Hello All,
Hope this finds everyone well rested and fresh off of a great Holiday weekend. I am still pretty beat up from the Desoto American Triple T, but in good spirits. I had a great weekend and am more confident than ever that I am well on my way to the podium at Ironman Wisconsin this summer. I bested all but one in the field consisting of 20 plus All-American honor earners. The racer that got me only did so by 18 seconds. Eighteen seconds! Thats after 140 plus miles of racing, broken down over four races in the weekend. That was a tough result to swallow, especially being that the winner was awarded 1 minute of time bonuses through the first two races
(sprints that I am not inclined to excel in regardless). All in all, I
took them all in real time.
As I originally figured, I would give substantial time to my competetiors Friday evening in the prolouge and Saturday morning in the first olympic distance race of the day. Friday night, I held my own only giving a minute to the first place finisher. I ended up finishing 6th overall that night, 10 seconds out from a 5th place finish and a thirty second time bonus. This proved to be crucial in the end. Saturday morning, I did my best to minimize the damage that the speedsters would inflict on me and simply limit my losses. True to form, I suffered at the hands of the quick pace and power of my rivals who excel at this distance, finishing 17th overall on the morning and giving almost five minutes to the leader. Saturday afternoon, we had the second olympic distance race of the day, however this format was unique in that we started on the bike and would then transition to swim and run. They sent us off in pairs according to race seeding every fifteen seconds. The course was very difficult, starting with a six mile steady climb to the crest and then a descent into in a substantial flat land to our turn around. The true challenge of the day, other than the heat index of 95 plus, was Mount Lampblack, which is a two-mile climb of 3400 feet. A tall order for the second race of the day, I knew that this would be the real begining of the race. Getting into a wet suit is a serious challenge when you are cramping and have to do it fast coming off the bike. The run was great! I blew everybody's doors off and made time up on the entire field. I averaged 6:04's on the hilly course - the second fastest runner's splits were over 35 seconds per mile slower.
Sunday was the half Ironman. I started off this race 7:00 plus minutes down on the race leader, sitting in fourth overall . I held my own in the swim, and gained minimal time on the extremely difficult bike course. To put it in perspective, that same day they host a half Ironman (an opportunity for people to race the course with out doing the first 3 events) and out of the 550 plus racers, the fastest bike split averaged only 19.3 mph. This coming from racers that could easily pull off 25 plus in other races. I came off the bike in striking distance of my main competition, they tried to hold me off on the run as long as the could but only lasted a few miles. In the end, I caught, passed and put on at least six and a half minutes on everyone boasting the best run time by over ten minutes.
As said earlier, I am very pleased with the way things turned out and my strong finish. If you put all these races together and make it a true 2.4 mile swim (instead of the 3 plus miles we did this weekend), I believe my performance will be even stronger. I am very confident that my base work this winter and spring has put me on track to do very well this season. I look forward to representing your brands well. Thank you very much for all your support so far - this is going to be a great year!
Ben Schloegel
Trekbicycleofkc/localcycling.com presentation party was attended by about 50 riders and supporters. Riders and sponsors were introduced and freshly designed uniforms were distributed. Dan and the store crew hosted with some good food and plenty of wine. A number of folks got to feel some acupuncture needles courtesy of Cindy Chamberlin of team sponsor Sastun Center. Art Kent, also of Sastun turned out to be a former USCF National Team Massage Therapist. Reprentatives from Scooters Coffee, The Major Taylor Foundation, Bridging the Gap, and Bicycle Marketing and Communications were in the house as well.
