St Croix was a once in a lifetime race experience and I am very glad I was able to go. It wasn’t my best race but it wasn’t my worst either. It was my worst swim by far and slowest bike but I had a solid run for an early season race.
The trip started a bit chaotic when me, Matt and Elena Musiak didn’t get our luggage. Sarah Kelly and Lida Vanasse luckily found there’s as we were leaving the airport. Spotted accidently by Lida. I was glad they were able to get theres. I’d rather they had there’s over me having mine. From all the stories I heard I was pretty optimisitic I’d have mine the next day…although I broke just about every rule regarding flying…which for me is the best way to learn. I was beginning to think my check-in bag would never arrive as I had a box of CO2 cartridges in my bag AND it was locked. OOPS!!!! I was VERY relieved when it showed up at the the hotel. PHEW!!!
So anyway let’s get to race morning. Traveling is tough. I was pretty tired and I woke up with a congested head and sore throat. Felt a little worn down but chalked it up to nerves. The no wetsuit ocean swim was tugging at me a bit more than I would’ve liked but I knew I would survive it. We made our way over to transition and got setup. Setting up was a bit of a nuisance. When I got to the rack only one other person was there. I put my bike on the rack next to his and before I could put my mat down two other bikers squeezed there bike in between ours barely fitting them on. I looked at them…looked down the rack at an empty rack…then looked at them again. I guess they didn’t realize I was a Masshole…or maybe they did. So I threw my mat down to claim my territory. Threw my gear down…thought good enough…back to the hotel. Me, Joe, Sarah and Lida headed back to the room to relax a bit before the race and finish getting ready.
Mistake #1 – forogt to put on body glide. My swimskin really rubs against the skin and in the salty waters it really cut into me pretty good.
Mistake #2 – lining up on the left at the swim start. I’ll get into that shortly.
Mistake #3 – not putting my goggles on under my swim cap. Not REALLY a mistake but ended up being one.
THE SWIM
Let’s get to the swim start. I was lining up with Dave Rodriguez and I said Let’s line up on the left so we can stay wide of the buoy’s. Well a split second before we took off it dawned on me that the first buoy was a left turn. OOPS!!! Too late to switch now our wave is starting. We run into the water and started swimming. All is well untill BOOM!!! I start getting hit by a brick wall of swimmers and we weren’t even at the turn buoy yet. Everyone just funneled in my direction. I got hit with everything. Heads, elbows, feet…I felt like a dead fish being turned over by the waves. Goggles got hit and salt water got in them. It was very comical in it’s own way. By the time everything calmed down and I got the water out of my goggles I started swimming again. It started ok after that but we were going into the sun and it was hard for me to spot the buoys so I started following swimmers or at least I thought I was. Eventually I found myself following the line of boats and not the buoys. I just kept going straight until I could finally see the first yellow turn buoy…WAY OUT TO MY RIGHT!!!! Finally!!! I started making my way towards it looking up every 10 strokes or so not feeling I was getting any closer. Hmmmm…well I finally reached it and made the turn. It was about this time I felt my swimskin digging into my skin around the neck and right shoulder. Every stroke now was just irritating and burning. I made it to the fort buoy and was much more comfortable when I could see the bottom moving underneath me. Made it to the final buoy and got to the exit where an island local pulled me out of the water and I made my way to T1. I looked at my watch and saw 735AM. Ahhhh a nice PW swim of 54 minutes but at least I’m out of the water. And I didn’t come here for the swim…I came for THE BEAST!!!
T1
I get to T1 and I get my spares and nutrition ready to put in my pockets. I couldn’t find my pockets. HAHAHA I still had my swimskin on. Thankfully I was reaching for pockets otherwise I would’ve took off riding in my swimskin. One of these days I’ll do that…just not today…I got lucky!!! But man did I have a tough time getting that thing off. I practiced it too but today I just couldn’t flick it off. Took me a good minute just to get the zipper started and seeing as only my bike and one other were in my rack it was clear I was nowhere near well…anyone. I finally got it off, got my bike gear on and made my way.
