Guatape
Who knew that doing climbing repeats of El Peñón before the race would ruin my taper?! Kidding…I just had a horrific race. Let’s not talk about it. Time to look forward to 2012. El Peñón did provide for a nice post-race cool down workout, though:
PATCO Champs
All I can say after racing in this past weekend’s PATCO Championship is thank goodness for ‘test’ events!! The race effectively served as a test for next year’s Pan Am Games (Guadalajara 2011). As major games go Pan Am Games is second only to the Olympics in terms of importance and prestige. As such, I expected a finely tuned, safe and fair course awaiting me in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. This was not the case.
What did await us was a bike course featuring unpaved gravel sections, dangerous cobbles (so big and non-uniform that you couldn’t stay sitting or pedal while riding over them), small out and back sections with small, round metal speed bumps, all in addition to the normal poorly paved roads typical of Mexican races. Needless to say I was worried about the course but took solace in knowing that everyone had to deal with the same conditions. I was happy to learn later on that the ITU technical director Greg Peters was not going to allow this course to stand as-is. Thank goodness!
I stayed at an all inclusive resort called the Crown Paradise that will serve as the athlete’s village next year for triathlon, open water swimming, beach volleyball and a few other sports that can’t take place in Guadalajara. I’m not sure the staff at the hotel fully understood why all of us triathletes were there, or why we kept refusing their offers for tequila and margaritas in the days leading up to the race. We were certainly not the typical middle aged Americans they are used to waiting on. Confusing them even more was our sudden change of heart Sunday evening regarding their offers of tequila based beverages…
Anyways, race day finally arrived and the race organizers decided on which course we would be racing on. Option “A” was the final decision – this was the course that included a technical route through the transition area each lap. The ITU technical directors had been up literally all night filling in the dangerous cobbles with sand, helping the Mexican construction crews pave over the gravel sections and generally making the course ‘race ready.’ In the end the course was good, maybe even excellent compared to other Mexican races.
The race was hot. The water was approaching 87F, and the air was ~95F and humid when the race started at 2:15pm. A break happened on the swim that I missed and four of the original nine escapees stayed away on the bike – Matt Chrabot, Cam Dye, Luciano Farias (ARG), and Michel Gonzalez (CUB). I ended up in a large second pack that was completely disorganized and the 20 seconds we lost on the swim turned into 2:15 by the end of the bike. Matt Chrabot won from the breakaway. I ran third fastest on the day, catching everyone in the break except Matt to cross the line in fifth. It definitely stings a little to miss a swim breakaway but I’m very happy with my run effort and that nearly made up for missing the break. I scored a massive amount of both ITU and Olympic points so I ended the 2010 ITU season on a high note and set myself up well for next year. That’s what I set out to do in Puerto Vallarta so I’m happy!
So the ‘test’ event went off with only a few small shortcomings that the race organizers now have 365 days to fix! Of course this means the problems will remain problems for 362 more days and will be fixed in the three days leading up to Pan Am Games, but at least they will be fixed!
Next up Clearwater!!
Happy Holidays!
I hope everyone is having a happy holiday season!
The offices of KevinCollington.com will be closed for the holiday season…and by ‘offices’ I mean I’m going to stop going to Panera to get internet on my computer to update my blog.
So thanks again for reading and I’ll see you in 2009!
I’ll leave you with some pics from the early season that I never got to put up since I started writing in April. Enjoy!
In Viña del Mar, Chile in January. I guess it’s normal to take up a lane of traffic on a major road with a luggage cart.
Goats at the airport in Nevis.
Coming out of the water in Nevis with Chrabot.
New Plymouth, New Zealand. What an amazing place.
The wind wand in New Plymouth – it blows in whatever direction the wind blows.
The TriGators and Hunter Kemper at Collegiate Nationals (Olympic Trials was the same day as Coll Nats).
Richie Cunningham destroying me in a sprint for 5th at St. Anthony’s.
