Our great friend Tobias Fehlhaber, who is returning to Germany at the end of the summer after four years at the German embassy here in DC, signed up for Eagleman several years ago but wasn't able to compete because of an injury. He and our other great friend John Havill (aka "The Eagle," primarily because he's a pilot but also because he has a "shaved" head) decided that they wanted to make Eagleman 2015 a half-ironman head-to-head race for as many of our BLTCE friends as wanted to and could participate (Best Little Tri Club Ever...we all belong to other tri teams/clubs but our little group is the best one ever).
Five guys and two women signed up...and we dubbed it the BLTCE 70.3 Championship.
When Tobias was last in Germany, he brought back large (enormous!) German beer glassware for the top 3 male and female BLTCE finishers, so they could pour beer over themselves like it's done by the pros who podium at the iconic German iron-distance triathlon Challenge Roth. You'll have to read to the end to see what I mean but I think it's fair to say that we all wanted to get on the podium so we could have that experience.
Friday, June 12
The weekend got off to a fun start as I loaded my bike...an all-black Felt B-2 that I named "The Stealth Bomber" ...and got ready to head off to Cambridge, Maryland and the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.
I arrived in Cambridge and met The Eagle at the house he had rented for BLTCEers to stay in and serve as the race weekend headquarters, nicknamed "The Eagle's Nest." We grabbed a bite to eat, headed over to check-in for the race and do some ever-important shopping at the expo (where we saw my fellow FeXY teammate Cindy Revesman), went back to The Eagle's Nest to throw on our swimsuits and do a practice swim in the Choptank.
Tobias, Brian Simpson, and Jennifer Wright (one of our two uber cheerleaders) arrived and we all headed out to get some food at a great brew pub in Cambridge, RAR Brewing.
When we got back to The Eagle's Nest, it was funny to see how nobody could take a break from their phones as we lounged around the living room. Ah technology.
Saturday, June 13
The rest of the BLTCE contingent doing the race arrived early Saturday AM...John Wirth (aka "W" / "Half-Iron John" or just "Halfie" as the boys started calling him) and his uber cheerleader-wife Amber, as well as fellow competitors Patricia Hickey and Rebekah Stroman. Leigh Ann drove in Saturday AM as well and arrived early, we all ate some breakfast, and then Leigh Ann and I headed out on a ride...I was doing 30-40 minutes, followed by a 10-15 minute run, and she was going to ride the whole 56-mile course through the Blackwater National Wildlife Reguse because she wasn't doing Eagleman the next day (instead, she was doing the Great Chesapeake Bay Swim that day, where you swim 4.4 miles between and under the Bay Bridge, a monumental feat that she rocked!).
After my ride and run, I took The Stealth Bomber over to the race site to get it racked and ready for race day...and then I grabbed a couple cold water bottles and raced around the course in my car trying to catch Leigh Ann and give her the cold bottles. She was having a heckuva ride, however, and I only finally caught up to her at mile 48...thankfully she found a couple spots to get some water on a hot and windy day.
The whole group got together that night for dinner and took a photo of the competitors in our official race shirts.
Leigh Ann and I also got in some priceless photos with Tobias.
Sunday, June 14 -- RACE DAY
After an exceptionally restful night, I got up at 5am and checked The Weather Channel and saw what looked to be exceptionally good weather...high of 82-84 during prime race time, very little wind, rain in the afternoon to cool us off. Indeed, it ended up exceptional...just not at all as forecasted.
I threw on my race clothes, kissed Leigh Ann goodbye and told her to get some more sleep for her big swim later that afternoon -- and told her to go out and conquer that monstrous swim (she did!) -- and headed over to The Eagle's Nest to meet up with the BLTCE crew. We all headed over to the race site to get things ready and hang out under the tent while we waited for the race to start.
Our uber cheerleaders, Amber and Jennifer, and the Wirth's dog, Cooper, waiting at the swim start to watch W and Brian start the race.
THE SWIM
Our swim waves were mostly staggered, with The Eagle going off around 7:07, Brian and I starting at 7:28, W starting at 7:36, Tobias starting around 7:42, and the ladies being stuck with even later start times. I didn't see The Eagle's swim start, and chatted with Brian briefly before we headed out into the water. 7:28 came, the horn blew, and we were off.
The swim involves a roughly .5 mile swim out to a right turn buoy, a .2 mile swim across to another right turn buoy, and a .5 mile swim back to shore. The current got strong at the first turn buoy, pushed me off course after I made the turn, and was strong around the second turn buoy and part of the way to shore. I did some dolphin diving in the last 150 yards, and then walked that last 25 or so to shore (where I saw fellow FeXY teammate Ben Baumgartner, below, finishing just ahead of me despite starting a few minutes behind me).
I looked at my watch and saw my time...43:07...almost exactly what I did at Ironman 70.3 Raleigh two weeks earlier.
Not the time that I wanted, but the swim was over and I could get to the bike and the run. I ran to my bike, saw that Brian (who was racked next to me) hadn't come in yet, quickly threw on my socks, shoes, helmet and glasses -- got a quick "hi" from Stephanie Gerena -- and after my fastest swim-to-bike transition ever (2:05) ran The Stealth Bomber over to the mount line to get the "bombing run" underway.
