Team Golden Ring Finishes for 2008

First of all....congratulations to everyone who raced this year. If you hit your personal goals, "high five." If not, keep coming back! The beauty of this sport is that there is always opportunity for improvement and most times a chance to participate in the same event the following year. This sport is continuing to grow and even if you are a middle of the packer, you can embrace the lifestyle and making it part of who you are, regardless of what you ride or wear. This is truly a great way to live and the people are awesome.



I've attached my year end recap (on my website) for those who want to do some introspection on their past year and the future. I use this with all my athletes to help them review the +/-'s of their season and actually quantify their goals. You can use this for work, family or whatever else you are involved with to make life a continuous improvement. (This is all my business training coming out....)



A few shout out's to some folks I worked with this season for their AWESOME accomplishments.



The Running Fit Tri Group....We had at some points, up to 50 people participating in our clinics at Island Lake. Many of these athletes completed their first event at the same venue. This was an awesome group to work with this summer.



The Milford Y Tri Group- We had some first time participants at our local Kensington race that sold out again this year. Our committee is awesome and was a great help. Congratulations to our first timers. I know that we will have another finisher from this group next year in that Steve Hartwig is working with "The Coach" to get prepped. I am convinced he is going to fly as a first timer.



Jane Sanders (Running Fit) Jane and I started working together this summer and she had some phenomenal results. Her most recent was a 3:50 marathon in Columbus, which now qualifies her for the next 2 years at Boston. Jane also won her AG at several local tri's and road runs as well as placed 6th at Steelhead Half Iron. (Jane is in her 50's and getting faster!!!)



Kathryn Jones: Won overall woman at the Grosse Isle Du this fall. This just after having a baby within the past year.



Stephanie Egan: First year triathlete; won her AG at Lansing(along with other AG's) and finished 2nd at . She also completed her first full Marathon at Bayshore this spring. FYI: She's a former smoker.



Lori Egan: (My dear wife): Completed her first half marathon in Detroit this fall. This was quite an achievement, being married to her coach and just having had our baby a year ago. Way to go honey! And yes....she did follow the plans. Lori also has Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis.



What's the takeaway: 1. Anyone can compete in this sport. The sport doesn't care about your past or things that may hold you back. 2. You have to make a decision to move. 3. There is help available, but only if you want it. 4. Self education will get only get you so far. If you want to get better, a coach is your best bet. Even the coaches get coached.



Adios...Happy Planning for 2009. Set some tough, yet achievable goals. This is the only way to improve, in racing and in life! Next month....next year planning

What a difference a course and weather make....

Redemption!

This past weekend was a great way to end the season. The family and I traveled to Wilmington, NC for me to participate in the first annual Beach2Battleship triathlon. They had 500 athletes participating in each of the Full and Half Iron distance events. We arrived a day and half early to unwind with Lori's long time friend and they were awesome and gracious hosts for us for the weekend.

When we arrived, both Lori and I were battling some sinus issues and I was thinking this is just a wonderful way to end the year. Fortunately a little Claritin D cleared it up prior to Saturday morning. It's hard to race an endurance event when you can't breathe!

My race morning started with me waking every hour from about midnight until 4 am, when I finally said to heck with it and got up. Took care of a few items and drove to the race site at 4:45 am. I was the first one on site. This is a first!






Keep in mind that this is a point to point event, meaning it started 10 miles north of Wilmington and had 2 separate transition areas. A rather unique and confusing approach. The promoters did a nice job with laying it all out and it was a good event for the money. $150 entry. It also had the same environment as a 70.3 sanctioned event.