San Fran Race Report
Or,
How I Ended Up in Kenya 45 Hours Later
As I mentioned previously the San Francisco Triathlon at Treasure Island was a pretty good race for me. Yes, my run wasn’t nearly as it dominant as it has been throughout the year, and I know my ninth place finish might not look like anything special. However, I managed to do something I haven’t done all year and that is why it was such a great result to have heading into the off season – I made the front pack on the bike!
Race Start – 12 PM PST
On the pontoon. Pictures are courtesy of Steve Sexton using my camera.
Before the horn.
The race started and the water was something stupid like 55 degrees. I started on the right with Brian Fleischmann and Ethan. Ethan led to the first buoy with Brian and me in tow. Brian took over the pace making soon thereafter and strung our pack out into a long line for the rest of the swim. At the time I didn’t know that a huge gap separated my group from the main field.
Race Start + 0:18:53
Exiting the swim.
As I exited the water I found myself at the back of a very select front pack of nine athletes – it was a who’s who of American swimmers: Brian Fleischmann, John Dahlz, Dave Kuendig, Ben Collins, Victor Plata, Joe Umphenour, Ethan, me, and some dude from New Zealand or Canada or something. This is dangerous territory for me – I have been in the back of the front swim pack many times this year and my record isn’t very good for making the front bike pack: five for ten. 50% is pretty bad, and what’s more is that the times I did miss the front pack were when it mattered most – World Cups, World University Games, and US Elite Nationals to name a few. So I blazed through T1 and hammered at the start of the bike, eventually solidifying myself into a very select front pack of seven athletes about one minute up on the second pack.
The front pack.
We stayed away the whole time with only Matt Reed and Matt Chrabot bridging up to us. Cries of “The Matts are coming! The Matts are coming!” eminated from our pack for the first two laps – once they caught us the pace picked up as they attacked and counterattacked, effectively making my life miserable for about 40 minutes.
Francisco Serrano and Michael Raelert leading the second pack in.
Race Start + 01:22:10
Once out onto the run course I felt the effects of getting worked by such a small, volatile bike pack. Four athletes passed me from the second pack – hey, that’s normally what I have to do!
Victor Plata is hurrrting, but he won.
Race Start + 01:57:01
I held on for a solid ninth place finish. It was nice to accomplish something I haven’t done all year long, plus I made more money in one day than I ever have in triathlon with an eighth place overall finish in the TriCalifornia series and my ninth place race finish. Sweet! After all, this is my job.
Race Start + 07:55:00
I’m on the runway at SFO about to take off for Orlando. I do not recommend trying to fly out on the same day as a race. Between waiting for awards, getting back to the hotel, and packing everything, I was hard pressed to get to the airport on time.
Race Start + 22:24:00
I’m on the runway in Orlando – taking off again. I arrived in Orlando that morning at six AM and had about a seven hour layover. I took a one hour nap – my only sleep since before the race and the only sleep I would get for a long time. Next stop – Detroit.
Race Start + 33:30:00
Somewhere over the North Atlantic. As you might imagine, I’m quite sore from the race at this point. Two hours to Amsterdam and 12 hours to go.
Race Start + 059:30:00
After arriving in Nairobi the night before, getting six hours of much needed sleep and driving five hours out of Nairobi into the Kenyan highlands I found myself in Southwest Kenya on the Maasai Mara Game Reserve with my roommate from college, Ashish, who met me in Nairobi (he was coming from Thailand). After the safari we stayed with his family who lives in Nairobi.
Safari day one: it’s getting stormy on the Maasai land.
The Great Rift Valley – this is near where the fast runners come from.
Snapping some photos of some hippos.
A big old lion.
Giraffes!
We bribed a park worker at the Nairobi zoo to let us into the Cheetah cage.
Ashish and me at the giraffe park in Nairobi.
