit winded after the effort I just put in and compose myself after crossing the Finish. Nice volunteers take care of me though, draping my finishing medal over my neck, handing me a nice cold bottle of water, and asking if I'm okay. I am but just need to recompose a bit. Move forward and see refreshments ahead which I gladly welcome and take in several that are there. Not too long after I finish, I see the one guy who commented about having a nice bike and who I passed on the run after I got going and congratulate him on a good race. I realize as I'm kinda milling around that there aren't too many folks here with me which gives me a sense that I finished fairly well wrt other folks. And now since I've stopped running for a bit, my left foot starts to complain quite a bit. So, I ask the med volunteer for some ice and sit down where there are chairs for folks. Chat a bit with folks there. Though I know it's going to bother me, I decided after a bit that I'm just taking up space there for others and get back up...but...very slowly now as my foot really is complaining. I'm now back to limping and decide to check out more food but also ask the med person for some ibuprofen which she got in short order a bit later. I'm back over with the refreshments and see Dan Fulk, my Mercury Endurance Cycles teammate and club member finish around this time. Chat with him for a bit as he's winding down. Congratulate the first guy in my AG who passed me on the run a bit after this. Think Dan and I then went over to check results and much to my amazement, I see I've taken 2nd in AG! Wow! Dan is a bit disappointed with his 4th in his AG because he's taken a LOT of 4ths lately and hasn't been able to break the streak yet (fear not...he took got on the podium with a 3rd place a month later). Funny thing is, Dan only came in seconds ahead of me and he has a nicer bike plus he's a couple of AGs younger. Always good to know I can still run with some of the younger guys. So, much of the rest of the time I spent congratulating others (Patty and Bob from my club) as well as a few others as I waited for transition to open back up so I could pack up my gear. Also had to wait for the awards ceremony too. After a while I'm able to get my gear and get it packed back in my car, all the while limping along and moving very slowly. This is not good as I am supposed to race next week and also there's USAT Age Group Nationals on Aug 10! Well, deal with that later. The awards ceremony starts and I proudly take the 2nd place podium box to accept my AG medal and prizes (lock laces and a DVD video from the sponsor)! What limited your ability to perform faster: Definitely my left foot! I'm glad that it let up so that I could run and take an AG award, though. Don't know how that happened. My bike is a limiter now as well and making plans to fix that for 2014. Event comments: If I could give this race a 4.5 or 4.something, I would. Compared to Bath Co Tri a month ago, Danny and Suzy Serpico and the entire Ripit Events team certainly did treat all the athletes right: finishing medal, AG medals and awards, water and other refreshments! I highly recommend this event to new and experienced duathletes alike - nice run and bike courses, not too much traffic, not too difficult, well-marked, adequate parking, enough bathroom facilities, plenty of volunteers, and good amenities for the athletes! Western Regional Park and the surrounding communities make this a near perfect location for such an event! I will probably put it on my race list for next year! Post race notes: Due to my foot injury, I bowed out of the Hagerstown Sprint that I was to be in the next week. Volunteered instead. I also had my foot X-rayed and examined...no stress fractures. Soft tissue damage and stayed off it until AG Nationals on Aug 10. More on that in a separate race report. Profile Album Last updated: 2013-06-24 12:00 AM
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United States
Rip It Events
Sunny
Overall Rank = 49/349
Age Group = M50-54
Age Group Rank = 2/30
Note that Overall contains Elites and Relays. First a bit of pre-race discussion. Danny Serpico, Rip It Events Race Director, gave a talk about Rip It Events at our tri club meeting. We met last year when he gave a similar talk. After Danny talked, I said I think I and a few others might actually sign up and Danny decided to give a bit of a discount to club members if we did. Sweet! So, with that signed up for the du! Unfortunately, in early July, I injured my left foot and was still recovering from that prior to the race. I did test it out and got new shoes but I was not 100%. I really shoud've either taped it or else worn the metatarsal pads I had to soften impact. But I didn't do anything which was a mistake. So I went to the race a bit concerned about this, especially since I had another race then next weekend and then Nationals in 4 weeks.
