Rev3 Williamsburg Olympic was suppose to be my first triathlon of the 2016 season (and first olympic distance race) but 4 weeks earlier I made a race morning call and decided to go and race the Jamestown International. While my mom was in town. That call turned out to be a pretty good one as I placed 4th overall with little training in the books and coming off a marathon break period. Based on how I raced I knew with an additional 4 weeks of healthy training I was going to give some guys a run for the money at Rev3.
Race
Race morning began pretty early with my one my training partners and teammate Steve Smith and his wife picking me up at 4:30 to head to the race site. We arrived around 5:15 and once there we headed over to transition to set up the our bikes and layout the shoes, which took a whopping 15 minutes. Being that my race did not start until 7:40 I had a lot of time to kill. I walked around and scoped out some of the competition, chatted with fellow Snappler's and training partners and made my way to the swim start to watch the half distances athletes. At the half swim start I caught up with my coach, Adam Otstot, and chatted briefly about my race. Essentially the conversation was "the heat looks like it is going to hold off so should I go for it or lay back some as planned?" "Go for it",was the response. Given those words I was off to start my warm up and get ready to race.
After completing some warm up stretches and a jog I zipped on my speedy XTERRA Speedsuit and jump in the water for a quick swim warmup before the first wave of the Olympic begin, Pro Women. While warming up I noticed the current was ripping in favor of the swim. I didn't notice this for the half athletes but apparently it was there. A few hundred yards of swimming and I made my way back to the dock to wait for my wave to start. Once my wave was called I positioned myself in the front row and middle of the pack. This is where I wanted to be to start the race. At all my other open water starts I have tentatively positioned myself in 2nd or 3rd row settled for a slow start and swimming mediocre throughout. But, what I have learned as I have progressively gotten faster is if I want to be competitive I have to come out of the water closer to the top swimmers for any chance at a top spot.
As we waited for our horn to go off the ripping current made it a challenge to stay behind the start line. I think I swam a hundred yards just trying to stay behind the start line. Once the horn went off I went out hard, maybe to hard, determined to stay with the top swimmers at least for the first 200 - 300 yards.
I think I lasted 200 hundred yards before I wanted to gasp for a breath every half stroke. Once I told myself too fast I calmed down and went about my swim pattern, stroke, stroke, stroke, breath, repeat... The only eventful thing that I remember from the swim was as I made my way around the first turn buoy I noticed someone under it and also a kayak with a women yelling something and noticing other competitors cutting the turn short. The guy around the buoy would come into play later in the race and women happen to be Steve's wife Kelly who was volunteering as a swim lifeguard. (Swim: 18:22, 30th overall) Coming out of the swim fellow training/teammate Adam Frager shouted out top 10. I thought to myself "man I don't see anyone in front of me going to transition how far are they ahead?" I made quick work in and out of transition and made my mind up I was going to press and go after the leaders. Once out on the bike I quickly remembered there is no way I was going to be able to tell what position I was in and if I was catching the lead riders until the last few miles of the bike. As the olympic and half bike courses took the same route for the first 15 miles and we would riding through the slower half athletes from bike start to the splitting point.
I pressed the first few miles passing several half and a couple olympic athletes which livened up my mood even more. As I started to settle myself down in the wattage my uber biking/tri mate Steven Keller came flying by me. My thoughts "WHAT???" before I could react he was a good 10 seconds ahead of me. Then came another right by in a blue tri suit. It took me a few seconds but it dawned on me I knew or remembered that suit from somewhere. Randomly I spent the next mile or so trying to remember where I knew the guy or suit from. Then it hit me that was Christopher Stock, he won Rev3 Half last year, and I rode most of the half with him until my knee started to act up. Once I remembered who it was and with Steven slowly riding away I had to up my game. It took a little bit to catch up but once I did I decided to pass. As I did Steve gave me the comment "if your passing me you better go", in a stern tone:) I knew it meant business so I put my head down and went.
