ewheeler1976

[ewheeler1976]

To the surprise of no one in the endurance sports space, 2020 has been challenging for me. Starting with the postponement (and eventual cancellation) of the Boston Marathon I've watched every event I was planning to compete in this year get cancelled. I've taken advantage of a variety of virtual racing options; Zwift duathlons, Rev3, Ironman VR and several local events. The longer the pandemic has gone on, the more my desire to do something different has grown. Most years I compete in one bigger event; Beach2Battleship a couple times, Ironman Maryland in 2018 and last year the Sea2Summit triathlon (from the Salmon Falls River in Maine to the summit of Mt. Washington). I enjoyed the unconventional nature of S2S last year and was going to do the Big Savage Challenge at Savageman this year. After Savageman was cancelled I decided I had to come up with something suitable to take its place. I really liked the concept from Sea2Summit last year of starting at sea level and swimming, biking and running to the top of a mountain. With the various travel restrictions between states and my employer (healthcare) I needed to come up with something close to home. On a lark I mapped out a route from my house to Mt Wachusett. It seemed doable, but I wanted to start from the other side of the Cape Cod Canal. I needed to settle on a swim venue. My first ever triathlon was called Escape The Cape and the swim was from Shell Point Beach to Onset Beach. This location was on my mapped bike route so it made sense to start my day here. To complete laying out the course for my event I looked at the trail map for Mt Wachusett and planned my route to the summit. I then had a few other people look at my maps to see if I was in fact sane and if the roads would be safe to ride a bike on. With that feedback I made a few changes which made the bike route longer, but that was fine as the swim would be very short and the trip up the mountain was also much shorter than Mt Washington last year. The next step of planning was to secure a porter for the day to accompany me to my swim, meet me at the mountain and be on stand-by if I needed to bail for any reason throughout the day. My wife agreed to do this by asking “Are we doing this on Sunday?” After a quick weather check I said "sounds great". Swim After loading my gear for the day into the car, Carol drove us to Onset Beach where the pier would serve as T1. I donned the lower half of my wetsuit and walked the length of the beach to Shell Point for my start. The water was chillier than I expected but I took a moment to reflect on this adventure that I was embarking on. I then hit start on my Garmin and started swimming. As I came out of the water I saw my friend Tom who had helped me plan my route, he was starting a session with his open-water swim group. We had a quick exchange as I was stripping my wetsuit on the way to the car. I took a slow transition, getting all the sand off my feet and wiping the salt water off my arms and legs. Pulled the bike out of the car, put on the bottles, brought up the turn-by-turn directions on my bike computer and got on my way. Bike Despite all the climbing at the end of my bike route I still went with my tri bike for this adventure. I can carry more nutrition than on my road bike and I'm quite comfortable in aero for long stretches. The beginning of the route consisted of roads that I've ridden plenty of times and the first 30 miles went by really quick. As I moved onto route 106 I realized I should have taken a different route through this section, the pavement was rough with smaller shoulders and traffic was a bit heavier. But when I hit 140 I started to wonder if I made a big mistake. The first section of this road was a four lane divided highway, but it had bike lanes in between entrance and exit ramps. Quite an experience "merging" with traffic a few times. Route 140 got better though with a nice wide shoulder and mostly good to great pavement. I had scoped out a Sunoco station around mile 60 to stop at and refill my bottles. While carrying out this duty I downed a can of cherry coke and enjoyed a snickers bar. Quick text to Carol to let her know I was past the halfway point. She replied that she was leaving soon to head to the mountain. Continuing on my route I went through what seemed like every town center! Lots of traffic lights and I seemed to hit a lot of red ones. I then had my first encounter with road construction, I had to ride a bridge over the highway where the traffic lanes were shifted and there was essentially no shoulder due to traffic cone placement. The drivers behind me showed great patience and I came through this unscathed. At 95 miles in I pulled to a red-light in Shrewsbury and got a text from Carol that she was at the mountain. I felt terrible, I had more than an hour to go, but she assured me that was fine and she didn't mind waiting. I was making good time over the next section until I was detoured off my route with about 6 miles to go due to construction. I rode the detour for a bit, but then stopped to check the map and see if I could tell how long the detour would be. I used my phone to quickly map a direct route from where I was to the ski lodge parking lot. After sending this over to my bike computer, I texted my wife that I was detoured due to construction and had 6.5 miles to go. Now my detour of the detour took me into a neighborhood with a narrow road with lousy pavement and a crazy steep climb. I ran out of gears on this short road and walked a couple hundred yards before getting back on the bike. After making a right turn onto the final road I had a screaming descent to the ski lodge parking lot for T2. "Run" I pulled up to the back of the car, put on my trail shoes and grabbed my camelback. Unlike Sea2Summit last year, Carol was doing the hike with me. Last year she drove to the summit of Mt Washington while I was on the trail. Given that my DIY event was not a race but an adventure we didn't set out at a crazy pace, but just quick enough that we were passing everyone on the trail but still able to carry on a conversation. We had a great time discussing our youngest son's birthday party with his "quarantine friends" from the day before. Once we reached the summit, we took some pictures and enjoyed the views. It was a nice clear day to be up high and appreciate the world around us. We eventually hiked back down to the car to start our way back home. I'm really happy I took on this adventure and I would encourage everyone who is missing their events to dream something up and make it happen!

