Two weeks ago I raced in the Tristar 111 event that took place in the historic city of WormsGermany. If you don't know anything about this town let me tell you one thing. It is the town where Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis up declaring his separation from the Catholic church. I was looking forward to this race because of it's unique distances. The race covers a total of 111km, 1km(1000m) swim, 100km(62mile) bike, and 10km(6.2mile) run. I am planning on racing my first half ironman this year and was using this race as a test since the bike leg is 6 miles longer than that of a half.
I arrived at the race the day prior to set up my transition, attend the Energy Party and rules briefing with my favorite supporter, my wife. I had never set up a transition like this before being that I usually race the Olympic distance races which have a much shorter bike and all of the equipment we need are right at our bike. In this race we had two transition bags. One for the bike, and one for the swim. This made for a little more stress mainly due to the fact that I had never done this before and it was out of my norm.
My spot in the transition area could not have been better! It was at the very biginning of the row so when I ran from the changing tent to my bike I couldn't miss it (as you can tell by the photos below). Once I had my gels and shoes situated on my bike and my running shoes in the proper bag I was ready to return home to pick up Teresa so we could enjoy our time at the pre race party.
(Couldn't beat this T1 spot)
Teresa and I spent some time wandering around the race venue checking out the venders and what have you. Then we had to find the location of the rules briefing and energy party. Of course the only thing at the information board that did not have an English translation would be the directions to the place. So after asking one of the volunteers who spoke english where it was; and writing down the address for our GPS, we set off in our car to find it. The GPS had told us we "reached our destination" literally at a stop light with nothing but a warehouse around. This led to much discussion on our part about how we should proceed from here. Well, we decided it might work if we parked and walked around the area until we found fellow triathletes heading in the same direction and followed them, so that's what we did.
Once we finally found the place, we couldn't believe we had missed it from the road during our drive. I mean, it's not like there were signs or anything (this is when you should refrain from looking at the picture below).
(The unmarked...O.K. marked Energy Party sight)
The briefing was good, but we couldn't help feel like we missed out on all the comedy that was taking place. They were translating everything that was said to English, that is, except for the jokes. What is up with that? Oh well, when in Rome. Did I use that right?
Anyway, after the briefing came the part all of us athletes really enjoy. The ENERGY PARTY!!! This is where one would expect a carb filled dinner with pastas and bread in order to "fill the tank" for the race in the morning.
Pasta is not what we got. I'm not sure if it was becasue the race was in Germany and the directors figured they should have German food available, or what, but this is what we got.
(German carb loading?)
Not exactly what I had in mind, but I ate it and it was delicious. However on the way back to the car Teresa had the brilliant idea to stop at the market and get noodles and sauce so I could actually get what I am used to. She also cooked it for me at 10:00 at night. Isn't she amazing? Yes.
Now for the race.
The swim:
I was a little concerned about the start because the swim was taking place in a shipping harbor of the Rhine river, and I wasn't sure how 1000 athletes were going to swim in this place being that it was only about 500 meters wide. However, they had thought of this and decided to do a time trial start in groups of three. This in essence got rid of the washing machine effect that we triathletes have came to love (shaking my head no as I write this). So I wasn't terribly upset about this. The swim started and I immediately noticed how the water was a lot warmer than I had expected. This made me happy since I was a little concerned prior to the start that it was going to be freezing. My swim started strong and I had left the two who started with me in my wake. As I began to pick off more and more swimmers I was feeling pretty good about my swim. Then we hit the first turn buoy which had us swim against the current for about 100 meters, and this is were I got stuck behind three or four individuals swimming breast stroke. This is were I started to dislike the time trial start. After what seemed like an eternity, but was in reality probably only a couple of seconds I finally made it around them. However, this occurrence continued about every 100 meters for the rest of the swim. Finally I emerged from the water feeling good, but not ecstatic about my swim. Then there was the 750 meter run to transition on the hard pavement. this went surprisingly well, after my feet went numb. The actual transition also went well with the volunteers doing a great job putting our wetsuits away for us. After getting my helmet on and grabbing my bike I was off!
The bike:
The beginning was great, the first 20 miles were flat just like the race profile had said it would be. I was able to make great time in this section and really settle into my rhythm and enjoy the ride. I was holding the pace I had trained for averaging 24mph untill we got to around mile 30. At this point we hit some major head wind. I found a group that was riding a good pace and stayed with them for ten or so miles. Then we turned out of the head wind and I made my move around some of the guys who had done the majority of the work in the wind. Thanks guys! At around mile 50 I started cramping, this lasted for about 5 miles before I was able to shake it. Then it came roaring back about three miles from town and the run which was about to begin, so I let off the pace a little to try and get rid of the cramps in my legs for the run. This worked and I went into T2 (transition from the bike to the run) feeling pretty good.
The run:
The run started off fast and I felt great. We began the first 3km by going up this beautiful bridge and running across the Rhine River and back. During this portion of the run I was running 6:30 miles and feeling set for the whole race. However, this was not to continue. Once I reached the transition area to begin my first of the final two laps through town, the cramping started in my legs again and rapidly moved into my stomach. Not to mention I had hydrated well enough during the bike to have an extremely full bladder as well (running this way is no fun). So at the next aid station I took in some coke to try and ease the cramping, but this didn't help and the cramping stayed for the majority of the run. I believe this wasn't due to salt loss or nutrition, but more due to fitness. As I had been getting over a stress fracture in my shin and hadn't gotten the proper run training I needed. So when all was said and done I limped it in to the finish with a 49mn run which is definitely no world record, but I was happy to have finished that suffer fest of a run without walking.
So in conclusion it was an excellent race and I am glad I did it because now I know what needs to be done in order to be competitive at the half Ironman distance. Now it's time to prepare for the Baumholder olympic distance race on the 26th!
A special thanks to my amazing wife for her continued support. My sponsors Team RWB for your great cause that I am proud to be a member of (thinking of the strength our wounded warriors show every day definitely kept me moving on that run), Rudy Project for the comfortable sunglasses and helmet for the long day, and Base Performance for making sure my cramping wasn't due to salt loss, and thanks to all of you for the support as well.
