Pat Griskus Olympic Triathon Race Report

"Gorgeous hair is the best revenge." - Ivana Trump

Thank you, Ivana! (and random google search for revenge quotes)

But I say that "the best revenge" is coming back two weeks later from a botched race, on a much harder bike course, and PR-ing my Olympic distance time by ~6 mins is a BETTER revenge!

I had an EXCELLENT race on Saturday, a race that I felt goes into the "complete" category, such as Timberman 2010, Tri Ridgefield 2011, and that 4 miler and National Half from March. I call a race a "complete" race if everything just goes right and I feel SATISFIED with the results.

So here goes!

The weather was PERFECT!!! Not even 60 degrees, but clear blue skies and NO wind at the start. The race finished in the high 60's under the same sky conditions. No issues of overheating! Absolute perfect race weather.

Nitty Gritties:
Total Time: 2:26:44
54/376 overall
6/32 in the M30-34 AG (This was an AG Nationals Qualifier race. Cuz I finished top 1/3rd in my AG, I guess I qualified? Doesn't really matter. Not going anyways! And its all sold out already.)

Pre race:
I actually warmed up for this one! I feel like anything shorter than a 70.3 warrants more than a 5 min quick swim warmup. So I ran for 10 mins, easy, but! my legs felt LIGHT! A very good sign! Then I put on my wetsuit, swam out to the first buoy and back, alternating 10-15 easy strokes with 10-15 hard strokes, to get the blood flowing into the swimming muscles.

Swim: 29:58
I thought, because it was an olympic distance race, that the swim was 0.9 miles. Nope! It was a full mile swim for this particular race! That explains why it felt long. Despite the time, it wasn't my best swim in a wetsuit. I felt fast! As fast as Quassy two weeks ago, but my pace was 12 secs/100 slower than Quassy. I could have easily gone 2-3 mins faster had I held the same pace. Oh well. There will be more races ahead.

T1: 2:36
Urf. My hands had zero dexterity. I was handling everything as if I were wearing boxing gloves. Couldn't get my number belt buckled. Couldn't keep my balance to get my cycling shoes on. Blah!

(Ha! From the looks of it, I was having quite the terrible race! haha!)


Bike: 1:10:53
This is where I started to shine. While my swim was the 111th fastest of the day, and my T1 was the 146th fastest of the day, my bike was the 31st fastest of the day. Who has the biking background?

The first 5 miles of the bike were a net downhill, which was good, it gave me an opportunity to go hard yet let my legs "open up" and get some blood into em before the punishing hills hit soon thereafter. Here is the course elevation:

Hello hills!

This course just screams HILLY! You are either going up or going down. Very few flat areas where you can get comfortable and stay consistent. Good thing I course reconned twice! It really helped.

On the first big climb, I passed a guy who then quickly passed me and asked, "Are you Jon? Love your blog!" That really perked me up and I FLEW up the that first set of hills a LOT easier than the other four times I have climbed them. Thanks Matt for the boost!

Most of the course was done on autopilot. I knew where all of the hills were. I knew which sections I could big ring and which section needed the small front gear. I had 100% confidence in knowing what I was capable of on that bike course. I really wasn't passed, since most of the faster riders were already ahead of me to begin with.

T2: 1:19
Still not a great time, but this went a tad better than T1. But how can I compete against this guy? ;)

Run: 41:59
This run should be called the "Holy where did this come from run?!?"

I started the run and my legs just.felt.stupid. But shouldn't they? I was feeling some uncomfortableness in my calves and running downhill for the first out and back felt "different." Whatever, my legs were moving.

The run course is a double out and back, where you descend 1.55 miles, then climb back up 1.55 miles. The first and last legs were the same distance, while the middle two legs were the same distance, but slightly shorter (due to the beginning and ending portions of the run).

So breaking it up into 4, roughly 1.55 mile sections REALLY helped mentally.

The 2nd leg was back uphill, and I was suffering on the hill, but I knew it would end.

The 3rd leg was def the fastest, with the downhill and my legs finally "opened up" with blood in the running muscles.

The 4th leg was all grit, just hanging on knowing it would be over soon.

Splits:
Leg 1: 10:40
Leg 2: 10:32
Leg 3: 9:44
Leg 4: 11:03

So I def negative split the run! Which is good. I "felt" better during the second half, and actually was within 25 seconds of PR-ing my standalone 10K time! Was great averaging a 6:46 pace for 42 mins and not feeling like my heart was gonna burst out of my chest.

Here is my HR data:

Was def slowly ramping up the intensity!

Overall, The Pat Griskus race is AWESOME. It is a legitimate course that is VERY well run with complete splits posted on the interwebz within 2 hours.. How awesome is that? I HIGHLY recommend this race. Also, the competition was totally legit. This is an Age Group Qualifier event, and while the race was already sold out, there were some seriously sick fast people who showed up for this race.

So, I feel better now. This race was all about making up my botched Quassy attempt. My goal is still to PR every distance I enter this season, and so far I am still holding true to it!

Next up is Mont Tremblant 70.3 next weekend. Its gonna take some serious grit and hurts to go sub 5 for that race. I hear its quite hilly up there!