The 3 of us would exchange positions all the way until we made the left back unto Rt. 5. Once we hit Rt. 5 we caught the lead rider. We quickly learned he was a bit of a wheel sucker!!! As one of us would pass the guy would draft for a while then try and pass and slow down cause he couldn't hold the wattage. It got very annoying so once I made my way to the lead I put in a big surge to try and break him but it didn't work. Keller passed me saying he is still sucking your wheel but we were gaining some time on Stock. Coming into the last the miles of the bike I pressed pretty hard to try and gain a little more time. (1:04:15, 3rd Fastest/First of the bike)
Into transition Adam was there again to give me a heads up yelling out first off the bike. Just like T1 T2 went smooth with the exception of putting on my race belt. One piece of advice my coach as given is always try to keep moving in transition. So for this I always put my race belt on while I am running out of transition instead of putting it on in transition while I am stopped. This race I decided to carry a bottle of water and trying to run and snap the race belt around me with only one full hand was a pain. I took me until about half way up the bridge until I had the race belt on. But once on it was go time.
As I made my way down the hill I could hear foot steps. I turned around and looked to see the wheel sucker a few seconds behind me. Really I just killed my legs to drop this guy and now he is going to out run me. Ahhh. As we passed mile 1 (6:10) I could barely hear the foot steps and I settled into a good hard breathing rhythm. I knew from training runs I could not use my watch for pace as it would fluctuate bad through the trees. I used the mile markers and effort for pacing . I clocked passed mile 2 (~6:14) and hit the turnaround. Coming back I had 20 second lead over 2nd place at the time. As I passed mile 3 (~6ish pace) I noticed a runner coming towards me who was absolutely flying. He looked at is watch and then me and said he was coming. Man calling me out. That made me turn up clocking in my fastest miles 4 and 5 at around the 5:45 range. I as came to the backside of the bridge I looked back for the first time since coming down and the guy who said he was coming sure was at about 30 seconds behind. I made my way up and to the bottom. Once at the bottom the volunteer said turn around here and go back up and I did. I took about 5 steps up the bridge and seen 2nd place coming down and I knew something wasn't right. I turned back and came back yelling I am an olympic athlete which way. Everyone was confused then finally someone said just keep running around transition. By that time 2nd place as at the bottom so it was an all out sprint to the finish. As we rounded transition and down the back straight I got a little gap back. Turning into the finishing straight I could here the announcer "From team Snapple you first male finisher from Newport News Virginia Jason Bridges". The chills came down my arms and legs. My wife holding one of my kids, Dinah Oliver holding the other, and Adam Frager all yelling I as I crossed the finish line just 13 seconds ahead of 2nd. (37:14, 1st overall)I finished 2:01:31 setting a huge PR of over 5 minutes from previous just 4 weeks earlier. On a course that was 3 miles longer on the bike and was my first ever overall triathlon win but like my first overall running race win I did not get to break the tape :( As this time the Pro Woman got to break it and with my half marathon I was finishing with 5k runners who already broke the tape. Hopefully I'll get to break some tape one day.
Before I get to my race takeaways I revert back to the guy on the buoy. It turns out after chatting with the finishers the guy on the buoy was the 2nd place finisher Robert Fain. He had gotten tangled with the buoy rope and a boat member had to jump in and cut him away from it. At that time Kelly was on her paddle board yelling at athletes to cut around the buoy because they could not get to him. I talked with Robert some more and it turns out he is an elite swimmer (he still beat me out of the water even after being tied up) and runner (I call that Otstot running speed) and had it not been for the buoy mishap who knows if I would have beat him.Sometimes Luck Plays into a Win
Race Takeaways
1. My swim is obviously the worst of the 3 sports. If I want to be competitive for top finishes the swim needs be an area of concentration and not just maintenance in the future.
2. Continue to start with the top swimmers. That is the best way to get a good start.
3. My new bike set up, courtesy of Dave Luscan, is a whole new world. I have never felt so good running after biking. My previous 2 seasons I have struggled with tired legs no matter what the distance on the run and so far I have felt great on all my bricks and races
Huge thanks to my wife and kids for their support, my coach Adam Otstot for the continued pushing and guidance (Got my first win!!!!!), the Snapple Triathlon Team, Xterra Wetsuits, Rudy Project, First Endurance, LG, and Sweatvac.
Whats Next?
Another rematch with Rev3 Pocono Half and then IM Chatt.
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