Matt's 2009 Mooseman Race Report

The road leading to this race is oddly similar to last year’s. Almost non-existent run training and a running injury that has me concerned about walking to the finish. On top of that, add the 2 sinus infections in the last 4 weeks. I didn’t manage my allergies well this year, I forgot to double up on the dosage. Lesson learned. One good thing did come out of this. The Doctor I spoke with earlier in the week to get my antibiotic told me that Zyrtec is the only allergy medicine to help with indoor allergies. Typically indoors isn’t a problem, but I’m definitely allergic indoors at the farm. Zyrtec definitely helped me out there. (sorry for the boring stuff, writing stuff like this helps me out for next year, as I often forget this stuff).

Because of injury and illness, I had to scale back my expectations in this race. I’d known I’d have to do this for a number of weeks now. That’s part of why I started the Facebook Photo Journal. That created some fun while I tried to get back on track. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough time to actually blog about all the pictures as we had hoped to do. There just isn’t enough time in the day.

On the ride up to NH, I got to talk with Genine about feeling like I’m only at 80% with my training and my concerns of walking to the finish. I was really okay with that. This weekend is so much more than just how well I race. There is the fundraiser aspect. It looks like our fundraiser will surpass $10,000 again, which is awesome. I’m always humbled by the amount of support we have from friends and family. Friends and Family are the other part of this weekend, which is so amazing. Genine’s mom flew up to help out and watch the race. Shawn signed up sort of last minute to fill in for 2/3’s of team Bloomingdales, making a 20+ hour round trip. Adam again travels 12 hours round trip to run a 1 hour race. Maija also made the long trip from NJ after having raced last weekend. Ruth, Lidia and Alexa along with another whole relay team! And of course being able to see my brother Eric and his family who live about an hour away. Again, it’s really great to have so much support.

4:15ish wake up. I find myself very calm about everything. Everyone is up and ready to roll on schedule

I take some grief about wanting to be at the race site so far ahead of schedule but honestly I find the time just flies by. So much so that I didn’t get a chance to wish the relay teams good luck.

Swim: 2nd wave we started 4 minutes behind the first wave. Buoys are to my left which is good. I drift left anyhow. Not too many people up near the front, I eye up who is toeing the line and pick someone that would provide a good wake for me to draft if he happens to be of similar ability to me. I think this is as relaxed as I’ve ever been before a race. Just waiting for the Go and we are off and racing. Turns out I picked a good person to follow. He put some distance between us in the first 150 yards but the water is clear enough that I can still see him. It’s isn’t long before I’m on his feet and I’m just along for the ride. I’m watching for people passing us, using that as a guide if I’ve picked someone too slow. Before we get to the turn around buoy, I see someone passing us quickly. A Green cap, that guy has already made up 4 minutes on me. Ugh! I’m not going to jump on his feet, I wouldn’t have a chance of holding pace. After we pass the “turnaround” we start running through many more of the slower swimmers from the first wave. It’s becoming more of a challenge to stay with my drafting. I feel he’s swimming too far to the left. Unfortunately we’ve got a bit of a pack to our right that is pushing left as well. I can’t burst ahead, so I end up dropping out and cutting back to the right behind them. Now I’m more or less on my own but I keep having to work around 1st wave people. At one point I get an elbow to my left goggle as they switched to breast stroke. So glad there is only one wave ahead of me, less to fight through. When I get close to the beach, I actually remember to stand and dive ahead a couple times to get myself into the really shallow water rather than trying to walk through it. I look at my watch. 27 something. Hey hey! I was going to be happy with anything under 30. I’ll take it.

27:08 165th overall swim

T1: I pass by the wetsuit strippers. I just don’t know how successful that would be for me as I’ve never tried it. I’ll have to consider trying this before Timberman. I’m running down my row to my bike and I get behind a guy walking his bike out to the bike start. I’m not exactly sure what I did here. I do know that he actually came to a complete stop at which point I ran around him to get to my bike.
Everything goes fairly well, a bit of fumbling with the strap on the shoe but nothing awful. I negotiate my way around the 2 trees in my row on the way to the bike exit and I get on my bike feeling pretty good about my T1 time.

