David Warden’s Mostly True, Self-Promoting, Gratuitously
Long 2013 Racetri Sprint Series Race Report
At Aaron and Joel’s request, and without hesitation, below is a brief (ha!) race report,
from my perspective, of all 5 Racetri Sprint events. Click on a race to skip right to it!
Ice Breaker
(or, The World’s Fastest Midget)
Salem
(or, Always a Bridesmaid)
Rock Cliff
(or, Thank You, Spencer Woolston, Heath Thurston, BJ Christensen, Wes Johnson, Jason
Crompton, Rory Duckworth, Sebe Ziesler, and Alex Bowcut, for Not Showing Up)
Herriman Blackridge
(or, David Warden is an Idiot)
Camp Yuba
(or, Damn, That’s the Last Time I’ll Ever Beat Kade Hunter)
As a triathlon coach, I’ve had the opportunity to participate in triathlons held in Abu
Dhabi, Spain, Mexico, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia and Canada. I’ve never
had more fun at these events than I have at any given Racetri event. You want energy?
Check. Organization? None better. Plagiarized but inspirational speeches? Count on it.
I participated in all 5 of the 2013 Racetri Sprint-distance events. They were absolutely the
key to the most fun I’ve ever had in a single season of Sprint racing. I’m a Sprint-distance
specialist. A Sprintaphile. I’ve given the longer distances a chance to court me, but I keep
coming back to the Sprint. It’s my element. The Racetri series provides a professional but
local platform that keeps me motivated all winter long.
Ice Breaker
(WARNING: This race report is boring. I recommend you move on)
I love the people at Icebreaker! It’s the dedicated athletes that do this race. No one has
trained much, the weather has often been horrible, everyone is still recovering from
Mardi Gras, but they still show up.
Absent from the roster were most of my primary rivals except (insert echo sound effect):
Keb Wilson. Keb is a great athlete. He’s built like a linebacker, but bikes like a cheetah.
If you ever have a chance to hear about his accident and subsequent rehabilitation, it will
astound you how he has been able to still stay so fast. A healthy Keb would be a
dominant triathlete. I knew I needed to keep Keb close. As the saying goes, “Keep your
enemies close, but Keb Wilson closer”. Keb and I have raced several times, and we
almost always come out together on the run. Rumor was his training for the Boston
Marathon had made him even better on that final leg. Yikes.
The Ice Breaker swim is entertaining. 2013 was no exception. I just spent the last 30
minutes writing and rewriting this section, initially complaining about the swimmers who
overestimate their swim time at the front of the indoor pool, time-trial start, causing me to
have to slow down and work around them. But hey! That’s the Ice Breaker! That’s part of
the allure, the adventure, the unknown. I’ve had the wrong attitude all these years. That
random swim element is part of why I race. In fact, maybe next year I’ll go last.
I started out about 10th on the time-trial (TT) start, Keb was a few spots ahead of me. I
only passed 3 on the swim, and they were quite accommodating about holding up at the
wall to let me by. Coming out of T1, my wife informed me that a) I was 3rd out of T1 and
b) the lawn needed to be mowed. With the TT start, you never really know where
everyone is, but I felt I was in the right place.
About 3 miles into the race, I was in 1st place (physically), having passed Kade Hunter
(remember that name! It’s called foreshadowing). Thanks to a quick swim and quick
transition, I was ahead of Keb, but he was closing, having gained 10 seconds on the bike.
By T2 we were only 19 seconds apart.
Fortunately, the run went well. At about 50% of the races I get hit with a side stitch on
the run, but none today. Keb’s marathon training and race timing probably made him
more fatigued that he would have been with a real taper, and I pulled away a bit on the
run for the win.
Notes:
- Congratulations to Mike Strauss with a killer run time of 17:44! I look forward to
racing him again, he’s going to be good.
- Rus Southwick continues kick butt in transition. Drug test him!
