Ryan Bickerstaff

This past Monday (Memorial Day), I race at the Pan American Cup in Austin, Texas.  I spent the Sunday-Thursday after the Oklahoma City race at home in Alva, OK.  I hadn’t been home in the Spring or Summer for 8 years, and it was nice to have great weather and “green” everywhere (normally I’m home at Winter when it is colder, the grass is dead, and the fields are full of dirt).  On Friday, my mom and I drove down to Austin - a 560 mile drive that wasn’t the most pleasant towards the end because of a lot of traffic.  We finally made it to Austin and had a nice place to stay at the Sheraton in downtown, right near the race site.  I got a great deal on Priceline for the room ($75/night vs. $200+ normal).

On Saturday,  I rode the bike course and swam at Barton Springs.  That was a really nice place to swim - it’s a a natural spring that they dam up and was really clear and just the right temperature for open water swim practice.  On Sunday. I did an easy run and swim at the hotel pool before going to the elite pre-race meeting.

Pre-Race
This race didn’t end up starting until around 1:00pm, and by that time it was already above 85 degrees in the shade.  By the time we finished it was over 90 degrees and probably well over 100 out in the open.  It was definitely hot out there, but I managed to have near perfect nutrition and hydration before the race - much better than Oklahoma City the week before.

Swim
I got a nice swim warmup in of 800-1000m, and that’s about all the warmup I didn’t except for the 8 minute easy ride downhill to the race site.  It was so hot, any exercise beforehand would have just fatigued me for the race.  Initially, I wasn’t sure if I was even going to be able to do the race since my shoulder was getting progressively worse.  Once the race starts and adrenaline is flowing, though, you don’t notice the pain as much.  This was an in-water start, and they had a line of rope keeping us from jumping the gun.  Unfortunately, when the start gun went off, the rope didn’t go up quick enough, and I got a little tangled up in it.  I thought I got a decent start, but was getting tangled up with some people I’m faster than over 1500m but maybe not over 300m.  After the first turn around around 500m in the race, I finally broke free of some of the slower swimmers.  However, the main pack was about 25m up at that point.  I went hard but couldn’t catch them.  Over the next 800-1000m I soloed the swim and only lost another 25m.  I felt strong the entire way and didn’t feel like I was ever struggling.  It’s too bad I missed the main group, but my sprint speed may have been compromised by my bad shoulder.

Bike
I had a good transition and started the bike thinking there was a chance I might be able to make up the 30-40s gap.  However, that’s a lot of distance out on the bike course and would have been impossible for me by myself.  Two other athletes bridged up to me, and I rode really hard with them the first lap.  By the second lap, a group of 5 caught us and we then caught another group of 2, making around pack about 10 total.  It was a 5lap course up and down Congress Ave to the state capitol building and back along the river.  Once our pack was solidified, I knew any amazing effort on my own wasn’t going to bridge the gap to the main group (more than a minute ahead at that point).  I also didn’t want to cramp up and really wanted to have a good run, so I tried the strategy of mainly staying towards the back of the pack, pulling through every once and awhile.  Some others had the same idea, so we gradually lost more time, but not too much.

Run
I took it easy at the end of the bike and didn’t rush into T2 like a lot of people do.  I wanted to make sure I wasn’t red-lining it at the very beginning of the run and cramp up.  Luckily, this run was a huge improvement over Oklahoma City the week before.  I was able to keep a pretty good pace and was mainly only hindered by general fatigue.  There was the slightest hint of cramps beginning, but I ran strong the whole way.  I finished in 21st, passing several people along the way.  My run of 33:28 was within a minute of a lot of the faster runners in the US, so I was happy. 

Overall
This was a huge improvement over Oklahoma City.  I’m really happy about that because I don’t know when I’ll be able to race again given my shoulder injury.  I just need a little faster 500m swim speed, and I can make the main pack.  If I don’t work much in that group, I’ll be even fresher for the run and be in a position to place top 10 or better.   The past two races have been an affirmation that I’m on the right path training-wise and just need to continue working, and I’ll continue to make improvements. 

Filed under: Race Recap