Interview re USAT award.

This being the site for self-centered thoughts I figure the interview about being selected USA Triathlon Grand Master Triathlete of 2011 should be conducted by myself.  I hope this satisfies those folks who have asked me about 2011 and what made it any different than any other year since I started in this sport in 1982.  M1=Michael1 or Me1.  M2=Michael2 or Me2.  Actually, I could probably come up with a Me3 and a Me4 to take part in this interview.  (What?)

M1: Well, Michael.  So you got some big award in your sport, eh? 

M2: Uh, yeah.  But I don’t think it’s gonna get me much other than a few slaps on the back.

M1: What?  You’re complaining?  Oh, man, I might just cut this interview off right here.

M2: Sure, as if you too wouldn’t like to get some goodies for free whenever you can.  I’ve seen you around.  You’d eat a hot dog off a table in the park just ‘cause you found it for free.

M1: Ok, ok.  You got me there.  So tell me.  What would you like to get? 

M2: Well, Santa Claus, if you’re ready to part with a few bucks how ‘bout a nice set of racing wheels.  I think I abused my friendship with Gwen a bit much by borrowing her race wheels for some road races.  And I abused my pocketbook renting road race wheels for a couple of races.  Can you put those on the list first, please.

M1: Gotcha.  What else?

M2: Oh my, the list goes on but I don’t think that’s what you’re supposed to be interviewing me about.  Maybe we better move on.

M1: Hmmm.  I suppose.  But did you really do anything all that interesting in 2011?  Wasn’t it just a bunch of boring races that only you enjoyed ‘cause you were the one doing them?

M2: Don’t think I’ve ever been so flattered by an interviewer.  Boring?  Hah!  Interesting?  Of course.  Everything I do is interesting.  For instance, yesterday I was tying my shoes in the living room . . .

M1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Let’s get back to the triathlons that got you this award.  I hope they happened somewhere other than your “exciting” living room.  Where’d you go this year?

M2: Let’s see.  12 triathlons.  The apexes of the travel triangle were Calgary, Canada (half ironman) in the north, Las Vegas, NV (70.3 Worlds) in the southwest and Richmond, VA (Xterra East regional championship) in the east.  Let’s make that an irregular rectangle and add Burlington, VT (road nationals) as another apex.  All travel, except to road nationals, was done by car, either sleeping in the car or a tent or bumming places from friends and family.  All results were wins, except 70.3 Worlds.

M1: Man, that’s a bunch of travelin’ for an old man.  How’d you hold up? I can’t handle those long, multiple days in cars anymore myself.  Plus, how’d you get in the training to stay competitive while you were on the road so much?

M2: You think I’m gonna spill secrets to you?  Can’t trick me that easy, fella.  It was a significant challenge of 2011 of course, ‘cause I’m just as old as you are, you know, but let’s get back to the races.  Here’s a simple list.

Date	Days Betwn	Event	Type/ Distance	Site	Comment
5/14		Xterra Moab	Off-road/ Standard	Ken's Lake, Moab	Crazy rocks on the ride.  Wind and sand on the run.  Intense mental focus to maintain form with the intense pain of each running step due to foot injury that played throughout the season..
5/28	14	Pelican Fest	Road/ Sprint	Windsor Lake, CO	3rd fastest bike split overall, though I'm 60.  Shocker.  Good bikers in the crowd.  Last time for fresh biking legs this season.
6/4	7	Xterra 4 Corners	Off-road/ Standard	Farmington, NM	Sand, sand, sand.  Foot injury made me give up the chase of younger folks on the run.  Too bad since shooting for a top ten finish.
6/12	8	Xterra East Regional	Off-road/ Standard	Richmond, VA	Ended up in the X-country runners medical tent the day BEFORE the race due to crash while pre-riding the bike course.  So a very cautious first place the next day.
6/25	13	Loveland Lake to Lake	Road/ Olympic	Loveland, CO	Flatted with about 3 miles to go on the bike.  Race over so took time (5.5 min) to change tube while watching the race go by.  Took it relatively easy on the run.  Surprised.  Still won age group.
7/10	15	Boulder Peak	Road/ Olympic	Boulder, CO	Did this race because I flatted in Loveland and needed to get in a full effort Oly distance race prior to the national championship race.
7/24	14	Xterra Wild Horse Creek	Off-road	Bozeman, MT	Tied in with gathering of family from WA, MT & WY.  Small, small race but with the most family I'd ever had at an event.  Great venue.  Raced for points to get Xterra Nationals invite.  Rest of story later.
7/31	7	Calgary 70.3	Road/ Half-ironman	Calgary, Canada	Another bucket list item.  Saw Banff.  Camped out in place with no water or even outhouses.  Used old 1997 bike I got free third-hand some years ago.
8/20	20	USAT Nat'l Champ	Road/ Olympic	Vermont	The original focus of the season (see below).  Came back from 2 min swim deficit to win by over 2-1/2 min.
9/4	15	5i50 US Champ	Road/ Olympic	Des Moines, IA	Wanted to have the HyVee experience in Des Moines.  HyVee folks didn't disappoint.  Staging of both amateur and pro races were great.
9/11	7	70.3 Worlds Champ	Road/ Half-ironman	Henderson, NV	The alternative to running (see below) that I had to do bit me hard here 'cause I hadn't been doing my post workout stretches and self-massage.  Muscle cramps meant I barely finished the bike and had trouble even stepping over the dropped cooling sponges on the road.  Wow.  Could I finish?  Could I race at Xterra Nationals in just two weeks?
9/24	13	Xterra USA Champ	Off-road/ Standard	Ogden, UT	Knew I had half an hour to spare in this race.  Exhausted at the end of a long season.  Still injured.  Flatted at the end of the bike so rolled over rocks and such on the rim.  Strategic racing got me the championship.  I was pleased. (Or shouldn't we admit such things?)

