Race Coverage

Singing Heart Rates & Wicked Pride...

Sunday, 15 July 2018 23:10

By Ted Treise (venturetri.com)

Eagleman 70.3 Race Report - I get a nervous feeling before any race. It’s been there since my motocross days and has transitioned over to triathlon. We can call this feeling, maybe, the send-its? It’s a feeling of uncertainty like ‘Is this really about to happen?’ or ‘How did this moment actually arrive in the present?’. The send-its may come right before saying yes to a new job, going in for an unexpected first kiss, or even telling the barista with confidence, “Venti”, sacrificing the regular order and exploring something new on the menu. To me, the send-its are a rare feeling making life a heck of a ride. After standing in the swim start shoot at Eagleman and reaching over the banners for one last pre-race hug from mom, the send-its were in full force as the rolling start began. We are racing, I thought; this is actually happening.

Swim

I spent the greater part of the Minnesota spring swimming with Genesis Aquatics in Hopkins. Each lane has its own RX’ed yards and pacing creating a choose-your-own-adventure practice for each swimmer. My daily swim strategy with this format is to A.) Go into a lane that’s probably too fast, B.) Try to lead it until someone most the lane politely ask to cut ahead, and C.) Not get lapped on anything over 400 yards. I feel like this fish or fish bait strategy helped me greatly improve going into 2018. ...

Eagleman’s swim takes place in the Chesapeake Bay with a rolling wave start. I love this start format as it makes finding fast feet all the easier given that everyone you start with has roughly the same expected time. The start cannon went off and the race was underway. I focused on each stroke being perfect. It wasn’t the next stroke I was concerned with or the last stroke that included a mouth full of salt water, but the single swim-stroke in that moment. This helped simplify the swim. After swimming next to a person in board shorts for most of the race, I wasn’t expecting too fast of a time. However, when my feet met the cement boat launch of the swim exit, I looked down reading 29 minutes; my fastest swim to date. Double high five hands emoji, & onto the bike!  READ MORE