It's the night before the first Cross race in the OVCX championship and I know I've not prepared the way I had planned. A sinus infection, antibiotics and a hectic work & social schedule combined to limit the time I have spent on the bike ahead of the first race.
However, not deterred by this and in a vain attempt to over compensate, I had a two race Sunday last weekend. In the morning, I joined Quaff ON! team mates Jane Moisica and Danny Fisher at Tri32 Indy, an Olympic distance triathlon, where we had been challenged by two teams representing Tatum's Bags of Fun. In the afternoon I took part in Lionheart CX, a non-OVCX cross race organized as a fundraiser for the Lionheart youth development program in Cincinnati.
Tri32 Indy - Bike section 40km 1:03:33 (2nd fastest time) - Strava Data
It was a perfect morning for racing, after a hot week the forecast was for highs in the mid 70's and as Danny and I arrived at Eagle Creek Reservoir it was a cool 52. Team Triathlons are, strangely, lonely affairs, after we checked-in, Jane got ready for her swim, Danny went on a warm up run and I set up my bike trainer to warm up each of us doing our own thing in preparation for our part in the race.
My race started when Jane ran up the hill from the lake - she'd done a great job setting 9th fastest time overall for the swim, 3rd of the relay teams to hand over. The bike course looked quite complicated on the maps with two pivot points and lots of turns, however, because the relay team start had been staggered by 3 mins, there were other bikes out ahead of me which I could follow - this was especially useful as the course marking wasn't great in places and we were racing into a rising sun at times making visibility a challenge. After a drop down to the Eagle Creek Reservoir dam and a climb back up the other side, the course was very flat and fast. I quickly settled into my rhythm and started passing people, chasing down the first of the two team competitors within the first 5 miles. I caught the remaining team just before the first pivot at 11 miles into the 25 mile course - so now we were in the lead. With Danny's running yet to come I knew there was no need to build a huge buffer, but racing is racing and so far it was feeling good! I do enjoy courses with turn around points because you can see exactly where you are relative to the leaders - I was 5th bike at this point and everyone ahead of me had started the race 3 minutes before Jane's swim.
By the time we reached the 2nd pivot, I was 4th and close to the 3rd placed rider. With a small increase in effort I passed him then settled back down to my pace - after a couple of miles he passed me back. It was clear we were evenly matched and in a non drafting race, it's really hard to ride so close to another competitor. I was also aware that we had a big lead in the team race and racing with other people in the solo event was going to impact the results - a bit of drafting and a rabbit to chase makes a huge difference. Since I had another race in the afternoon, this seemed like a good time to back off & consolidate the team lead instead of racing hard and interfering with the solo race - it's clear from the Strava data at about 18 miles I dropped the effort level with a corresponding drop in heart rate.
I rolled into transition 4th on the road and handed over to Danny - the overall leader in the solo race was several minutes ahead of us and I wondered if Danny would catch him in the 10km run. In the end the gap was just too big, Danny ran a superb 31:49 and we finished 2nd overall despite the 3 minute offset at the start - our overall time of 2:01:23 was the fastest race time of the day.
After a short cool down jog with Danny, we had to pack up and head back to Columbus so that I could gather my Cyclocross gear, and my family, for the trip to Cincinatti and race number 2 for the day. This meant we couldn't stick around for the results and awards, but Jane was there to pick up the hardware!
This was a fun event - doing only 1 leg of a triathlon always makes me feel a but inadequate when others are doing the whole thing, but we played to our strengths as Team Quaff ON! and the friendly rivalry with the Tatum's Bags of Fun teams made the event even more fun. Hopefully we can grow the number of teams for next year....
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