[ewheeler1976]

2019 Race Schedule and Results

3/31 - Seagull Six Spring Classic - 38:11 - 6th OA, 2nd M40-44

5/5 - Liam MaGuire's Almost 5 Miler - 31:20 - 30th OA, 3rd M40-44

5/18 - Martha's Vineyard Marathon - 3:03:55 - 7th OA, 1st M40-44

6/15 - Hyannis Triathlon (Olympic) - 1:54:00 - 6th OA, 1st M40-44

6/29 - Tupper Lake Tinman (Half) - 4:39:38 - 11th OA, 2nd M40-44

7/14 - Falmouth Sprint Triathlon - 49:12 - 2nd OA (elite wave start)

7/27 - Sea To Summit Triathlon - 7:14:20 - 4th OA, 1st M40-49

8/18 - Falmouth Road Race - 47:02 - 282nd OA, 15th M40-44

9/8 - Pumpkinman Triatlon Festival (Half) - 4:39:51 - 7th OA, 1st M40-44

11/3 - Falmouth In The Fall Road Race - 44:02 - 5th OA, 2nd M40-44

11/28 - Chase The Turkey Trail Run - 27:48 - 6th OA

2018 Schedule/Results

2017 Schedule/Results

2016 Schedule/Results

2015 Schedule/Results

2014 Schedule/Results

2013 Season Recap

2012 Season Recap

2011 Season Recap

[ewheeler1976]

Is this thing still on? LOL So Boston in 2018 was very wet and it sort of crushed my interest in writing about it, so what have I been up to since that race went sideways? Well, I had a pretty good triathlon season in 2018 capped off with a 10:08 PR at Ironman Maryland. 2019 has been pretty rad too. I decided the day after Boston 2019 I wanted to race in 2020 so I went and got a BQ at the Martha's Vineyard Marathon with a 3:03. A family vacation to the Adirondacks included racing the Tupper Lake Tinman where a good race landed my on the age group podium. At the hometown throwdown Falmouth Sprint Worlds I narrowly missed an overall win grabbing 2nd overall. The highlight though was Sea2Summit, an adventure triathlon of sorts. 1.5 miles in the Salmon Falls River in Maine, 90 miles of biking with some intense climbing through Pinkham Notch to the base of Wildcat with a "run" up the Tuckerman Ravine Trail to the top of Mount Washington! I had a decent swim, lead off the bike and got passed by a few amazing (much younger than me!) athletes on the hike to end up with a 4th place finish on top of the rock pile! My wife and youngest son were my porters for the race and they totally rocked it! I crashed on my bike during a training ride, then toughed it out a few weeks later to grab a 7th overall, 1st in age-group at the half-iron Pumpkinman race to wrap up the 2019 triathlon season. I hope to keep this thing up to date in 2020. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[ewheeler1976]

“Whatever tomorrow brings, I’ll be there with open arms and open eyes”

Tomorrow I run the Boston Marathon for the 2nd time. I remember standing in the hallway of the Lawrence School with my boss after running in a marathon relay for the first time looking at the race results. I asked what the qualifying times were for Boston. That day I didn’t think I would ever run in the Hub of the Universe. Fast forward through marathons, triathlons from sprint to ironman, a health scare that took away my independence for a while but lead me to my first BQ and then an injury that made Boston a little bittersweet two years ago.

Now here I am on the eve of making the journey from Hopkinton to Boston with my health intact and after a great winter of training. I’ve done the work (and the last minute prep for the anticipated conditions) and now I’m oddly at peace. I’m usually a bundle of nervous energy before even the smallest of training races, but I’m very relaxed going into this one. A lot of people are freaking out about the weather, but it will be what it will be. The only thing I have control over now that my prep is done is my attitude and my effort. Beyond that what happens, happens.

There are so many people to thank for the support along the way, you all know who you are and how much I appreciate the support. I can’t wait to make the “right on Hereford, left on Boylston” and soak it all in.

[ewheeler1976]

Eastern States 20 Mile

Final Quiz before the Boston Marathon

Last weekend I raced the Eastern States 20 Mile for the first time. This is another race I've heard about for years and the timing just never worked out but I made it a priority to include in my prep for Boston. It's a really cool concept; you start in Maine, run through New Hampshire and finish in Massachusetts. Three states in one race! Going into the race I was feeling pretty tired, I've been hitting it pretty hard in training since the Martha's Vineyard 20. I didn't taper for this race (ran 20 the weekend before) but did do the usual pre-race program starting 2-3 days out. I also did a run-through of race-day breakfast, morning snacks and such to be sure the stomach will be all good on Marathon Monday.

