Giant Acorn Weekend

About two or three months ago I was looking for one last weekend available for my last triathlon of the year. Last year I did Giant Acorn International (also referred to as Olympic distance), and won the Clydesdale division. I thought this would be a great race to come back and race.

Set up events does some unique race weekends where Saturday is the Olympic distance race, and Sunday is the Sprint distance. Since this is rare, I figured I could create a new test for myself. I signed up for the Olympic AND Sprint distance races!

Telling everyone that this is what I was going to do elicited a few "you are nuts", and mostly the same responses that came from Ironman. My answer to anyone asking me why I wanted to do this, was "how do I know I can't win both days for my division without trying it?"

Saturday came around, Melissa and I loaded up my bike, and the rest of the equipment to make the hour and a half drive down to Bumpass, Virginia. Once we arrived, with a race start at 10 AM (almost unheard of) we went through the easy packet pick up and body marking. With all the racing I have done over the last few year, this has become less and less stressful.

We made it down to the swim start and waited for my wave. The water temperature was 79 degrees, which makes it wet-suit legal if you do not want to be eligible for awards.

Since I was racing in the Clydesdale division, we start near the end. Of the six wave stars, we started fifth. The waves went off every three minutes, so we took off at 10:12. Since it wasn't wetsuit legal, PR'ing my swim was going to be difficult.

I took off starting out long and smooth with my swim, focusing on deep breaths, and positioning of my hand. After about 200 yards, I started noticing that when I was sighting the buoys, I was not seeing purple swim caps (our waves assigned caps). I also started noticing the swim caps from the other waves.


I came out of the water first in the Clydesdale at 29:18. 1:47 per 100 yard

The jog to transition was slightly up hill. With perfect racing weather, all I needed to put on was my helmet and my race belt. My awesome new S-works trivent, were already clipped on the bike so after a slight jog out of transition, I mounted the bike to head out on the next leg.

Transition time: 1:37 1st in Clydesdale.

The bike was two loops of rolling hills around part of Lake Anna. The hills weren't very hard, but the constant headwind was slowing the bike section down. It seemed that every turn that we took, shifted the headwind. My Cervelo, with some rented ZIPP 808's from FRESHBIKES Bethesda, cut through the air cruising to the second fastest bike time for Clydesdale.

Bike time: 59:19 (25.1 mph).

Heading to transition was a little difficult running barefoot over some gravel. Getting through the gravel without cuts was key, then re-racked my bike. All I needed to start the run was my shoes with Yankz! laces and Oakley Livestrong Jawbones.

Fastest Clydesdale transition at 0:47.

The run was a combination of running through a field with divots, then a long mile up hill, slight down hill then retrace the last 1.25 miles then a run down to the swim start and back up the gravel path for a second lap. There was a lot of climbing for the run but in the end felt good and confident with my run.

Finished fifth fastest Clydesdale 9:25 per mile.

Overall finish: 2:29:31, First overall Clydesdale, 53rd of 293 overall (18% percentile).



After finishing Saturday's race and awards we headed home and recovered as much as I could before having to get up again for Sunday's race.

Sunday's weather was like a 180 degree turn. Saturday was in the 70's, sunny, and a great day to race. Sunday's weather was about 30 degrees colder, overcast, and at points raining. The amazing change for this race was that this race was wetsuit legal. Apparently there was enough cold air and cold rain to change the temperature about 4-5 degrees to be at the top end of wetsuit legal.

As you can see from my awesome fiance, the weather was not favorable.

















While I racked my bike and prepped transition, Melissa went back to the car and grabbed my sleeveless 2XU wetsuit for the race. Even though I was confident that I could finish and do well with the swim without the wetsuit, I consider it free speed.

The water was actually nice to get into since it was about 20-25 degrees warmer than the air temperature. The swim started fairly similar to Saturday. The only difference was that I could feel the previous day's swim within the first 100 yards. I still was focusing on staying long and relaxed.

I got out of the water while catching the main pack from the previous wave start.

I came out of the water first in the Clydesdale at 13:14. 1:37 per 100 yard .


Transition was the same as Saturday's as well, the only time addition was due to removing the wetsuit and putting on a jacket since it was cold and windy on top of putting my helmet and race bib on.

Transition time: 2:20 5th in Clydesdale.

The bike for this race was the same course as Saturday's race, but only one loop instead of Saturday's two. Having raced yesterday, my legs felt tired. The good thing was that I could push harder on this lap, while taking turns significantly slower with the rain slicking up the roads.

Bike time: 31:25 (22 mph).



By the time transition came, the weather had cleared up a little. I ditched the jacket for the run (I work better in cooler weather. Transition took a little longer but still a respectable time

Transition time: 1:03 4th in Clydesdale.



The run was also similar to Saturday with one loop of the international run course. Even though it was one loop, the run wasn't much easier. Up till this point I was in the lead for the Clydesdale, but around mile one, a guy standing around 6'6" ran by me, for the win. He was a much more powerful runner that I am, and he also didn't race on Saturday. Not that it is any excuse, but I do know what I'm going to be working on for the off season.

Run time: 25:51 (8:19 per mile) 5th fastest in Clydesdale.

Finish time: 1:13:52, 2nd place in Clydesdale.

Thanks to CLIF bar for a great year of racing!