5430 Race Report

So I raced the 5430 1/2 IM yesterday. It's a great race, and being so close to home it's hard to pass up. This year Court and I stayed with Billy Edwards, who lives about a 10 minute drive from the Res. We went to Boulder early on Saturday. I worked the D3 booth and Court went for a bike ride. At noon I went to the Pro meeting. The rules were explained ad nauseum as we were racing with the Stagger Rule. It gets complicated to be honest, and some of the Australian athletes who haven't raced under these rules were confused. I don't blame them either. After everyone was satisfied we got our packets and off we went.
We went back to Billy's around 4 and I started to gather things together for race day. I went for a 40 minute spin to make sure the bike OK and to flush out the legs a bit. Back at Billy's I showered and started some dinner. Billy had another racer staying with him, Matt. Matt was racing the ITU race in Longmont on Sunday. It was a big race with 70 Pro's! Strange to think there were 2 big races in the same area on the same day. Anyways, I started the spaghetti and cooking up the turkey and chicken sausage. We all chowed down and finished every bit of food that I cooked. I started to think about the race and what I wanted to do. I was a bit conflicted as I wasn't tapered for this race at all, and I have IM Louisville in 2 weeks. Still, it's a race, my home race, and you always want to do well. I didn't want to drain myself too much and end up being flat for the 2 weeks until IM day. I figured I would take it as it came and see where I was. Plus, with the hot weather forecasted, it was going to be a roaster.
Race day started at 4 AM for me. I had my 2 packets of oatmeal, 2 organic toaster pastries and some coffee. My gear was pretty much all packed and ready to go. We were out the door at 5 and parked at the Res by 5:20. The Pro's have their own racks and I found a free rack and spread out. We had a lot of room, which is nice. I started to sip on my FRS drink, put on sunscreen and got everything in order. After a short jog and stretching I went over everything one last time, finished my FRS and put on my suit. The water was too warm for wetsuits, so I used an old 1 piece oversuit I bought years ago.
In the water I felt really smooth and strong, a good sign. The pro field started to line up and get ready. The field was about 30 strong and I looked around to see who I wanted to draft off of. The field was kind of split between an inside line and an outside one. I chose inside. The gun went off and we hit the water. I had a clean start and good draft right from the start. At Roth I had some issues swimming straight and I wanted to work on that. I got on some feet and stuck to them all swim long. Too often I have lost feet in the swim either due to lack of concentration, or a surge. This time I countered every speed change and swam straight. All swim long I felt smooth and strong, like I could have gone another 1.2 miles. Getting out of the water I could see it was Ben Hoffman who I drafted off of. He's not really well known, but he was 3rd at WildFlower and a strong athlete. I didn't bother to look at my watch as the day was not about time, but execution.
Getting on my Kuoat Kalibur I felt good. The course is rolling to flat and can be fast if there is no wind. It starts out with a false flat and I just settled into a rhythm and held around 250 watts. Thankfully there were some clouds in the sky and the weather was nice and cool. Curt Chesney went by me, and I know he is a strong rider and just let him go. Fifteen minutes later Kirk Nelson went by me as well. Again, he is a strong rider and I just stuck to my plan. My goal was to negative split the 2 loops of the bike and have a steady run. The ride was pretty uneventful, which was good. My nutrition and hydration were great, I was feeling strong and I focused on smooth pedaling and good positioning on the bike. I achieved my goal of negative splitting the bike by about 2 minutes. I had decided to wear some new shorts I got from Marco at Descente, and I was happy I did. They are not even for sale yet, but when they hit the market, be ready to grab some They have great compression, and some serious technology behind them. They were super comfortable all day long. Getting off the bike I knew I was well back, which was fine with me. I knew I wouldn't be in the hunt up front.
After racking my bike I threw on my visor, FuelBelt and Saucony Sinisters. The Saucony's are more of a light weight trainer, not a real racing flat, but with all the running I've done my feet are a bit sore. I wanted a bit more cushioning and the Sinisters were a perfect choice. The run is 2 loops on mostly dirt roads and paths. It's open, with no shade and hot. The clouds had dissipated somewhat and it was heating up. I settled into my rhythm, again not looking at my watch for a pace. There is a short out and back where I saw that Brad Seng ( a great runner) and Billy (also a strong runner) were right on me. I knew they would both catch me, but again, I was OK with that. Brad went by me sooner than I thought, but he was on his way to the 3rd fastest run of the day. The only hiccup in the day was I had to make a pit stop at mile 4. I haven't ever had these issues, and now it's 3 races in a row. I need to figure that out. Anyways, my stop was short, but Billy was now right on my heels. He passed me and just kept going. I had decided that I would run hard from mile 5 to 8, then go steady from 8 to 10, and finish the last 3 miles hard. I downed my first gel at mile 5, which may have been a bit late. I stuck to my run plan and felt good. When I hit mile 10 I wasn't too enthused to push for the last 3 miles, but I visualized being in Louisville and being strong. After the first hard mile, I found that I relaxed and was able to push pretty hard. I had some nutrition coming back up on me, but I only had 10 minutes to go. I crossed the line in 4:17, 14th pro overall.
While my placing wasn't good, it was a good confidence booster for Louisville. I feel like I am in a good spot, and the day didn't drain me too much. I quickly got on my recovery drinking plenty of fluids and getting a good massage. I had brought a watermelon with me and cut into that for some juicy goodness. I hung out in the D3 booth chatting with friends and clients.
Back home we did some grocery shopping and I had a great dinner, did some more stretching and called it a day.