The logistics for this race are tricky, you go to a high school in between the start and finish. From there you take a bus to the starting area and after finishing you take another bus back to the high school. I was up pretty early for this one and picked up my friend Kass on the way. The weather was wild; rain, snow, sleet and wind on the way there. It was a fun ride up, I ate some Pop-Tarts (strawberry!) on the way and felt pretty good once we got checked in.

At the start line I ran into an old friend from Scarborough High School who is prepping for her first Boston Marathon (Good luck Alison!) and my friend Jon who told me to "just go for it today, you've got plenty of time to recover for Boston". At the start the tailwind was pretty pronounced and the downhill nature of the first mile or two lead to me going out way too fast. Instead of getting down about this I viewed it as a opportunity. This was a chance to push through fatigue and soreness in a long race, a good simulation for attacking the second half of the Boston course.

The course for this race is awesome, you start in this little funky New England town, cross into New Hampshire on a bridge and then get onto Route 1A for the rest of the race. You move along at times right next to the ocean and then inland through beautiful residential areas and then back along the water. During the race there were snow flurries off and on which was pretty cool. At the half-way point water station I threw out my headband and gloves as despite the chilly temps and wind I was getting warm. Late in the race you run through these New England beachfront commercial areas; arcades, carousels and walk-up food joints.

Coming into the final bridge I tried for one last hard push but the cummulative fatigue was making it tough to keep my stride, I do think the taper for Boston is going to help with this as I won't have two weeks of hard work still lingering. After the bridge you cross into Massachusetts and almost immediately turn left towards and beach and cross the finish line. Right after finishing I saw my friend Dave and sort of debriefed the race with him. I was a little frustrated at how the last couple miles went, but then again I went out really hard and had to deal with the fatigue, so again good practice for Boston.

After getting some warmer clothes on I waited at the finish line for Kass to finish and then we grabbed a bus back to the high school for some pizza and coke. I hung out with Jon and some of the GBTC guys for a bit before realizing what time it was. I had to pick someone up at the airport, get Kass to her place and then make it to my son's playoff hockey game! What a day!!!

Boston...We have some unfinished business, I'm coming for you!

Click here to see on Strava

[ewheeler1976]

Martha’s Vineyard 20 Miler

Passed my first test on the road to Boston!

I raced the MV20 last weekend as part of my prep for the Boston Marathon. I've wanted to do this race for a number of years, but the timing just hasn't always worked out, but this year I'm all in for Boston and registered early for this and for the Eastern States 20 Miler at the end of March. Going into this race I was feeling good, my long runs the past 4 weeks were up to 20 miles and I was getting either speedwork or tempo runs in each week as well as some sweet-spot work on the bike. My goal was to hold a sub-3 hour marathon pace for the 20 miles and if I crashed I wanted to at least stay under 7 minutes per mile for the duration.

The race starts at 11am and there is a ferry ride to get over to the island for the start so the usual breakfast routine is thrown off a little. I had my normal weekday breakfast and then packed some pre-race pop-tarts to have on the boat riding over. My wife gave me a ride to the terminal in Wood's Hole and we picked up our friend Mike who was running his 1st 20 miler ever (he's prepping for the Newport Marathon in April). The ride over was uneventful, I got my pop-tarts in and got mentally focused on the race

After landing on the island we made our way over the the check-in table, got our number bibs and swag before heading back to the Steamship Authority terminal to stay warm before the start. I met up with my friend Kass and we talked about a few different things. I decided to skip a warm-up and treat the 1st mile of the race as my warm-up. Early in the race I ran in a group with some guys from the Somerville Road Runners before getting spit out the back of the group.

Early on my heart-rate monitor was unreliable, probably due to the combination of colder temps and static electricity from the tech shirt I was wearing. It also could have been the "cadence lock" issue that has been described for the 920xt at times, but anyways it was reading a steady 195 until 4 miles in so it's a good thing I can pace accurately off of perceived exertion and am not limited to being a slave to the monitor. The run along the water and over the "Jaws" bridge was great, it reminded me of the walk we did from Edgartown to Oak Bluffs a couple years ago for my son's birthday and how we jumped off the bridge with the GoPro.

At the half-way point there is an exchange zone for the relay racers. As is typical during these types of races there is a little mental challenge to hold the effort level you want to race at and not get caught up in the excitement of fresh runners coming on course and going faster. I did well with this and held the steady effort as the race moved into the State Forest and worked its way back to Oak Bluffs.

