I’ve finally made it back from my first major road trip of the year. I made the pilgrimage down to St Petersburg, FL and St Croix, USVI for the first time in 5 years and I was pleasantly surprised that not much had changed.  These two races have always marked the official start of the season for me and both races almost always field highly competitive fields. With numerous World Champions on the list, this year was no exception.

When I was generating my race schedule for the year one of the important factors that I considered was the quality of the various races on the calendar. I put heavy emphasis on those races that I thought were well run and that I enjoyed in previous years. As a result, there are a lot of “classic” triathlons on my schedule. These are the old school non-drafting races that made triathlon great in the early days. The first of these races for 2005 was St Anthony’s and it has steadily grown over the years to some 3500 athletes. It is by far one of the biggest races in the US and definitely the best of biggies. It has been run as an ITU race for the past few years but in 2004 it returned to its roots.

With $50,000 up for grabs it attracted a very competitive field. Toeing the line early Sunday morning where no less than 3 World Champions and several ITU World ranked #1 athletes. The National Anthem was sung in perfect harmony with a gorgeous Florida sunrise and just as the sun crested the horizon the gun sounded to start the race.

We sprinted off the beach and plunged into the chop like a pack of frantic dogs chasing a stick and I quickly learned that when an ITU athletes says “let’s keep it clean boys” what he really means is “stay put so I can get a good push off you”.

Early into the first leg of the rectangular swim, I thought I was in serious trouble. I looked back and could only see a couple of swimmers behind me while the groups in front of me seemed to be retreating into the distant swells. I rounded the first turn buoy well back but decided that I wasn’t quite ready to throw in the towel yet. I put my head down, picked up the tempo of my kick and tried to pick off swimmers ahead of me. Surprisingly, I soon started to move on the field and as the swim progressed, I leap-frogged my way up the race. As I rounded the second turn-buoy I was astounded to see that I could see the leaders only a short way ahead. I exited the swim pleasantly surprised to find myself only about 30 secs down from the front (and all of that came in the first 500m).

With 3500 athletes in the race, the transition area at St Anthony’s is huge. Despite the size of it, I barely remember running through it as I tried to further bridge the gap to the leaders. I hit the bike hard and passed several more swimmers early. The first leg is an out and back section so I was able to see that I was only a few seconds back from the leaders. My concern was that it was Torbjorne Sindballe in the lead and he was hammering.

The bike was flat and fast but it seemed to take forever. With about 10km to go, I got another look at the guys in the lead and I was shocked to see that Tornbjorne had extended his lead to several minutes! I tried to put it out of my mind and just focused on getting back to transition as quickly as possible.

I entered T2 with 3 other athletes and lost a little ground on the run to the racks. I was a little rusty on the fast transitions but managed to limit my loss to about 30m. Things felt heavy heading out and I found myself with some negative thoughts running through my head. I did my best to put them aside and simply focus on the things that I could control. The first two miles were rough but after that I began to feel better. I put in a surge and managed to catch one of the athletes in front of me. At mile 4, I caught Richie Cunningham but in the ensuing battle of surges lost some ground to him in the final mile.

I crossed the finish line in 8^th place having run 33:38 off the bike. I was quite pleased with this and although its not a true reflection of my fitness it does give me a good place to start from.

St Anthony’s Triathlon

April 24^th, 2005

1. Greg Bennet                                    Australia            1:48.42           
2. Torbjorne Sindballe                        Denmark            1:49.52
3. Grege Remaly                                    USA                        1:50.30
4. Chris McCormack                        Australia            1:52.24
5. Richard Allen                                    GBR                        1:52.27
6. Andrew Johns                                    GBR                        1:53.51
7. Richi Cunningham                        Australia            1:54.02
8. Jamie Cleveland                        Canada            1:54.12
9. Luke McKenzie                        Australia            1:54.59
10. Jimmy Johnson                        Denmark            1:55.23

St Croix is arguably the toughest ½ IM out there. Brutal hills and high humidity make it look more like an old fashioned prize fight than a triathlon. The pros battle it out all day and it is the last man standing who takes home the glory. To spice things up, they add primes for the first athletes to exit the swim, conquer the Beast and break the ½ way point on the run.

High winds and rain greeted us race morning and we all listened with apprehension as race director Thom Guthrie warned us of pools of standing water waiting for us on the roads. We listened to the National Anthem and then looked up to see a perfect rainbow arching its way across the harbor.

