“Get out of the way, tomarrow rises from today.” – Undead
I am gonna do some journalism and write something asap for www.xtri.com but I figured I should talk abit about the race. Before I do, thanks to everyone who called, texted, emailed and was around to help me deal with the sudden and untimely death of my dog Union. Huge thanks for all the huge from the USAT offical found me crying and huged my wet smelly body and I sopped, same with race director Lani who had 5 dogs and know how close to you heart they ca get. I spent a lot more time crying my eyes out sunday then I thought possible. If any of you are doing the block island shade bloom 10k I will be placing her ashes in the ocean after the race. I can’t express how sad I am, but also how thankful I am to have had such a great dog and how thankful I am to my family who, while I was gone took on this aweful duty and carried it out with love, kindness, and dignty. Losing my dog is heart breaking but not being able to be there for her is devastating and only softened by the comfort I take in knowing in the end she was with good and loving people that cared deeply for her. So anyways, the race…
As I mentioned I though this course and condition would be hard and slow and it was both. Add a sick amount of talent and you get a wicked evil few hours. The race was being billed as Texas vs the world. Champion Systems my clothing sponsor and maker of the CREW kits and the finest stuff out there, had 4 of my Champion Systems teammates there representing columbia, argentina and mexico. News came that it was wetsuitless so they were not allowed. The new pro rule for wesuits is 68 degrees for hose of you from outside the USA, In celius that’s fucking cold. This is what happens when fat usat people make rules in offices vs lean athletes standing on shores shivering and shaking.
Anyways the swim was more like mma then tri. I think I punched my roomate, friend, and teammate Sabtian Blanco 4 times in the first 300 meters. And I like him. You can imagine how the rest of the mosh pit was behaving. The short course guys start with a burst of speed that is scary. It was like they were jesus and walking on the water. Or maybe just jesus lizards running and hoping across it. By 500 meters I was dropped and had a few guys behind me but thought it better to go it alone rather then wait. The water was choppy and progress was slow. By the end Halie who is a champion system athlete and sicko swimmer (her brother got some gold metal in china) caught me along with marcila the champ of mexico also a Champion Systems athlete. Yikes, they started 3 minutes back. I hate when that happens.
After way to much time in the water I got out and onto the bike. The course was closed to traffic and is in an awesome state park. It was hilly and windy. No serious climbs just never ending rollers which I like. I heard the wind was 30 mile per hour or as I call it: a normal day on block island. It was strong enough that when I was climbing with it I was going 30 mph, and when going down hill into it I was going 12 mph. It seemed the other athletes were making less headway too and on each of the 3 laps I saw that I was pulling several of them back. But honestly that was more useful for pride and to see how I was riding then for real racing as my swim, which for ironman is on par, left me so far back by itu standards as to knock me out of the racing before it really even started.
A side note: all the Champion Systems short course athletes are coached and live with Siri who is one of the best short course americans of all time and who is retired and now coaching. Her swim group in Boulder was the stuff of legends.
Anyways I hit T2 ready to run, and was confident after last weeks fastish 5 miler during sicko training. I was running into the wind solo, and felt like poo. The race MC said “there goes John Hirsch the National Champion of Block Island.” I should have laughed but the effort was such that I just choked. I ticked off the first mile in 6ish but was clearly going too hard, also 6 on dirt and twisted trail is hard. I took an expresso Hammer gel which was on course and some Heed and got right. Expresso by Hammer has 50mg of caffine, in science terms that’s “a shit load”. Yummy. By mile 3 I settled into a nice pace and felt good. Since I normally have 11-23 miles left at this point I don’t worry much if my legs aren’t there in those first few miles. BUT in olympic distance racing its red line racing, you need to come correct every second. I crossed the like and found out about my dog within minutes and never checked the results or splits, like I said I will for the xtri.com article. This is just the subjective, highly first person account. My over all impression is that this race kicks ass, and racing top short course guys is an ass kicking. But the goal was a good tune up and I got it. Thanks to a lot to Red Licorice and all the guys for the beat down.
pic: you know your in deep trouble when one of the race directors is wearing a shirt that say twisted on it!
o
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
