7/10/14 Midsummer 5K Series Race #2: What have I been doing with myself?

So, I'm utterly ashamed of my training lately.  That's the race report in a nutshell.  If you care to read more on the race, go ahead.  If not, that's cool, too.

I have been happy to throw in a 3-race 5K series into the schedule for this summer.  Bryn Mawr Running hosts 3 5K's in Ardmore which are 3-loop races and a fast group of runners.  I did one of the races a few years ago with someone else's bib.  I missed this year's first race while I was away in Maine and I was happy to finally get another race in, only 10 or 11 days since the last one, of which all 10 or 11 days included zero training or even general maintenance/preparation.

This foreshadowing may give up some of the race results but pre-race, I was happy about getting out again for a race, feeling pretty great and pretty much knew I was not going to PR.  I was hopeful to be around 20:30.  No problem.

The one-mile-and-change loop is around South Ardmore Park.  That's 3 times around for you non-engineers.  It's on some quiet Ardmore neighborhood streets that get closed off for the race.  We arrived about 10 minutes prior to the start, jogged a little to warm up and test out a cramp or some muscle tightness Kristen was having an issue with in her foot.  I probably could have used a little more warm up but I felt alright and Kristen was trotting around pain free so we were ready to roll.

Knowing there were going to be a handful of sub 16-minute runners, I stayed clear of the front, about 6 rows deep from the start line.  I knew off the start I'd find a pack to pace with so it should be a pretty easy race.  I thought my first mile felt great, as usual when I'm fresh, and turned in a 6:09.  Not too far from where I thought I'd be.  The field spread quickly and I found an anonymous runner to chase.

All went well for about another half mile and I just hit a wall.  I tried to ignore it and push through because it's only a 5K.  I'm halfway through this so what's only 10 minutes of a little suffering?  Apparently on this Thursday evening, a little too much.  I hit the water station after mile 2, taking a moment to slow down for a few seconds before finishing the last mile.

meh

The obvious break sure helped my heart out.  Holy crap.

I hung out by the finish line, disappointed with myself, and cheered on runners until Kristen came in a 29 minutes which was a great finish time for her, tying her PR.

A 21-minute 5K isn't the worst thing in the world.  Especially when my goal is now sub-19 minutes.  What's bothering me is that I have been getting soft on my training.  I spent the last 6-months putting in some pretty decent training time with some effective workouts but in the last month, seriously slacking making some excuses for recovering after Black Bear tri and healing after my bike crash.  I really should have only lightened my workouts after Black Bear for 2 weeks, and aside from a sore tailbone, my biking injuries were all upper body: nothing that would keep me from running.  The lessons learned were that recovery is not a vacation from training entirely and I should have appreciated all the time I had to train before I started a new job this week.  Once again, I'm going to have to fit in 10-hour work days around the rest of my life... what a drag but I've got to pay these race fees somehow.  I joked during my downtime that I finally had time to train like a pro.  It's a shame I didn't take more advantage of that.

Next race up is the final 5K of the Midsummer series, I needed a bad race to fire me up for the next one!

9/28/14 Guilford Road Race 5K Report

Not often enough do we go on vacation but this weekend Kristen and I made a little getaway in Vermont.  I've only been to VT in the winter for some skiing trips so this was my first trip in the summer.  I expected it would be beautiful up there and it was.  We anticipated having a nice relaxing weekend and got to spend some time with Kristen's parents.

The weekend wouldn't be complete without a race so I surfed the web a bit and found 2 races: a 5K on Saturday morning in a town called Guilford and a half marathon a little further away on Sunday.  I've got an itch for a longer race but a few factors made this a no contest for just the 5K.  Four days earlier, I crashed while mountain biking so I had mostly soreness in my shoulders after the fall took me over my handlebars and into a brief handstand on the trail before collapsing into myself in a heap of bad mountain biker.  Fortunately, it wasn't too severe and there's only lingering pain in my upper body and it shouldn't hurt my running much.  Also factoring into the decision was some remaining pain from a bruised tailbone, unrelated to but slightly worsened from the crash and I really hadn't run much in the weeks prior.  I took the first 2 weeks in June off/easy after Bear Creek and really hadn't logged much training the latter half of the month.  A 5K would be a perfect distance to enjoy a morning run in rural VT and assess damage and some of my running fitness.

After breakfast, we made our way to the town of Guilford, about 45 minutes away from where we stayed at Mount Snow.  After the GPS tried to take us off pavement and down what I hesitate to call roads, we backtracked and still made it with lots of time to register and explore.