As I wanted to know how much time it would take to get there on race day and also what the course was like, I went out to Western Regional Park the week prior and rode one lap of the bike course. Didn't see the need for 2. Though I've lived to the west for a while now near Frederick, MD, I had never been to this park and it was pretty nice. Fairly close too and it only too around 1/2 hour drive. Bike course still had marks from last year and it was pretty easy to follow with not too many turns along the way. I did attempt to run a bit but things didn't feel right and there was a storm coming in. So I drove the first part of the run course before the storm came.
The day before the race was packet pickup and a pre-race meeting. Chatted with Suzy Serpico (pro triathlete and Danny's wife) who was co-race director. Suzy's a treat to talk to about our sport and is always willing to chat about triathlon. I've followed a few of her pro-endeavors as well. Then attended the pre-race meeting just in case there was something I really couldn't figure out. Turns out I also was able to give advice to a few others who were newbies, which I have no problems doing. Also chatted with Danny for a bit but he was real busy along with the rest of the Rip It Events race crew setting up. Checked out transition and then headed home to prepare for the race the next day. Interestingly enough, disaster almost struck as my car battery had died for some reason (perhaps leaving the hatch open with lights on too long?) and had I not been going out to get something to eat, I wouldn't have known until the next morning prior to the race. Whew! Had some good luck there! Finished prep for the next day.
Well, race morning always comes a bit too soon and I have coffee, banana, a strawberry jam wrap, protein mix, and some juice. And today I'm sporting for the first time my new sponsor kit from Mercury Endurance Cycles (though it still says Mercury Endurance presently). Never had a 1-piece tri suit on. Kinda like it cuz there's no top that might roll up, but it also has some difficult points which I'll perhaps mention in a bit.
As I stated, the race site isn't too far away but transition opens at like 4:45 AM. Still, I kinda thought if I got there around 5:15 or so, that would probably work okay. And this worked out just fine and didn't have any problems finding a parking space. I could see if I had gotten there a bit later it might have been. Grab my gear and head over to transition area. Oh wow, there's actually security here at transition...sorry, making reference to my last race where there were problems with this in addition to other shortcomings. Bike racking is by groups of numbers but first come, first served after that. As I was there early enough, got a spot right on the inside of the rack where I could grab it and get out in the middle path right away.
Now my tri club (Frederick Triathlon Club) is well-represented here and I found Kevin Clark, Dan Fulk, Bob Gramm, and Patty Clements. We're all in good spirits and shooting the bull with Kevin quite a bit who's throwing it back at us just as well. He is a funny guy. Kevin did this event last year and won his AG. This year he moved up into mine and I'm saying that he'll be the AG winner again this year. Kevin is a strong triathlete and has awesome run/bike times! But, I hope I didn't jinx him. One thing that happened in transition was a guy came in late and asked if he could be on the end since there was perhaps some room. I said that I wasn't going to touch another person's bike to which he said he would. Well, okay, but I didn't think it was really cool to do so. It worked but....This guy also complained about no assigned spots to which I replied that's rather normal at such small events. You really don't get assigned rack spots unless you're in the bigger ones like Columbia or Eagleman. Shouldn't fault the race folks for that. He seemed a bit surprised. Not sure where he's been racing to expect that. Warmed up a bit after we all wished each other luck. Took care of other business while waiting for the race to start.
I will note here that one thing about a 1-piece tri suit is that it's a bit more difficult when taking a bathroom break ;) Yeah, I had to work at getting it off and on a couple of times when nature called prior to the race. Well, one takes the cons with the pros of such a suit.
Dan and I did a short run from the start area down the path and back up. That's all I really wanted to do. Foot felt okay during this which I was hoping was a good sign. Almost didn't turn out that way though.