Matt's Buckman Race Report....LONG

Well I was hoping to break my habit of only getting about 4-5 hours of sleep before a race. No such luck.
As many of you know. The day before the race (Saturday) we had heavy rains because of the hurricane.
Problem 1: Our roof was leaking in our bedroom onto our bed. This had never happened before. So we had to sleep in the guest bedroom. Which was just different enough to make it feel like we had traveled and had to sleep in a hotel.
Problem 2: I had thought I might escape having to deal with water in our basement. Not to be, I have quite a line of defense in the basement to deal with the major issues but eventually there are a couple spots where it slowly rises through the floor and you just have to mop or shop-vac it out. There have been times where I would set my alarm to wake me every hour to do this. Fortunately it wasn’t that bad, but I was up until 10-10:30 dealing with this and had to clean up again in the morning before we left.
Problem 3: I didn’t want to put the bikes on the car to be rained on all night. So I had to leave time to load them up in the morning.
Problem 4: They canceled packet pickup, so everyone was going to be picking up in the morning. Guess it’s only 200 people and I prefer to be there early anyhow.

So I was up at 3:30-3:45 for a race that was 20-30 minutes from the house. 5 hours sleep.

5AM. Pull up to the entrance of the park. It’s still closed. Surprisingly enough, we are directly behind Maija.
Once we get into the park, we grab our flashlights to look for the transition area and packet pickup. We got our race packet easily and eventually figured out where the transition area was set up. Maija was glad to see that the prime location was still available. So we setup a bit wide so that we could compress down for others from our group if they show up too late. There looked to be plenty of rack space available for the 200 racers so it really wasn’t a big deal that we did this.
Bob and Todd arrive and rack along side us as well. It’s nice to have your friends right there at the race. Maija was helping people get their wetsuits on properly, Todd was explaining how the trick to his Gatorade Aero Bottle is he adds the powder but doesn’t mix it up. That way the first few chugs are super concentrated!! Ha Ha!
So about 30 minutes from the race start, this guy walks up to me and asks what time it is. He had forgotten his bike shoes and was trying to decide if he could make it home and back in time. Well Genine had her bike there and she has the clip-on that have a platform pedal on one side. So I ask if he’d rather just take the pedals off of her bike. He says that sounds like a good plan. So Genine takes the allen key set and they head off to the car. Sadly the pedals have never been removed and they weren’t going to be removed now either. Genine thought she was going to break the wrench!!! So he went flying off to meet his wife at a halfway point to get his shoes.
Genine saw him just before his wave start. He said it was frantic but he made it!! He also found me after the race and thanked me for trying to help.

Oh right, this is a race report. I should create 2 posts next time. The pre-race report and then a race report.

.5-mile swim: Clockwise swim so buoys on my right the whole time. Which is the side I prefer to breathe to so that’s good. Water is warm, supposedly just wetsuit legal. He explains because of all the troubles during swims this year, he is going to disqualify anyone that swims over people. If contact is made he wants slower swimmers to move to the right to allow the other person to pass on their left. Or something like that… So I’m there thinking, every swim I’ve done this year I’ve been in these groups of people that can’t break away from each other. Not to mention I have no clue where I should be lining up in relation to others. Typically I’ve been going to the front and just accepted that better swimmers will be going by me. This time I stayed towards the middle or back of the pack to start.
It was very shallow early, so many people kept standing up to walk/run in front of me. So I felt that in the first 100 yards or so I was just running into people and dodging around them. By 300 yards in I started to get the feeling I am swimming all alone. It looked like there were a number of people 50 yards ahead of me and 50 yards behind me. I had this odd feeling that I had been dropped by my entire wave. I think this is because I always pull to the left, so I was constantly going wide and having to correct. So I was thinking I must have gone further off line than I had thought. Ah well, nothing to do about it. Just sight more often the rest of the way. Once I rounded the buoy that sent us back to shore, I didn’t see any other buoys to sight by. I just had to use the large lifeguard chair on the beach as my guide. I still had nobody around me… until the last 50 yards. Maija started 3 minutes behind me in wave 2 and we were both coming out of the water at the same time.

My swim result 16:28 48/180 overall
For Comparison, Maija’s 13:30 was 10th overall

T1: I’m guessing this may be the most eventful transition I will ever have.

It was a bit of a run from the water to the transition area. As I’m running along, I hear Maija say “There’s something wrong with my wetsuit!!” I check the back of her wetsuit and see that she’s got about 3-4 inches still to unzip but it’s folded over on itself so it was a bit of a trick to get undone. My wetsuit being the 2-piece Desoto comes off totally differently. I need to ask Maija if she would have preferred that I help her pull the sleeves. The pictures are kind of funny. Looks like a Houdini straitjacket stunt. Genine’s favorite picture of the day is the close up of Maija after the zipper is finally down. Maija’s expression instantly goes to being very focused. As we run into the transition area they tell Maija she’s the 2nd female and that the 1st had just left transition.
Once we get to our bikes. I realize I didn’t actually set my shoes up the way I typically do. Lost a couple seconds there. Maija is pulling her bike off the rack to head out and next thing I know, the whole rack is going over!! I tell her to keep going. Todd’s bike is tipped way over to the side as a result and his aero bottle is slowly pouring water into Maija’s running shoes. I get that straightened out, grab my bike and go.

