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This Map with Route Data was created using a Garmin Forerunner and TrainingPeaks.com, and exported into Google Maps. You can zoom and pan and view the course in great detail.

Sunday I raced the Saint Anthony’s Triahtlon. It’s one of the oldest, most historical professional triathlon races in the world with 28 years behind it. The race was run as well as any race I’ve been to, and this is certainly going to remain part of my calendar in years to come. The start list was intimidating, to say the least, but I went into Sunday’s effort with very little stress, and a insatiable hunger to prove that what I did in South Beach and Ishigaki were not indicative of my fitness and athleticism. I was looking at Olympic medalists, 3-time Olympians, World Championship Series medalists, and instead of being scared I was just excited to see if I could give them a solid race. And I did! I was 5th, behind Filip Ospaly (2010 lifetime Fitness Series winner), Matt Reed, Cameron Dye, and Stewart Hayes. I worked my butt off for it, and I had the best race I could have on the day.

The swim was the only major disappointment of the day. Saint Anthony’s Triahtlon has had some trouble in recent years with the choppiness of the swim course, so when the winds were blowing on race morning they played it safe and moved the swim to a more protected area. This also shortened the course to about an 800 meters swim. You can see in the map I posted the line I took. It was supposed to be a trapezoidal course, but at the end I swam straight in and ran up the beach. The run to T1 was probably longer than the swim itself, and the entry was very shallow and not great for short legged guys like me. I lost a lot of time going to the first buoy and was 7th out of the water with a gap in front of me that Cameron Dye capitalized on in making a break for it early.

The bike was flat and scenic, taking us through the neighborhoods of St. Petersburg, Florida. The roads were smooth, clean, and closed to traffic with plenty of police keeping us safe. I rode hard trying to get away from a large group of riders including Potts, Gimmel, Docherty, Reed, Ospaly, Hayes, and a few other intimidating names. It didn’t work, and I only ended up with about 15 seconds on those guys at T2. I started the run with Matt Reed with a 90 second deficit to Cameron Dye. Reed dropped me from his heels heels toward the end of the first mile. Ospaly came by me soon after that and caught up to Reed. The two of them eventually caught and passed Dye and Ospaly took Reed in the final stretch. While I was suffering in the middle third Stuart Hayes came by with a definitive surge. In the last third of the run I came back to life a bit and tried to close in on Hayes. He was hurting as much as I was, but he kept the gap he’d created taking fourth, while I held off a menacing Potts, Gimmel, Matthews (a.k.a. Barny) and Docherty who were all right behind me. It was a fast hard race, and the most fun I’ve had racing all year.

Now, here’s the graph (click on it for a larger view):

The horizontal axis is timing the point. The 20k bike split is an estimate, there was no timing chip, but since there were two timing points on the run I wanted the bike portion to have at least as much horizontal space as the run. The vertical axis is the time gap from the winner, Filip Ospaly. Negative values indicate a lead over Ospaly, positive values indicate a deficit. An intersection point between two lines indicates the estimated point when those two competitors changed positions.

Since I’ve arrived in Japan there hasn’t been much going on. I sleep a lot. I eat when I should. I train as much as I need to. The rest of the time I’ve just been sitting around, chatting with people, refreshing my inbox to see if the ITU has finally made their decision of whether or not to hold the Yokohama World Championship race in four weeks, or if USA Triathlon has decided yet if they’ll be sending me to the Monterrey World Cup in just three. It’s low stress to the extreme, which is a really nice change of pace from filling out insurance claims, maxing out credit cards, and the other chores of post-theft reestablishment of stuff.

My favorite part of being in Ishigaki is definitely the cycling. The people are quite friendly, and the traffic is light. The roads are pristine and the scenery is endlessly engrossing. My first ride on Wednesday reminded me that I had intended to stay an extra day this year so that I could be a tourist. I’ve been about a third of the way around the island, and I really want to see the rest of it, but I let my budget decide my return date so the tourism will have to wait until next year.

