High Cliff Half

Last Saturday I travelled not too far north to the High Cliff Half Ironman triathlon.  If you don't count the Triple T, which I don't, this was my first half since last September down in Branson.  While I did well there, finishing 5th amateur, over the last couple years I've mostly been "dabbling" in halfs while maintaining focus on my olympic distance racing which has been my bread and butter for the last 6 years.  It was harder for me to train for halfs in the past, as my longest rides were pretty much the races themselves.  I put up some good finishes, but my strength was still clearly in the short course.  In 2012, with my new schedule that allows increased training volume and recoverability, I felt ready to tackle the distance with more confidence and show that I can be just as competitive in the long course as the short.  This year I'm doing about an equal number of short and long course races.

The swim is held on Lake Winnebago, which is the largest lake in Wisconsin.  It's also a pretty shallow lake apparently which means it can be easy for the wind to kick up waves.  We got a pretty windy day, so despite looking relatively calm from shore, once we got out there the swim was not easy.  I didn't know what to expect for a time as some years the course is as fast as 17min for the top finisher and other years closer to 30.  I felt like I was out there for awhile, and despite a recent good streak of sighting well and holding my lines, I was all over the place out on the course.  I missed the front pack as I wasn't ready for the sprint that occurred out of the gate, and that group slowly but steadily pulled away from me over the course of the swim.  A few times I had to stop and make sure I was still going the right way since I was being pushed off course by the chop.  I also had some uncomfortable wetsuit issues that needed to be addressed mid-swim, but that's all I'll say about that...

Coming out of the water I took a short break from my race mentality as there was a person getting put onto a stretcher on the beach.  I would've stopped to help but there were plenty of medical personnel attending so I just wanted to stay out of their way.  Once I was around, I started running up to transition.  My swim time of 29:57 was 3-4 min slower than I was expecting but it turned out to be a slow day for everyone.  That's why I don't wear a watch when I race, because no two courses are the same.

After a very quick T1 I was out riding in about 6th overall position.  Early in the ride I passed two of the fast swimmers and then was in no man's land for awhile.  The course was flat, fast but the day was windy so that made it more challenging.  I felt great on my new CycleOps race wheels that were making their debut.  I saw two guys in the distance and after a 5-10mile chase finally caught them.  This was the part of the ride when all the action happened, because as I was about to make the pass, I was overtaken by someone (Dana Reiderer) and then a couple minutes later again (Mike Lavery).  Then it was no man's land again for the second half of the ride.  I was happy to have my powertap on so I didn't get complacent riding alone.  My goal was to ride a steady effort that was challenging but low enough that I wouldn't get off the bike feeling shot.  I missed water at the second aid station because I didn't slow down enough, but decided to press on as I still had enough to make it to the third and final aid station.  Unfortunately, when I got the third station no one was staffing it and the water was underneath the table in boxes.  Frustrated, I kept going, now totally out of fluids with 12 miles to go on the bike.  The temp was picking up and it was probably in the mid 80s.  I made the decision to dial back my power by 20 watts for the last 12 miles so as not to completely dehydrate myself.  It probably cost me a minute or two on the bike but it was the right decision, as I pulled into transition in  a state that could still be salvaged without losing major time on the run.  My bike split was 2:22, which is my fastest half bike, despite backing off and the extra .7miles.  But no bike split matters if you can't run afterwards...

I came into T2 and was out soon after.  I ended up having the fastest combined transition time of the day.  I was told I was about 3 minutes behind third place off the bike. Going out on to the run I felt good, but the spring in my step didn't last long as we hit the large hill going up to the trails that we'd be running on for most of the day.  At the top I remarked to the volunteers that it was much easier to ride up a couple hours ago.  After a couple more minutes my legs got back under me and I started clipping along at what felt like a pretty good pace.  There were lots of twists and turns, and some sections of poor footing, but I enjoyed the trail run.  Not as fast as a road, but different and it's nice to mix it up.  The sections in the prairie were uncomfortably hot but I was wearing a hat that I would dump water on and stick ice inside so it kept me on the right side of the ledge.  Getting into the shade again you could feel your pace quickening without meaning to.  I passed Mike Lavery around mile 4 or so and he tried to go with but was having some cramping issues so I moved into third.

The second lap of the run was more crowded as there were many athletes getting started with lap 1.  My first lap was pretty quick, and the further I got into lap 2 the more I started to feel the fatigue.  I think I could've pushed on at my pace if pressed hard, but it was becoming more obvious all the time that no one was going to challenge my current position.  I was also too far behind second place to make a realistic shot at it, so since I was racing again in a week I decided to limit any muscle damage and ease up on the gas (periodically checking back just to make sure).  The last couple miles were not pain free though, as I had some decent blisters forming on my feet.  I was happy no one was around on the descent into the finish line so I could spare my knees a beating similar to the one they got at Door County two years ago in the dive bomb to the finish to hold off my co-worker.

Descending down to the finish

My run split ended up at 1:31 which was one of the better times on the day.  Maybe it was the trails but only 2 guys ran under 1:30.  One was my friend Paul Eicher, who used an incredible ride and strong finishing sprint to hold off a hard charge by Dana Reiderer for the overall win.  I came in third overall, which is my best finish in an elite amateur field.  I'm very happy with my time of 4:25 on a course which slowed things down for people in a lot of ways.  There is hardly such a thing as a perfect race but I feel I raced smart and it paid off with a good finish.  There are things to improve on and I'll have to perform better in future races with more on the line, but this was a good step in the right direction.

The downside of the day came after the race when I heard the news that the participant who was pulled from the water had passed away.  At the time I was hearing drowning, but it has since been discovered that it was a heart attack.  I don't know any more details than that and don't want to presume anything, but I want to send my condolences to the family and friends of Doug Witmer.  It's a terrible thing when something like this happens in this or any sport that is meant to be a fun, positive experience for the participants.  Speaking as both an athlete and race director, please be safe out there everyone.