They started the full distance athletes an hour and a half before us and we got to see them swim by us while we waited on the pier. The swim was done in the Atlantic Intracoastal waterway, so we had the current with us the entire way in the channel. Needless to say, even though it was cold (65F), I can't imagine everyone didn't PR. I know I did. (29 minutes out of the water). However, the 300 yard run to the transition area, left a little to be desired with no carpet and all blacktop and cramping legs. They also brought out the strippers! (Wetsuit)




Bike was a bit cool, but easy to handle with a lightweight vest and arm warmers the entire ride. The coach stuck to holding my wattage at 200 in spite of lots of guys wanting to sprint by me. Needless to say, I caught a few at the halfway mark. The beauty of half iron racing is it requires speed, smarts and patience. The course was almost dead flat, except for 2 bridges which the last one came at the end of the ride. I did have one bonehead woman pass me in the final dismount chute, thinking she was saving a ton of time, while nearly costing both of us a great deal more. Note to beginners: Take it easy at turns and final chutes. We were the first wave to start the day, so you have a pretty good gauge of where you are in the overall race. My bike was you gain some, you give some spots. Overall, pretty neutral, which was good. Nutrition consisted of one "thick" bottle of Perpetuem, approx. 1000 calories and one bottle of Heed and bottle of water, 3 endurolytes.




The run....Here the mantra of never quit really hits home. I had a little gas issue at the start, so I had to walk up the first drawbridge incline at the 1 mile mark. The funny thing is that I was going back and forth with one guy who ran the entire hill and my run/walk caught him just at the crest. I knew we had a ways to go, so it was just getting settled in to go the long haul. My stomach didn't clear up until about 4-5 miles, then I was able to get into a groove of running between rest stops every mile. A few gels along the way, and the nutrition and former Muskoka bonk were held off with no problems. My nutrition was spot on, except for the little distress. With about 4 miles to go on the run, I was feeling great. The 5 guys that I had given up spots in my AG earlier, I was easily able to catch and put a nice gap. I caught 3 AG'ers on the final 2 mile incline up and over the final drawbridge. This is an awesome feeling. Cruised it on home for a 2:02 half marathon. Not great, but acceptable. (Picture above is of final 2 mile stretch, comparable to the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit's Marathon)










My race goal after the lousy performance at Muskoka was to go anything under 5:30. I came in at 5:29 and change. My bike average (2:48) was a few tenths under 20 mph overall for 56. I've still got some work to do on long distance functional power, but that will be the off season plans. My finish was 9th in the 40-44 age group out of 47. Overall the finish was 62th out of 255 men. So top 20% and 25% respectively.




Some notes about placings. When I looked specifically at my age group, the winner was in 5:05. For a half this is pretty good, but most events it is under 5 hours. The difference between my 9th place and 3rd place(podium) was under 12 minutes. When looking at my split rankings in comparison my swim/bike/run ranks were 13th/17th/20th and I finished 9th. SO.....what does all this mean (I'm not bragging).....NEVER QUIT! The key is being consistant throughout, especially at the half and longer distances. (This even applies to short course. ) You need to be competitive in all 3 events to place for awards. FYI: I was :06 seconds out of 8th place. Those few moments of walking cost that time. Lastly, even in Half races, transitions are critical. I had the fastest T1 in the top 10, but 5th in T2. There was the guy who finished 3rd, that took 6.5 minutes! to T2. That cost him 2nd place. But, I digress.........




Considering the crazy year we've had with new baby, job and other commitments, "The Coach" is happy(plus I met my time goal, which helps!). When balanced with other life obligations, you do the best you can with the resources (time) available. This is all we can do, since we aren't pros. Even then, I'm glad I don't have to do this for a paycheck, then it would become work. I was telling our host that we have to remember that most people can't comprehend doing this type of sport, but when you hang around a bunch of others that do, you can sometimes forget that competing in any endurance event is quite an achievement. We should be thankful, no matter what the results or our watch tell us. Be happy with our performance and always work to get better in the future.













Overall, I'd give Set Up Events an "A" for a first time event of this size and distance. Good volunteer support and a well layed out race. Cool medal, it's nice and heavy! Plus, cool finishing venue, right in front of an old Navy Destroyer. They get a "A+" for the weather. I'd consider going back in a few years to do it again. They announced that 2/3 of the athletes were men, 1/3 were women. They also had athletes from over 34 states and a dozen countries. If you are looking for a late season destination race, put this one on your calendar. Next years event is November 7th. One week later. Take your full length wetsuit. (FYI: It's about 850 miles there via car)


Cheers!