- I hope I’m still as fast as Gary Henderson when I’m M55-60. If he would just
shave his chest, he’d make the Olympic swim team.
Salem
(this report is best read while listening to the Main Theme from Last of the Mohicans)
Oh, Salem. *sigh*. Salem, Salem, Salem. I could write a race report, or I could just sum
it up in these two lines.
1 Casey Robles ELITE 1:03:41.9
2 David Warden ELITE 1:03:42.7
For those of you who attended the University of Utah, I’ll do the math for you. That’s 0.8
seconds. A beam of light would have traveled a mere 133,600 miles in the time it took for
me to finish behind Casey. For crying out loud, the difference in the 2012 Olympic
Men’s 100 meter FINAL was more than 0.8 seconds. Even now, months later, the tears
flow freely.
Flashback two hours earlier. My hopes are high. For the first time in as long as I have
been racing Salem (6 years straight?) Heath Thurston and BJ Christensen are not racing
Salem. The race is wide open, but competitive. Casey Robles, Devan Tandy, Ben Olsen,
James Lawrence, Kade Hunter, Wes Johnson…any one of them could win. But I had
beaten every one of them at a race in the past year, and was confident I could do it today.
Everything felt good. I had come in second the past two years to BJ and Heath. I was just
off a great performance at the St. George Sprint. And I had been issued bib #1 for the first
time in any race. Surely, no one could possible come in 2nd at the same event for 3
straight years, right Jim Kelly?
The swim? Solid. Not great, but solid. The bike gave me more confidence. I passed
Casey on the bike earlier than at any other race (I love how Casey races topless!). More
confidence. Devan was tough to catch, but by T2 I had gone from 7th to 3rd. Only Wes
Johnson and Ben Olsen were ahead of me, with Devan and Casey right behind, but out of
my mind.
Wes had a run injury that had kept down all season, and I had caught Wes on the run in a
race just a month earlier. I had raced Ben the past two years and had always caught him
at about mile 1.5 on the run, and his lead was about the same it had always been. All I
had to do was catch them both again and the race was mine! Bwaaahaaahaaa!
Then, things got weird, and my emotions went up and down fast. Three big surprises on
the run. First: Ben was not getting any closer. Salem offers very good line of sight to the
competition ahead of you. After 5 minutes I realized he was definitely not getting any
closer, in fact he might have been pulling away. One year of training obviously made a
big difference in his run! By mile 1 I knew that unless Ben had a meltdown, I could not
catch him. I was getting closer to Wes, but I resigned myself to second place…again.
Instinctively I slowed down, unwilling to take second place at maximum pain.
Passing Wes brought on surprise #2 when Wes revealed,
“Ben missed part of the bike course. You’re in first if he gets DQ’d.”
Now I was reeling. A lot had to happen for a DQ, but it was enough to make me pause
and run with Wes for a bit. Was he sure? How did it happen? Anyone else ahead of us?
The whole conversation took just a few seconds. Yea, just a “few” seconds.
Now visions of victory were back in my head. Never again would I have this opportunity.
I’m at peak form, BJ and Heath are no-shows, Ben clearly is better than me now but a
stroke of (bad) luck gives me a one-time opportunity. I got back into gear and headed for
the finish.
Until this point, in 5 years of Sprint racing, I had only ever been caught on the run once,
and that was from a side stitch so bad I had to walk. Once I have a position on the run, I
just don’t lose it. But, at mile 2, distracted by various themes of “David Warden: King of
Salem” montages running through my head, I felt uneasy. Something was wrong. I
ignored it for a few minutes, until surprise #3…
The unmistakable sound of feet on gravel closing in! I turned to see Casey and Devan 30
feet back. What a stupid mistake. Hubris, arrogance, and laziness never won Salem. I was
in trouble with Casey that close, but what the heck was Devan doing that close (no
offense Devan). I gave it everything I had. Just before the bridge, Casey and Devan
caught me.
