Matt's Race Report (long as always)

Kinzua Country Tango 2009 Race Report

Once again I am surprised at how closely the guys team matches up with the women’s team KB2. It makes for a very fun competitive day.

13.1 mile run. We are figuring Chris will finish in 1:35:00 to 1:45:00. Cindy running for KB2 told her team before that they shouldn’t expect her to be super speedy. I think she finished about 90 seconds behind Chris. I knew right then we had a race.
Chris 1:40:00
Cindy: 1:41:00

20 mile mountain bike. Craig started with a 90 second lead on Genine. While we were standing at the bike finish. Jim and Chris were asking me what I’d expect to happen here. I told them I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Genine showed up first. This isn’t a knock on Craig, this is because I know how many miles Genine has put in this summer. I also know that Genine usually gets stronger on the bike after about 40 minutes. It’s as if the first 40 are just a warm up. Then there is Genine’s race intensity. She matches up with Craig perfectly. I’ve watched both of them finish races where they have left it all out there, it’s impressive.
So sure enough, Genine rolls into the parking lot first. Maija turns to me and says “In your face!” Ha Ha!! Oh man, come on Craig where are you!! There he is less than a minute behind her. Time for me to try and catch Maija.
Craig: 1:28:00
Genine: 1:27:00

2.5 mile swim: I get down to the docks with all my gear. I’m looking at about 20 kayakers floating around in the water. I spot Craig’s mom and Jerry hands her my Gatorade and Gel. Here we go. I don’t even look to see how far ahead Maija is already. I’ve just got to swim my pace. Of course I’m not even sure what my pace is. I had just told my teammates to expect me to arrive in about 1:15:00 but added that with the addition of fins and hand paddles I really don’t know. Last year was 1:40:00 but I had run the 13.1 already. My 1:15:00 is largely based on Maija’s prediction of 1:10:00 for herself. I’m just hoping to stay close.
Early in the swim, I was swimming like a triathlete. I wasn’t kicking very much. I was just pulling myself along with my upper body. The nice thing is I had just bought hand paddles last week and they are grabbing a ton more water. The question is, will my shoulders allow me to swim the entire way with them?
Not too far along into the swim I pull my head up and Mrs Cerra tells me that I’m getting close to catching Maija. That is encouraging! I think this was the moment when I started kicking with a purpose. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to continue kicking for a long time. It really didn’t tax my cardio as much as I thought it might and the fact that my legs didn’t cramp up right away was also an added bonus. (Note to self, train with fins and hand paddles more than once before the Tango).
After that one bit of communication, I just stayed on task. She would wave me in when I’d start to drift off line but I didn’t break for anything. When I’m in a pool swimming, I complain of having to deal with turning and getting back into a rhythm. Similarly, during triathlons I often find myself fighting through a crowd which also throws me off. I had to swim around one other canoe that was in my line. Other than that I just stayed in the groove.
My left calf finally cramped up on me just before I made the “turn” to the beach. So I dropped the kick…. Oh man, now I feel really slow. This is my only event today. Suck it up and get going!
I couldn’t remember how far the beach was once you make that turn where you could finally see the destination. It was closer than I remembered. I was feeling great so I turned it up. There was someone ahead of me and I wanted to pass them before the finish. I think I did but I’m not sure. I started to think about how I was going to manage to get my fins off and then run up to transition. My right calf was really unhappy with me.
I get through the buoys. Try to get my fins off while standing in waist deep water. Balancing was a problem. I need to remember just to swim to where I can just be sitting down to do this next year.
I “run” up the beach. I hear my dad cheering for me. Then I hear Genine, Michelle and Craig. He is psyched. Jim and Chris are in the transition box also cheering me on. I make the tag and they are off. I’m sucking wind from the run up the beach. Craig is telling me I finished in just over an hour and he had to go chase down Jim and Chris because they weren’t expecting me for another 15 minutes.
That right there is a big reason why race days are so much fun. The focus and motivation of race day is tough to match when training. Then the surprise of doing better than you had expected is the added bonus.
Maija finished about 5 minutes behind me. I think she was surprised that I was already there. I am surprised that she’s only 5 minutes behind me and she didn’t use fins or hand paddles. Also she beat her predicted time by one minute. 1:09:00.
Within a minute Genine and Maija were off on the orienteering. We still had a good race going on. KB2 beat us in orienteering last year!
Mrs. Cerra came over to tell me that we had passed 10 people during the swim. Wahoo! I only remember seeing 4 but people were all over the place out there.

Orienteering: Jim and Chris headed out 5-6 minutes ahead of Genine and Maija. We had planned a very aggressive 1:15:00 for this split. There are 5 points this year instead of 4. That will add some time. We find out the fastest so far has been 1:10:00.
Craig and Jerry hang around for awhile but eventually decide they’d rather wait down by the canoes. Michelle keeps checking in on Ellis to see how she’s doing. The 1:30:00 mark comes and goes and we haven’t seen either team. 1:45:00 here comes Jim and Chris! I hand Jim his Gatorade and he turns right back around to hammer out the 4.5 mile run.
I ask Chris if he’s seen Genine and Maija. He said that he had and they were looking strong. That’s good, I was worried about Genine’s hip on this run.
Not long after Joe Nelson comes running in. I ask if he’s seen KB2 and he says they are right behind him. Sure enough here is Genine running with everything she’s got to try and keep up with Maija. They tag Ellis and Genine disappears back behind the tents. Uh-oh, that’s not a good sign. She was definitely at her max and she just needed to catch her breath. Whew! They finished in 2:03:00

We drive down to the boat launch. Jim has already finished the 4.5 mile run in :38. Fantastic considering he had just done 1:45:00 of orienteering right before it.

Craig and Jerry are now in the canoe.
Michelle and Genine prep their canoe and wait for Ellis to show up.
Ellis knocked out a :40 minute run. She passed the other Women’s Relay team along the way. KB2 is back in first place! Michelle and Genine run down to their canoe and are on their way.
We check back in with Ellis, she is doing better. Again just another case of leaving it all out there.

Time to head to the finish line!
We get down to the point and before long. Jerry and Craig come powering into the finish line. Just behind team R100. They finished in 1:13:00 and they did it in a very normal canoe. Awesome Job Guys!
Our Total time is 7:47:00.

Now where is Michelle and Genine? They come cruising into the finish with a 1:23:00 Canoe Split!! Their final time 8:24:00. Fantastic!
This was a really close race between our two teams. The orienteering was the deciding factor. As we know from last year, this easily could have gone the other way.

That’s the day from my point of view, less the tale of the “Quarter Ton Tango”. I’m guessing Shawn or Bart will document their 14 hour adventure for us some time soon.