Graniteman Clearwater Olympic

Graniteman Clearwater Olympic Race Report
July 10, 2016

Well, a major detour on my road to IMWI this year.  Just after Liberty's Long Course, my training plan took a turn. I ended up sick and in bed for a week. I managed a 45 minute run in a full 7 days.  The weeks between races were spent trying to get back up to speed. I told my father before Clearwater that I was not sure about my swim as every training session found me coughing uncontrollably mid swim.

LAMS Graniteman Crew

On race morning, I awoke to thunderstorms. The weather radar did not look favorable in Clearwater, but the forecast called for it to let up by 8am. Oh well! Can't control the weather!  I got my stuff together and met Mike and Marc to head down the road. We arrived right at 7 am when transition opened, but had a long walk from our parking spot. During my warm up, my power meter was giving me issues. Unable to rectify them before the 8:15 racer meeting, I went to plan "b".

Photo by Phreelance Fotography

After a long hike to the swim, I got in a quick warm up and headed to the start.  I was in Heat 2 with Mike and Travis.  As we got underway, it was a mostly clean start. I had a little contact, but headed left to the buoy line and had clear water to the first turn. As we were closing in on the turn, a swimmer was closing in from my right. After the corner I slid back into his draft. On the back stretch I pulled ahead and took the pull into the finish. Thanks for the push/pull Travis! We were 7th and 8th respectively for the swim on the day(one person from our heat ahead of us).

T1 was uneventful and I was able to slide out with the 3rd fastest transition for the day!

Photo by Phreelance Fotography

As I headed out on the bike, Travis caught up to me and passed in the first mile. No power (I knew I wasn't pushing 2000W!) and no cadence data meant I just went by feel on the bike. I still was in sight of the "big boys" as we headed out on the second loop. I focused on keeping myself on my goals. Things felt great coming into T2!

T2 was mostly clean, but had some issues with spectators in the transition zone.

As I headed out on the run, my legs felt great! The trail had 2 way traffic with those headed back to the finish.  Thankfully I was only seeing yellow wristbands for the sprint!!!  At 2 miles, I saw Travis at his Mile 4...he was chasing hard for position!  Just after the turn, I saw Mike...I knew I was caught! A minute or two later, Marc care running by.  Mike finally caught me around mile 4 and ran a short distance with me before pulling away. I fought hard to stay close, but didn't have it in the legs. A final push into the finish and another Jerry MacNeil shout out and I was done!  9:02 course PR!!!


After heading back to push Marc to his finish and packing gear up, we headed to the awards. We caught up to Travis and congratulated him on his 4th overall! As we were waiting, Marc got called up for 3rd in his age group. Way to go Marc! The next thing I knew, I was being called up as 3rd in my age group! Travis was first! After returning home and analyzing my race, I  made improvements in every stage of this race! It is always great to see hard work paying off!

Enjoy the journey!

Photo by Phreelance Fotography

Next finish line is IMWI for this trio!