I had to scope out the road the GPS suggested we take

Even the Vermonters said don't trust your GPS

There were only a handful of runners when we arrived and only a handful at the start of the race.  I expected it to be small and was curious of the field's ability.  I felt a possible win if I could run comfortably and I wasn't sure of that after a test run Friday morning.  The prizes for the overall winners were probably the greatest ones I've ever had an opportunity to win: pie.  Strawberry rhubarb pie or an apple pie.  2nd place got a bottle of maple syrup and 3rd an ice cream gift certificate.  I wanted that strawberry rhubarb pie more than any crappy trophy I've ever seen.

The entire race field.  About 25 total ran.

Off we go

The finish chute.  I love simple races!

Sizing up the competition, I suspected that there was one runner that was probably about my speed.  Of course up in the VT sticks there's some dude that looks like he's ready to do a marathon.  I assume it's all for show so I line up ready to lead and win the race.

I've never led a race so with the start, I tried my best to sandbag it a little.  Really, I'd have preferred to chase someone but I couldn't really pull back any more.  I pulled away a little bit and had a 6:08 first mile, surprising the heck out of me since I'd really tried to slow it down.  Right after the first mile marker, another runner I hadn't expected pulled up with me and we paced a little stride-for-stride as we approached some pretty good hills.  I let him go ahead a bit so I had someone to chase and watched him conquer the hills quite easily and I'd hoped to try to regain some speed on the downhill.

I felt the effects of weak training recently as the climb beat me up and around mile 2, the guy I thought might be the best competition sped by and I couldn't catch him.  I need to work on building my runs so they get faster.  The second mile was horrible for me at 8:45 and feeling dehydrated.  I wouldn't even consider the hills especially hard.  The 3rd mile was much better and the 5K was actually only 2.95 miles so I wrapped up the race with a 21:21 finish with 4th place on my heels and, worst of all, no pie.  I suppose that on the bright side, I ran it pain free and my first mile was among my fastest while feeling ultra easy.  I've also forgotten the IT band pain I was experiencing only 2 months ago.  What a relief that turned into nothing!  Not a great race but far from the worst.

Two happy finishers.

This was my first race in my Newtons.  These are pretty great road shoes and I'm looking forward to putting more miles on them.  They're very different from anything else I've worn and I'm very pleased with them.  I'll be back in them on the 10th for another 5K and before then I'll be doing some solo open water swims while at Raystown Lake this weekend.  

Thanks for reading!  

2014 SOPA Games: A break from athlete to coach

2 weeks ago, I spent the weekend at some holy grounds.  Kristen and I went to my alma mater, Penn State, as an assistant coach for our county's special olympics team.  It's possibly the first non-drinking-centric weekend I've spent there as an alumni.  And it was awesome.

Seeking a volunteering opportunity, Kristen stumbled across the local chapter of special olympics and go involved quickly, not too long after her, I joined.  Practices were a blast and the head coach was glad to have another athletic coach around to pace some of the distance runners.  I'd only coached a few practices before 19 athletes from the track and field team and a handful of coaches loaded up 6 buses to unite at Penn State with athletes from all over the state.

Hail to the Lion!

We arrived early Thursday with a loop around the football stadium, always breathtaking, even when empty.  We unloaded and navigated to our dorm rooms and prepared for the opening ceremony and the olympic village where there were about a dozen activities for the athletes to do or check out.  Our county, Montgomery, was towards the back of the procession so we took our time and joined the other sports teams from our county and we made our way into the baseball stadium for the opening ceremony, lighting the torch and invocation of the Special Olympics motto.  All quite touching to see the excitement at a beautiful venue with Mt. Nittany in the background.  A cool video about the torch being run from Pittsburgh to State College ended with state troopers escorting the final torch bearer into the stadium on motorcycles.

One of our great distance runners, David

The T&F team

One of the best baseball stadium views I've ever seen.

T&F team photo

I met SuePa!  Hugely involved in the Special Olympics!

Day one was finally over, back to the dorms and lights out at 10.  No bar trips for the coaches.  We were going to be up at 5:30 anyway for 6:00 breakfast.

Days at the track were pretty long.  There are a few thousand athletes, requiring multiple heats per event, and the heat and sun were intense.  I'll have a great farmer's tan the rest of the summer... cool!  We coaches took turns enjoying the shade in the tent and getting our athletes to their events and prepared to be awesome.  I'm incredibly proud of all of them, they all did a fantastic job, many of them obliterating their former personal bests by a long way.  Photo overload below!

