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Course

A dreaded point-to-point. I think that I'm well suited to these races - overly complex logistics and a sense that you are going somewhere, instead of around in circles. The swim is in Roger Wheeler State Beach, Narragansett, complete with the harbour wall. The ride is a suprisingly rolling meander north to Providence with a final 5 miles through all sorts of nasty back streets (train-tracks, strip clubs, potholes etc). The run starts outside the State Capitol, goes up a brutal ramp in the first mile and then through some random streets. 2 loops, so you have to do the hill twice. In fact, with the exception of the ramp, the whole course is a bit like Westchester.

Preamble

I was feeling really good before the race. It was only 4 weeks after Eagle, but I'd put in a couple of really hard weeks and the riding wattage kept going up and up. Swimming had completely imploded in that period, but it recovered in the last session before the race. Driving up on Saturday morning I just knew it was going to go well. The weather was going to be stellar too - 75F and SW winds. My hotel (well, where most of the athletes were staying) was right next to the check-in / finish - could I make it back for the 12:30 checkout? Then the mind-blowingly complex logistics were explained. This was still good compared to the amazingly tedious drive down to the beach to drop the bike off - a 30m drive that took all of 2 hours to complete. After a ride - which generally involved getting blown around all over the place I went in the water. It felt fantastic - a bit choppy, but choppy enough to be fun. It was so fun, I had to force myself out. Back to Providence (another 90mins), a hideous dinner, and an early night for the 3:45am bus!

Swim

It was quite windy when the bus rolled in. It was sufficiently choppy for them to issue a get-out-of-swim free card. Everyone seemed to be complaining about the chop, but after my warm-up I couldn't understand what the fuss was about. Neither could I after my second or third warm-up. So the race started and off I went. The anti-clockwise course went by in a flash. One minute I was at the start, the next minute I was at the finish. I have to admit it seemed a little short, but analysis of the pro times seems to suggest otherwise.

Bike

With a reasonably strong SW wind at the coast, it was important to gun it from the outset which I duly did. Quite oddly I was having problems turning the big gears, so my cadence was almost 80! Within about 10 minutes I got stuck with a couple of guys and we had a 20 minute game of cat-and-mouse as we navigated through the field. With all the traffic on the course it was really hard to stick within the drafting rules - I don't know how many times I slammed on my breaks to keep the distance. We'd been joined by a 4th, who seemed intent in interpreting the 3 bike length rule as 3mm. This got very annoying very quickly. After this guy got tagged by the officials I'd had enough. 2 minutes of 400W and they were all left for dead. For the rest of the ride, I just moved my way through the field. I took all sorts of risks over the last 5 miles as we weaved our way around the pot-holed back-streets of Providence.

Run

I had decided not to look at the hill the previous day. It was certainly a shock to the system - you had to duck-feet up it. Still the top was the top. As I progressed, I realized that no one was going past me - quite the opposite in fact. I went through the first 4 in 29 minutes. I was expecting an Eagleman-esque implosion but it just didn't happen. At I got into the second loop, the bad triathlon maths started - "If I do the next 5 miles at 10 min pace I'll still be under 5hrs". Every mile the same maths, every mile take on some Gatorade endurance, and every mile I didn't really slow down. And then it was over - I couldn't quite believe the time on my watch when I crossed the line.

Overall

The number of times it had all come together prior to this race was somewhere between one and zero. Then it happened. Perhaps it will never happen again: I just don't know, but this was the only time I can honestly say that I don't think that I could have done any better. All those early mornings, all those stupid hours. For once it was worth it.

Stats

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