What a great moment! Two of my early triathlon idols, athletes who had beaten me time
and time again for years. The three of us, side by side, flying to the finish line (turn up
music here). I made a move, they moved just as fast. I made another move, Casey moved
faster. Devan backed off just before the bridge. I told myself that whoever made it to the
bridge was going to win, and I had to make it to the bridge first. No chance. I had visions
of staying close enough to out sprint Casey after the bridge. I turned on the after-burners,
and it felt exactly like those ubiquitous dreams where you try to run, but can’t.
I can fool myself into thinking that all I had to do was make up 1 second somewhere. In
transition? Talking to Wes? Perhaps not accepting a distance 2nd place to Ben, not
slowing down, and giving it my all no matter what place I was in?
The truth is this: Casey could have won by much more than 0.8 seconds. Once he caught
me, all he had to do was react to me. Casey is an experienced runner. He knew he was a
better runner than me, all he had to do was stay just ahead of me. My 100% for the last
1/2 mile was his 90%, and that’s all he needed. Whether he caught me at mile 2.5 or mile
2.95, I could not have re-passed him. It was not a matter of making up 0.8 seconds
somewhere, it was a matter of not letting him catch me at all.
If I had managed to look back earlier? Maybe, but probably not. Let’s do the math. I
could have been perhaps 20 seconds faster in total, and the pace that Casey was running
was 35 seconds per mile faster. Very likely even at my best he would have caught me
anyway. At least that’s what I tell myself as I cry myself to sleep on my huge pillow.
Notes:
- Good sport award goes to Ben Olsen. Yes, he did not do the prescribed bike
course, but the path he took was just as long or longer (he went straight instead of
turning right at the big hill early in the race, then turned right later to get back on
course). USAT rules are very specific that this is a DQ even if no competitive
advantage is gained, you must go back to the point of course deviation. Ben took
-
it very well, he’s a great example. No doubt he was the fastest on the course that
day.
Racetri made a tough call here too, but they did the right thing with the DQ.
Another reason these guys are professional.
Casey shaved almost 3 minutes from his 2012 Salem time, I shaved 50 seconds.
The lesson here is a) always race your hardest, regardless of position, and b) never
judge an athlete based on what they were a year ago. Actually, never judge a
person based on what they were a year ago. That’s deep.
Rock Cliff
Low water levels could not ruin what turned out to be fantastic weather. My wife, brother
and sister-in-law did the Sprint as well, and they helped me stay remarkably calm all
morning by pretending to need my help.
The swim went well, but felt long. It always feels long.
Jacob Petersen and Kade Hunter were the clear favorites for the podium. Jake is a 800meter specialist which means his VO2 is off the charts. Jake had a) just gotten of an LDS
mission b) Just gotten engaged and c) just had knee surgery, and I was STILL worried he
could beat me. He’s that good. Kade has just kept chipping away at my lead every time
we raced, and I knew he was just one breakthrough race away from leaving me in the
dust.
Not much to report on this event. I pulled ahead at about mile 7 on the bike, passing
Kade. Jason Shamy, the Rabbit, tried to man-hug me (again) as I passed him, but I
avoided it as usual.
At the intersection in Frances, I surprised the cop who was not yet out of his patrol car
when I passed by, leaving his cruiser rocking from sire-to-side, then clocking 52mph on
the downhill back to T2.
The run presented my old enemy: the side stitch, which made me panic knowing that Jake
was somewhere behind me. He could have easily pulled off a 17:50 run at his best, and I
had visions of again getting caught. Fortunately, religion, love, and surgery kept him at
bay and I got the lucky win.
Notes:
- I met my wife at her T2, and she had her shoelaces tied BEFORE putting them
because they “looked tidier that way.” Yes, she had to untie her shoes before
putting them on. In 19 years of marriage, this is the first flaw in her I’ve
discovered.
- This is a picture of me coming out of the water (on the right), this is my wife, and
this is my brother and his wife. I think we can all agree that my brother has his
priorities misaligned.