Around mile 17 I started to catch some people who were blowing up after going out too hard. By mile 19 I had caught two of the Somerville guys I ran with early in the race but let get away from me. When we made the turn off County Road to Tradewinds Road to come into the finish at the elementary school I felt an exhilarating rush when I realized how well I ran! I came across the line in 2 hours and 15 minutes holding a 6:46 per mile pace for 20 miles with basically no taper going into the race. A great indicator that if I keep the training up, stay healthy and catch good conditions in Boston, going under 3 hours is a very real possibility.

The Cape Cod Athletic Club had the most participants in the race so we won the "Island Runner Cup" this year!

Click here to see on Strava

As always huge thanks to my family for supporting my nutty adventures! Next up the Eastern States 20 Miler and then BOSTON!

[ewheeler1976]

So I haven't updated this blog in a long time and the 2018 season is getting kicked off this weekend with the Marth's Vineyard 20 Miler, my first test on the way to Boston!

Since my last post I did a few races, I ran the Falmouth Road Race which went "OK" in the heat, I went out too hard and then just hung on to finish, though it was my best finish in relation to the rest of the field ever in Falmouth. I raced Ironman 70.3 Maine where I had a lousy swim, a great bike and a good run. I was up to 4th in my age-group at the half-way point of the run, but gave a few spots up to finish 7th in my age-group, qualifying for the 2018 70.3 World's in South Africa. I then did something totally different and raced the Clam Chowda Challenge at the the Cape Cod Marathon, I did the half-marathon on Saturday and the marathon on Sunday. I ran 1:27 in the half and 3:12 in the marathon (BQ for 2019!) to finish 3rd among everyone doing the double. I earned some prize money for that one!

[ewheeler1976]

2018 Race Schedule and Results

2/17 - Martha's Vineyard 20 Miler - 2:15:37 - 10th OA, 3rd M40-44

3/25 - Eastern States 20 Miler - 2:17:02 - 27th OA, 8th M40-49

4/18 - Boston Marathon - 3:18:20 - 4,939th OA, 757th M40-44

5/16 - Liam MaGuire's Almost 5 Miler - 30:16 - 22nd OA, 5th M40-49

5/26 - MWR Coast Guard Duathlon - 56:07 - 1st OA, fastest bike split

6/3 - Rev3 Quassy (Half) - 5:02:13 - 33rd OA, 9th M40-44

7/8 - Rev3 St. Andrews (Half) - 4:43:28 - 3rd OA, 2nd M40-49

7/15 - Falmouth Sprint Triathlon - 49:05 - 4th OA

8/19 - Falmouth Road Race - 44:28 - 171st OA, 13th M40-44

8/26 - Ironman 70.3 Maine - 4:36:14 - 71st OA, 6th M40-44

9/29 - Ironman Maryland - 10:08:15 - 67th OA, 17th M40-44

10/13 - Gut Check Sprint Triathlon

11/4 - Falmouth In The Fall Road Race - 44:38 - 5th OA, 2nd M40-44

11/22 - Chase The Turkey Trail Run - 30-42 - 12th OA, 1st M40-44

2017 Schedule/Results

2016 Schedule/Results

2015 Schedule/Results

2014 Schedule/Results

2013 Season Recap

2012 Season Recap

2011 Season Recap

[ewheeler1976]

2018 Team Rev3 Racing

[ewheeler1976]

Falmouth Sprint Triathlon

I'm way, way late with this one! One week after the (less than) 70.3 in St. Andrews I decided to jump into local sprint tri. My legs felt OK after a week of taking it easy, it's the only race I have a consecutive year streak at and my son wanted to come and hang out with me before and after the race. The rest of the family was at a lacrosse tourney and coming off the race in St. Andrews I really had no expectations, just to go hard see what happens.

Pre-race

I followed the usual routine for this race, riding my bike down to transition, this time with Sam! After getting checked in, I got a short warm-up in and then put on the wetsuit while Sam hung out at the Bay State Tri Team tent.

Swim

Due to a small change in the usual currents, the buoy placement was changed to make the swim a little more of a "point to point" type of thing. I went a little wide at the first buoy, but felt good int he water and came out with some real estate to make up on the bike.

Bike

Once onto the bike, my legs felt GREAT, I was a little surprised by this. I noticed Gary who was racing the aquabike was a bit in front of me and I tried to reel him in, but just couldn't close the gap. Had great fun zooming down the hill from the lighthouse. I came into T2 with a bike course PR, which was definitely unexpected a week after a 70.3 race.

Run

Similar to St. Andrews, I went without the heart rate monitor on the run. I started out really hard and the legs responded by getting tight and heavy. I cracked a bit and decided to run to hold my position, rather than going as hard as I possibly could. When I got passed around the 2 mile mark, I noticed it was a relay runner so I didn't try and stick with them. I ended up with my best finish ever at this race, 4th OA! The awards were done in a strange way which ended up with me getting a 1st place plaque. Standing on the top step is always fun!

[ewheeler1976]

Rev3 St. Andrews!