T1: 2:41
Maija was out in 1:47

The 17 mile Bike:
So Majia picked up the full 3 minutes on me during the swim. Bob and Todd started 6 minutes behind and are both capable of having made up 3 minutes as well. I’m going to have to work hard to keep them behind me. Because of the rain last night there was quite a bit of debris on the course. I was riding further out in the road than I typically would because of that. The biggest problem with that would be when people would need to pass. I just expected people would yell out to me as they were approaching. I was passed by plenty of people but I think I only heard “on your left” twice the entire ride. I found that odd. Anytime I’m about to pass someone, I want them to know I’m there, I don’t want them to turn out into me is all…
About 5 miles into the ride, I see Maija standing along side the road with her bike. I asked if she was ok and she says her tire blew out. (Tubular). I was slowing down as if I could help somehow, she knew I couldn’t and yelled, “Go go go!” When I got to the next turn I yelled to the volunteer, they need to send a vehicle to pick up a flat.
I felt like every time I got to a hill someone would get past me. Unfortunately there were a lot of hills. So I started moving further to the right on the climbs, eventually I realized with all the junk on the sides of the road that this was a really bad idea.
It wasn’t until the hill climb at the end of course that I thought about the fact I haven’t seen Bob or Todd yet. I think that actually gave me an extra bit of focus getting up those hills.
I didn’t think of this until after the race. But I took 2 bottles of Gatorade on the bike. It was a cool day, I drank maybe a quarter of one bottle and a GU. I shouldn’t have taken a 2nd bottle around that course with me, it was just extra weight on a hilly course.

17 miles 56:33 51/180 18mph
Bob 55:40 45/180 18.3mph
Todd 54:59 38/180 18.6mph

T2: 1:07
Ruth and the C5ers would be proud. They still give me grief about my T2 at Mooseman.
Rack the bike, lose the helmet, change shoes, (NO SOCKS!!) and RUN… As I was running through transition I actually checked a 2nd time to make sure I took my helmet off. Ha ha!

The 5K run:
I wasn’t 3 minutes into the run and I was already thinking about how I haven’t done a true brick in quite awhile. I knew it would get better soon, just keep pushing! Well my legs were feeling better but my chest was feeling tight just below the ribs… right where my HR monitor is!!! Off it goes, I guess I tightened up the strap too much. That problem is solved but the I can feel the inside of my left heel is being rubbed raw. 9 minutes into the run I had to stop and just scoop along side my foot to see if there was a rock or sand just sitting there. It was really bothering me. Nothing there to remove, just blood. Keep going… I’m now adjusting how I’m holding that foot as I run…. Stop.. check again, there has to be something in there!! Nothing! Try tightening the bungee! Keep going… Now I’m trying to think what I can do to get through this. I’m definitely running slower because of it. As I reach the water station at the beach, I realize I’ve got my headband on. (yes I know very 80’s). I pull it off and shove it into the side of my shoe to stop the chaffing. Oh man! That is so much better. One more lap and it’s in the books. I definitely felt like I was running much better now. As I’m approaching the beach I see Genine running towards the finish to get in place for the photo. Ha ha! Then as I’m just about to turn onto the sand for the run across the beach, the crowd starts cheering for the guy behind me. I realize he’s gunning for me and realize I’ve got another gear. Turns out it was some crazy 4 wheel drive kind of gear, running on the beach isn’t easy, it felt like my legs were flying all different directions…. He edged me out by one second. He turned and congratulated me on a good finish, very nice guy. I looked up his number from the pictures. #183 Doug Eiel, Relay Team, he had just run a 20:14 5K. Nice work.

5K 24:27 51/180 7:54 pace
Bob 23:42
Todd 24:42

I was fairly certain both Bob and Todd had beaten me. I forgot to look at my time as I crossed. Ha! It definitely didn’t feel like 6 minutes had gone by.
Maija was also out on the run course now. She had turned in her chip but figured she may as well knock out the run for a workout. You can find her race report here.

Final Result:
Matt 47/180 Overall 1:41:14 10/24 of Age group. 38/117 Male
Bob 32/180 Overall 1:37:11 5/17 of Age Group M40-44 29/117 Male
Todd 37/180 Overall 1:38:04 6/17 of Age Group M40-44 33/117 Male
Claudia 87/180 Overall 1:50:42 3/12 of Age Group F35-39 23/63 Female

Wahoo! Our friend Claudia made the Age Group Podium!

We went out to a diner nearby afterwards to celebrate. Which was very nice.

It was a very fun race. I would definitely do this race again next year.
Genine's pictures from the race. The slideshow of those shots.