Survivor Mexico
To get right down to business, and to fill in those of you who watched the live coverage from this past weekend’s Huatulco World Cup on what exactly happened to me, I got dropped from the front pack 15K into the bike. To be more specific, I got dropped on the 20% grade climb we had to do each lap of the eight lap bike course. I didn’t finish the race. But on to more interesting things…
I flew into the small resort town of Huatulco last Thursday on the plane I mentioned in my last posting – the fokker 100. The fokker was everything I dreamed of and more! A small regional jet, it barely fit 25% of the luggage of the people heading down to Huatualco. Only Ethan received his bike and luggage on-time. The lost baggage line stretched out of the airport’s main “area” and out into the loading/unloading zone at its peak length (I would say main “building” except that the Huatulco airport is made of tiki huts).
The Fokker. I might be the only person who is amused by this.
In addition to all of the triathletes traveling with bike boxes, several reality TV stars were on our flight to start filming VH1′s newest reality TV show I Love Money 2, which is being filmed in Huatulco. I Love Money 2 is a show that takes reality TV stars from other reality TV shows and makes a new reality TV show! I never would have recognized them but Jarrod Shoemaker did. They also did not receive their baggage and they were not pleased. They threw a fit, but considering the depth of character required to star in a show called I Love Money 2, I wasn’t surprised.
Jarrod later found out that the show Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern also filmed a show in the exact spot we were staying (Santa Cruz Bay in Huatulco). This happens to be one of my favorite shows, right behind Good Eats with Alton Brown. Apparently Huatulco is known for its pulpo (octopus) and mariscos (shellfish).
A view of Santa Cruz Bay from my hotel.
Onto the race: The swim was two laps – one 1000 meter lap followed by one 500 meter lap. I found myself about 10 meters off the back of the main swim pack after exiting the first lap of the swim but somehow managed to time trial myself back up to the front of the main pack by the end of the second lap. This would be my only pleasing performance of the whole race! Out onto the bike I settled into the front pack without much effort. Then came the hill – I got dropped a little bit on the first lap but managed to descend back into the group. I got dropped even more on the second lap but again I descended back in. On the third lap I got dropped for good.
A cool shot from triathlon.org. From the bottom left, Matt Reed, Matt Chrabot, me, and Ethan Brown in T1.
I dropped out of the race after riding another lap by myself and realizing I would eventually be lapped out. The race became very much a race of survival. The group went over the climb five more times with various people being dropped, some getting back on and some not. By the time the run started for the men’s race it was around 100 degrees (F) and 98% humidity in blazing sun. Everyone appeared to be suffering except eventual race winner Kris Gemmell and Jarrod who got second. The Americans did quite well, placing 2nd, 9th, 11th, 12th, 15th, and 17th.
After the race I got to sample some of the local cuisine at the post-race awards dinner. I’m not exactly sure what it was that I ate, but I narrowed it down to three possibilities: Calamari, octopus, or shellfish. It was all wrapped up in a burrito-type thing. Whatever it was, it was delicious! And after the dinner the Mexican team decided to throw everyone into the ocean and we had lots of fun.
A jellyfish sting I got the day before the race.
I guess I forgot to post this
Elite Development Camp jersey winners!
Some 22 athletes attended the five week USA Triathlon Elite Development Program Camp in Colorado Springs in July and August, but only three were lucky enough to win one of the EDP Camp leader’s jerseys. Matt Long from Vanderbilt bought some sweet t-shirts from a gift shop or something, and after some discussion the catagories were established:
The Yellow Jersey – The “Sally Save Up, Last One Fast One” leader’s jersey – awarded to the athlete who demonstrates on a regular basis the ability to make the last interval or repeat his or her fastest of the session. This one went to the great John Dahlz. Although “sally save up” generally indicates that only the last repeat is the fast one, I think it should be pointed out that John would actually beat everyone in most swim and run sessions and still make his last repeat the fastest of all of them all. What a beast!