THE BIKE
Where’s that Beast? Ever since I signed up for this race I couldn’t wait to get to the Beast. Hills are my favorite part of biking. I love hills!!! I was watching videos of the Beast and reading race reports of the Beast for months. I watched a video of a biker climbing the Beast and watched the time to get an idea of how long I’d be climbing. Mt Sugarloaf was a perfect training climb time wise. Monson Road was perfect grade wise and Girl Scout hill was short but steeper than the Beast IMO. I go easy on the bike for the first 21 miles. Not too fast but not too slow…good pace just not killing it. So anyway my plan on the bike was to bring two water bottles keeping one cage free for aid station bottles. The new bottle holders I had were VERY TIGHT and I put them on the day I transported my bike so had zero time to practice with them. The first aid station I saw I grabbed a perform, drank some and tried to put it in the holder. I just couldn’t get that sucker in there. Gave it the good ol college try for close to a minute and gave up. I took in a good chug and saw a barrel up ahead. I gave it a good sky hook chuck over my head, yelled two-points and flew it a good 20 feet passed the barrel and it exploded on the pavement. So as I biked ahead the sun was pretty hot but I could feel a nice breeze from the ocean winds. I was taking in gu and bloks and perform but I had no straight water. I decided that at the next station I would grab a water and stop real quick to not just drink it but to make sure I could cage it and have it on me to help settle my stomach. It wasn’t feeling all that great and I wanted to keep it in check. I did this four times for about 30 seconds each time. I felt it was the best thing to do. It was the first time I ever stopped on the bike but those two minutes didn’t kill me and it might have actually saved me on the run. Oh and I almost forgot about the rooster. After the first 8 mile loop you make your way back into town and ride thru some very narrow streets with very tight turns. Just before exiting town this rooster comes in for an attack. I thought for sure his head was going right into my spokes. I brake slightly and try to avoid it. I think I yelled sit or something and it barely missed me. That was close.
I played most of the bike course conservative. I learned on the computrianer rides about power usage and how improtant it is. So I not only went conservative on the hills but also on the downhills. I was still passing everyone I was with on the hills but most of them were passing me on the downhills. I had learned in those computrianer sessions even on the downhills when booking down like a out-of-control freight train I could still be exhausting power I made need for later. SO as the other bikers flew by me on the downhills I eventually passed them on the next hill…and I also knew from the computrainer that there were MANY HILLS!!! Eventually I worked up enough of a lead on the hills most of them were left behind. There were a few that were super fast…impressive!!! Also training in the March and April New England winds really helped. Those winds made the St Croix winds seem like breezes. And in some places they were blowing pretty good. Just nothing like the winds we biked in the passed couple of months. I finally appreciated trianing in those winds although at the time they were a BIG PAIN IN THE ASS!!!!