M1: That’s quite a list.  I’m startin’ to be impressed.

M2: Well, golly gee whiz, Michael1, you’re startin’ to embarrass me.  Want to know some more?

M1: Can I go grab an ale, first.  No offense, but this is starting to get a bit long.

M2: Sure, I’ll wait.  Get me one, too.

M1: I’m back.  Hey, this AB ain’t bad.  So you gave us some cryptic highlight comments but before getting into a bit more about some of the races what’s this about running in pain?  Every triathlete out there is pushin’ their limits, struggling with something.  What was so different for you this year.

M2: Ah, that.  Yes.  Actually quite a challenge.  You see, near the end of January I was still getting around on crutches with a removable splint on my right foot.  I hadn’t run because of that for about 4 months.  That left me unmotivated to do swimming for about 3 months.  I had been cycling on the mountain and commuter bikes.  But the foot pain just walking around was still fairly severe.  I’d injured both plantar fascia in late September.  (Some new racing flats with soles too inflexible).  The right plantar fascia would not heal and then as I tried to race anyway I developed Achilles tendinitis and calcaneal bursitis, to boot.  Generally I ran once a week or less.  The longest distance would be 8 miles, and that only at an aerobic pace.  So I had to do a lot of alternative workouts to running – plyometrics and just simple jumping in place was a lot of it.  Unfortunately, I didn’t do what I knew I should also do to accompany this – that is, stretches and self-massage.  So I ended up paying big time at 70.3 Worlds – barely finished as I noted above.  Plus, I was really concerned I’d ruined my chances at Xterra Nationals which were only two weeks later.  If I wasn’t such a procrastinator when it comes to making decisions I might not have finished 70.3 Worlds.  I was still debating about whether to continue or drop-out when I crossed the finish line.  See, procrastination has its benefits.

So the run portion was quite a challenge in each event as every landing of the right foot involved a significant amount of pain.  The mental focus to maintain form and try to push off used all my brain power – a limited commodity.  I had to give up chasing people in more than one race.  But the enjoyment I had in each event was worth it.  I assume the folks who race regularly in the Physically Challenged category would say the same thing  The inspiration they provide increased for me this year as each event had this additional mountain to get over.

M1: I agree.  Those PC racers are an incredible lot.  They put our efforts into proper perspective. Do you have any other comments about individual races?  I know we can’t go into all the detail (as much as your ego would expound forever) but think a bit on each and tell me what comes to mind.

M2: OK, let’s see.

Xterra Moab:  I reemphasize the crazy rock garden riding we had to do on that course.  Just insane trying to go at anything close to race speed.   First off-road tri in which I still saw Dawes Wilson at the end of the bike after he passed me, as he always does.  I was pretty stoked about that.  A couple of women racers helped me keep going on the run as the pain built up.  Kim Baugh, who was 3^rd place female overall, was particularly helpful as we ran the last half of the 2^nd lap together.

Pelican Fest Tri:  I can’t re-emphasize enough the shock of seeing I had the 3^rd fastest bike split overall.  Yes, it was a smaller sprint tri.  But still, at age 60, who’d a thunk it?  Swim wasn’t that great as I led my wave in the water so I knew I was losing time to friends in lower age groups I was competing against.  And the run was the standard pain control bit of fun.  So the bike split is what gave me a glow from this race.

Xterra Four Corners:   

Xterra East Regional Championship:  I really need to have a light 26er in my arsenal.

Loveland Lake to Lake:  The other guys in or near my age group reminded me why I still like road racing so much.  Until I flatted it was a lot of fun being pushed and trying to hang on when passed.

Boulder Peak:  The surprise out of this race was qualifying for the 5i50 U.S. Championship race.  Melinda got excited about going.  I’d never raced in Des Moines, IA.  The HyVee folks, a major Midwest grocery chain, have an excellent reputation as a event sponsor – particularly of the pro races that were to follow us age-groupers.

