Bryan Brosious: Aquathlon at the Pond

Aquathlon at the Pond, the slow bikers dream. The aquathlon is usually a yearly event for me, I always look forward to it because it is a unique race. The aquathlon is a 1000 meter swim followed by a 5 kilometer run. The absence of the bike portion does a few things, removes the rest that comes on the bike segment of a triathlon, makes an athlete enter the weird realm of going from swimming to running in less than a minute, and most significantly, makes an athlete start the run at a super high heart rate. All these factors make aquathlon short in time (no bike to draw out race), but don't kid yourself every ounce of fatigue and intensity that is felt in a tri is felt in this race. This race, in fact, hurts more because you pack all the intensity in a red hot burst of "owe my legs, lungs, and arms hurt."

**More fun than doing the race. ha ha

Every year this race has attracted fast people. It is a smaller race but you can always count on a handful of serious racers going for the street cred of being top shelf and gaining possession of the overly generous winner's schwag (this year EVERY racer made out like a bandit by leaving with at least 40 dollars in donated schwag). This race has had fast people race it. Soon-to-be pro Geoff L'Hueruex won it a few times, Ted Burnham has won it, I certainly hope to one day win it, I have now finished 3rd, and 2nd...twice. This year had tough competition also. Former olympic trials swimmer John Weston (nuked everyone in the water, won a half ironman earlier this month) and super fast runner Jeremy Oury (ran a 19ish 5k, won Janet Clarkson Tri a handful of times) were my main concerns for the overall win.

The small, but competitive field started very quickly, like always. I fought with Oury for Weston's feet, bumping into him multiple times in a swimming/wrestling match before gaining the spot. I swam on Weston's feet for, oh, about, 75 yards before he spit me off the back of his hydrodynamic slipstream. When we hit the first buoy and made a 145 degree turn it was Weston, myself, and then Oury.

I swam very hard the majority of the course, again pulling left with each set of strokes, that gets annoying! I caught sight of Weston at the other end of the backstretch when he made the second 145 degree turn, my estimate put him at a minute. I had roughly 1.5 times that on 3rd place. I continued to swim hard trying to limit my gap to Weston. The man is ridiculous, he is so good in the water that he swims without goggles...he rode his bike to the race (20 miles) ran the course before hand...and he's 53 years old. I have heard he has one of the highest VO2 Maxs tested, he literally hasn't slowed down from the 1990s...oh and he holds the CDA Ironman swim course record, he set it when he was 47 year old...amazing.

Anyway, he put it to everyone on the swim exiting in 12:50, I exited (I think) around 14 minutes. Jeremey Oury was a few minutes back in 3rd. I hit the beach and ran conservatively to try and lower my heart rate. I stripped off my wetsuit, crammed into my running shoes and took off for the 5k, immediately having that feeling of being stuck in 5th gear unable to shift to overdrive.

The run course is drawn out on a bike path so I had a line of sight on Weston, he was well ahead. Despite being tired I think I ran time off of him up until the turnaround. After about a kilometer into the run I was maxed out and hurting. By 2k I was a hurting machine begging the turnaround to come quicker.

I made the turnaround, I knew Weston wouldn't be caught, by me or anyone else, (he would take back all of the time I had previously made up and more before the end of the 5k). I gauged Oury as I made the turn. He was running incredibly fast, I had a huge lead early so I knew it would be close at the finish. At 3k the wheels figuratively fell off, I was too tired to race at such a high pace that day, I was locked in the most intense battle of mind versus body that I have ever been in. My muscles were hurting, bad, my run stride became distorted as muscles started to fire off timing and in overcompensating patterns.

My mind however, was willing my legs to keep going, I didn't want Oury to catch me on the run. Even if I am tired I don't want to look like a fool. :) I saw the second place guy in my age division shortly after, I knew I had the age division win locked up. I had no ranking/medal/award reason to continue to run my legs off, even if I slipped from 2nd place to 3rd my division would still be mine. But...it's that pride, desire, etc that everyone burns with that wants 2nd place so badly, not for the purposes of rankings or awards, but for the feeling of never backing down, working hard and never quitting, and proving to yourself you have what it takes to do more than the rest.

The heart (desire) that makes you run harder and harder when two seconds ago you were thinking I have to slow down. The desire that stips you of any machismo or ego and makes you ask yourself how deep are you really willing to take this pain? The ideal (but not advisable all the time or you run yourself to death because you hurt your body and mind to do it) outcome is to have the desire always answers, I want more." Finally, after an agonizing stretch on the bike path I made it back to the pond for the final mile loop around the water.

Weston was out of reach, Oury was still well behind but I could visually see the huge gouge he had taken out of my lead. My lead on him was cut and definitely bleeding profusely. I knew if I wanted 2nd place I had to dig really deep. I reasoned with myself that I was willing to do whatever it took to hold off his charge. I was prepared to manage this fatigue for another mile, give back every second of my lead...all except the 1 second that kept me 2nd overall. It was going to bring discomfort that I would rarely bring upon myself because I knew Oury was running incredibly well and he was closing.

I managed to hang on the edge of discomfort for the back stretch of the lake. I knew once I made the corner it would be 600 meters to the finish. I was prepared to try and out sprint Oury if it came down to it. I forced myself to focus ahead for the last 4 minutes or so leading up to the corner, at the corner I snuck a peak.

Oury had cut 2/3s off the lead I had when he entered the pond loop. I kicked immediately at 600 meters, sending myself to the next level and indescribable level of subjection to self suffering, knowing full and well I could not sprint the distance to the finish, it was a bluff to try and break the charge. At 300 meters I was cooked totally, my legs started to get really really really really hard to turnover, my lungs hurt, and Oury was closing fast.

**Legs totally shut down at finish...speed shuffle. :)

At 200 meters it shut down, Oury cut the lead big time with each passing second and each step. 100 meters, almost there, Oury had obliterated my lead, closing the gap, a few more meters and he'd catch me. I could feel the pass approaching... Unfortunately for Oury I had gauged my swim, and run perfectly. I trudged across the line doing a run/leg wobble combo totally spent, and totally satisfied with hanging on the edge for the last 18 minutes and never losing the desire to hold 2nd place.

**Satisfied with holding 2nd but totally spent I am so satisfied with how smart I raced. Oury was by far stronger on the run, however, I executed a perfect plan of energy management, gaining a huge advantage on the swim and managing the gap (and my pre-fatigued muscles), giving back time but still staying in the race. It was worth it, and a really fun day to test the limits of what I thought I could do.

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