HFP Deer Creek Fall Challenge Race Report



Last Sunday was my last triathlon of the year, and I chose a 70.3 distance race put on by HFP, a local race organization whose races I generally like.  Smaller than the big races but larger than the small races - it's a nice environment to choose for closing out the year.

For those who aren't aware, 70.3 is the distance in miles, and it's normally called a half-ironman.  Since WTC has a trademark on "Ironman" other races can't call it that, so they come up with all kinds of other names.   At Deer Creek State Park in Ohio, HFP offered a mini, sprint, olympic, and half distance race, all the same day and going off one right after the other.

Deer Creek State Park is just outside of Columbus, OH, and the race generally draws people from across Ohio, but not generally much farther.  I saw a few Pennsylvania and Indiana license plates, but not much more than that.

Don't Drink the Water

I left my house at 0-Dark-30 and made the almost three hour drive to Deer Creek State Park.  I made a quick pit stop in the porta-potty to take care of the pre-race paperwork while the lines were still short.  I couldn't help but notice this warning stuck just beside the seat:

Words cannot explain...

Who the hell would think that it would be a good idea to drink water from a porta-potty?  Is that such a big problem?  Let me tell you, if you saw what was in there there's no way you could be confused enough to consider what was living in there to be "drinking water." 

With the morning's business done I checked in and quickly racked my bike to grab a spot (transition was organized by race, but individual spots were not assigned - you just picked an open rack in your race area).  Then I headed back to my car to get some more kit in order to finish setting myself up in transition.  Tires pumped, helmet and glasses arranged, run shoes placed, and I was pretty much ready to go, save for a few final details that I'd attend to closer to the starting time.

With that all complete, I took a walk down to the beach to see the swim course.  The course itself was two loops, pretty simple and straight-forward, though there were some extra buoys that were used to mark "out of bounds" (too shallow, I presume?) that created a little confusion until they explained it.  Since it's a state park beach, there are some information boards every hundred yards or so.  That's where I noticed this:

Geez, is there any water around here that we can drink?

I started hoping that the water in the bottle handups would be potable.  In case you're wondering, I did not drink the toilet water.  But I did drink the lake water (I'm a mouth-open, only blow bubbles sometimes, kind of guy, so I tend to drink a lot of water when I swim).  Don't worry, I'm still here and it's been 2 whole days.

Volunteers

HFP generally gets good volunteer help, and this race was no different.  There were plenty of aid stations, and they were all sufficiently staffed.  Some had groups of younger kids, others had a few seemingly college-aged people, but everybody was hustling and very helpful.  Thank you volunteers!

I heard on the race announcements in the morning that someone had made one of the younger volunteers cry, and that the culprit had to find the announcer at the finish line so that they could apologize or be disqualified.  I never heard if that happened or not, but I certainly hope it did, or if it didn't I hope that person was DQ'd.  What is wrong with you if you make a young girl, who is volunteering her time and trying to help YOU, cry?  Seriously?  Triathletes can be a bunch of narcissistic assholes sometimes.

Swim

 I got in early to warm up a little (again, I haven't swum since my last race in June, and prior to that since who knows when.  It was maybe a bit of a mistake, since the 70.3 race waves were last, and I had to wait through the mini distance race (which was a 2-at-a-time time trial style start - this took forever!), the sprint waves, and the Olympic waves before I got to go.  I'd estimate I was in the water for an hour or more before my race started.  I obviously didn't swim that whole time, just long enough to get used to being in the water again, followed by standing in waist-deep water to keep my body acclimated to the water temperature.

When the race finally went off I quickly fell into a rhythm, did my two laps, and got out.  I'm not a fast swimmer, don't really try and don't really care (but maybe I should someday), so I was out of the water fairly far back - with the last 20% or so.  Basically, one step above almost drowning.

I had predicted a swim time and set a stretch goal, and I swam 5 minutes slower than my stretch goal, and right about where I predicted.  Bummer but the day is still young.

T1

The swim finally ended and I ran into transition to drop my wetsuit and get ready for the bike.  I don't mess around in T1, and I moved up 11 positions just in transition. 

Bike

The bike was a three-loop course that was basically flat, save for a few short ups and downs as you got back near the park / transition area.  There were two 180° turns on each lap - one at an out-and-back turnaround (that was not manned by anyone surprisingly), and one just outside of transition that marked the end of each loop and the beginning of the next.  The roads were OK - not bad but not great either.  There were a few stretches that were buttery smooth, and other sections that were like chip-seal with out the seal (just chips). 

My plan was to hold about 80% of my functional threshold power (FTP, the power one can theoretically sustain for an hour), and that's exactly what I did.  Since the course was relatively flat I didn't have a lot of spikes or drops in power, save for the few little hills on each lap.

Towards the end of the bike I started feeling like I was ready to be done riding, but I was really happy that I had stuck to my plan and basically executed exactly like I had wanted.  Thanks to my poor swim and decent bike, I moved up 15 more spots on the bike.  I was now in the middle of the pack.

T2

Flying dismount and a quick run into transition to change shoes, and then I was back out on the run course.  I passed another guy in transition, moving up one more spot.

Run

My plan was to run about 5 minutes slower than my open half-marathon time, and my first 3 miles were favorable to that plan.  My legs felt fine and I found myself trying to slow down and not burn matches, even though I felt like I could run that 7:30-ish pace forever.  On mile 4 my pace started to fall off, and I realized that I was in the hole with respect to nutrition and hydration.  I started walking the aid stations to get something in me, and taking ice to try to keep my body temperature down.  The day had started out cool but by the time I was out running had warmed up into the mid-80s.

In the end I ran a little over 10 minutes slower than my open half-marathon time, or 5 minutes slower than my goal pace.  I wasn't happy about it at all, but I knew that I had done what I could do, and there was nothing left.  Luckily for me lots of people bike for show but then can't run for dough, so despite missing my goal I still gained 27 spots on the run. 

Finish Line

Well, it felt good to finally cross the line, get some food, and cool off a bit.  This was a race where I was just happy to be done.  It was a long race to end a long year, and a great way to mark the transition into my fall and winter activities (I love to trail run, backpack, fish, and hunt through the last months of the year).  Timing chip off, finisher medal on, and a delicious sloppy joe in my belly. 

Overall Verdict

I'm not ecstatic with my performance in the race.  Had I dropped 5 minutes off my swim and 5 minutes off my run (basically, had I hit all my pace goals), I would have finished 10 places higher.  That being said, for my fitness and ability, I think I executed as well as I could have on that particular course on that particular day.

HFP did a great job as usual, the volunteers were great, the course was safe, and the amenities were just fine.  I don't really care about race swag, and it's a good thing because the race shirt is one of the ugliest I've ever seen.  So, if I had to mention one "con" of the race it would be ugly race shirts.  But I don't care, and neither should you.  It's not about the shirt, it's about the experience.