Thompson Talks: How the Philly Tri Was Won
June 22, 2008 - Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon
I love Philadelphia right now. My plane is delayed and I might not make my connection, which means I could be sleeping at the Milwaukee airport tonight. But I don’t care. Somehow, winning a race seems to make all your troubles disappear—at least, until I look at the results.
Although I won the Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon, I didn’t swim or bike as well as I’d wanted, which means harder training in the coming weeks. I’d like to be swimming better than I had been last year, especially with Life Time Fitness coming up in three weeks. Only two and half weeks remain before I need to cut back and taper for the Minneapolis race, so I’ll definitely have sore muscles in the coming weeks.
Anyway, this is how the Philadelphia triathlon unfolded. The swim was expected to be quick with former University of Iowa swimmer Cameron Dye and national open-water champion John Kenny in the race. Eric Linkemann and 18-year-old Andrew Yoder are fish in the water, as well, and this crew dropped me and the chase pack 300 meters in.
At the end of the swim down the Schuylkill River, the course turns 135 degrees back upriver to the opposite bank. I got around the chase pack by not following and swimming straight for the last buoy, which made my swim feel decent. I expected to be down by only 45 to 60 seconds, so I was disappointed when the results showed the lead group had about a 1:18 lead.
I never saw Andrew on the bike, but I did keep up with Joe Gambles, who crushed the bike and won the Battle at Midway Triathlon last weekend. Joe passed me a mile in to the bike, but I re-passed about three miles from T2. Joe and I caught everyone in the lead swim group except Andrew by halfway through the second lap (30km) of the bike course and finished with almost identical split. The youngster, Andrew, hammered out an impressive bike time, but I don’t think it was as fast as the results show (53:41).
Multiple spectators told us we were 1:30 to 1:35 down on Andrew starting the run. I’m thinking he beat my 56:00 bike split by about 19 seconds, because I don’t think he spent 2:47 in T1 when the rest of us took about 47 seconds. I never saw him in T1 either, which means you can’t always trust chip timing. If you subtract 2:00 from his T1 and add it to his bike split, you get 55:41, which is a believable 19 seconds faster than my split of 56:00.
Going into the run, Joe immediately made up the gap I had leaving T2, and we ran side by side for about a mile. I felt confident we’d close sometime on Andrew, but making up a 1:30 gap is tough. Joe seemed to push the pace three times, but I just kept up my rhythm. On his third push, the effort seemed to overextend him, and as my rhythm made up the stride he gained, I decided pick up my cadence a bit, which created a gap on Joe.
The separation from running side by side seemed to help my running even more, and as the run course turned the bend, I could finally see Andrew. By the first turnaround (2km), I had cut the gap to 50 seconds. On the way back, Andrew picked up his pace holding the gap at 45 seconds to transition (4km), but I still thought I would catch him. At Mile 4, I did make the pass, but Andrew held tough for a while.
Once I had the lead, I was excited but also nervous because the win could be taken away in the last 2.4 miles. However, positive thinking suggested that if I just kept up my current pace I would win. I was victorious, but I took a few glances over my shoulder in the finishing stretch. I’ve been passed in the last mile each of the last two weeks, which is frustrating.
June 8, 2008 - Escape From Alcatraz
My favorite race is Escape from Alcatraz. There is no other race that’s as unique and as big of an event. The parks and varying terrain that San Francisco other are beautiful and challenging, and I happen to be somewhat familiar with the city because I usually spend two weeks here for my Navy Reserve duty every year.
Going into the race this year, I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I had been ill for most of May, sleeping most of the day and having trouble breathing. During this period, I missed Ironman Florida 70.3 and stayed home to race Gear West Duathlon, figuring if I was going to be sick, I would rather be at home. I ended up winning the duathlon, but I was miserable the entire race and day. But at least I got some sort of training in. If I didn’t race, I wouldn’t have done anything except work at the shop.
Prior to Escape, I also raced Apple Duathlon and the Pigman Sprint. I was still sick at Apple but was feeling better by Pigman. What this all added up to was uncertainty in my ability going into Escape. I had trained through the illness, so it was definitely possible to have a good race. However, my workouts hadn’t been spectacular during that period.
Anyway, the lap around Alcatraz Island before the start was great. Everyone on the boat was anxious to start but hesitant to jump off the boat. So, we just enjoyed the view of the bay area, including San Francisco and Golden Gate Bridge. The water was supposed to be calm and the current push us out to sea at 4 or 5 Knots, which means fast swim times. Normally, the water is rough in the first mile of the race and then tends to smooth out in the last half-mile as the course nears shore.
The waves bounced me around the whole way this year, but there were no super waves either. I missed the lead chase group in the swim in the chop but ended up coming out with big group around 1:30 back of Andy Potts and Ben Sanson.
I passed most every one that came out of the water ahead of me by Golden Gate Park. I could see Craig Alexander 20 seconds up at the turnaround in the park and moved past him at the hard right out of the park and onto the Coastal Hi-way. Now, Graham O’Grady and Paul Mathews were just up the road and I passed both of them by the Legion of Honor at the top of a climb leading into a technical downhill to Baker Beach. Craig stayed close behind as I approached the last winding descent to Crissy Field. That’s my favorite part of the race because I seem to find a line that allows me to not touch the brakes and fly over the last two miles at over 30 mph.
Coming into T2, I saw Andy’s bike as expected, but as I raced down the racks to the exit I saw Matt Chrabot’s bike as well, which was a surprise. Last year, I passed him early on the bike course. Today Matt was running side by side with Andy as they exited transition with 30 seconds on me in third. Craig and Graham followed 20 and 30 seconds back from me.
The run was a battle for position the entire 8.5 miles. Craig caught me just before the stairs up the Golden Gate Bridge at Mile 1.5. He put in a surge to reach the steps first, but I repassed him immediately and put 15 seconds between us on the way up. Graham also passed Craig on the stairs or shortly after in the singletrack that passes through the old fortifications. Once Graham reached me, we raced together for a mile or so down to Baker Beach and out to the turnaround. By the turnaround, Andy had broken away from Matt and Graham and I was reeling Matt in.
As soon as I made the turnaround, I started assessing myself because the sand ladder was looming on the horizon. As I lunged up the log and sand steps, I seemed to be closing the gap Graham had over me on the beach while closing more time on Matt. I figured it would be possible to catch Matt and move back into third, but I had to dig deep.
The leg-busting portion of the run ended as the run course came back down the steps from Golden Gate Bridge and back onto the crushed rock path of Crissy Field. Matt was 15 yards ahead of me as I jumped off the last step onto the path. Craig was about 45 second back at this point. Making contact with Matt was hard, and he didn’t let me pass easily. He hung on for my first attempt, but let a gap form on the next try. Now all I had to do was keep the pedal to the metal to finish on the podium.
But then, with 1,000 meters to go, Craig Alexander came out of nowhere to catch and surge on me. I ran as hard as I could and so did Craig. Craig was looking back all the way to the line, but I couldn’t get enough out of my legs to make up the 12-second difference. In the end, forth was a good result, but in the future, I need to better my performances on the swim and bike. Hopefully, that will be the case now that I’m not sick and the weather is gorgeous in St Paul.