Wow, it's been a busy summer and I can't believe I haven't gotten to finish this write-up yet. On July 9th I raced in Canada for the 1st time, here's how it all went down...

A few days before the race we made a road trip up to my Uncle's place in Maine. We had a great afternoon and evening with a cookout, water skiing and some time on the rope swing!

The next day we set out for the 2nd half of our drive, up to St Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada. We made good time along the "airline road" across Maine and crossed the border without incident.

After dropping some things at our campsite we headed over so I could checkin for the race. After signing the medical waiver and getting my packet we went back to set up the tent and found deer in the campsite!

After getting settled we decided to go check out Minister's Island. It's this really cool island east of St Andrews, at low tide you can drive across the sea floor to get there, at high tide the "road" is under 15 feet of frigid water. The kids had a blast runing around and exploring. We drive around to check out some other places and basically fell in love with St Andrews. Later in the evening Jack and I worked the turn-around point for the Rev3 Glow Run. Getting read for this we also got a picture of 4 of the Rev3 Erics.

Race day came early and after some pop tarts and gatorade Carol brought Bryan and I to transition and we got set-up. Jackie's husband made a run to Tim Horton's for coffee and we all got our caffeine fix before heading down to the swim venue. Unfortunately we had a bit of a delay due to fog and ultimately the swim was shortened and switched to a time-trial start. But hey at least we were going to get wet. Spent some time goofing around with the Rev3 and Bay State teams along my friend Rob during the delay.

Swim

Ran into the water and the short swim was very uneventful, the run to transition though, zowsers! Long and steep, the 2nd time I've ever placed sneakers to use for the run to T1 (first was Gut Check back in October). Got into transition and found my sunglasses were all fogged and coated over.

Bike

My transition spot was beautiful! In Canada, we race under ITU rules and there are some differences with how transition is set up, instead of being off to one side of the bike, you basically setup "under" your whole bike. Really not as big of a deal and some made it out to be, but a little quirk I'll remember from this race.

After deciding to skip the sunglasses I grabbed my bike and ran out of transition and started hammering. My legs felt great and I just went with it. Out of the saddle and crushing the uphills, in aero and trying to spin-out on all the downhills. Course was a lot of fun, not the easiest course by any means, there's definitely some climbing on the highway and coming back into town. I really like how the freeway is shut-down and when we get to the out and back sections. It's always fun to ride on roads you are not normally allowed to ride on. My pace dropped off a little in the last 10 miles, but I was feeling really good about myself coming back into transition

Run

Run course for this race is a double out and back. You start with a downhill section and then go right by the water around the campground we stayed in until you hit the "downtown" section on Water Street which was awesome, lots of people out cheering us on. The run course is surprisingly difficult, none of the hills are all that bad but they take a toll, especially coming off the bike which is fairly tough. I stuck to my plan, only fell off a little bit in the last quarter of the run and came home 16th overall and 4th in my age-group! I love this race and can't wait to come back again next year.

In the days after the race we had an awesome family trip to Acadia National Park, mountain biking, hiking and just hanging out as a family. Great times!

[ewheeler1976]

Rev3 Pocono Mountains!!

Breaking with tradition I'm going to re-cap this summer's races out of order. Last weekend I raced Rev3 Pocono Mountains in Lake Harmony, PA. This race came together sort of last minute, when I realized I couldn't make the logistics work for Rev3 Niagara Falls in September. I signed up for the Olympic distance race but at check-in I impulsively switched to the Half distance!

SWIM

After getting a team picture in transition I headed down to the swim start with Caitlin and Alan. We watched the Olympic race start to get a feel for the time trial (2 athletes every 2 seconds) start.

#Rev3Poconos @blueseventy swim course https://t.co/wtY1eNVAln

— REV3 Triathlon (@REV3TRI) August 13, 2017

Pretty soon I was walking down the dock and sliding in for the swim. I felt good in the water, had a little issue with fogging goggles and felt good about my swim leaving the water, later I was a little frustrated with my actual swim pace, but pretty much a "normal" swim for me.

BIKE

Now here is the highlight of this race, the bike course. Out of transition it's a hard left and then straight uphill. I messed up getting my left foot in the shoe and really had to stand and grind up this first hill. Once over it I got myself in order and started riding. I was paying close attention to not overcook myself in the first half of the race as the 2nd half is much tougher terrain. I also didn't want to completely fry the legs because Ironman 70.3 Maine is right around the corner. After a few miles, we take a hard right hand turn and go onto the Pocono Raceway track! How cool is that?!

#timetrialtuesday with our friends from @teamrev3racing and @ewheeler1976 at #rev3poconos.