-
Who the heck is Renson Marroquin and how does he keep embarrassing me on
the run? Curse you Renson Marroquin!
Did you know that the name Marroquin means “one from Morocco?” I already
knew that. It wasn’t because I googled “how to slow down Renson Marroquin.”
8 of the top 10 females were over 35, only 4 of the top 10 males were over 35.
Who gets better with age?
Herriman Blackridge
It was the best of races, it was the worst of races.
First time at Blackridge, and the entire family have come to the race, including my father
(recently re-married this summer to my mother after 30-years of divorce. No kidding).
There were 5 athletes I was most worried about. Herman Vandecasteel, an amazing
cyclist who has beaten me before. Jake Rushton, a smart triathlete who can outrun me
any day. Kade Hunter and Griffen Conroy, both coached by the great Wes Johnson. And
Rory Duckworth.
Rory is a great triathlon success story. In just a few years he has gone from middle of the
pack, to top 10%, to consistent favorite and regular overall winner. His hard work, smart
training, and natural talent have converged into a regional triathlon powerhouse. We
raced twice before Herriman this year, and split the results. At the St. George Triathlon
(Sprint) I managed to win the event, primarily because Rory was just two weeks out from
the St. George 70.3. He was simply not 100% after his monster performance there. In
early July, we went head to head again at Echo and he clobbered me to a distant 2nd place.
He was the man to beat.
As the saying goes, “keep your enemies close, Keb Wilson closer, but stay as far ahead of
Rory Duckworth as possible.” That was the strategy. Actually, the strategy was to keep
him within 30 seconds on the bike. He’s just a better cyclist than me. I had no illusions of
beating his bike split, but I felt confident I could run him down if he was only 30 seconds
ahead.
At first, it worked. Thanks to a small error by Rory, and an advantageous swim course
design*, I was first out of the water in the first elite wave. This had never happened
before. “First out of the water” and “David Warden” had never been said in the same
sentence. My wife was waiting for her wave to start when I came out and said “Way to
go…David?” Never before was I the leader on the bike out of T1, and things were
looking good. I had a 16 second lead over Rory, giving me a decent cushion for my goal
of keeping him less than 30 seconds ahead.
Then I made a mistake I’ll regret for the rest of the season. Despite waking up at 4am in
order to understand and drive the bike course, despite my determination to know the
course, I missed the next quick left on Emmaline Drive. I just can’t explain it. The cop
was there waving me “through”, maybe there was a moving car blocking the left turn
sign. Maybe I just was too excited about being out first. Maybe I’m an idiot. Regardless,
it is the responsibility of the athlete to know the course.
Flying down Juniper at…an undisclosed speed…felt great, but I instantly had a nagging
feeling. I glanced over the shoulder, fortunately quickly. No Rory. I turned around, saw
that I had lured Kade Hunter down the same primrose path that is the downhill of Juniper.
I shouted to him we had to turn around and hammered back up the hill to make the
correct turn on Emmaline.
How much time did I lose? Thanks to the curse of modern technology, I have the GPS
data to quantify my first mistake of the day. Just less than 1 minute**. About 20 seconds
down the hill and 40 seconds back up.
Riding angry now, I passed Jeanette Schellenberger and Jake Rushton, but Rory was
already GONE. By the time we hit the Bachus Highway, the first time I could get a clear
view of where Rory was, I hit my timer and he was already 55 seconds ahead.
Approaching the intersection at 13400 South, there was not yet a policeman there to
control the 2-way intersection. A truck was approaching from my left. I came to a
complete stop*** stared straight ahead in total race mode, waited for the truck to pass,
then gunned it as soon as I saw the truck’s rear tire go by. Unfortunately, the truck was
carrying a low, long trailer hidden from my initial assessment as it approached from my
left. The wheel well of the trailer clipped my front wheel, sent it spinning off to the side,
and I went down on my elbow.