The horn sounded and we were off. The first buoy in St Croix is always early and it is a battle to make your way around it. I sometimes think Thom does this on purpose to make up for all the grief we give him race week. This year it was particularly crowded and rough as the field was weighed heavily with strong ITU swimmers. The large waves helped to break things up somewhat but it was still quite rough rounding the turn and finding feet. As we moved out of the harbor into open water the waves picked up and it was a challenge to follow the feet in front. I noticed about halfway through that the swimmers trailing my feet hand been ripped away by the choppy seas and chuckled to myself. You get occasional glimpses of singlets and goggles as you go so I was quite happy with where I was, surrounded by Tim Deboom, Brian Rhodes, Luke McKenzie and Richie Cunningham.

After the rough beginning, things settled down as we made the turns at the far end of the course and headed back to shore. I was the caboose on the train so I knew there was no hope for a swim prime. As such, I settled in and focused on conserving energy for the bike. We exited the water as a group with Shane Reed taking the swim bonus.

As we flew through T1, the crowds were cheering and things were beginning to dry up. I had a quick transition and moved to the front almost immediately. My legs felt good and I found my rhythm quickly. I hit the first few hills and soon opened up a small gap on the rest of my swim buddies.  After a short 8 mile loop we returned to town and came through the “Hot Corner” on our way to the Beast. The corner is a nasty little alley that we navigate at speed as we round a 90 degree bend in the road. It’s not too bad except that there is a vicious little stone wall located directly in your run out. I got through it with no harm to anything but my speed and took off for the Beast.

As we sped along the coast I got occasional glimpses of the chase pack behind me. I’d normally use “pack” loosely to describe athletes riding close to the same pace but in this instance it was a full blown Tour de France peloton. There were about 10 of them tightly grouped about 300m behind me. I tried not to worry about them and just focused on my race. I was riding my own pace and that was all that was important. As I made the final turn onto the Beast, it became apparent that the prime was mine if I wanted it.

The Beast is famous in the triathlon community. It’s a nasty hill that rises 7/10^th of a mile in the middle of nowhere and ranges from 11% to 21% grade. Its rough, uneven and a favorite among the locals. I had watched triathlon legends duke it out up this monster in all my earlier visits to the island. I had watched Mike Pigg “deliver the mail” in ’99 and seen Jimmy Riccitello tear apart the field in ’00. As I climbed, I was ecstatic to be in the lead position and pulling away from the likes of Chris McCormack and Tim Deboom.

I crested the top with about 40 secs on the pack so I decided to stock up on calories for the descent. I grabbed a couple of bottles from the aid station at the top and focused on what I had left to do.

The next 10 miles were rather uneventful as I continued to lead with the pack about 30 secs back. As I made the westernmost turn onto the highway that would take us back to the start, I decided that since I wasn’t moving on the pack it was time to drop back into it. I sat up and let them catch me. As they came by, I was astounded by how close they were to one another. There was a marshal present but aside from the occasional wheelie, he did nothing. There were riders in the pack with no aero-wheels and tiny ITU aerobars just soft pedaling and I was kicking myself for having left things this late in the race.

We finished off the bike portion as a group and entered T2 en masse. I was not quite as quick exiting this time but I was feeling good as I headed out. Things had warmed up and I was looking forward to battling it out through the run. A gap opened up early but I knew that everything was going to come down to the second lap of the run so I wasn’t too concerned. 

Unfortunately, this was just a hint of what was to come. I was running well and managed to catch a couple of athletes but I was really struggling with nausea. I was having no luck taking in any kind of nutrition. I tried my gels, I tried coke, I tried anything I could get my hands on but I couldn’t keep any of it down. As I finished the first lap, my energy levels were really low and I was shuffling more than running. 

I fought hard on the second loop but I had nothing left in my system and my pace slowed further. I managed to hold my position until about mile 10.5 when I got passed by Dave Harju and Michael Lovato at which point I went into survival mode. I wish I could say that I finished strong but I have to content myself with finishing.

It was a good day for me despite the epic run. My fitness has continued to improve and I have made huge gains in all three disciplines. I need to go back to the nutritional drawing board and figure out how I fuel my system for the longer events. My body is ready and willing to go as long as I can put the gas in the tank. The good news is that I have a bit of time before I race my next long event. I’ll be doing several ½ IM races over the summer and will figure out this nutritional mess in time for  IM Florida. In the meantime, I’m enjoying a nice break before I head out for Memphis in May.

St Croix ½ IM

May 1 , 2005

1. Shane Reed                                    Australia            4:10.41           
2. Richie Cunningham                        Australia            4:13.01
3. Chris McCormack                        Australia            4:16.12
4. Abel Torsten                                    Germany            4:16.52
5. Luke McKenzie                        Australia            4: 17.09
6. Tim Deboom                                    USA                        4:18.06
7. Brian Rhodes                                    New Zealand            4:18.34
8. Bert Jammaer                                    Belgium            4:20.58
9. Michael Lovato                        USA                        4:25.29
10. Dave Harju                                    Canada                        4:26.26
11. 12. Jamie Cleveland                        Canada            4:31.42