Xterra Wild Horse Creek:  Got to check off another bucket list item – an off-road race in the mountains of Montana.  How do I explain that to folks outside the sport?  Family came over from Billings, MT.  Plus, family was out from the Seattle area to visit our aging father in Wyoming.  The family hung in there with a sport that’s not spectator friendly.  And, since I was just racing for points to get a spot at Xterra Nationals while trying to save some energy for the Canada half-ironman just seven days hence, I could relax while racing and interact a bit with family as I passed by them at different points.

We did have a little incident during the awards ceremony.  I told my family they didn’t have to suffer through it but, to my build up of guilt, they did.  The announcer got to my age group, 60-64, and without looking at the next page of results decided that noone in my age group could have finished yet.   So the awards ceremony just flat out ceased.  For almost an hour!  Finally, it was decided to restart the award ceremony.  My name was announced but when the announcer began to read my time she stopped dead again and explained there must be an error in results so they were going to double-check and be back with the waiting crowd.  I was just coming out of a quick 2^nd swim in the lake trying to get their attention that I really was 60.  That doubt of results being accurate was one of the best compliments of the year, but I hated to have my family suffer through another hour of just waiting around at a triathlon site.

Calgary 70.3: Had left my sleeping bag in Montana.  The cold, 7º C, would eventually penetrate the tent, my blanket and clothes as I slept at night.  Not the best series of nights before a challenging, hilly bike and run course. The bike ride in Banff (Canada’s first national park) was great during the week even in cool rain. On the old 1997 bike I did set a new age-group course record, though I struggled, as usual, mightily on the run and failed to get under 5 hours.

USAT National Championship:  Met Gerry Foreman here. 73 years old and began his triathlon career at age 70 -- another inspiring story.

5i50 U.S. Championship:  As before, an excellent presentation by HyVee for all three races – age group championship, age group non-championship race and the pro races.  Unfortunately, the Ironkid races had to be cancelled due to weather.

70.3 World Championshp:  My ego took a big hit in this race – certainly no competitive glory on this day  That last 12 miles of the bike I was just trying to get to T2.  I had no clue if I would continue on past that point.  I did.  But in the first mile of the half-marathon I had to stop and sit on a curb, in some wonderful tree shade, to massage my leg muscles so I could keep moving.  Just picking up my feet for another step was a challenge for over 2 hours.  Scary.  Here’s something really goofy about this race, though.  USAT actually put my 7^th place finish into one of their press announcements as if it had something to do with being selected Grand Master Triathlete of 2011.  What could they be thinking?  It's actually a reason to NOT be recognized.

Xterra USA Championship:  Now here’s something USAT should have taken note of instead of that silly result at the 70.3 World Championship.  I’m actually kinda proud that I’m the only person to be both the road and off-road USA Triathlon champion. After this race I was told, quite seriously by an age grouper below me, that I should get a decent bike so I could race well.  You see, my whole bike probably cost me less than his front fork alone would have cost me.  

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And so the season of fun came to an end.  Now a thanks to my “sponsors”. J

Sponsor thanks list:

The Schuckies for giving me already out-of-date Perpetuum (which I’m finally just about to use up in March of 2012) that they had in some back room or garage.  (They’re important triathletes who actually get sponsor stuff as age groupers – something I can only dream of.)

Melinda Orendorff for exempting me from househusband duties during the tri season of travel.

Gwen Steves for lending me her road racing wheels in 3 of the road tri’s

Multiple family and friends for providing floor space for sleeping, with the occasional upgrade to a bed, and a bit of food in my belly.  The conversation and camaraderie always beat the room and board.

·         Jack & Hollie Chapman in Richmond, VA

·         Patricia & Nahum Arav in Blacksburg, VA

·         Ann & Chip Crickard in Columbus, OH

·         Dennis Coombs & Kristen Kinard in Longmont, CO

·         Eric Edgerton & family outside of Aztec, NM

·         Jeannine & Larry Cozzens in Billings, MT

·         SinClair & Helen Orendorff in Powell, WY

·         Pam & Warren Schuckies in Boulder, CO

·         David & Vickie Orendorff who appeared in WY and MT though they live in WA

Bruce Wacker for being a friend every step of the way.  And for bringing Nicki Rosa into the equation.

Tim Yount for being a great cheerleader for many years.  He’s a pillar in our sport in multiple ways.  Worthy of the hall of fame.

Campground mates:  Especially, the 4 ex-Mormon bikers (the kind with big hog motors) outside of Bryce Canyon National Park.  One in particular I had stunning conversations with.  What a well-read fireman from Arizona he was.  Also of special note were the helpful folks at KOA’s in Illinois, Missouri and Virginia (though I did camp in other states as well.)  The fellow in Illinois got me to one of the better public lake swim sites I’ve ever been in.