A post shared by castelli triathlon (@castellitriathlon) on Aug 15, 2017 at 2:10pm PDT

After the race track, there are a couple out and back sections, then we head to the Hickory Run State Park. After a quick climb into the park there is a series of fast descents where you can really let it fly. But then...you have to climb back out of the park to get back to transition at the Split Rock resort. There's a lot of beautiful scenery and the "Dam Climb" where you ride across the Francis E Walter Dam and then head up a pretty good uphill section for a while. Overall, I felt good on the bike, but I held back a bit, again with the thought that I had more races in the not too distant future.

Strava Bike Link

RUN

Off the bike feeling pretty good and straight out of transition...Huge hill, felt like a wall, straight up! Ran up through the "mini loop" at the start of the run and then out to the "big loop". Run course for the half distance race went through this 4 times, so up that big hill 4 times. I ran to heart rate, treating it like a long training run and felt pretty good through most of it. I definitely could have gone harder, but I knew I had to drive 6 hours home after the race, so a trip to the med tent would have been less than ideal. I ended up crossing the line 11th overall and 2nd in my age-group. My slowest 70.3 time in 5 years (4:53) but a tough course on which I left a bunch in the tank, so a good hard training day with the reward of a race finish at the end!

I love how Rev3 does things, we celebrate the final finisher at each race. Here's the video from Poconos

Final finisher #Rev3Poconos https://t.co/6aQ89f0AGn

— REV3 Triathlon (@REV3TRI) August 13, 2017

We also have free finisher pics for everyone who races with us!

Next up the Falmouth Road Race and then Ironman 70.3 Maine or as I like to call it Rev3 Maine.

[ewheeler1976]

Eagleman 70.3

I signed up for this race back in November and in the interim, stuff happened. After having a great (PR, BQ!) race at the Newport Marathon, training for Eagleman didn’t get off the ground well. A lousy, cold, rainy spring kept me indoors on the trainer for a lot of my bike work. I also kept swimming in the pool instead of hitting the open water in early May like I usually do. Despite this I was feeling pretty good heading into my taper week and all the fitness markers were pointing toward a good race.

A couple weeks ago my step-mom became very ill with an aggressive form of lung cancer and passed away. The funeral was scheduled for the Tuesday before this race. My travel plans changed in an instant. I drove down to a family member’s place near DC, then the following day drove to my Dad’s in North Carolina. After the funeral I spent a few days with my Dad which was something I haven’t gotten to do since the Beach2Battleship ironman trip in 2015. During this week away, my oldest son was sick and my wife was a rockstar taking care of him, bringing him to the pediatrician a few times and holding down the fort during exam week at school.

Friday before the race I got a final spin in on the bike in race trim before loading the car up to drive the Cambridge, MD. I met my friend Joe at the YMCA near transition where we were camping for the weekend. We drove over to Sailwinds for packet pickup and after dinner set up the tent.

Saturday morning we went for a (very) short ride and jog to check out transition and the frist couple miles of the run course. Beth had invited us to the QT2 breakfast at Denny’s where we had “interesting” service from the wait staff. After breakfast we dropped the bikes off at transition and set about relaxin for the rest of the day. We wandered over to Beth’s homestay at some point to get in the shade and John gave us a “motivational” talk about the course. He had been out for a 2 hour ride that morning, his talk was something like “I don’t know…you guys are really in for it…it’s going to suck out there…so hot…no shade…I went through all my water really quickly…you guys aren’t going to have much fun”. Eventually, we went to dinner where the waitress was amused by Joe and I splitting a plate of pasta.

Race Day! Woke up super early to get some more fluids in with breakfast. I found myself nervous about the heat, I’ve struggled some mentally with hot races since my seizure in 2014. After getting to transition I met up with Nate who was at the next rack over, we hung out to watch the start of the pro races and then I went to find my swim wave. While putting on my wetsuit I “cracked” over the heat issue and decided to treat it as a training race, I would cap my heart rate a lot lower than usual for a half-ironman and practice all the cooling strategies and enjoy myself.

Swim

In water start with the second half of my age-group, felt really good in the waer, much smoother than my few open water swims in training had felt. Probably due to the reasonable (73) water temps. I felt confident and worked my way through a bunch of swimmers. The way the course was laid out, the return trip felt really long, but I was quickly running up the boat ramp to the wetsuit strippers and then into transition. Not my best swim, not my worst.

Bike

After a decent transition I was starting on the bike course, I was capping my heart rate at 150 on the bike, where I normally shoot for an average around 160 in a half distance race. Despite this limit, because the course is so very flat I was cranking, headed for a really great bike split. I was also doing all the good stuff; drinking lots of fluids and dumping water on my head, neck and arms at each aid station. At the final aid station though I tossed the water bottle after dumping it on me and right after tossing it I realized I had passed the “throw trash by here” sign and when I looked to the left before accelerating back to speed I saw the ref on the motorcycle and she starting writing me up for a penalty. I have no issue with being penalized as I did throw the bottle after the sign (though I threw it sort of panicked as I realized I missed the sign). I was irritated with the ref because I asked her where the penalty tent was (was it on the remaining miles of the bike course or in transition) and while I dodged empty bottles on the road (thrown by other competitors) she replied “I don’t know”. So I rode along after that, kicking myself for a stupid decision and penalty, I pulled into the tent 2 miles from the finish and upon starting the stopwatch the volunteer asks me “what color card did the ref show you?”. “She didn’t show me a card, I threw a bottle just after the sign and she wrote me up but didn’t know where the tent was”. He decided I should serve 5 minutes so that no matter what the penalty was I wouldn’t get DQ’d. “whatever, OK”. Afte the 5 minute penalty I rode the last 2 miles with my head not really in the game.