THE BEAST
So I start biking thru a rain forest. That was COOL!!! Doug Guertin was telling me about it and man it was SO COOL!!!! and I knew the Beast was lurking just ahead. I come out and notice the left turn for The Beast! I make the left and I instantly see a row of bikers walking up. I start making my way up. As I go up I see a marking 16% grade. Followed by “this is the easy part.” I was smiling…I was loving this…I WANTED THIS!!!! It was like living a dream!!! As I was passing bikers both walking and riding I powered up not stopping…avoiding the swerving biker and climbing. I knew the worst part was about halfway up and I wanted to swing it wide left around the right turn. Well I get there just as three guys dismount there bikes and the one on the right walks directly in front of me. I yell hey I’m right behind you look out I ain’t stopping!!! Well I’m forced to stay right up the steepest part. I’m ok with it…I’ll eat this shit up…I came here for this so let’s take it head on!!! I power up and make my way to the last turn. The last part I believe was 16% to the top and I rode all of it out of my seat with as much power as I could. I wanted this to be the best part of my ride. I wanted to kill this thing. I didn’t care about anything else. I’m flying by everyone and was in a zone and killing it. I get near the top and all the spectators are clapping. I go by this one guy and he yells OH BABY YOU’RE KILLING IT BRO! AWESOME POWER!!! That made me feel great. I get to the top and see the aid station. I toss my old water and grab a new one and stop just before the descent. Get a good drink and cage it then head down. That 30 second rest was awesome and I’m glad I took it because on my way down I passed a biker who wiped out pretty bad coming down. I was about to stop but there was already someone with him so I kept going and was careful getting down as their were a few sharp turns. The rest of the ride wasn’t bad. Lots of hills and lots of sun. When I got to mile 30 I thought hey you’re racing in St Croix…enjoy some of the sites. Race but take some of this in. So I started looking around. Met a few of the bikers and we talked about the race as we passed back and forth. I hit mile 35 and thought WOW!!! That was A LONG 5 miles! Miles 35 to 40 and 40 to 45 seemed like forever to me. Plus my lower back was just on fire from mile 30 on. I stopped at the aid station at mile 40 and was thinking just before that I’ll probably see Mary Guertin soon. Well wouldnt you know it she caught me as I was pulled over at mile 40ish caging my new water bottle I just picked up. I knew she’d catch me eventually…I was hoping on the run…why did it have to be on one of my pit stops lol. She’s great. She said nice job Bill as she rode by me…another one of her victims 🙂 The end of the bike was uneventful. I spoke to the spectators as I biked by and made sure to point at the kids and wave to them and make them smile. That was another one of the best parts for me. When biking passed the poor sections I’d see a kid sitting in the dirt just looking up. I’d point at him and using Joe G’s line say “How you doin’?” they would instantly jump up and smile and wave.
T2
I get back to transistion and make my way over and see Dave Rodriguez getting ready for his run. I tell him about my epic 54 minute swim and we have a good laugh. I get to my spot on the rack and just stand there in awe. They packed the bikes so tight there was NO WAY to get my bike in. I point it out to Dave and he starts laughing as well as me. I get my hands in and shove the bikes over as best I could. Takes me a good minute and a half to finally rack it and I start getting ready for the run. I tell Dave good luck and I’ll see you out there…I’m just going to grab a porta jobby as I don’t feel like pissing myself right now. I grab a vacant one and echoed an AHHHHHHHHHH for a good 90 seconds. Made my way out and started my run.
THE RUN
The run course was AWEOSME!!! The spectators were great. They loved calling me a bumble bee so I gave them the buzz buzz. High fived a bunch of people throughout the run and only stopped at the aid stations and Beast Jr…and a very steep 20 ft climb that I figured I was better off walking. I only lost about 5 seconds walking Beast Jr. On the main street I saw a dead iguanna. St Croixs version of road pizza. The run thru the golf course was really cool. I love golf so I was really enjoying that. The cool breeze coming off the ocean also felt great. Beast Jr was located in the golf course and also the other steep hill. Exiting the golf course and The Bucaneer I was two miles out of town. Headed back to the start where we had to turn and loop it again. I held ice the entire run. Had sponges on my shoulders and grabbed a water and a cola or gatorade at every aid station. The run back in we had a .7 mile loop down the side street before entering the run finish. I hit the last aid station and grabbed a water. Walked a few steps while I drank it so I could have a strong finish and a local was yelling there’s someone behind you he’s gonna catch you. I said ain’t no one catching me now and I took off. It felt GREAT to finish this race.
Less than 500 people started this race and apprx 30 didn’t finish. I’m surprised more people don’t enter this one. What an AWESOME race and the people there are FANTASTIC!!! Very nice…very hospitable!!! I’ll be going back to this one no doubt. Not next year but soon and I’ll be staying much longer after the race. I’ll never forget this one. The people were great, the food was AWESOME and I had the best time with my friends. We had such a great group there!!! Got to see Sarah win a Kona slot. Being able to see her win a slot was the best memory! Congratulations again Sarah!!! That was THE BEST!!!