Ashland Race Report - step in the right direction...

Ashland turned out to be a much better day than Mooseman (except for the weather, of course - couldn't beat that at The Moose). A much harder run than Moose, maybe a little easier bike but still hilly.

The day started at 0430, awaking to the dreadful sound of RAIN (after such a beautiful Saturday). Got up, had my applesauce, only 1 cup of coffee and cold WW pasta. Due to the rain I decided to stay home and stretch in my dry house - no need to get there too early and get wet prepping for the day. So I left at 0600 (the time I wanted to be there originally) - easy drive to Ashland at that time on a Sunday morning. Pull into the lot and am one of the first there. It also had stopped raining by now (but I knew the radar said more was on the way - and with about 45 minutes to race start, it came.)

Got a quick warm-up ride in (in the rain) to make sure the gears were set - all good; hoping for a better bike than Moosey.

Racked the bike (right next to another Softride Rocket - must be the only 2 left in the area...) and headed down to the water in my rain-soaked crappy run shoes (for the trans-run up post swim)

Happy with my swim (23:31) - felt good and in touch with the lead swimmers in my wave - the the first of three. Figured some of the faster elites who were starting 4 minutes behind might catch me towards the end... yup. With just under a 1/4 mile to go I looked right to breath and saw Tim Snow go by me like he was swimming with fins and a propeller - WHOA!

Go out of the water, pulled my wetsuit down to my waist, squeezed on my shoes to make the 1/4 run from the lake to transition - uphill of course. Treacherous with the rain, mud, slick rocks... but didn't over run the way up, trying to keep the heart from busting out outta my chest. Into/out of T1 with no issues (5:04), hit the road for the rain-pelting 1st loop.

I felt pretty good this week on the bike - my time spent Thursday night tinkering with the cockpit paid off as I had the 7th fastest overall bike (#s 1 and 2 were DQ'd, so my 9th happily became 7th). 1:08:41. T2 was uneventful, even took a few seconds to stretch the hips - 1:04.

The run at Ashland is a freaking killer! Much harder than Mooseman. You start uphill, make a right for a long downhill (which you run up on the return trip). During the downhill I felt the left quad cramping. I only had 1 gel left so I quickly took it with some water at the first aid station, stretched it and hoped... after about another 1/2 mile the cramping issue subsided and I was running better again, but I feared it would come back - and with no gels or Gatorade on the course (water only) I didn't push it as hard as I could for fear it would doom me.

Ended up getting passed by probably the 3rd place finisher in my AG (a few guys passed me, most young, one or two that likely were in my bracket - 1 of which I retook later) but managed a decent run back. Kept my form after the quad issue and ran within myself, not letting anything blow up or slow down, just plain consistent from what I could tell (I didn't wear the Garmin due to the weather) Run time 43:42, slower than I wanted but I'll take it.

Final time: 2:22:03
4th Age Group
12th Overall - - - and against a stellar field that included Tim Snow, Jesse Kropolnicki, Pat Wheeler (that's COACH Pat Wheeler - more on that in a later blog), Cait Snow, Kerry Sullivan, Clydes Chris Pearson (holy sh*t he can move for a big guy!), Gary David and Tim Crowley.

My results in summary = content, pleased, happy... but not satisfied - that would mean I don't want to improve my effort. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Enter Coach Pat Wheeler and QT2...