The Brown Jersey – The “Matt Chrabot Haul Ass Every Daggum Day” leader’s jersey – this one goes to the athlete that goes hard in every workout, including recovery sessions. It’s named after the great Matt Chrabot who won this award retroactively for the 2007 EDP camp. Not that it doesn’t work for him – he hauls ass every day and now he’s the 5th ranked American on the World Cup circuit (outranked only by Olympians and Olympic alternates – yeah, he’s kind of a big deal!). This year Jen Spieldenner won it. She regularly beat up on the guys at swim practices, and was especially known for turning recovery workouts into 6K aerobic days.
Last but surely not least is the Green Jersey – The “Matt Long Bleed All Over the Road” Jersey. Matt seemed to have this jersey locked up after an epic crash in the Garden of the Gods that rendered his bike unrideable and kept him off the bike and out of the pool for the majority of camp (we even named the jersey after him after that crash!). However, that was before Amanda Hahn showed up at camp. Amanda ran into a tree during a group run session and ended up with several stitches in her head and perhaps a mild concussion. Trees are everywhere in Colorado. Watch out.
We had an award ceremony and everything. I downloaded the Olympic fanfare. It was pretty legit.
From left to right: Matt Long presided over the ceremonies; Jen Spieldenner, John Dahlz, Amanda Hahn.
Portland Recap
Here’s a little recap of what happened at the US Elite National Championship last week in Portland, OR.
After the Pacific Grove Triathlon (the weekend prior to the race in Portland) I stayed out on the west coast and hung out with Steve and Ethan in Davis, California. After arriving in Portland I drove up to Vancouver, Washington (right across the Columbia River) to stay with my Aunt and Uncle. It was a mere 90 minutes from the race site at Henry Hagg Lake, Oregon. I passed the time on the long drives to and from the race site by listening to Ethan’s patented “booty mix” which generally consists of a bunch of rap and R&B music where they talk about “popping bottles in the club” and other such nonsense…the best music to listen to pre-race! It’s what Michael Phelps listens to, after all.
My Uncle Francois, cousins Emilie and Madeleine, and Aunt Bracy let me stay at their house. They came out to watch me race, too.
The course for elites was one of the hardest I have ever raced on. It consisted of a one lap swim, an eight lap bike on a hard, hilly course, and a four lap run that headed out the same way as the bike course. It made for an interesting day of racing.
The swim started and immediately two groups formed heading to the first buoy. I was in the right-most group, led by Ben Collins. Another group formed to the left led by Cameron Dye and Matt Reed. When I saw our group was losing I ditched Ben’s group and swam across the gap to the left group. I ended up at the back of the front swim pack and stayed there the rest of the time, exiting the water 21 seconds behind the leader. I passed a few guys in transition – this should have been a good thing, but instead I just found myself with a sizable gap of 10 to 15 seconds that I had to close down by myself. It became clear pretty quick that I wasn’t going to be able to close the gap down myself. My only hope at this point was Ben Collins, who was right ahead of me as I got on my bike. I thought, “He’s a strong biker! If only he would help me get up there!” Right as I thought that he pulled over to the side of the road and dropped out of the race. So, like so many races, I found myself all alone losing massive amounts of time to a big group ahead and fell back over 90 seconds to the next pack.
On the swim pontoon before the start.
Diving in.
In the meantime Matt Reed and Matt Chrabot were killing it at the front of the race. The second pack lost almost two minutes to these two. My group ended about 90 seconds down on the second pack and 3.5 minutes down on the two Matts. Per usual, my run was the only thing that saved me. I had the fifth fastest run of the day! I finished up in eighth place.
Matt Reed and Matt Chrabot destroying everyone on the bike.
Finally about to put on my running shoes.
Matt Reed won. He’s pretty much a badass.
Bracy, Emilie, my Mom, Madeleine. The sweet pics are courtesy of my Mom who flew out to watch me race! Thanks Mom!
Madeleine being silly.
Tisza in Pictures
Manny, me, and Steve before the swim start.
The top 20 athletes got called to the stage at the party on Sunday night. This is the women’s top 20.
The crowd.
Matt Chrabot and me on stage.
The men’s podium.