David, game face on

Ron and me

Laura at running long jum

Kathleen

Queen

Alicia

Team Wicked Fast sidewalk art

Alicia, collecting hardware

Sean, one of the fastest overall at the games, leading his heat

Chip, in the red shorts

Head coach Scott with Laura and coach Tina

Wicked fast sweep! David, Lior, and Trevor

Sean

Chip

4x100 relay awards, Trevor, Alicia, Sean, Alex

Sean and Queen

Chip- who has time to read?!

Richard and Rob

Downtime football

Team stretch before 400m dash

Friday night was the Victory Dance, hosted by a local radio station that was a pretty huge deal for the athletes.  Saturday was much like Friday: fun, just different events except for the 100m dash final.

The Special Olympics track team is now on break for a while, long distance running begins in August which I'm excited for and possibly may join with coaching triathlon, newly added to the games this year.  I suggest if you are looking for a place to volunteer some time, you check out your county's local Special Olympics group.  I was surprised how much fun it turned to be.  It's immensely rewarding to help others achieve and improve on any athletic endeavor.

Black Bear Tri, 6/1/14, Olympic Race Report: Further Evidence I'm an Idiot

This morning was the Black Bear Tri, I appreciated the 2 weeks off from TTT but was not really amped up for this race.  I'd considered either just dropping out, but the no refund policy CGI Racing has put an end to that thought.  So I also thought about just making it an aquabike since I figured my IT band would be a huge limiter again but the time off to recover and be right back into some kind of "taper" (and I suppose I did some proper rehabbing) allowed it to heal, at least I'd hoped it was healed.  It felt good so game on.

The glorious swag we all strove for today.

I knew two other athletes racing this, a friend of a friend, Brendan and another triathlete from Conshohocken, Quoc.  Quoc sold me his old Kurt Trainer last fall and he's a pretty great athlete.  Today was his first Olypmic in few years.  I think he'd been doing more Ironman events so he's backing off the distance to focus on Olympics this year.  Brendan notified me prior to the race he was bailing with some swimming nerves.  In training swims, he said he was having mild panic attacks and it wasn't going to work this weekend to race.  I completely understand.  Wave starting can be and is, I assume for almost all racers, very stressful.  I have a ton of confidence in the swimming leg but I still get a little anxiety while treading in a mass of swimmers waiting to thrash our way out into the open water.  I suspect my days of water polo may provide me a bit of an edge over a lot of guys at the start.  Plus I'm still kinda quick so I can get out and into line pretty quickly.

I was prepped by Saturday afternoon and stayed in Harleysville at our friends', thinking it would save some time driving up early in the morning.  It really didn't wind up saving too much driving time but I had to drop by anyway.  At about 9pm, I realized I hadn't packed cycling shoes.  I considered driving home for them, about 25 minutes each way.  I didn't want to give up the sleep time so I let it go, I'd ride in my running shoes and sacrifice the added efficiency of clipless...  I'm scouring the web to find a few estimates on efficiency studies of platform pedaling vs. clipless; it's got to be pretty high.  So far, too much variance in the suspected benefit to consider it reliable.

I left for the race at 5am, arriving around 6:20 or so.  I bumped into Quoc, being a small world, we noticed we parked adjacent to each other in the giant lot and were in the same rack within 10 spots in transition.  and we headed down together to check in.  He asked if I'd paid the extra $18 for raceday pickup, I said no and that I'd noticed a note in my final race email that I did not elect to have raceday pickup which I ignored as some kind of nonsense.  So I was a little worried CGI Racing would have either given away my spot and tell me to pound sand or, less seriously, they'd leech another $18 from me.  Seriously, a surcharge to do packet pickup on race day?  Kinda weird, right?  It reminded me of HPI Racing at TTT booking the whole lodge and marking up the rates 75%.  Highway robbery, I say!

