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Race Result

Racer: Brady DeHoust
Race: Reston Triathlon
Date: Sunday, September 12, 2004
Location: Reston, VA
Race Type: Triathlon - International Distance
Age Group: Male 25 - 29
Time: 2:04:03
Overall Place: 7
Age Group Place: 1
Comment: 3-minute PR...evenly distributed across S/B/R



Race Report:



There’s just something great about sleeping in your own bed the night before a triathlon. It’s rare, as most races require some type of travel or 4:30am day-of departure. The Reston tri offers a well-run race, great course, lots of familiar faces, known terrain, and free pizza if you stick around long enough.

I wasn’t too fired up the weeks leading up to Reston. I’ve been battling a combination of burnout, uncomfortable (for lack of a better word) training, and some physical annoyances that were causing training to be...well...not fun. Everything I did - whether it was swim, bike, or run - seemed like a hard effort. At stv’s recommendation, I took nearly 4-days off (2 easy swims) the week before RATMan, at a time where I’d normally want to be doing higher volume stuff. Mentally it was tough. I had three races left on my schedule – Reston, Make-A-Wish, and Duke. I had thoughts of doing none of them. I thought that, maybe this year, I’d end the season early, continuing to train, but without the pressure of being “race ready”. Instead, I decided to take the rest of the season one race at a time. Do Reston and see how things go/feel. If things go well, head up to Bethany Beach two-weeks later for the Make-A-Wish tri. If things go/feel well, make the decision to race the Duke Irondevil October 16. Obviously, other factors other than two successful Olympic distance races will drive the decision to race Duke. Most importantly, feeling better on long training days. I need my calves to stop twitching during the day and cramping up during training. Ironman hurts enough as is, I don’t want any extra elements contributing to struggle or pain.

I finished 14th OA last year. I thought that was a valid enough reason to be in wave 1, but the realistic swim time I submitted had me in wave 2 when I picked up my packet on Saturday -- funny too, ‘cause I’m sure I put down a time a minute or so faster than the time that had me in wave 1 in 2003. I spoke with Bunny, the race director, and she informed me that there were a ton of sub 25-minute swim estimates. I was skeptical, and asked if I could have my wave changed to wave 1. Bunny was very receptive of my request and kindly switched me to the first wave.

I started off the swim harder than I normally would -- in part to try a different strategy, as well as to try and escape the washing machine as fast as possible. Things felt smooth. There was open space and not too much impact with others. After 500m, many of the swimmers who opted to angle in later to the rope line converged and caused some heavy congestion. I was frustrated by not being able to quickly get around a couple slower swimmers. I pulled up on a few occasions to see if I could find a better line to swim that had less congestion. Things thinned out again shortly before the blue buoy. Rounding the turn buoy, I noticed Kyle Yost just on my inside. Kyle was a bit fried from Lake Placid, with only one swim consisting of a few laps the day of RATMan to his credit. He made it clear that one of his goals at Reston was to “beat Brady out of the water.” We swam the same pace from the turn to the finish. I pulled right a few times, but corrected before adding too much extra distance. I always feel like a snail (if snails could swim) rounding that drain. I noticed Yost once again just to my inside. We wound up standing up at the same time and my chip must have done one of those forward leans that track runners do during the 100m.
Brady: 27:52 Yost: 27:53.

T1 was okay...a little slower than I would’ve liked.

I felt really good on the bike this year. I expected to be a little flat for the first half of loop 1. The slight grade of Glade and Lawyers makes it tough to get into a groove right off the bat. Turning on to Colts Neck, the tempo picked up and set the tone for the remainder of the ride. I continually passed those who exited T1 before I had, and worked my way closer to the front of the pack (not necessarily the stv/Orton/Morris pack, but the rest of the top 10). I had a couple close calls with the cones, especially on the turn from Twin Branches to Glade after passing by the lake. That whole area is just a little dicey with people flying down Twin Branches and others merging in from T1 at very slow speeds.

T2 was, again, okay...not much to it. My rack was literally the first spot closest to the dismount area.

[I’m going to steel from stv here and adjust accordingly]
As I ran out I got the one piece of information I really needed for the whole race: Two. Two minutes behind the Big Horse (thanks Jim D.).

I was in 13th place starting the run, and exited very close to the 11th and 12th place runners. After the first 100 strides, I thought my race was going to end sooner than I’d planned. Both of my calves were close to seizing up. This was a downer. I was feeling really good. I was concerned that this might happen with some of the issues I’ve had over the previous few weeks. It hadn’t slowed me down yet, so I just kept moving, hoping that maybe...just maybe they’d work themselves out. I passed the 12th place dude pretty quick. I ran for a little while behind the 11th place dude. At one point, he missed a quick left turn and I mistakenly followed. We didn’t go more than 10 yards down the wrong path, but it was still 20 extra yards that didn’t need to be traversed. Shortly after the correction, I made the pass on a steep downhill where I just let my legs go. The cramps were still present, but still had yet to completely seize up. As I approached one of the short, steep hills I thought the calves would be toast. Conversely, this seemed to stretch the muscles out and the problem subsided for the remainder of the run. Over the next mile, I moved into 9th position, unknowingly at the time, passing Dave Williams (Dave – sorry for no shouts dude). Around the 2.5-mile mark, I caught Guz. He told me he had been passed and the guy was “running pretty fast”. The normal words of encouragement were exchanged and I pressed on to the turn. Shortly after the turn, I moved passed Roger Masse into 7th position, and this is where I’d remain. Tom Crandall was 1’30” ahead – way too much to make up. Dave Cascio was about 35-seconds ahead. Knowing Dave is not one to slow down, I knew that catching him was unlikely. At the least, I wanted to get him in site so I had a target to keep me pushing hard. With all the turns and undulations of the run course, I never had Dave in site ‘til the track, where he was starting the final turn just as I was entering. As I rounded the final turn with 100m to go, I noticed the clock reading 2:03.xx. I tried to pull from all reserves to see if I had a final kick that would keep the clock from flipping to 2:04.xx, but no luck. I crossed the mat (what happened to the finish line contraption?) at 2:04.03.

I was extremely pleased with this race. I bettered my 2003 time by 3-minutes, evenly distributed across the swim/bike/run. I really had no expectations for this race, and I think that helped. I pushed harder on the bike this year, and felt good the entire time -- it’s nice to push hard and feel good. I’ll take fault for missing a turn on the run; I live less than 8-miles from this course...I should know it.