Matt's 2010 Tango Race Report.

You couldn't have asked for better weather the day of the race. We woke up to temperatures in the high 50's I think. The fog didn't burn off until most of the runners were past the 9 mile mark of the 13.1. It then became a beautiful clear day and the temperature at 2PM was still only 77 degrees. If only you could have these conditions for every race.

6:30AM I caught up with Jim, he was feeling confident about his ability to run well this morning. The only issue was hydration. There are no water stops and you aren't supposed to hand anything off to supporters during the run. (although I did see at least one person ditch some gear to supporters at the dam). I had offered him the use of our fuel belts but he hadn't run with them before and he didn't want something new to deal with on race day. So he decided to go without… Until the last minute. Once they called the racers to the line he decided to take just one of the 8 oz bottles with him. Probably a good call. It's really hard to know whether you've nailed your morning nutrition/hydration until you are out there running.
A few minutes later they are off (6:59:21). I snap a bunch of pictures at the start then jump into Jim's car and drive along the race course snapping a few pictures out the window along the way. As I was driving up Hemlock, there were a number of people running up the right lane of the road. I was just trailing behind waiting for them to create space for me to get by. They never did, they were rocking out to their iPods, they never knew I was there until I was passing them on their left. Not a very safe situation.
I eventually got ahead of all the runners and parked along side the road. I hopped out to take some more photos. I'm guessing we are 4 miles in at this point. Watching the runners approach, it's actually a bit unfair to judge them by their efforts at this stage of the game. For some this is their only event, others it's the first of six.
I'll admit that I was curious how the Maija vs Jim race was going to go. I spotted Maija leading a group of 5 runners. I started to take some pictures . I got everyone in the group. As I was lowering the camera wondering where Jim was, I realized he was at the back of that group. He looked over and he knew what I was thinking. He just smiled and nodded, he was right where he wanted to be.
I stayed a bit longer but eventually decided I wanted to be at the dam in time to see them cross. I wasn't sure how much time I'd have so got back in the car and drove around to the other side of the river and up to the dam. This would be mile 9 for the runners. There were quite a few people there waiting to cheer on their relay team runners. As soon as their person ran by, the groups would quickly load up in their cars and head down to the beach for the run finish & bike start. I was waiting to see Maija and Jim. Or would it be Jim and Maija? I didn't have to wait too long to find out. At about 8:03 Jim had reached the 9 mile mark. Maija was about 1:45 behind him. It was now my turn to run to the car and head to the beach. The fog was thick at the dam but the sun was already shining through as we approached the beach.
I parked the car and went looking for Genine and Adam to let them know their runners were approaching on time. I went back to taking pictures. It was a good distraction from being nervous about my event. There were some nice upgrades at the first transition this year. They were getting the numbers from the runner as they turned into the park, and radio it ahead to the finish, then they would call out the number for the relay biker to get ready. Also they had roped off a chute for the runners and bikers. This helped keep the spectators out of the way. Also because there was no parking in that level people had setup chairs and such to kick back and enjoy the race.
It wasn't long before Jim came running in (8:31:21). He was running hard, definitely in an every second counts mode. Adam took off and I set my stopwatch to make sure I was over at Elija Boat Launch (the swim start) ready to go in about 50 minutes. Maija wasn't far behind (8:36:19) and Genine was off on her ride.
I check with everyone to let them know I'm headed to Elija for the swim start. Everyone piles into vehicles and we are off. The bike route starts with a 2 mile climb, I catch up to Genine pull up along side and cheer for her, then moved out of the way. It's not exactly the best time to chat.

I get to the swim start and find Craig's mom. She's my safety kayak for the swim. I had a few things I wanted her to have in the boat. An extra pair of goggles, a GU and some gatorade. It's unlikely that I'll need any of it but it doesn't hurt to have it just in case.
I'm using my sleeveless wetsuit top, so I applied a ton of body glide where my arms contact my chest. Because it's such a cool morning, standing around in the wetsuit wasn't a problem. By the time I was suited up I shouldn't be waiting long anyhow. So I positioned myself over near the transition box. They improved this area a bit but we still watched bikers race through the box and into the spectators. There really needs to be a dismount line so bikers come to a stop right before the box. I'm talking to the other swimmers waiting to start. At least two of them are saying they are going to swim the 2.5 miles in under 50 minutes, one even said he'd be under 45 minutes. Yikes! Here I'm thinking 65 to 70 minutes is likely for me. Ah well, I've got to have my running legs for the orienteering. Hopefully I'll make up for the lost time there. They call my number to let me know Adam was on the way in. We make the tag and I am off. Run down 2 flights of stairs across a parking lot, someone says I'm probably the 5th relay team into the water as I run by out onto the dock, then sit down, put on fins, hand paddles, slide off of the dock. And realize that I didn't pull my goggles over my eyes. Doh! Pull hand paddles aside, put goggles into place, hand paddles back into place and go!
I'm cruising along for less than 5 minutes when I realize my HR is out of hand. Whether it's from the thrill of the start or from swimming at too quick of a pace I don't know. I decide I'd better just flip over to my back, kick with the fins for a bit and then start my distance swim pace again. That worked. Now it's just a matter of holding that for the next 60 minutes. Last year any time I'd lift my head up out of the water, Judy would tell me how many people I've passed. This year starting in 5th place I knew any news I'd be getting would be about people passing me. So I figured I wasn't going to look for others and I wasn't going to ask. I'll get there soon enough.
There was a bit more chop in the water the final half of the swim. Not a big deal. Swimming in a pack of people during a triathlon is more difficult than what this was. Overall I was pretty zoned out during the swim. As I rounded the final turn to the beach I wondered how long I've been swimming. It really didn't feel much longer than 45 minutes, I just hoped I was still on track. I didn't kick as much this year knowing that I had to run soon. When I reached the beach, I didn't see a buoy or anything that I was supposed to swim past. I just got to the concrete and worked at getting my fins off. Unlike previous years it seemed that I was being spared the massive leg cramps. I look at my watch, if I hurry up the hill to the transition box I should finish in about 70 minutes. Not awesome but it's what I expected. (I think 5 people passed me)

