Moses Lake Race Report

The Tri Palace saw major action this weekend as Corrie, Jess, Anne, and Kevin stayed over for our planned trip to the Moses Lake Family Triathlon. We all had a blast the whole weekend. After the race on Saturday, we enjoyed delicious treats like pizza, Fruity Pebbles, smores, bean dip and other “post race only treats.” Seriously, I was just as excited to eat pizza later that day as I was with finishing 2nd overall.

We arrived at the race site fairly early on Saturday. Jess and Corrie were running in the road races that started before my triathlon so I tried to snap a few photos of them in action. Corrie hammered the 10K finishing 2nd place, fast.

As soon as I was close to the venue I started to get nervous. I was P3s, P4s, Plasmas, Quintana Roos, disc wheels, and a lot of aero helmets. It is very easy to get caught up in the mess of what other racers have as far as setup. The truth is that some people drop a ridiculous amount of money, 10 grand for example, to buy every aspect of speed. But, you can’t buy heart, you can’t buy a competitive spirit, and you can’t buy the passion necessary to win races. Those items hide in deep dark places that can only be found through sacrifices of 5:30 am workouts and doing the things that others don’t want to do.

If things were not hard at some point during the lead up to any race or important event, then the accomplishments would not mean what they do or be worth pursuing.

In a brief second of nervousness I questioned if I had a chance to win. It was actually perfect because the nervousness turned my attitude into a mindset of going out hard and really putting the suffering to the field. I had the confidence of knowing I had done the things that others did not want to do, 5:30am is never fun, but I did it.

Another motivating factor was when the guy racking his bike next to mine though it would be okay to jam his bike in next to the “Murder Machine,” knocking my handlebars sideways and just being rude in general. I promised the “Murder Machine” that we would try and burn him up during the bike. Not many things in triathlon irritate me more than lazy people showing up 30 minutes before a race and bulldozing their bike into an up-front and full transition rack…if you want a good spot get up earlier. Don’t demo derby your bike into a full rack and be like, “don’t mind me, it will fit perfectly if I can just smash these two bikes out of the way.”

After that incident I had my motivation for pain when the effort became hard, perfect. I felt great during the warm up, so great that I “played dead” before the start as to not tip my hand that I was primed to swim fast.

The start came and I made it through the washing machine of arms, arriving at the first swim buoy in 2nd place. People, for reasons beyond me, start so hard during open water swims. I start at my normal pace and feel comfortable the whole swim. On the way out to the turn-around-buoy I broke off the front of the main group and started to put time on them. I rounded the .25 mile buoy and had a look at the chase pack. During the return to the swim exit I swam a comfortable tempo, I exited the swim with a glance, the lead looked to be about a minute over 2nd.

I had a great T1 and left for the 12 mile bike ride with a fairly large lead. Once on the bike I settled into a hard pace, my confidence growing with every painful minute. I still don’t have my complete bike form back but I am getting closer every race. I had a great ride averaging 23 mph, I drank my bottle of HEED and was riding strong.

However, at mile 5, just before the turn around, the eventual overall winner passed me, the guy was riding a P3, not surprised, and was putting out major wattage. I had to let him go, I stayed with my pace and took splits to the chasing field. My lead was comfortable, I saw Mr. Bike Smasher gapped at about 8 minutes behind me…don’t eeeeeevvvvvvver touch my P3 son.

I made it back to T2 and left for the 5k. I had scouted this course and I knew it was going to be hot. When scouting I made strategic points on which I was going to lift the pace, cruise, and start the finishing kick. The run is always hard, this one was no different. I managed the pace, the pain, and the heat well enough to keep my gap on the field, but I couldn’t catch 1st place. I made the turn around to a much appreciated cup of cold water down my Hammer Kit.

After being briefly cooled off, I held the pace for the mile or so back to the lake. I ran over the bridge leading back to the park, I knew I was close to the kick line, at 400 meters my pace lifted and so did the pain. I ran up the hill to the finishing lane. At 50 meters it was full throttle and full pain, I love sprint finishes.

I finished second overall, first in my age division, and avenged the assault and battery transgressed upon my P3. I was happy with the day, and even more excited about the treats that awaited our entourage at the post race party at the Tri Palace. The trip and company were awesome, thanks for the cheers.