Amica RI 70.3 Report

First, congrats to Allie who's going to Worlds; Mitch, who COULD have gone but is doing some other strange race; and Greg, who also received a roll down slot but is also doing some wacky race (other CT notables Oakes Ames, John Wilson and Chris Thomas were insanely fast as well).

After getting over the logistical challenges of registering for the race (stuff had to be checked in at each transition area, conveniently located 50 miles apart with timings that didn't quite correspond to when people could check themselves in), it was race morning. Beautiful day, some good swells in the water, but very nice conditions. I swam what now appears to be a conservative 30:18 - felt very comfortable, probably too comfortable. Through transition, then after about 200 meters on the bike, I lost my 2nd water bottle and stopped, got off and walked back to retrieve - wanted the drink for the long ride but also the bottle had a Blaisman sticker given to me by Mr. Blais the day before who warned me not to dump the bottle. Felt so guilty I picked it up...until it fell off again a few miles later. Got over the guilt. Ended up riding 2:28:32, a one-minute PR but still way short of what it appears was possible (I apparently slowed a bunch the last 16 miles after 1:43 for the first 40M, though I thought I was going quite fast...could have been traffic the last mile or two...dunno).

Now the fun part...seeing how my achilles would hold out for the run. I was able to do my modified run stride OK for the first 7 miles or so and was under 7-min pace, but things got bad by 8-9 miles and I couldn't do anything about it like changing the stride, opening up, planting my foot better, etc. Crawled in with a 1:36 for a 4:40:17 finish, 9th in the AG and - it turns out - one spot out of Worlds (which took 4 excruciating hours after finishing to determine). I also tried out a Blais-influenced roll to make up for the guilt of losing the bottle.

Now to rest my achilles...hopefully it can be ready by the "Greenwich Olympics" in two weeks, but if not, it will be August/September tris and a full onslaught on the NYC Marathon (again assuming full recovery and ability to train).