Bryan Brosious: Grand Columbian Aquabike

Grand Coulee Washington has a very special place in my heart. Every time I go to the area I can feel the power that radiates around this place. There is a natural energy that I feel when I am at the race. There is a dam that generates artificial power, but that is coincidental to the race’s power.

The race is special in my heart for reasons that may not be obvious. Usually special places are results of great experiences. This is not the case for me. I’ve had some tough times at this race. In 2005 and 2008 I would say the race stole my triathlon-soul. It was a traumatic, difficult, testing, and frustrating experience. Finally, after two successful races, albeit at the aquabike distance, I feel like I have my triathlon-soul back. I love this place.

I watched this guy fishing. I was reminded of a quote by H.D. Thoreau about fishing. [paraphrasing and adjusting for comparison] Fishermen and athletes fish and train their whole life, not knowing it isn't the fish or race they are after.

About 30 miles from Grand Coulee, I start to get energized and excited. Once I start the diabolical descent into the city, I become a motivated, thankful, and super-charged race machine. The race was under new management and they decided to change the venue a little. I stopped at the old venue to take some pictures, have a snack, and enjoy being in town.

I checked into the hotel, had a quick chat with the new owners, who were previously from Montana and very nice, and met up with Kevin a few minutes later. Kevin is a very special friend to me, we have shared some epic races together, I was very thankful he made the trip. We had some great laughs!

*Best room in Grand Coulee

*Delighted to be here

*TV, snacks, and relaxation

*A race readied Murder Machine

*Kevin and I split this two-pounder for dinner

*All tucked in, funny right?

*Race morning venue

*Breakfast and the day's fuel

*Transition filling up

*Kevin pondering the hurt to come

I started the swim conservatively, 1.2 miles is a long way to swim. Riding a ridiculously hard 57 miles after the swim is a tough test for anyone. Although the half iron is the big draw, and about 3x as hard as the aquabike, to say the aquabike is “easy” would be grossly untrue. A few swimmers took off like torpedoes and I lost track of what place I was in. The water was very rough, possibly some of the roughest water I have swam in. Canyon Ferry may eclipse the swells. As I tossed in the swells I made my way comfortably through the first mile of the swim.

At this point in the swim a familiar face swam up next to me and I asked myself, “Who is that?” I recognized the face of last year’s half ironman winner, Ben Greenfield. I raced a couple times against him in the past, but it has been a few years. He was doing the half, so we were not competing directly against each other. Despite that fact, we used each other to break through the swells and were able to catch a swimmer just before the exit. I exited the swim in 3rd with Ben right on my feet.

My transition wasn’t amazing; I put on socks, arm sleeves, sunglasses, helmet, race number, and my bike shoes. I left for the bike course is 2nd place in the aquabike, a whopping 3 minutes behind the leader (that guy can swim)! The aquabike and half iron overlap so on the first big climb I caught two people doing the half. On the second climb, the hardest leg busting mile ascent to the heavens, I was able to catch Ben. I had a quick chat about who was ahead and behind. I was surprised he remembered who I was because I haven’t seen him for a few years. Anyway, I told him he had chasers about 30 and 45 seconds back. He told me he thought the lead aquabike was about a mile ahead.

I set course to climb and began to reel in the aquabike leader (fishing analogy). After the two huge climbs, I caught sight of the leader, he was just a distant, white dot on the horizon. I continued to ride comfortably and feel amazing. The climbs were hard, but they did no damage to my legs. Over the next 10 miles I repeatedly took time checks to the leader. He would pass a landmark and I would use my bike computer to time how long it took me to reach that same landmark. The time was continually coming down with each check; 2:43, 2:18, 1:57, 1:41, 1:30, etc.

It took me 14 miles to get within 10 seconds of the leader, I was tracking him like missile-lock. As I sat in second my body raced with the anticipation of the pass. I had ridden smart to catch super swimmer. The fact that it took me 14 miles to catch him assured me he was a good rider also. I waited and calculated my pass. I planned to sit in 2nd until the halfway point, mile 28, and at that point make the pass and never look back. It didn’t work out exactly like I planned.

At mile 15 I was tracking the leader, as he reached for his drink bottle something in my mind told me to “go for it.” I accelerated around the leader and put time into him. When he was drinking, he was unable to anticipate the move and lock into my draft. The plan worked perfectly. I rode in the lead, feeling beyond amazing, and zoomed through the halfway point feed zone. I calculated my lead to be about a minute over 2nd place aquabike, and about 45 seconds over Ben.

This course is hard, hilly, windy, and a huge challenge. My specialty distance has bike segments of roughly 20k. This race was almost 92k! It was during this ride that I was reminded of why I use to love long course racing. In a sprint tri, you have one speed, red line. In sprint racing you have one feeling, pain. In long course it is a world apart. The race is long enough that you experience many feelings while your body goes through intervals of feeling great and then later feeling tired. The special thing about long course racing is you go from one emotion to another, you have the ability to bring around a tired body by backing down the pace and being smart with nutrition. You also have the opportunity to blow up an hour down the road if you aren’t diligent with pace and nutrition even when you are feeling awesome. Short course racing is a smash-fest of who is the man [or woman], long course is a puzzle of dozens of things, the person who wins is the person who solves the puzzle.

At about the mile 35 mark my “I feel amazing” attitude started to turn to “ok, I’m feeling it now, this is getting serious.” At mile 45 I was tired and suffering. Long course is not all physical, mental toughness plays a crucial role. At this point I was still in first but my short course muscles were starting to misfire with fatigue. I needed to stay mentally tough to win.

The last 7 miles were a mix of descents and flats, however, the 5 miles leading up to the final 7 miles are hill after hill. My muscles didn’t have the strength they had on the super hills earlier in the day and I began to lose time. I did my best to stay in the moment and manage everything until the final 7 miles. 2nd place had bridged over the last 10 miles and was right on me.

After ascending the last big hill, I made my 2nd move of the race by going full power. I was either going to make it to the end of the race, or fatigue out and get passed. Either way, it was going to be interesting. Over the last 7 miles I rode like a wild man, hitting over 43 mph on the final descent. It’s hard to describe that aerobically I wasn’t suffering like I would in a sprint, my muscles were just so fatigued that they wouldn’t press the cranks as hard as my lungs would allow. It was a unique feeling to have an upper body demanding more power, but a lower body that wouldn’t fire. It was cool to have that feeling.

My plan worked, I rode into the finish after 3 hours and 14 minutes of racing. I passed 2nd place at mile 14 on the bike, some two hours ago, yet the winning margin was 38 seconds. That’s mind blowing that after 194 minutes and 58.2 miles of racing, we were right together. I was so thankful to win!

Kevin finished his race, we had some excellent post race snacks, shared some laughs with the other racers, and departed. I left with a somewhat heavy heart because I miss all the special events 364 days a year, but that 1 day each year I am feeling on top of the world. What an adventure.