There has been a bit of translational humor, which can almost be expected in a place like Japan where the alphabet and language is so different from English. Like when Steve Sexton and I asked the front desk where we could find a simple meal for relatively little cash they handed us their “English” map of the town and pointed to a place called “Banira Deri”. I told Steve that it was probably a deli (with an ‘L’), which he laughed at and I expected to be true. Unfortunately, most of the landmarks on the English map did not have English signs, so it was hard to identify whether places like “Banana Café” we were supposed to pass were really there. When we did arrive to the street where the “Banira Deri” was supposed to be we found two restaurants – both looked appealing – but neither with the sign we were looking for. The first one had a sign in English, but since it didn’t match our map we assumed it was the second store. It was after browsing both menus that I looked up at the first sign and realized that “Banira Deri” was a double translation of “Vanilla Deli” (first to Japanese characters, then back to English). The food was great.

We swim in a 50m pool at the Ishigaki Sports complex, which also boasts a huge gym, a baseball field and a track and field center. The only thing missing is a velodrome. This is where I did all of my swimming the past few days and most of my running. I’m sure there are plenty of dirt paths on this island, but I haven’t found them, so I just lingered around the track to enjoy the grass and soft surface.

Aside from the food – which has been low protein, high-carb with a very un-western palate – and the training, I’ve been a pretty lame tourist. I figured out how to watch Netflix’s live stream by using a proxy server back home (it won’t stream to IPs outside the US), which has provided some entertainment. I haven’t figured out how to get USAT’s Normatec to work without the voltage converter (they bought a 220 volt Norma, so places like Japan and the United States require us to use a voltage converter to step it up from 110 volts) that was left at home thinking it wouldn’t be needed in Australia last week.

As far as the race goes, I’m excited. We came a long way for this, so I’m not leaving anything on the course. Besides, I have some pent up energy from my anticlimactic participatory experience last weekend at South Beach. I’ll take luck, but all I really need to do (in the crass words of Rory) is “not [mess] up.”

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I thought the Maloolaba graph was cool enough that I went back to Clermont – which was a stereotypically boring race with no separation in the swim and one giant pack on the bike – and made a graph. Next to Maloolaba it’s obvious why I like courses that challenge the athletes on the swim and bike. This graph shows the classic “runners race” that is the triathlon equivalent of a flat sprint stage in cycling.

I know I should post a race report before I talk about the day after, but this is important. And for the curious folks, I was 3rd at Miami International Triathlon. Full race report to come.

Today was going to be a really good day, but that didn’t pan out. After yesterday’s racing and sailing and general enjoyment of the day, I was pretty motivated to get right back to training. My plan was to get up early, drive to Key Biscayne where I could run, ride my bike, and finish with an ocean swim. After that I as going to check out this little fish shack in the state park that was recommended by my friend Ileana (who’s family I’ve been staying with). That all would have served as a pretty good basis for a blog, but I think what actually happened might make for an even better story (better meaning more entertaining).

I did wake up early. I packed my backpack with clothing, Powerbars and sunscreen for the adventure and put my bike in the trunk of the rental car. Then I drove to Key Biscayne for the run. Unfortunately, the traffic in Miami is terrible, so I was already planning to cu tout the fish shack before I even started my run. I lathered on the sunblock and went exploring on the trail. It was hard to get my legs moving for sure, but the run was really pretty. The wind was blowing and it’s the first day I’ve been able to smell since I came down with a cold over a week ago. It ended up taking me almost 50 minutes to run six miles because on top of being sluggish I kept stopping to look at the scenery and take big breaths of fresh air.

Satisfied with my first workout I ran back to the rental, but when I approached I noticed that the trunk was popped. Adrenaline shot through me, and when I lifted the trunk my fears were realized. My bike was gone. I went to the driver’s door; still locked. I opened it and saw that the glove compartment and center console were open. My Rudy Project glasses were gone. Then I saw the little rear window was shattered and there was glass all over the floor. I knew I needed to call the police, but my backpack was gone too, along with my wallet, my cell phone and any hope that this was some kind of prank.