Thankfully, they had my packet, that was cool and didn't ask for the $18 surcharge (which I'mnow sure is just a scam).  I presented my USAT key fob for proof I was current then when asked for my picture ID, I had nothing to give them.  My wallet was not anywhere on me nor in my race bag.  I ran to the car to scour for it, still nothing.  I returned to check in seeking some leniency, still confounded by my missing wallet I knew was somewhere in the car- definitely bought a coffee in a drive thru so it had to be there.  I got no love; I'm sure ID requirement is a safety policy so if some bib trade occurs with a racer that is not a registered USAT athlete or just some guy and they drown on the swim or take a hard fall on the bike, CGI doesn't have to deal with any potential lawsuits.  I ran back to the car, noting my IT band pain was still non-existent.  Another scouring of the car and then a-ha, inside the center arm rest... off to a really bad start so far and I had one minute until transition was closed (at 7:05).  They made an exception for me, even though part of me was ready to throw in the towel after all this chaos.  Surely, these have been some ominous signs, struggling just to get to the starting line.  At least getting through this was great at diminishing any remaining pre-race nerves.    Not much more could go wrong so it was time to focus on the race and it was a picture perfect day, calm winds, 65 degree water, and very sunny.

Great day to do horrible things to our bodies

I made it to the beach in time for the Star Spangled Banner and to watch the first 2 waves of the Sprint race take off.  My wave hit the water and I lined up in the front with the elite guys.  I think it's a good strategy for me, I'm not going to catch the elite guys but I do think I can outswim the majority of the pack.  It worked and I was through the thrashing mess quickly with no problem.  Seriously, thanks a lot water polo!

I am still pretty sure I sighted my lines well and kept pretty straight right.  The course is one long loop and it seemed to drag on in the middle but I kept my tempo quick and was out pretty quickly.

Not too bad, I knew I might've wandered a bit to the left on the way out.

I exited the water the the 52nd best swim... I really wanted something better than that but it's not bad overall with 328 other athletes.  Transition wasn't too bad and I had most of the wetsuit off before getting to my station where I made quick work of the rest, forgot to give myself a Hammer gel before the bike ride and ran out.  Kinda big forgetfulness theme this weekend.

The bike course was beautiful, not a ton to note but there were a few steep hills but not quite as hilly as TTT so that was nice.  Without my shoes, I was 2 mph faster than my first Olympic 2 weeks ago.  I'll take it!  I downed a 2-hr bottle of Perpetuem during my 1.5 hr ride, chugging the remainders in the last 2 miles as tiny cramps started to pop up in my calves, hoping it might deliver some relief really quickly to my muscles.  The last bit of the bike leg was downhill of flat so they never really materialized into a problem at the end of the ride or during the run through transition 2 so I felt in the clear from cramping up but my legs were trashed from that ride.

Coming to T2.  Cool watermark!

I was 10th fastest in T2 because I already had my shoes on.  BOO-YA!  I took off feeling quick on the run but struggled to maintain a solid tempo after 2 miles and never really found my legs.  It was during my run that I noticed, again, I forgot how to use my Garmin 910.  So 26+ miles in and I'm still logging time in the water.  I was pissed I missed out on my ride data, I cycled through to the run and slugged it out, starting with a 7.5 min mile, the rest about 9 minutes.  Frustrating to feel no more strength to push out a quicker 10K.  

I think this was early in the run, feeling strong.

Later in the run, posing and pretending to look strong.

My finish time was 2:54:46, and for some reason, I'd hoped to be closer to 2:30.  16th of 42 in my group is actually far better than I'd expected and 111th of 328.  I found Quoc who'd done awesome, 20 minutes faster and 7th in our group. 

The finish

The course was awesome, well marked, well staffed with volunteers and with everything that went wrong, it still turned out to be a pretty good race.  I'm curious about the time added to my bike due to me forgetting my shoes... I'll do this race again.  I give it a 4.5 of 5 if I was to maintain a rating system.  CGI was awesome to accommodate me finally getting my stuff together late.  I'm happiest that I manned up and did the whole race when at times, even this morning, I was ready to just go home before the start.  

American Triple-T 2014: How Not To Do Your First Half-Ironman

The American Triple-T is the first triathlon event I ever signed up for, even before the 2 sprint tris I did last summer.  The event is a weekend-long series of 4 races, culminating with a half-ironman distance race called the Little Smokies Half.  It's not an official Ironman 70.3 race but it is still all the right events at all the right distances.  This race, of course is after a super sprint on Friday and two Olympics on Saturday...

Singlet we must wear for each race and a hat

I'm fully aware of the undertaking this race would really be, it was going to be hard for all the wrong reasons.  Despite my comfort level in tackling an Olympic-distance event and a 70.3 event, I still hadn't raced those distances and was not really prepared for the toll Saturday would really take.  I'd also been doing all I could to rehab my right IT band the last 3 weeks.  Nonetheless, the adventure was on, Adam and I were determined to get out there and give it hell and have a good time.

