Mach Tenn Race (6.4.11)

With race season well under way, I am quickly becoming overwhelmed with trying to keep up with my personal blog. As much as anyone, I understand the need to continue to write race reports. These things are vital as I review my progress from year to year. BT does that for the most part but I tend to be more honest here. Therefore, I have a feeling that this blog is quickly about to become nothing more than a results and totals blog. Sigh.

Mach Tenn is about 80 minutes southeast of Nashville in the community of Tullahoma. I heard numerous good things about this race and was very eager to take on the challenge. The race is a unique distance 1000m-16mi-4 mi. The terrain is rolling and the field is stacked.

Swim 1000y

I thought this would be a perfect tune up for more olympic races. Given that the bike and run were shorter, I set out with the goal of really trying to push the swim. I seeded myself high but ended up being the 42nd person in the water. The course was a simple long rectangle in a bath water warm lake.

I immediately jumped on the feet in front of me and used them to round the first buoy. Then it became a free for all. I couldn't hold the faster people and quickly found myself in no man's land (story of my racing). I felt like I continued an aggressive pace and pushed until I found the bottom of the lake

Time: 16:20 (1:43 pace)

T1: 1:13

Straight up a big hill into the area and retrieved the bike. Up some more hill and on the bike.

Bike: 16 miles

The course, I think, was a giant circle with one out and bike. It was around an airforce base with flat to rolling terrain. It was definitely fast. I spent the first few minutes working on getting my HR into check. Once I felt comfortable I took off and began taking names.

I really tried to push but found no extra pop in the legs. They were strong but didn't have that extra gear. As usual, there was no one around to push me. That is until the last mile when I was finally caught and passed as if I was standing still. That hasn't happened in quite some time. I thought to myself...I bet he blows up on the run (he didn't).

I felt good about the bike. I knew that I had moved up considerably and put myself in contention for placement. But the run would be where it mattered

Time: 41:51 (22.9 mph)

T2: 0:50

Off the bike and back down the hill

Run:

Challenging run course. The first mile has about 3-4 rollers. The second mile is flat. And then you return. Given the number of bikes in transition, I knew exactly where I stood. But I also knew that a 4 mile run would present a challenge to me and opportunity to be caught. I beat the guy who passed me out of transition but he quickly countered and moved around me. About three minutes later, another guy in my age group caught me. I knew he was the third place athlete. They were running a solid 20s per mile quick and I didn't have it in my legs.

When the course flattened out, I could count the number of people in front of me and saw it was about 12. My goals was to NOT get passed on the final two miles. Since it was a time trial start, I still needed to push but certainly didn't feel the presence of anyone breathing down my back.

And then something happened that I have NEVER experienced in a race. I was making the final left turn back into the park with about a third of a mile left in the race. At this point there was 2 way traffic. Some dumbass decided to caught the corner and we ran smack into one another. Not sure who won but we kinda bounced off each other. I know my chin hit is left shoulder and I took a fist/forearm to the gut. Felt those for about 3 days. I shook it off the best I could and finished strong.

Run: 27:22 (6:50)

Overall time: 1:27:34

Unfortunately, I really had high hopes of placing in this race. But it wasn't in the cards that day. I ended up 5th in my age group out of 32 (lost 4th by 1s due to the collision). I did end up about 16th out of 400. Any other year and my time would have been 1st or 2nd in my age group. Goes to show that you can't control who shows up on race day.

Age Group results:
Swim: 9/32
Bike: 5/32 (2-5 were 8s apart)
Run: 5/32
T1: 3/32
T2: 10/32 (???)