spin / second sole multisport team

Here’s a brief summary of some of the races we’ve done over the past couple weeks:

The Dam Tri, Medina Twin Sizzler bike race, Bay Days 5-mile running race, Lorain Summer Sprint Triathlon, Milton Man Triathlon, an Xterra off-road duathlon and a few other 5 and 10k races.  Oh, and an Ironman and a couple 70.3 races.  And the Tour of the Valley cycling stage race.  (The placings in these races hasn’t been to shabby, either.) 

Whew!  Tired yet?  Read on about Rob Reddy at Ironman Coeur d’Alene and *then* get tired. 

John Willse and I went out for IMCdA in 2006 – the reason I mention this is that the 06 edition of CdA ended up being the first and only race I every DNF’ed. The day was increadibly hot (over 100 degrees) and I completely f’up my race plan. The outcome was me on my hands and knees puking at mile 14 from dehydration and then stepping off the course at mile 16, more puking in front of/all over Joe Bonness (ask me about that one some time – great story) and a trip to the med tent and 3/4 IVs.

John finished in great fashion that day – but I was left to sit by the side lines and watch about 3 hours of finishers come through the finish shoot. Though I learned a ton from that day, I also left ID with a very empty feel and a need to return and set things right.

Well my IM Tour took me back to CdA in 2009. And in more ways than I’ll go into (all for the good) things could not be/have been more opposite than the 2006 trip.

So here is the race story. We knew from weather reports that the day was going to be cool/cold, windy and probably by late afternoon wet.

Hummmmm this reminded me of race conditions in Madison at IM Moo in 2006 also. Remember that one: Jim and John – while LaMastra crushed a Kona slot that day – John and I went from racing the hottest IM on record (CdA) to racing the coldest (Moo) all within 8 weeks. We were the harbingers of bad weather all of ’06, just like Jim and I were the bearers of ‘cancelled swim races’ last year.

I talked to John the day before the race and took his words to heart when he said, “you are not gonna make the rookie mistakes we made in Madison are you???” Because of my love of the cold I prepared to race in my thermals, sweater and parka!!

Got up race morning and the weather reports were holding. Since the winds were coming from the south straight across the lake we had good 1-2 foot waves that made for an interesting swim. Lined it up way right on the beach and waited for the cannon to go off. The couple minutes before an IM starts are incredible to me. And this one was no different – I love it.

Then BOOM – off we went – the water was the roughest of all my IM swims but I was able to find clear space from the get go. The day’s plan was to swim, ride and run comfortable and easy – and that is what I did from the start. By the first turn I had made my move to the bouy line and just fell into pace. Overall the swim was challenging but fine.

The bike course had changed drastically since the 06 race – so I was not exactly sure what to expect. Knew we had a ride out along the lake with one moderate climb, stretch through town and then north from CdA that was a fairly easy false flat up, and then out for a big loop with ‘lots of rollers’. Back through and do it all over again. My plan was to ride very conservative and just let the day play out.

All in all the ride went well. The rollers were quite a bit more than ‘rollers’ as there was some good climbing out there, nothing epic, but enough to make you know you were working hard. About 30 miles in I felt my back starting to hurt – this was the only thing that really concerned me as I have been having a bit of trouble in that area this year. So I made the decision to ‘pre-empt’ the problem and get off the bike and stretch before I really suffered. Well this strategy turned into 6 stops off the bike to stretch – but in the end it was a good decision. Finished the bike feeling fairly good.

Off to run!! I had the plan to run 8 min and walk 2 min from the get go as my run fitness until just recently has been way behind. So off I went at a very pedestrian pace. Just got into a groove and was grinding the miles out. By this time the temps had dropped to about 52, winds really picked up and it was drizzling – UGH but way better then 104 is all I could think. And of course I was looking very fashionable (Nach would have been proud of my outfit) sporting the full on black tights with my kit tri shorts and the new bright blue tech shirt on. I was able to highlight the ensemble with our lovely SSSMST bright neon green arm warmers as the accent piece to my outfit.

Actually was able to pick my pace up gradually from miles 4 – 15. Turned the half in 2:04 and was thinking things were great with just 13.1 to go. As I passed mile 14 I looked down at about the spot were I had melted down three years earlier and thought – ‘F*ck you – I’m knocking IM out today not the other way around”. Stopped around mile 15 for a potty break that turned into a 6 min stop – WFT this is a race people do your business and get the hell out of the john!!!! This is the only part of the day that got me really frustrated – but when you ‘gotta go – you gotta wait’ ;-[

By about mile 19 I was hitting the low point of my run – I had another (quicker) bathroom break – and then struggled through the next 4 miles, falling off pace. The cold was really getting to me now. But with 5k to go I was able to pull it back together and jogged it in pretty well.

Finished with a HUGE smile on my face.

So that was IM #8 – great way to spend a Sunday in June. Couple of the boys are signed up for the 2010 version of CdA – thinking about pullin the trigger this week!!

Gotta throw out a few props – First off to Leah and Jason Holloran – we stayed at Jason’s parents house. That was sooooo very appreciated. Unfortunately we did not get to meet Jason’s mom, but his dad is one cool mo fo. I’ll kick it with that dude any time.

Second – to Dr. Scott Bolunger who many know around Cleve. Scott was out with us for the race and PR’ed by well over an hour – niiiccceeeeeee.

Lastly – Liz got me thought the day. She was all over the bike course – and rode about 18-20 mile of the run with me. That was really cool.

 Well done, Rob.   And if that wasn’t enough, he’s getting ready for IMKY!!!

Filed under: 2009 |