I run up to the transition box. We get our orienteering maps, we step to the side and I ask Todd to just dump everything out of my transition bag. I get my shoes on and grab everything else. GU, Cliff Bar, compass and fuel belt. Then Jerry and I run into the woods. There were 2 points that were going to give me trouble. We walked along a line that we thought might get us to point 1 but I really didn't have a good reference point. So rather than just wandering. I suggested that we pick it up on the way back as we were going to have to go this way to get back quickly. So we run to the top to check in at points 3, 4 and 5. Then we have to descend into Campbell Run to find point 2. This is where wearing running shoes was not a good choice. There were times I was really concerned for my ankles. Prior to race day, I had joked that if I were so tired from the swim that I couldn't run, that Jerry would have to carry me. Well down in this ravine, I was thinking if I broke my ankle Jerry just might have to carry me out after all.
Once we got to the point in the ravine we had to decide how to get that first point again. If we hiked around at our current elevation we should pass point one, but I was going to be without reference points and it was slow going. So we made the climb back up to the base of rim rock. It was crazy steep. If you slipped on the leaves you'd probably slide 10-15 feet backwards. You held onto every tree you could. Once we got to the top we picked our angle to the point from there and went straight at it. There were more people in the woods now, which made it easier. I'm guessing there were 6 other people in the area at the time. We check in at the last point, now to run back to the beach. We made good time going downhill, it was nice to be running, we hadn't done much of that. We tag Marty and he's off running the 4.5 miles.

We finished the orienteering course in about 90 minutes. Some people finished in 60. One person said they finished in about 60 minutes and they walked the whole thing. Which made me realize that this year's course was different. In previous years there was a good distance to travel and you could run most of the time, so making sure you picked paths on which you could move quickly was important. This year you had no choice but to hike in the woods. It wasn't about speed, it was about keeping your orientation and not losing time passing by points. I am curious about one rule tho'. How far apart can you be from your teammate? I know there are some in the complete tango that bungee themselves together the entire event. Yet for the relays, some told me they walked through the woods 30 yards apart so they wouldn't miss the point. I had thought you had to stay close. Maybe I'm wrong about that. I need to know the answer for future reference, I can see this type of course being the norm from here on out.

Marty is going to finish the 4.5 mile run in about 30-32 minutes so I hopped in the car to get down to the final transition. As I passed Marty on the road, he looked to be doing well. This run can be brutal in the sun but it's only 77 degrees which had to be nice. I'm not sure how many people he passed, he definitely moved us ahead a place or two.

Which leads us to the canoe. Jerry and Todd were going to go all out to try and win the canoe split. They had figured the rapids would be their biggest challenge, that was until their wicker seats ripped through. This made for a very uncomfortable trip. It seems that the guys team can never seem to come up with the right canoe for this event. They still did well. I think they passed one team and were passed by one team. Can't complain about that.

We finished in 7:17 our goal time was 7:19. I guess the predictions were good it's just the competition was better this year. It was still a very fun day. Now we have 12 months to plan next year's team or teams.

Some other random things:

I'm disappointed that I didn't have time to visit more with friends that were on the other teams. It's a busy day, I guess that's how it goes.

Two weeks ago when I did my practice swim, my left shoulder was killing me the day after. Using the hand paddles intensified the stress on my shoulder. I determined this stress was caused by my left arm not pulling straight back. I was introducing too much of an S into my stroke. So what little time I did spend in the pool the last couple of weeks, I worked at removing that S pull. I guess I fixed it because I had no shoulder problems after the race.

I also got my first wetsuit burn. I didn't get enough body glide around my right armpit. Fortunately it wasn't too bad. Just a few spots.

A few hours after the race, my lower back tightened up on me big time. My upper body was slanted from the waist in a freakish way. I'm guessing it's because I didn't do enough practice swims with fins on. I hate kicking but for this race I had to do it. Of course I didn't take time to stretch after I finished orienteering either. As a result, I missed a few of my marathon training runs this week. When I got back to the city on Wednesday I went to the chiropractor just to make sure everything was lined up before I attempted a run.

I had tried to golf on Monday with my dad and it didn't go so well. It was still fun to be out there tho'.

Genine had loaded up Bart Vashaw's race report on her computer before we left home. It was a fun distraction when we were stopped because of an accident right at the NY border.