Race Coverage

Swim Fast, Bike Faster, Run Even Faster...

Thursday, 01 August 2013 03:10

ED. Likely 2013 Rookie of the Year nominee, Casey Miller won the Chase the Police Triathlon last Saturday. Here is his cool race report:

By Casey Miller

Some reflections on learning as well as a race report from Chase the Police.

I've been thinking alot about yesterdays race and just felt like actually talking about it and since my wife and kids are at Paul Bunyan land I thought I'd just write about it on here even though I really never thought I'd put a race report on here because all the other ones I have read are enjoyable, funny, inspirational, and filled with wisdom I wasn't sure I wanted to try and write something others would actually care about reading but here it goes anyways....

This race started for me on Wednesday when I received a text from Eric Carder saying that mntrinews was predicting me to win the race. I instantly go butterflys and wondered how in the heck they knew I was racing and how do they know who else is racing? Then I learned that the guy who beat me at Perham was going to be there and I wondered what Jerry from trinews (who I met at the race) was thinking. Doesn't he realize that the guy he thinks I will beat crushed me on the bike last time and time and this happens to be a longer bike and a shorter run? How am I suppose to overcome that? Anyways, come race day, Sheila Miller and Matthew Radniecki were nice enough to let me ride with them to the race in the morning and answer an hour worth of questions I had about the race course and triathlon in general. It was 43 degrees in Walker when we arrived and windy as heck. My warm up consisted of sitting in Sheila's car that had the heat turned on for about 30 minutes and then heading down for the prerace meeting.

The swim:

Race is about to start and I'm looking at the waves rolling in and thinking, "everyone has to swim in this not just you". The swim out to the first buoy was a nightmare, had to breaststroke for about 20 seconds just to calm down and find out where I was in the water. I'm already getting negative thoughts about how I'm going to be way behind out of the water and never make it up. We hit the first buoy and turn and I'm finally ready to swim hard and I take one breath to my left and there I see Tyler Zima, the guy who beat me at Perham. That's all I needed to see so I could relax and swim hard because I knew he was having a tough time with the waves too. I ended up coming out of the water dead even with Matthew Dickinson and was very pleased with that because I know he is a solid swimmer.

T1:

Not much to say, I changed gear.

The bike:

I see that I'm going to get out of transition before Tyler and think to myself if I can hold him off for 7 miles I don't think he can put enough distance on me in the last 10 miles so that I can't run him down. After some very "technical" riding for about 3 miles we hit the highway and start what is a pretty long uphill stretch. I'm biking in fear of Tyler and trying to make sure I hit that 7 mile mark before he goes by; we hit mile 6 and Tyler and another rider go flying by me and my thoughts are to just keep rolling and try to keep him in sight. Then it hit me, a moment of clarity, "What are you doing Casey? Race!" So, I decided this bike thing wasn't over so I biked harder to see if I could catch back up and about 1 mile later I went right by both of them again. At about 9 or 10 miles in we hit the bike path and I'm still in front of these two guys and Tyler pulls up next to me and the other guy goes by again. Tyler and I race side by side all the way to mile 16.5 until I decide to try something new that I heard from 3 people in 1 week, Jan Handlos, Eric Carder, and Travis Miller. "Try down shifting the last bit of your ride so your cadence is higher and it can loosen up your legs for the run". My runs in my previous two tris had been subpar and I was willing to try anything that would help. Tyler pulled away and I ended up about 15 seconds behind the leader and 5 seconds behind Tyler. I knew I had Tyler but know idea about the other racer.

T2:

See T1

The run:

After a quarter mile of running I had passed the other two guys and the only thoughts I had now were, "Is there anyone else in front? And, there is more than 1 wave so you still have to run hard for time." One part of triathlon I have disliked compared to road running is that you come out of the water and have know idea what place you are in unlike running I count them as we go out and then count them down if I am capable of coming back. You just never know in a triathlon. Anyways, it's an out and back course which I love on the run because you can see if someone is in front. My legs by the way feel great and I'm giving credit to the helpful hint about my last 1/2 mile of riding. I see Matt R. out on the course and we share some words of encouragement and I know I just have to finish this thing up never letting go of the fact that someone from another heat could still beat me I run strong through the finish and then listen to Jerry announce whether or not my time will hold up. Fortunately it does and I get my first triathlon win!

Splits:

Swim 1:39/100 yds

Bike 24mph

Run 5:31/mile

Time 1:06:49

Some thoughts:

1 - Setting time goals for tri races is tough. I think I've read almost every RR on this page and I think all of them have time goals for each part including transitions. I have never really set a time goal for a few reasons: a) I have no idea how accurately the course is measured, b) I'm still a little clueless as to what I am capable of, and c) I'm simply racing, so my goals are to swim faster, bike faster, and run faster then the competition and if I can do that great and if not then hats off to them. Being so new to the sport I'm worried that by setting time or speed goals I can become content while watching my speedometer or go through a mile split and think ok that's fast enough. I think this is why I'm really enjoying this sport, I've been focused on splits and times for years with my running because I have a good idea of what I can do based on my ability and training, I currently have no idea what I'm capable of other then giving my best effort in all three components of the race and see if I can beat the competition. It's something I haven't really done since my high school track days and I'm loving it! If it wasn't for this group I never would have taken that first step towards triathlon competition so I thank you all for helping me get into something that I plan on doing for awhile now. My only regret is I didn't start earlier. - CM

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