2:22 spent in T1

Bike: My HR is always too high when I start my bike. The beginning of this ride is fairly flat and I should probably have started out faster than I ended up taking it. This is a hilly course and last year I felt that I really lost power at the end. I’m hoping to pace the ride a bit better this year.
It doesn’t take me long to realize how starting in wave 2 was going to be mentally challenging for the rest of the race. I’m not passing anybody. The only thing that is making me feel okay about this is the fact that most of the people passing me have Aero helmets and $3000+ bikes. The fact that they are passing me so quickly is a bit disappointing tho’…
Last year there were a number of places along the bike ride where I really felt that I was suffering. This year as I came to these places I was thinking. Here it is, the big grind, prepare for the pain! The good news is these sections ended up feeling like they were much shorter. I’d get through them and I wasn’t dying. That was a mental boost.
My best section was probably the climb up 104 to Cass Mill Road. I actually passed a few people along this section. The sad part was that I feel the worst part of my bike was up next. Once we hit the rollers of Cass Mill Road I lost sight of the group I was following and didn’t pass anyone.
I finished the bike feeling that I had a good ride. I hit the lap counter on my watch but I had no clue what my time was. Turns out I was .3 mph slower than last year. Ah well.
1:25:32 19.1 mph
249th place overall bike

T2: I had been joked with about my transition last year for the entire year. This one had better be better. I had to put socks on to run. That was the only thing that slowed me down this year. 1:42 in transition.. Still not awesome

Run: This is going to be my longest run since April 1st. I’m going to take what I can get here. I feel I’m running along fairly well and yet I’m passing nobody. In fact a pretty big guy just passed me. Ugh! Get to the mile mark in 8:20. Well that is definitely my comfort pace for running distance. I can feel my quads with every step and I’m on the flat. Maybe it will start to feel better soon.
Hey I’m passing someone! It’s the big guy that ran past me. He’s doing calf stretches against a tree working out a cramp. A minute or so later he’s burning by me again. A couple minutes after that he’s working a stretch again. I can relate. Both sides of my torso are hurtin’. I put my arms up over my head trying to see if I can work it out some but it doesn’t really help. Just keep going. Mile 2 8:13 I think.
Last year I found the hills to be difficult mentally and physically. This year I didn’t flinch. They seemed much easier than I remembered. Even the hill at the turn around didn’t really phase me. I guess all that hill running this past winter is helping out again.
It was at the turnaround that I started to think about the fact that Maija should be catching up to me soon. She started 16 minutes behind me. No sooner do I think this, I see Maija running towards me. I yell out to her “Right on Schedule”. We high five as we pass. SMACK!!! Holy crap that hurt! Then I hear her yell “I’m going to chase you down!!!”
Oh man. I’m fairly certain I can’t beat her to the finish. From this point on each time I hear footsteps from behind I’m thinking she’s finally caught me.
With a little less than a mile to go Genine is running towards me. She’s yelling “Go Matt” at me and asking how I’m doing. I don’t do a very good job at being motivational back. I think I said something like “I’m alright, I think I’ll get there”.
Not long after that with maybe half a mile to go, Maija passes me. And like the other top female finishers that passed me, is by me like I’m standing still.
Well my quads never did get to feeling any better. I did my first 5K on an 8:08 pace. The return 5K on a 8:15 pace.
50:44 10K 313th place overall.
Total time 2:47:28
I’m just glad that I didn’t have to walk any of it. I cross the line just a few people after Maija and we both hop on line for a massage figuring we had 45 minutes or so before Genine would be finishing. Turns out that wasn’t enough time. I get out of the line and go wait at the finish for Genine.
This is when the whole thing kind of hit me. I started to choke up a bit while I was waiting for Genine to get to the finish line. She worked so hard. She has never liked swimming at all. Yet she has been going to masters swimming with me for 6 months or so now. Running has been nothing but painful for her yet she’s out there toughing out a 10K. Not sure what to say other than she’s awesome.
When she finally crossed the finish line, the scene wasn’t quite what you’d think. She runs right past me and everyone else as she was in search of a trash can to dry heave into. I work my way over to her to check in with her. Does she need to go to the med tent? What does she need to eat? Is everything alright? She was alright after a few slices of watermelon and soaking her legs in the lake. Whew!

The few hours of hard work are over. Back to the party!

2:15:24 was my bike + run time in 2008 and I took 219th place overall at the finish
2:16:17 was my bike + run time in 2009 and I took 216th place overall at the finish
In 2008 I spent 3:56 in transition. This year 4:04.
The swim was shortened last year due to fog so the overall time wouldn’t compare.
2008 I was ranked 162nd on the swim. This year 165th.
It’s just funny to me. I’m not sure I could race more similarly if I had tried.

Other fun facts:

Nobody crashed on their bike this year. I believe there were 3 crashes last year.

Maija was 5th place overall women’s division and she won her age group.

Genine was hoping to finish the swim in 40 minutes and finished in 30:47

Matt took grief all last year regarding his T2 Time last year because I was messing with my getting my watch off of my bike. It was 1:53. This year, I didn’t have a watch to mess with and my T2 time was 1:42. I guess I need to find some shoes that I can run a 10K in without socks.

Only one second separated Adam and Matt’s run split.

Ruth was the last out of the water and had a kayak escort. She did beat her goal of finishing in under an hour tho’! Also she did not finish last in the swim. There were 3 other people that she beat by over 10 minutes.

Shawn believes he was the biggest Clydesdale there.

Lidia climbed Devil’s Hill without walking her bike!