Bryan Brosious: Mother's Day Triathlon

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mother's Day Triathlon

First things first, I owe a big thank you to my Mom for letting me race on Mother’s Day weekend. She is my biggest fan and thinks I’m the coolest guy on two wheels. I'm a momma's boy race machine :)

*Tribute kit, seeing red!

Last year at this race, despite torrent weather, Kevin and I cleaned up (link to 2011 race report). Kevin got his first top-five finish and I was able to win the overall. Kevin had an obligation and couldn't make the race this year. In a tribute to him, I wore [my equivalent of] his favorite Hammer Nutrition kit. I made it a sweet outfit coordinated head to toe. Half the fun in going fast is looking sharp!

The second thank you is to my new friend, Heidi. I met her at the race and she was nice enough to take pictures for this post. A big thank you to her for taking some great action shots, this race report wouldn't be the same without pictures. Congratulations to her mom, Susie, in finishing the tri as well.

Finally, another huge thank you to my family for putting me up for a great triathlon stay-cation. Bill and Debbie put me up with a great suite and prepared a fantastic meal. The smoked salmon was amazing, I don’t usually go to restaurants, but I bet the salmon would be at least $30 per plate.

*Jason, Brodacious, Aaron, and Bill

I always arrive early to the races so there was enough time to get some pre-race pictures. My mom asked me if I knew anyone at the race. When I arrived I didn't know many, when I left I had many new friends. That's what makes this sport fun.

*Suiting up

*Getting it just perfect

*This is what it's all about!

*Team RWB member, and my friend, Rachel. She had a crash on the bike, but she is okay...and so is her bike.

*Race director, and a real character, Bob Green!

*Me posing with the Murder Machine

Before the race started Diana was sending me some pretty clever texts. I found them quite hilarious, they were much appreciated. It was nice to have her support. All right, time for business, the swim was typical with thrashing arms and legs. They call the swim a “washing machine” for a reason. My swim has been great this year and I was able to get clear of the washing machine early, hold a strong pace, and come into transition with a good lead on the field.

*The tip of the "washing machine!"

*I'm about to bulldoze the camera, lol

I had a great transition and left for the bike course. This race is the first of a string of consecutive races for me so I wanted to win, but I didn’t want to annihilate myself. My strategy was to focus my energies on the events that I could go hard in but not do a lot of damage to my body. Specifically, swimming and cycling can be done at hard efforts with minimal muscle tissue damage. The run is where the damage is the highest because of both the pounding and the accumulated fatigue.

In sticking to my strategy, I wanted to exploit the swim and the bike. I had a great swim, transition was smooth, and by the time I was on my bike the plan was well under way. My goal was to ride comfortably hard to the bike turn around. Once at the bike turn around I wanted to make an impression on the chase group. I wanted to ride hard and amass a large enough lead that when the chase pack saw me they all had one thing going through their heads. The internal dialogue I wanted to instill in their minds at the turn around was, “He’s too far ahead, I can’t win.”

*Long stretch on the bike

The plan worked perfectly, I rode hard but felt very comfortable on the Murder Machine. My grip tape felt great in my hands, my body felt flexible in the aero position, and the warm weather was nice to ride in. At the turn around I estimated my lead to be over a minute, perfect. I rode steadily back to transition and made my change from bike to run.

*Getting ready to run

*Not sure why it looks like I'm giving it the two-step crossover break dance move.

*Using some water to cool down

The run was hot. We haven’t had the weather to acclimate to heat yet so everyone suffered on the run. I simply got through it. I didn't run super fast and tried my best to stay cool by using the aid stations. On the way back to the finish I tried to give some cheers to the people approaching, it was a nice return trip. That probably means I wasn't running hard enough :) I made it back to the finish with some great cheers and Heidi shooting some great pictures. It was great to repeat as champion, what a great day to be me.

*Hot stretch of road on the run

*You can see the heat radiating off the pavement in the background.

*Post race cool off

*I'm a lucky guy for reasons other than awards.

I should mention that my plan worked because of training I did in the past month. It sounds weird to say that I won something in the month before the race but it's true. I had a great training camp with Kevin in late April while putting in some big bike miles. In addition to generating some side-splitting laughter, we toughened our legs with some good riding. That is called "paying now to collect later."