›Troika Half Ironman (Spokane, WA)

Race date: August 7, 2005

By: Jeff Patterson

Decent day of racing. 31 mins swim, 2:34 bike, 1:45 run. Pacing was steady swim, steady to mod-hard bike, steady run out to the turn around, then easy back into town getting in as much fluid as possible – run was in the high 90’s and fairly humid. Nice to finally race a 1/2IM that’s not in either the Cascade Mountains or the Sierra foothills.

Gina, Bella (our pup) and I drove to Spokane on Saturday, the day before the race – 6.5hrs in the car. Ugh. Well, the race website gave us no information as to the location of packet pickup, etc. So, we just headed for Medical Lake where the race starts. Things got interesting at this point. As we pulled into the parking lot, both lots were FULL, and then we noticed bike racks completely loaded with bikes, and tons of folks milling in race gear. Buoys were in the lake; the whole bit. I slowly mumbled…..uh, I….missed….the….race…., G…? G hopped out of the truck, and ran up to where they were posting results….it was a sprint tri. Before she told me, I thought, "holy crap, that’s a ton of fast people. It’s barely noon and all these folks have FINISHED in under 5hrs?!?" Anyway, on to the race.

SWIM: Dry land start. Hate those damn things. Started front row dead center. Got pummeled for the first few hundred yards. Then hammered off the front on a good set of feet and settled in. Swam very steady for the bulk of the swim and backed off a few hundred yards from shore. G said there was a lead group of 5, then a chase pack of 5, then big pack. I was on the feet of the lad leading the big pack. Out in 31 mins. First swimmer was out in 27 mins. Tolerable, I guess.

BIKE: Very deceptive course. Hopped on and head out. 2 miles in a big friggin’ yellow jacket bounced off my helmet and onto my left quad. Before I could swat it off, that bugger stung the ever-livin’-$#!%# out of me. The first 1hr of the bike is gently rolling hills. Goal was to ride at Aerobic Threshold for the first half of the bike, climb moderate-hard on the second half, and cruise into T2. I blasted through the first 24 miles right at an hour and felt like I was simply riding comfortably. Continued to roll pretty well through the last half, but the hills get longer and steeper through the course until we were way up above Spokane in the exposed wheat fields out east. By this time, temps were rising and winds were picking up. Close to town, the hills are short but pretty dang steep. For reference, I rode the first 48 miles in my big ring – granted some of that moderate hard climbing was somewhat drillin’ it. J Backed off and spun the last few hills before the screamin’ fast descent into downtown. Ride time 2:34

RUN: The plan here was to run steady out to the turnaround then back off to IM pace for the last half. Being 3 weeks out from IM-Canada, I didn’t really want to trash my quads too much, and it was getting hot hot HOT out there. The run course is gently rolling but complete exposed for the bulk of it. By the time I finished it was approaching 100 degrees. Soooo, I hit the run turnaround at about 45mins, then simply ran easy and drank everything humanly possible at each aid station. There was some major suffering going on out there. The day before after the athletes’ meeting, it was 101 at 6:30pm. YIKES! Anyway, cruised back into town for 1:45 run and 4:54 finish. Top 20 overall and Top 10 in my age group. Yep, that’s right. That 35-39 AG was one deep age group. In fact, I know at least one or two of those guys have pro cards, but no pro class at this race. Gina noticed that if I had been 6 months younger, I would have been on the age group podium – 3rd. Kinda funny. I thought these dudes were supposed to get slower as they get older… J

Troika is a great race. This was there 25th anniversary. I would say it is a very "fair" course…it just gets friggin’ hot every year. Now, it’s peak time for IMC! J

See ya out there,

Jeff

 

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