Rev 3 Quassy Half

Good run, an okay bike, but the run hurt… At mile 6 Merlin was telling Cougar that, “We’re running on vapor.”

I was actually looking forward to this race. It’s a tough race all around and as expected the field was stacked like every race this season. Forty men started the race. The water temperature was 69 degrees and the air temp was 49 degrees. This means no wetsuits for the pros, which also means you won’t fell your feet or genitals until the run. I was happy with my swim, roughly 50 seconds back from main break of 5. John Kenny was off the front. I had put plenty of good competitors behind me, including Joe Gamble and James Cunnama (eventual winner). The bike was okay too. I caught the break of 5 early; the best guess is mile 10. So, I thought I was riding well. I took advantage of the descents hoping to slip off the front two times, but that didn’t happen.

The critical section of the bike was the last 20 miles. Joe Gambles and James Cunnama caught us and made a big push. I wasn’t able to keep up, and a few people did better than I in the closing miles of the bike. I started the run with Matty Reed, Richard Allen, and John Kenny. Richie Cunningham was just ahead of us. The race order at this point was Andrew Starykowzic, James Cunnama, Joe Gambles, Terenzo Bezzone, Paul Matthews, Dan Hugo and then us. My feet were still frozen, so I jammed them into my shoes to hard and folded the insoles in the toe box, which I didn’t know until mile 2 as my feet warmed up enough. I stopped to fix the problem and lost contact with Richard Allen and Richie. However, my running legs were still pretty good at this point, so I had hopes of catching back up. I did pass Dan Hugo, but was repassed at mile 10.

That Mig messed Cougar up

My splits were 2 mile 10:31, 3 mile 16:16, 4, mile 21:45, 5 mile 28:20, 6 mile 34:40, 7 mile 41:50, 8 mile 48:30, 9 mile 54:40, 10 mile 1:00:13, 11 mile 1:05:50 13.1 mile 1:26ish.  At mile 6, Merline was telling Cougar that, “We’re running on vapor...” (Top Gun reference) I would have liked to slow down. However, I was in 8th (in the money), so I needed to keep fighting.  Nutrition wasn’t the problem. It’s was the distance, training, and hard racing that did me in. Yeah, I could have us been more conservative, but I'd perfer to race for the win. I’d rather be in contention for the win at some point and finish 14th than never be in the race and finish 8th.

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