USAT Age Group National Championships

Being from northern Illinois and having gone to college in Wisconsin, I thought it was only fitting for me to participate in the USAT Age Group National Championship (USATAGNC13) held downtown Milwaukee. 

We always try to make it back once a year to visit friends and family, so when I received the e-mail saying that I qualified for the race I thought why not. Plus, my Ironman training plan called for an Olympic distance race right around this time. 

I felt somewhat bad as my dad was not going to be home when we were there, ironically, he was in Big Spring, TX flying in the US Hang Gliding Nationals. How cool is it that a father and son were both competing in the national championships for their respective sports on the same weekend! 

We flew from Dallas to Chicago on Wednesday night and drove out to my parents where we hung out all day on Thursday and let the kids run wild with thier cousins. Friday morning, we packed up and headed to Milwaukee for packet pickup and bike check-in. I used Raceday Transport to ship my bike which was effortless...I can only imagine the anxiety I would have if I tried to check my bike on the plane in addition to us already lugging around three (3) suitcases, a backpack, diaper bag and two (2) kids! 

This was by far the largest race that I have participated in as they announced that there were 3,026 athletes registered for the Olympic distance race on Saturday morning. Surprisingly, I thought the venue was extremely well organized and did not feel overwhelming at all. I also thought that it was very spectator friendly, however, Kylie thought otherwise and corrected me by asking "when was the last time you were a spectator?" Point taken! 

After checking my bike in, we then headed to our friends house who lives in Oak Creek about 20 minutes South of Milwaukee for the night. Two (2) of our other friends came by to let the kids play and eat some pizza and then it was off to bed for me. 

My wave was not scheduled to start until 8:48 AM so I went to bed with the notion that I would "sleep in" but that didn't work as I was wide-eyed at 4:00 AM. I stumbled around the kitchen, ate breakfast, gathered my things and headed out the door. It was a little chilly that morning with the overnight low in the upper 50's so I wore sweatpants, fleece jacket and a beanie to keep warm. I was getting looks from the locals like I was crazy! After getting transition all set up, I went and found a grassy area where I could lay around, stretch and wait for Kylie and the girls to arrive. 

Swim 

The swim was in a protected cove of Lake Michigan and we entered the water off of a dock/pier below Discovery World. There was a scheduled 20 minute break between my AG and the one prior, however, they would not let us down to warm up. We all had our wetsuits on and stood in the sun for 15 minutes waiting for them to let us enter. When they finally let us down, the announcer comes over the loud speaker and says "hurry up...you only have three (3) minutes!!!" I scurried down, dove in and took a couple warm up strokes and then stopped to relieve myself. The water temp was 69 degrees and felt cold at first but was very refreshing. Before I finished, they were hollering at everyone to get back to the start line. I barely made it back in time before they sounded the horn and off we went! 

My AG (35-39) was one of the larger waves of the day with 197 athletes. This was the most crowded swim that I have done. The start at Wildflower was crowded until the first turn bouy, but then it thinned out. I swam this entire race in the middle of a crowd and if I wasn't swimming over top of someone, they were coming over me! After looking at the results, there were 34 people in my AG that finished the swim +/-0:30 from me. Unfortunately, we weren't the fast crowd. I finished the swim in 25:15 (1:41/100m) which was a minute off of my goal pace and only good enough for 89th/197 in my AG. Its a little discouraging when you miss your mark on the swim knowing that you have to make it up...time to drop the hammer! 

T1 

After climbing up the ramp out of the water, I began stripping my wetsuit and running down the path towards transition. It was about that time when I heard Kylie yelling for me and I quickly spotted here and the girls as well as my best friend Mark who let out a "Let's go EEEEEEEEE!!!" which took me back to the glory days! I also heard Avery and Kirby yelling "Go Daddy!" which is always motivating. I was in and out of T1 in 2:20 which was about what I had predicted. 

Bike 

I spent a lot of time analyzing the bike course online and determined it was going to be flat and fast. Coming out of transition, I was surprised to hear Kylie and the girls yelling for me as they ran all the way around transition! With the 20 minute break between my AG and the one prior, it left the bike course wide open so it was time to put in work. I put my head down and started hammering. 

Part of my race strategy was to go all out on the bike and suffer through the run. Well, I did just that beating my goal time for the bike split by over 2:00 finishing in 1:01:56 averaging 24.1 MPH which was a new PR split for the Oly distance. To my surprise, this was only good enough for the 54th fastest bike split in my AG and 346th overall! The guys at the front of the field all had sub 1:00 bike splits with the fastest guying finishing in 55:13 at 27 MPH! I'm gonna guess that he has a little more invested into his bike than I do! 

T2 

I saw Kylie and the girls once again near the dismount line as I stumbled just a bit getting off the bike. I was in and out of T2 in 1:38 which was a little slower than I wanted, but I took a second to catch my breath and take a couple sips of water. 

Run 

My previous Oly PR was 2:26:54 and I told everyone that my goal for this race was to finish in under 2:20:00, but let me be honest, my burning desire was to finish in sub 2:15:00 and coming off the bike I had it in sight! All I had to do now was run the 10k in 43:50 at a 7:04 pace, nevermind that my PR for an open 10k is only 44:45! Not long into the run, I developed a side stitch on my right side which slowed me tremendously and did not subside until 2 miles in. At that point, I knew 2:15:00 was out of the question so I just tried to manage through the remaining 4 miles. I finished the run in a disappointing 47:19 (7:36/mile) which was the 147th slowest in my AG. Can you guess where I need the most improvement? 

Anyways, coming down the finish chute was intense with music, bleachers and people lining both sides. I even got a kick out of listening to the announcer call my name "Here comes Eric Bunner from Frisco, TX...or is it Buhner...no I'm pretty sure its Bunner!" 

My overall time was 2:18:29 and was good enough for 88th/197 in my AG. All in all I had an absolute blast doing this race and I have no regrets. Sure I would've liked to hit my outperform time, but you can't really be disappointed with setting a new PR by over 8:00! 

I want to thank Kylie once again for toting the girls around all by herself to come cheer me on. I think she is more worn out after these races than I am. I know it's a difficult chore, but words can't express the appreciation. I also want to thank my mom who's attendance was TBD, but she made the two (2) hour drive race morning all by herself to come watch me and then turned around and headed home. What can I say, I'm pretty special to have both of these women in my life! 

Later that day, we all headed out to the Hamel's house in Sussex, WI for a post-race celebration which may have ended with doing reverse donuts in the Ford Fiesta rental car in their backyard! 

Up Next:  My first century ride of the year is next weekend at the Hotter N Hell Hundred in which my goal is to finish in under 5:00:00 (+20 MPH). I also just registered for the RedMan Triathlon (half) in OKC which is exactly eight (8) weeks out from IRONMAN Arizona as planned.