I flagged down a police officer from the highway and he called another unit. Yesterday alone there were 26 break-ins on Key Biscayne, he told me. I wanted to say, “great job!” but he was being really nice, and it’s the burglars who suck. A detective came, finger printed my car, and another officer called the office and had someone try to locate my phone with the GPS signal. The phone was turned off already. I called my mom and asked if she could contact credit card companies for me to report them stolen, and I listed all the things that were missing from my car:

• Black Beyond Fabrications Blink Time Trial Bike with pink bencollins.org decals and K-Swiss stickers.
• A Zipp 900 clincher disk
• 404 clincher front wheel
• Northwave size 43 triathlon shoes
• A Dura-Ace crankset with SRM
• Shimano Dura-Ace time trial groupo with Vision aerobars
• Profile Design Aero-waterbottle (I just bought that Saturday too!)
• Three Powerbars (banana, cookies and cream, and peanut butter)
• Two bike water bottles
• A TYR backpack with:
  • iPhone
  • Wallet ($30, drivers license, credit cards, health insurance, and some other membership cards)
  • USA Triathlon Team Cycling Kit
  • Blue Seventy swim brief and goggles
  • Rudy Project Fluo Green Noyz sunglasses with ImpactX Photochromic Grey lenses
  • A Garmin Edge 800 with North American maps

What they left:

• A Rudy Project Wingspan Aero-Helmet (pink)
• A half-full bottle of Scape 2x Sunblock (SPF 50)

They took a few prints, but it wasn’t very promising. After everything was finished with the police officers I decided to bag the swim (no suit anyway) and head back home to shower, try to call my parents and figure out how to get through TSA without any identification.

Eventually I get money from the bank (another giant hassle that I won’t get into) and I head back to Ileana’s house where her brother is just heading out the door. I give him the short version and he hands me all the cash from his wallet and says to take it just in case. Then he tells me, “Ben, if you can fix it with money, then it’s not a real problem.” Coming from a guy whose family has seen much worse than some stolen equipment, it put things into perspective. I tried to relax, thinking that if I didn’t I was likely to do something else dumb. By now I’m feeling rushed to get to the airport in time to deal with TSA, so I gather my empty bike box, throw everything into a suitcase, realize I don’t have time for a shower, scarf some leftovers and pile it all into the car. As I’m walking out the door the phone rings and I hear the answering machine go on and it’s Ileana hoping to speak to me. She says, “Ben, I know you’re stressed but you need to drive very carefully to the airport. Is there anything I can do to help?” As I’m talking to her I’m standing in the pantry of her parent’s house scarfing down cookies as a pure stress reaction (and by now I’m completely starving, having not eaten anything yet today). I tell her to call my mom and just let my mom know that there are people in Miami taking care of me and so that my mom knows someone to call in Miami if she doesn’t hear from me. Then I hang up, lock the door, and drive to the airport. Advantage was easy, I filled out an incident report, gave the police report number, described what happened and hand in my key. Right then a manager comes out and asks, “are you Ben? I have someone on the phone for you.” It’s my mom. She’s found a photocopy of my birth certificate, passport and drivers license, and she’s faxing it to Advantage so that I can take it with me to TSA (my mom is awesome). I wait a couple minutes, get the fax, then head to the airport (by now I have barely an hour before my flight).

At the Delta check in the agents see my fax, along with my OTC photo ID and they check me right in. TSA is even easier, I just had to step to the side for a minute while a supervisor came, talk a bit about triathlon (what are the distances? How long does that take? Is that a full triathlon?). They complimented me on my resourcefulness, but my mom totally saved the day. Again.

Now, if you know anyone in Miami, please tell them to be on the lookout for my bike. Spread the word to facebook, twitter. Any help is appreciated. I race again in three weeks, so I need a time trial bike ASAP!