THE BIKE
I quickly got into my rhythm on the bike and started out on the course...the weather was not as we had hoped, as it was already getting warm. I drank a whole bottle of water in the first 10 miles (I heard FeXY Coach and teammate Michelle McKenna Lake in my head to drink more) and grabbed a fresh bottle of cold water at the first aid station...unfortunately, I then went around the corner and it ejected from my bike so I had to wait another 10 miles to get another bottle. Ugh!
As with every race at Eagleman, there was a fair amount of drafting...and, like last year, I ended up in a photo at the head of a pace line (seriously, the guy behind me is so close that we look like we're riding a tandem bike).
There are some really great views of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and the photographers capture some great shots.
The bike ride ended up much hotter than I had hoped -- my bike computer registered 86.5 around 10 am -- and the wind we weren't supposed to get...well, we got it. I plugged along in a low and aero position and did the best that I could but could tell early on that I wasn't going to equal or break my 2:30:47 bike time from last year.
Ben Baumgartner and Pablo Torres passed me around mile 25 but I managed to catch back up to Ben at the end of the bike (I didn't see Pablo again until he was at mile 8 on his way back in on the run). As I crossed the timing mat, I looked at my time...2:45:53 (20.26 mph avg)...again, almost the same as the hillier course in Raleigh two weeks earlier.
I put my bike back on the rack, made another speedy transition (1:38) into my run shoes and hat, while grabbing my hand-held water bottle and nutrition and headed out on the run. I figured the other BLTCE boys were having similar days and the 70.3 Championship would come down to the run...soon to be dubbed "The Sufferfest"...and I couldn't have been more right (I think we all were within a few minutes of each other's time after the bike).
The 13.1 Mile "Sufferfest"
It was apparent within the first mile of the run that in the heat and humidity (with a really high dew point) that there was no way I was going to match or beat my 1:45 half-marathon time from last year. I just had to keep the head up and put one foot in front of the other with as short and quick of steps as I could muster.
As I was coming up to the third aid station, I saw a guy in a DC tri outfit up ahead and recognized The Eagle's orange Newton running shoes. I caught up to him at the aid station and said "Let's run this one in together" (we had done that a couple years earlier at another race and got one of my all-time favorite pictures) and he turned around and said "aw, shit." As we ran together he said "so I gotta put 20 minutes into you on the run to make up the swim start lead" and shot off for 10 feet before telling me to run ahead and he'd see me at the finish. The Eagle is nothing if not a classy competitor and great friend.
The run is a 6.5 mile out and back, and there is maybe .1 miles of shade over the whole course (not counting the one cloud we got for all of 4 minutes, maybe 1/2 mile). I caught up to my FeXY teammate Cindy Revesman around mile 4.5 (around the time I saw Pablo heading back to the finish at his mile 8) and then saw W when I was at @ mile 7 on my way back from the turn around. W was looking strong at mile 5.5 or so and I told him to keep it up and the Championship would be all his...and I meant it, he's a great friend and classy guy, and an ultra distance runner extraordinaire, and I would have been happy to see him catch and pass me on the run.
Shortly after seeing W, I saw Tobias and then Brian and then Tobias again (the first Tobias was actually his doppelgänger wearing an Escape from Alcatraz tri kit like Tobias had just gotten at that race). They both were looking good and, at this point, I thought The Eagle might get passed by all the other guys.
I stopped and walked every aid station, re-filled my hand-held water bottle with ice and water (which I used as much to spray water on my face and body as I did for drinking), poured ice and cold water on my head, on my body, down my shorts, and put ice in my shirt pockets by my kidneys to help cool off my blood supply as I was feeling the heat big time (my bike computer later showed 106.5 degrees in the grassy transition, so it was close to or greater than that temp on the virtually shadeless blacktop roads).
I pushed hard to the finish line and checked my time...2:03:31 (9:25/mile pace)...with a finish time of 5:36:14 (37 minutes of last year's 4:59 and 7 second slower than Raleigh two weeks earlier). Given the weather conditions, I will take this result and retire from Eagleman!
Now to see how the boys were doing. I had expected W to pass The Eagle on the run and then catch me too, but that didn't happen. The Eagle came in about 4 minutes after me, and W followed about 10 minute later. Brian and Tobias followed shortly thereafter, as did Patricia and Rebekah (who had the second-best race time of us all), and we all met up under the tent before heading back to The Eagle's Nest for the BLTCE 70.3 Championship awards ceremony.
When all was said and done, the Sufferfest on the run turned out to be the deciding factor...I ended up with the best time overall and shared the podium with W and The Eagle, with Rebekah and Patricia sharing the women's podium.
The glass trophies filled with beer gave us all the opportunity to do a Challenge roth-esque victory pour as I'm demonstrating in this video.
All in all, it was a fantastic weekend with some of our best friends, and the boys will go head-to-head-to-head-to-head-to-head again at the BLTCE Ironman Championship at Ironman Lake Placid on July 26th. Can't wait for more great times and more great memories with some truly fantastic people.
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