The Copperman Triathlon took place on Saturday, August 4, 2012. The race takes place in beautiful Copper Harbor, Michigan at the Fort Wilkins State Park. The race begins with a half mile swim in Lake Fanny Hooe, 23 mile bike ride along Lake Superior, and 5 mile run beyond the tip of US 41. As a brief summary of my results, I was fortunate enough to finish 3rd overall and 1st in the 20-29 age group. I was 2 minutes and 57 seconds behind the overall winner. My result certificate is here. And the overall results are here. I ended up with the 3rd fastest bike and 3rd fastest run overall. Swim was 26 among males, and 35 overall (not including relay teams).

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Brief quantitative synopsis: 26th male out of the water (5 min 1 sec behind the lead). 6th fastest T1 put me into 20th position at the start of my bike race (5 min 7 sec behind the lead). 3rd fastest bike put me into 7th position coming off the bike (4 min 33 sec behind the lead). 15th fastest T2 kept me in 7th place starting the run (4 min 32 sec behind the lead). 3rd fastest run put me in 3rd place when it was all over (2 min 57 sec behind the lead).

Anyone interested in photos can check out Brockit’s gallery on smugmug. Anyway, I’m really grateful for how well things went for me. Actually, I am astonished by my swim. The bike and run went well, but those were the 2 sports where I knew what I could do. In all of my previous triathlons, the swim did not go very well. As I mentioned in the Prologue to this site, when I did this swim a year ago it took me over 27 minutes. The quarter mile swims in my triathlons this year have taken me 10 to 13 minutes. After getting some instruction only a few weeks ago and committing myself to purposeful practice leading up to this race, I made a huge amount of progress recently and managed the half mile swim in 15 minutes 22 seconds. That was still 5 minutes behind the fastest swimmer, but it put me in a position to be a contender for the first time in my very young triathlete career.

[Not a valid template] The swim start went great for me. There was a typical amount of jostling and swimming on top of each other for the first 1 or 2 hundred yards until we spaced apart. I tried hard not to go out too fast and burn out. I kept controlled and focused on the 2 things I believed would help my swim–longer reach on my strokes, and keeping wide tracks on my arms. The wetsuit was taking care of keeping my hips up, and I just kept a really light kick the whole way to save my legs. After the first 300 yards I picked it up to as much as I could handle. I was breathing hard but not gasping. Felt really good coming out of the water–winded and tired, but knew the worst was over. I had my suit top off before I got to my bike rack, and stripped the bottom off as fast as I’ve ever done. Wetsuit off, grab glasses–on–grab helmet–on, snap strap–grab bike and run. I actually heard a spectator by my rack say “wow, that guy knows what he’s doing!” Haha. Maybe he was looking somewhere else, but a 56 second transition 1 is stellar for me.

The bike was way more difficult than I had anticipated/remembered. Hillier. The uphill stretches to start out did not help me to recover from going so hard through the transition, but a quick turnaround 1.75 miles in turns it into a downhill stretch where I caught my breath a bit before hitting it hard again. I had been in 26th place out of the water, and not sure about my placement out of T1 but probably twenty something. That meant I had plenty of people to see ahead of me on the bike. I picked off quite a few riders in the first half of the bike ride. Into the 2nd half, it was only the fastest riders in front of me so they were more difficult to catch. I didn’t want to burn myself out on the bike, but I definitely hit it really hard on the uphills to maintain my speed. Lots of fog coming off Lake Superior in stretches that knocked the temperature down into the upper 50’s I’d bet for those stretches…. Brrrr! I could detail some of the battles I had with a few riders but they were mostly just exciting for me. I love passing people. Anyway the 23 mile bike took me 57:51. I also lost my gps watch as I was riding back into Copper Harbor so I don’t have any of my own race splits…

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Coming off the bike into T2 (Photo above! See my feet out of my shoes?) I didn’t know my position but I could see my friend Chris ahead of me at the bike rack so I knew I was doing better than I had expected. I didn’t feel good at all after riding so hard, but I trusted it would clear up and I just went hard through the transition. I did take some extra time to put on 2 pairs of socks (pre-paired) to help protect my heel on the run. I made it out in just under 1:10–another great transition. Bike on rack, helmet off, left socks on, left shoe on, right socks on, right shoe on, bib belt on, out.

[Not a valid template] The run starts on a wooded trail with some loose rocky surface. That lasts about half a mile or less until we hit the road and start going uphill. My friend Chris was up ahead, and I tried not to sprint up and catch him. Control. Control. Control. I had to go by feel without my watch, so I just slowly caught my friend about a mile in. A quick hello and asked how many we had in front. 4, he said, but I believe it turned out to be 5 (meaning I was in 6th as soon as I passed him). I caught 2 more racers (putting me in 4th) within the next mile (still going uphill) and then the course reached the end of US 41 and continued uphill on a loose dirt/gravel road another 0.75 miles. The 3 people ahead of me went past in the opposite direction in this stretch, and I couldn’t believe how close I was to them. I kept running hard up the hill to the turnaround and definitely felt bad the whole way but trusted my body and all the training I’d done. I got plain water at every aid station of the run, and only took a single gulp each time. I nailed the hydration on the bike and didn’t need much on the run.

After the 2.5 mile turnaround the course turned downhill and I focused on avoiding the classic stair-step technique heading downhill. It’s more effective to increase cadence and “flow” downhill. I passed another racer in the first downhill stretch, and about 3.5 miles in I was really feeling it in my legs. I didn’t know if I could finish if I kept that pace, but I wanted to hang on to 3rd place. I really wish I had my gps watch so I could know how fast I ran the 2nd half of that course. I kept huffing and keeping my cadence, and that wooded trail just didn’t seem like it would ever come into view. Eventually it did and I cranked the dial a little bit more. My body wasn’t very happy at all and I did actually decide to stop–multiple times. But I didn’t. Legs were burning but kept on churning. I kept saying over to myself, “God, just take me home. God, just take me home…” And actually I thought I had another racer who was coming up behind me because my race bib was making a noise that sounded like another set of footsteps. That helped keep me going hard–fear is as great a motivation as you can find. Run scared, as my friend Nate would say.

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As I neared the end of the trail the crowd could see me and started to cheer, which was exhilarating. Such a great feeling to have a crowd cheering for you. Really thankful for that. I made that last turn and cranked it up for the last 50 yards to the finish. Crossed in a total time of 1:47:19.1–third place overall. Wow! I was pumped! I congratulated the 1st and 2nd place finishers before stumbling over to my transition for my gatorade. Can’t even begin to describe how it felt for me. Lots of dedicated, purposeful training paying off. I’m so new to the sport of triathlon, and I’m really grateful for the advice I’ve gotten that has helped me to improve myself every day I go out. I’ve had a lot of motivation, but without help I’d be nowhere near 3rd place in this race. For the first time in my triathlon life, I was happy with my race. I had given everything I could, and put together a race that balanced my strengths of each sport. For me, this was giving great.

And what made it all even greater was that I could see some people waving at me from the sidelines and I noticed a bunch of family members! A bunch of relatives had unexpectedly traveled up to see my race, and that made it pretty special for me. I’m really thankful for their support. And I’m especially thankful for my younger sister who allowed me to do the race in the first place. I left the race as soon as I finished (didn’t wait for the podium ceremony) so I could make it home in time to prepare for her wedding!!!!!!!!! What a great day to place for the first time in a triathlon in the morning, and watch my little sister get married in the afternoon. It was a great celebration that night! I had decided long before the triathlon that I would dedicate the race in her honor, so I’m really glad I finished so well! I’ll never forget the race of my sister’s wedding day!