Boulder Peak 5150 Race Report

Boulder Peak 5150 Race Report

Sunday July 10th

My first race at altitude with only living here for just under a week and every one told me I was crazy.

Well it was hard but I posted an ok result....

Wave start 6:55am.... Wave start 6:55am.... Wave Start 6:55am

I was off to a great start the night before when my coach messaged me giving me a bit of a race prep and then finished it with "what times your wave start"...

Well probably the most rookie move I have made, I didn't check my wave start at registration...

So I was up and on the bike riding to arrive at transition for as soon as it opened at

 5:00am knowing the first wave was at 6:30am. 

After racking my bike and setting out my gear ready to race I headed over to the info tent and found out my wave was at 6:55am. It ended up working out well as its probably the best warm up iv had pre race because i was relaxed and knew i had plenty of time to do my thing. I did a nice 15min warm up jog out on the run course and then found a nice silent grassy area for some good relaxed stretching for 10mins while listening to some music. I returned to my gear in transition, got the shoes ready and put on the wettie to head down to the swim start for an easy 5min warm up to loosen up the shoulders. It was the first time I had hit the open water in boulder and to top it off I was in my wettie which is already tight enough restricting my breathing. 

Enough on the warm up and on to the race!

Swim

It was a deep water start with an out and back rectangle swim course. I positioned myself at the front on the left next to another guy that I thought I could swim with. Their was a big glare coming from the sun and my goggle choice was not right going with the zoggs predators instead of the blueseventy open water visions. Reedy told me not to smack myself up in the first 200meters otherwise i'l have no air and struggle for the rest as being in altitude. When the gun went off I found myself hitting the first can in the lead with out going full throttle. Once I got to the second can there was a pack of about 5-6 to my left that swum by and dropped me. From their i was swimming solo through all the other wave starts and was glad when I hit the land and running into T1. 

(I was 5th out of the water in a time of 0:24:23. My last 1500m pool TT was 21:30 so from that I know i was a bit off my usual pace. I came out like a cooked lobster in my wettie with the water temp actually not being to cold it probably would have been a better option for me to not wear it which would have freed up my breathing a little as well.)

T1

0:02:08

The run up from the swim was only a few hundred metres. The race was run very well and they had carpet layed on the bitchumen leading into transition. After watching a few transitions from the ITU guys  when they wear wetties I picked up a few techniques they use. With abit more practice im sure I can still get my time down as they are the seconds that count some times. I found I had a good easy transition and was running out to the bike exit ready for the next leg ahead.

(My S-works Transition and kswiss blades ready to fire)

Bike

1:14:19 

This was promised to be the fun part of the race by a few of the boys. The course included a climb up lee hill, which off course I had not ridden pre race. Its a short incline of about 10% for about 2km or so. But even before lee hill heading out of transition and in towards town the legs were struggling to push a decent pace on the bike. It only occurred to me when I got to the top of lee hill and looking down in the distance at the swim course that it was all a false flat with a slight climb heading up out of transition. With the climb out of the way it was time for some down hill. The only thing is they had a speed limit of 35miles p/h... that was about 50km p/h and there was a cop with a radar gun pointing at you. So of course I slowed down as reedy warned me about it only to find other people flying past me and nothing done. So I put the foot down and played chasy back to transition with more little rolling hills. 

(I came into T2 in 6th place)

T2

0:00:36

As I got into T2 I noticed to my left there was the guy in 5th place which was one of the guys that flogged passed me on the down hill. I had a quick fast transition and passed him as I was going through the run exit.  

Run

0:43:30

With now being in 5th I decided to hold a decent pace for the first few kmsPRE with deciding to leave the garmin off. I had a glimpse of 4th position and decided to put the foot down to see what I could do. 

It felt like I was running really strong sub 4's with the amount I was huffing and puffing but the end run split definitely showed something different. It just goes to show what altitude can do to your race when your not accustomed to it.

I had a finish time of 2:24:56 which may seem slow but on the course it was on and the circumstances I was pretty happy and ended up placing 4th. 

It also qualified me for the 5150 Hy-Vee U.S Champs in Des moines, Iowa on September 4th.

This gives me another good race to look forward to as well as the ITU Long Distance World Champs in November.

All in all it was a great race and run really well by WTC which I thoroughly enjoyed and had lots of fun! 

If only they would run 5150 races back home in Aus....

(Yes its a sectioned off Bar area after the finish shoot.... Y the hell do we not have these back home haha screw the G-rade and banana's...!)

(Old school Ref... was scared he was gonna pull out the whistle)

(Tim O'donnell Pro Winner)

he went 3peat....

Next Post Will Be "Week 2 Boulder Wrap up" on Sunday