Being kinda picky about my fueling, I cooked all day Wednesday, preparing all the food I'd want to consume between races, hoping to optimize my recovery windows by eating well.  I prepared pulled pork, shredded chicken, egg salad, steamed kale, quinoa, rice and a big tub of salad in addition to measuring and bagging all my Hammer powders by race.  Go prepared or don't go at all.

BYOBuffet

Thursday was spent making sure I had everything and in the evening I picked up Adam in Baltimore and we drove as far as we could before finding a hotel somewhere in western Maryland while driving through a mini monsoon.  We quickly left the hotel in the morning and before too long, we were in Ohio and at our destination, Shawnee State Park, by noon.  We checked into the lodge at noon and walked down to pick up our race packets after unloading our gear.

Transition area and finish line

Our bikes' home for the weekend.

The room, before it looked like a triathlete's yard sale.

Lucky for the event, a huge storm had passed through the day prior and we were expecting to be in the clear the rest of the wekend.  We had some intermittent showers during race check in but we'd hoped it would clear up and be sunny for our first race.  Unfortunately, they continued on until race #1.

Race #1 was a little slow to start, I think the organizers wanted to give the weather a little more time to clear and roads to dry off a little so the first racers began about 10 minutes after 5.  I did appreciate the time-trial start format: Every 10-15 seconds, a wave of 3 athletes took off for the swim from the shore.  With the field being sorted by our half-ironman times or expected times, the elite guys were at the front and Adam and I were near the back, #342 and 343, respectively in a field of about 500.

This method of starting out isn't the fastest, so we actually got to see the first finishers come in before we hit the water (the super sprint really is that short, 250m swim, 6km bike, 1 mi run).  But, the way the swim is much more spread out, makes it easier for stronger swimmers to navigate forward in the field faster.  I do love the swim leg- it makes up for being so terrible on the bike.

The race was a lot harder than I imagined.  I'd hoped to be done in about 25 minute, but crossed the finish line in 30 and a lot more winded than I'd expected from a 3 km climb on the bike (the 3 km descent on the return on wet road was pretty terrifying).  It took me the entire run leg to recover from the bike but the run felt good on both legs and that was a huge victory for me.  We relaxed after getting back to the lodge and eating and I slept pretty soundly.

Saturday morning had arrived and I maintained some confidence during my preparation routine.  I checked the outside temperature and got a 34.7 F on my watch... I hoped it was wrong but it was really really cold out there.  I just hoped the sun would show itself and get some heat going quickly.  I prepped my Hammer Perpetuem for the bike leg and brought a few gels.

Exactly like Friday, we watched the first hundred or so waves hit the swim, now on a 1500 m course (2 laps of approx 750 m).  We watched the elite guys speed away on the bike leg and eventually found ourselves a the start line.  Surprisingly, I was not feeling any nerves for my first Olympic tri.  I imagine partially due to my confidence in my fitness level and because this swim start is extremely low pressure.  We ran down the shore, plowing through the water until we were at a depth suitable for swimming.  I tried keeping Adam to my right but it quickly became hard to do as we began overtaking other swimmers.  It did occur to me that maybe I should focus on swimming and not triathlon for a while...

We managed a solid swim, Adam was only feet ahead of me after the swim, we exited transition seconds apart then I lost him.  I spent the first minute on the bike getting comfortable and getting some fuel in my stomach that I assumed Adam took off quicker, he's a bit stronger than me on the bike so I just tried to find a pace that was in the middle of "catch Adam" and "hey, don't forget there's another race this afternoon."

The course was hillier than I expected Ohio could be, having spent a lot of time in northern Ohio, my childhood memories painted a picture of Ohio as flat as can be.  A few times, there was no option but to be in 1st gear and just mash my way up a climb.  Mostly rolling hills, the course was beautiful, the sun came out and it was turning into a very nice ride, considering I was being passed by everyone.

Returning to transition was great, I was excited to be off the bike, partly because I'm terrible at it, part, because my neck was starting to get really sore, but mostly because I was excited for the 6.5 mi run.  The weird part in transition was while I was sure I was chasing Adam, his bike was not back in the rack.  It turned out I passed him exiting T1 when he stopped to pee.  Dude should've peed in his wetsuit.