Run

Racked my bike, got my running shoes on and decided that since I wasn’t chasing a PR I had peed all over myself enough on the bike and would hit the porta potty before starting the run. I set out at 7:00 minute pace and watched the heart rate creep up a bit quicker than I expected it to, so I decided to just run at 150 whatever the pace was and practice hot weather protocol. So each aid station, ice into the kit, water on each arm and over my head, gatorade and red bull/coke if I wasn’t past the table by that point. I actually felt pretty decent for a lot of the run, just HOT, temp was in the 90’s and this course has no shade except for a little section between mile 6 and 7. Despite running easy in the furnace of Eagleman I passed a bunch of people including 10 in my age group on run and ended up 19th in my age-group and 130th overall.

Post race I immediately ran into Nate who was 4th in his age-group and scored a slot to 70.3 worlds in September. Joe fought through the heat and got on his age-group podium too. I had to hang out for a while before getting back into transition, was great to see some of the people from breakfast the day before. Also great to run into Pat Wheeler for the first time in a couple years, used his phone to let my wife know I stayed out of the med tent and would be heading home in an hour or so.

Eventually got my bike and gear out of transition, took a shower at the Y and Joe helped me break down the campsite and got on the road back to Cape Cod sometime around 3 in the afternoon. During my drive home I got a message from Nate that if I had stayed for roll-down I could have scored a slot to Chattanooga for September, but prior to the race I had decided to turn that down to invest the funds in going long next year…

Reflecting on this race for the past week, I’m torn in a bunch of different ways. I’m upset with myself because I mentally cracked before the race even started and I made a stupid mistake at the end of the bike course that cost me 5 minutes and messed with my head some more. I’m pleased though that if you take out the penalty my time was about 15 minutes off my PR for a half-distance race. A lot of people going full-gas were about 15 minutes off their times due to the heat, so being in that ballpark time-wise while taking it easy on the bike and run shows me that my fitness is in a good place. I need to be confident in that fitness going into the rest of my season; Rev3 St. Andrews on July 9th and Ironman 70.3 Maine in August.

[ewheeler1976]

Liam Maguire's Almost Five Miler

I won prize money! and beer!

A couple weeks ago I ran this race as member of a team from my son's school. Great course down along the ocean with a fun time at a local pub after. We came in 3rd in the team division winning "almost a 6 pack of beer" and I finished 11th overall and 1st Master's good for "almost 75 dollars". Great race, fun times, will definitely be back.

[ewheeler1976]

Newport Marathon - Race Report

Musical Accompaniment To This Post - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-64CaD8GXw

I'M GOING BACK TO BOSTON NEXT YEAR!!!!!!!!!

Where to start... last year after having a miserable, painful (but incredibly inspiring) race in Boston I decided I had to qualify again and race it healthy, I know I have a fast time on that course in me. I thought about racing Hyannis in the winter, but it's unpredictable. I also thought about racing in Providence again but with Eagleman coming on June 11th, I wanted more time to work on my bike fitness after racing a marathon. I came upon the Rhode Races Newport Marathon on April 15th, 2 days before Boston. A perfect fit! I could basically be on the Boston plan that so many of my friends were on!

I trained like a maniac for this race. Prior to my taper for 10 out of 11 weeks my long run was over 20 miles (with the longest being 24 miles and the 16 miler would have been 20 except that I had to make it to a lacrosse game that day). I continued to swim 2 days a week and bike 3 days a week as well as getting speedwork and tempo running workouts in. Going into the race I was little torn strategy wise; my training pointed to a sub-3 hour marathon as a possibility, but I was not willing to risk a blow-up chasing it that kept me from qualifying for Boston.

Day of the race I got up at 4am, shower, breakfast, coffee and out the door for Newport by 4:40. On the way I listened to an old Bob Babbitt interview with Ryan Hall following his fast marathon at Boston a few years back. I also sipped on some more coffee and ate some white chocolate-macadamia nut cookies. While driving I decided I would go out hard for the 1st 10K and then decide if I wanted to chase after the 3 hour marathon or not. Once I arrived I parked at the satellite lot and caught the shuttle to the starting line at Easton's Beach.

After getting my number and swag bag I tracked down my friend Jen and her Dad who were both running the half-marathon. We took a picture with the beach behind us, one of our co-workers said we look like siblings in this picture.