I’m staying with Ileana Rodriguez’s family in Miami (She’s the paralympic swimmer that broke the 200 breast American record by 36 seconds a couple months ago). They’re awesome, I haven’t stopped laughing the whole trip. I had a cold when I left Colorado, but it’s hard to feel sick when you’re around so many fun people.

Every night we get together for a family dinner, which has been my chance to learn Cuban culture, and her parent’s chance to practice English. Ileana’s mom is an amazing cook. She’s making Cuban food every night, which is basically rice with stuff on it. Not spicy, just flavorful. It’s perfect food before a race.

A race! I race Miami International Triathlon tomorrow morning! It’s gonna be a super fast course, with only a few risers over the causeway, and no turns without purpose. It’ll be interesting to see how bike superstars Andrew Yoder and Chris Lieto manage the bike portion. Those guys are super dialed in on their Treks and typically put a good amount of time on the rest of the folks. Then there’s the run, Chrabot and Docherty are the best runners in the field, and they’re not so shabby on the bike either. As for swimmers, Kyle Leto, Brian Fleischmann and Cam Dye are all here, so there’s no question that the swim will be red hot.

I can’t wait to mix it up with everyone tomorrow.

A friend of mine just sent me the email below. He copy pasted the header of the results for the boys 15-18 100 yard backstroke at this weekend’s Northwest Age Group Regional Championships. To clarify my surprise, backstroke was definitely not my strength.

Event 12  Boys 15-18 100 Yard Backstroke
==============================

====================================
NWAGR: ! 53.58  3/23/2001 Ben Collins, SSEA-PN
58.59  NWAG 2011 NW Section AG
Name            Age Team                 Seed    Prelims
==================================================================
=== Preliminaries === 

1 Thorderson, Lar  17 Kalispell Aquati    56.59      55.02 qNWAG
26.22        55.02 (28.80)

———–

I wonder if I have any other records that I don’t know about.

UPDATE:

I DO I DO!! I got another email today with a record that makes more sense:

Event 114 Boys 13-18 500 Yard Freestyle
===============================================================================
13 NWAGR: 4:49.18 3/19/2004 Clinton W Stipek, TACOMA
14 NWAGR: 4:41.28 3/1/1998 BEN COLLINS, SSEA-PN
15-18 NWAGR: 4:39.19 3/21/2003 Ben E Bruce, KING – PN
5:27.59 13 NWAG 2011 NW Section AG
5:14.09 14 NWAG 2011 NW Section AG
5:05.29 15-18 NWAG 2011 NW Section AG

From 1998? That’s half my life ago!

Columbia Men’s Swimming and Diving took third at Ivy League Championships over the weekend. Harvard and Princeton have had a lock on the top two for the past 30 years, but Columbia took their fair share of events, including the 400 free relay (video below). Harvard had to win the last relay in order to beat Princeton, but Columbia crushed the field. This video makes me miss college swimming (it also makes me glad I was never in the stands listening to our parents – that would have made me WAY more nervous!). Also, my split on the 400 free relay my senior year (with a rolling start) was a 45 something, which would have been almost a second slower than anyone on this team. These guys are fast!

This is a “fun” little highlight video to start off the 2011 triathlon season. Get pumped.

I arrived back in Colorado Springs today. Five days behind schedule. Today is the first day of 2011 that I’m not sick with a fever and a throbbing headache. I went home, got myself some 24 hour virus to enjoy, recovered from that and got a cold for Christmas. About the time I got over the cough and sniffles I came down with a fever of 103 and some awful chills. I spent a night in front of the fire place, scorching my skin and drenching my futon, because it was the only way to stop shivering. I went to Group Health twice, where the first doctor didn’t do any physical exam, but took a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia and sent me home on Tylenol. The second doc felt my glands, took blood and sent me home on more Tylenol.

I suppose taking myself away from the “source of all illness” (pictured below on his Radio Flyer Trike) may have helped the situation, but since my nephew is kind of cute and because my sister is adamant that a child without a cold or a fever can’t give me a cold or the flu escaping the little germ-pot was just not possible.