The run is the same course for all races, a fire road through the woods.  Almost like a trail run, so I was excited.  I felt pretty strong on my legs after the bike so my focus was to maintain that feeling and not lose control and expend too much energy.  I cruised along easily but very early, about one mile in, noticed that familiar IT band pain in the right leg.  It nagged but wasn't a limiting factor.  In fact, my miles got a bit quicker.  I started to notice I felt strong but that I was holding back to try to limit the IT band friction.  The race ended and I was pleased with my performance.  I knew I'd be in good shape if my pain didn't worsen in the next race, a few hours away.

I waited for Adam to finish and we grabbed some food and returned to the lodge again to rest up.  Rinse and repeat.  I called Kristen to let her know: So far, so good!

Race #3 is interesting because the order is bike, swim then run.  This sounded appealing because at this point, now teammates must race together, we were tired and sore and shared the outlook OK, this race will suck if we push it.  We'll find a comfortable pace on the bike, draft when we can, cruise on the swim to recover because that's the easiest leg for us then phone in the run, and just jog it.

All good in theory but that bike leg seemed to be endless, compounding the soreness in my neck, expending what energy we had left much more rapidly as we were depleted and now on a different course with some different challenges like an abrupt and steep 18% climb 8 miles in.  It was brutal but we expected relief in the swim.

We took our time through transition, put the bike gear away and started putting on our wet suits, me tearing mine in the process.  Forewarned that cramping is extremely common in this leg of the race, we took on the swim with the same resolve: this is where we recover, we'll be FINE...

The first lap was pretty tough, I thought I'd find my rhythm a little late, like I usually do but the second lap of the swim was no easier.  After a slow swim, excited to be on the ground and ready to run, I plunged my feet to the soft lake bottom and wham- cramps!  Just like I was told, but not when I expected them.  I hobbled forward in a sort of crouch to just try to keep my muscles moving and not seize up completely and they slowly let go as I waddled through transition to my station.

I caught up to Adam in T2 and we tore off our wetsuits, grabbed a gel, water and trotted into the final leg for the day.  Not far from exiting T2, I knew I was going to succumb to the IT band pain.  Prior to the race, I made Adam aware I was starting to feel the effects of IT band friction again and until now it was tolerable and not yet a problem but that it could become one.  I hated the idea of slowing us down but he was in a pretty depleted state as well.  The 6.5 mile run became a run/walk and at times incredibly painful.  By the turn-around, my leg had loosened up and I was feeling comparable to the morning's race, not too bad but not great; I was able to move at a running pace.  We trudged through and finished, miserable.

Done with race #3 of 4... Assessing damage.

The ensuing conversation went something like this:
Aaron: Hey Adam, how are you feeling?
Adam: Not good, I'm starting to have doubts about tomorrow.
Aaron: Yeah, me too, but let's eat up, head back to the hotel and recover, we'll get up in the morning and see how we feel. (Note: I am completely checked out here.  No half-ironman for me, just hoping that maybe we wake up and through divine intervention, are able to get out and race)
Adam: That sounds about right

So we returned to the hotel, I rolled the living daylights out of my legs, stretched and tried on Adam's NormaTec leg sleeves.  They provided no miracle cures but man, they felt good.  It's pretty much a variable compression sleeve that massage your legs to speed up recovery... or just feel amazing when recovery is out of the question.

These things rock.

Adam won them via a Twitter contest. #seriously

3/4 race results.  The run on #2 was a 57:42.  

Before bed, we threw in the towel.  Morning would bring no salvation of our ability to continue on.  We had crossed the threshold of when it's no longer fun, healthy nor productive to continue on.  I called Kristen to let her know we were done.  Had we lined up at the start in the morning, we'd have turned in an 8 hour half.  We were far more inclined to use those 8 hours to drive home and celebrate 2 Olympic tris in one day and have several beers to reward ourselves.  We got breakfast, packed, noting a few other athletes doing their own version of the pack of shame as they left, as well, drove to Baltimore and feasted on wings and beer.

My evaluation of this event: Awesome.  If you want to see how fit you are, do this.  I'm confident in my fitness level, but now see I'm not 4-races-in-under-48-hours fit.  I'm proud to have pushed through 2 Olympics in one day.  Very well organized and supported.  Beautiful and challenging bike course.  I'm pretty sure if you're in the elite group, it's very competitive, as well.  The only gripe I have is that the lake water was pretty foul.  Great atmosphere the entire time.  Will I go back?  Yeah, maybe in 5 years.  Great job by HFP racing.  I see my weaknesses more clearly and will continue to address them more practically.