After getting all situated I checked my bag and headed to the start line. I didn't do a formal warm-up, deciding that the 1st mile would be my warm-up. After some words from the MC about the Boston Marathon, we had the anthem and then the countdown to the blowing of the horn. Conditions at the start were ideal, 45-50 degrees, slight breeze, overcast. I seeded myself at the front of the pack as there were no pacers faster than 3:30 and the fastest pace "corral" was for 7 minutes per mile. I looked down at my watch after about a half mile and I was going about 6:00 flat pace with the group, so I made the difficult choice to back out of the group.

As the miles started to tick by I found myself running in a group of about 6 people and we were actually working together into the headwinds near the water, taking turns at the front and rotating through. It was really fun! But then around mile 7-8 I got spit out the back of the group and rather than pressing to stay with them I ran my own race. At some point I handed my gloves to a specatator who actually took down my bib number and said she would track me down after the race. I was watching my heart rate and felt that if I pressed too much at that point the chance for a blow-up would increase a bunch. I came through the half just under 1:28 feeling great.

Going into the 2nd half, there was an out and back section near the water along 2nd Beach going out to Sachuest. Big crosswind and a false flat here slowed the pace, but I was encouraged to see I was gaining on people who I let go at the beginning of the race. The course then turned right onto Indian Avenue just before mile 18. This was the make it or break part of the race. A 6 mile out and back with hills and a headwind on the way back. By mile 19 I had caught some of the people I let go at the beginning of the race and by mile 20 I passed someone else and my mind starting doing the math games.

Gut-check time, I could back off and safely come in with my BQ, but would know I didn't leave it all out there. I recently read Matt Fitzgerald's book "How Bad Do You Want It?" and I decided right then at mile 20 that I was going to go for it, no giving in, no cracking; I'm giving it my all. I kept my heart rate steady over the remaining hills which resulted in some funky up and down mile splits, but I kept pressing. I pushed through the hill into Purgatory Chasm and then ran down the hill to the beach, made the turn to the finish line, saw the clock and sprinted to get under 3:03!

My friend Jen was there at the finish line and congratulated me and we took some goofy finish line photos. She had to drop out of the half-marathon due to injury but her Dad finished his 10th half-marathon. The line for the beer garden was crazy long, so I ended up changing, giving my beer ticket away and jumping in the shuttle bus to start heading home. I was so happy I totally forgot about my gloves, but who cares...I'm going to Boston!! Once I got home I got a text from Jen that the results were up. Official time was 3:02:58 and I placed 14th overall and 2nd in my age-group! I got in touch with the race director and they mailed me my award, a sweet coaster with the race logo.

I'm so happy with this race, I executed well and stayed mentally strong. I accomplished goal #1 which was qualifying for Boston. I also took a huge step towards the longer term goal of running a sub-3 hour marathon. A few different decisions during the race (like run the tangents better!) and I might have got it in this race. Clearly the goal for Boston is to go under 3 hours.

Some shout-outs; first my family for always supporting me in these crazy adventures and giving me the space (and time!) to train. You guys are the best! Jen, thanks for cheering me on last week. My teammates with Team Rev3 Racing, BSTT and CCAC/CCTT you are all awesome! Castelli, the run top was perfect; SBR Sports, TriSlide is way better than the competition and Powerbar, the double caffeinated Tangerine gel at mile 20 was key!

See you all in Hopkinton and BOSTON next April!

[ewheeler1976]

2017 Race Schedule and Results

4/15 - Newport Marathon - 3:02:58 - 14th OA, 2nd AG (PR,BQ)

5/7 - Liam Maguire’s Irish Pub Almost Five Miler - 30:17 - 11th OA, 1st AG

6/11 - Eagleman 70.3 - 4:55:44 - 130th OA, 19th AG

7/9 - Rev3 St. Andrews - 4:13:17 - 11th OA, 4th AG

7/16 - Falmouth Sprint Triathlon - 51:45 - 4th OA (Bike & Run PR)

8/13 - Rev3 Pocono Mountains - 4:53:15 - 11th OA, 2nd AG

8/20 - Falmouth Road Race - 44:59 - 177th OA, 15th AG

8/27 - Ironman 70.3 Maine - 4:37:26 - 39th OA, 7th AG (Bike PR)

10/28-29 - Cape Cod Marathon Clam Chowdah Challenge - 4:40:05 - 3rd OA Half-Marathon - 1:27:13 - 14th OA, 4th AG Marathon - 3:12:52 - 16th OA, 4th AG

2016 Schedule/Results

2015 Schedule/Results

2014 Schedule/Results

2013 Season Recap

2012 Season Recap

2011 Season Recap

[ewheeler1976]

Here we go! Join me in the #CleanStartPledge at PowerBarCleanStart.com and let's make 2017 awesome! #partner