Finally I was able to see William, one of the guys from Inewmed who now runs his own practice in Edmonds (when he’s not off working for some big name athlete in Europe or Maui). He did a physical exam (he agreed that it was viral), then performed a Chinese Medicine procedure where he stabbed my fingers and bled me. Well, that’s what he did first anyway. He would take my hand, hold a finger, tell me “this will hurt” then take a small pin and jab it in near my cuticle. Then he would use a cotton ball and wipe the blood away rhythmically until the hole stopped bleeding before moving onto the next finger. In total, he did four fingers, two toes, and my SI joint, after which I was ready to stop. But no, the digit punctures were just a warm-up for the thrashing William was getting ready to give me. He starting smacking my back with something that felt like a brass brush, rhythmically, going up and down the sides of my spine.  At first it just stung and I wasn’t sure why he was whipping me. It didn’t hurt particularly bad, but it kept stinging more and more until he had been doing it for four or five minutes and I finally asked, “What are you hitting me with?” “It’s a stick with a bundle of ten needles on the end.”  “Why?” “We gotta get the heat out of you.” Which I guess is Chinese Medicine for “you have a fever, dumb-ass.” I also had a stiff neck, which probably had something to do with the spine work.

After the needling, William fastened a pair of glass suction cups to my back and started pulling blood out. It didn’t hurt, but it looked nasty. Really nasty. I had thousands of tiny pin pricks in my back and a suction cup sucking blood through. Ew. (Though since I really couldn’t see my back, I only got a glance of what he was doing, and my memory of the gore may be slightly enhanced by my imagination).

But… I started feeling better almost immediately after the procedure. My fever came down over a degree from the time I walked into his office to when I left. That night, Friday, I sweated a fraction of the amount that I had been drenching my mattress with the previous six nights, and the next morning I felt almost normal again. Much more effective than Tylenol. I wish I’d been bled earlier!

Well it’s back to training. I did a blow-out of winter fun time at the end of November with two days of cross country skiing and a very long day of downhill at Breckenridge. All that skiing ensured that my first full day of swimming biking and running felt like overtraining, and I had no trouble getting into the habit of napping. This time of year is when I realize just how abnormal my “normal” routine is. First of all, I live at the Olympic Training Center. How cool is that? It’s like a dorm, only instead of being surrounded by teenagers I have the nations best athletes living next to me, and instead of mystery meat loaf the Cafeteria will serve us an abundance of quality food and has staff willing to make a run to Whole Foods to fulfill special request (god forbid I have to drive there myself if I’m craving a gluten-free ginger cookie or a bottle of Nancy’s Kefir, right?). I live across a small courtyard from one of the nicest 50 meter pools I’ve ever swam in, and in the basement of my dorm is a Computrainer cycling studio. Somehow with all this we still find reason to complain that the closest dirt running trail is two whole miles away, and sometimes Colorado College doesn’t let us run on the inside lanes of their track. Plus, Sports Med is closed on Sunday, so if we crash our bikes on the weekend we may have to call the 24-hour on-call med staff to help us get cleaned up. Yeah, there’s nothing like the off-season to remind me just how well I’m treated here in Colorado Springs.

My roommate is a shotgun shooter named Collin Wietfeldt who goes hunting in the off-season and treats me to his antelope summer sausage for study breaks. Thanks to Congressman Bart Stupak of Michigan, Collin, I, and the rest of the students on campus have our tuition paid for by an Olympic Scholarship program. That scholarship encourages people to continue their education while they train for the Olympics and means there’s never a shortage of people to study with around campus. Hopefully the scholarship remains after Stupak retires this year.

What else is odd about the training center? Is it normal to be offered 90 minutes of massage each week or to have your massage therapist knit you a hat to thank you for coming to her? Is it normal to have an entire organization of people who know you by first name and are being employed with the purpose helping you achieve your goals? Is it normal to have all-stars like Michael Phelps or Lopez Lamong walk into your kitchen? Well, as amazing and unique as it it, it’s normal for us and it leaves us with no excuses for being anything less than our best.