What seemed like forever was actually again, just under 1 minute based on my GPS. I got
the tire back on and kept going. My aerobars were at least 15 degrees from parallel to my
bike due to the impact, but there was only about 2 miles left in the bike.
The run was terrible. I could not bend my left arm, it just dangled at my side. I felt weird
and just could not get my rhythm and limped into 3rd. The medic on-site thought it might
be a fracture, but I was later diagnosed with WOSSI syndrome**** and was 100% in just
a few days, just an inflamed nerve. What a disappointment in front of the whole family to
have my worst race ever. In over 50 races I had never gone off course. The worst part is
that even though I had all those issues, I still would have lost to Rory even with a perfect
race. The dude is money now.
Notes:
-
*Rory accidentally started swimming to the right of the first “gate” buoy, and had
to come back around to catch the pack. I calculate that the multiple buoys on the
short, circular course is what gave me an unusual advantage on the swim.
Whoever made it to the initial buoy first then forced the other swimmers to either
take a longer, curved line around the lead swimmer in order to pass, or to fall in
behind the slower swimmer to take the shortest path. I sprinted to the first buoy,
got there first, and managed to hold everyone else behind me like a semi in a onelane freeway.
-
**See http://tpks.ws/1Xk4 to view my entire race file. The swim is all wonky due
to the lost signal when swimming
-
***Refer to the “mostly true” part of this document’s title.
-
**** WOSSI: Warden Over-States Seriousness of Injury
-
I want to ensure the multi-sport community that despite my accident, triathlon is
safe, and that Racetri is a professional and safety-first organization. No race
director wants racers in slings on their podium pictures (sorry guys, I should have
taken it off for the cameras, a dumb lapse in judgment). It’s important to me that I
convey that what happened was 100% my responsibility. Any athlete who races at
several events, and given that each of those events have multiple intersections,
finds it is inevitable that sooner or later one of those intersections will be
uncontrolled. Despite the best efforts of the race management company, they
cannot guarantee that local law enforcement will be able to arrive before the first
cyclist. In those cases, safety is the responsibility of the athlete.
Camp Yuba
It was going to be a rematch of Kade Hunter, Jacob Petersen, and David Warden (if you
win 10 triathlons in one year you get to refer to yourself in 3rd person).
Kade Hunter and I had raced just the week before at the East Canyon Triathlon, where
thanks to an error on Kade’s part, I had won by just 15 seconds. He had really beaten me
athletically; I won only technically because I was the first one to cross the finish line. If I
didn’t have a perfect race at Yuba, he was going to beat me this time.
Jake Peterson was healthier than last race and looking sharp.
To make matters more interesting, John Kemp was there. I had beaten John by only 14
seconds the last time we met, where he had just about run me down in the last 400 meters
of the race. And guess what? John had a little brother, Kevin, who was racing. As the
oldest of 6 children, I fear the little brother. The 5 of us were likely to round out the top 5.
My groove was thrown off from the start when Aaron announced that there would be 2
Sprint waves. Under 35 years old and Over 35 years old. Apparently 35 is the new overthe-hill. The other 4 contenders were all under 35. I would be racing blind, not knowing
where I was relative to my rivals. I approached Aaron and the conversation went
something like this:
“So there is no Open or Elite wave?” (translation: What the crap? Why are you putting
me with the peasants?)
“That’s right.” (translation: Quit whining, prima donna. Why don’t you man-up and do an
Olympic now and then.)
“So I need to go in the second Sprint wave?” (translation: You’re not going to make an
exception for David Warden?)
“Yes.” (translation: Hey, David Warden do what David Warden gotta do, but if you want
to race today, it’s from the second wave.)
The swim was a bit crowded, but I felt strong. I was suspicious of the swim distance due
to the “buoygate” scandal of Camp Yuba 2012 (was is a conspiracy in 2012*?). I left T1
feeling great with a swim where it should be. I knew that I just had to get the leaders
within 2 minutes of me (the difference between wave 1 and 2). The bike course is just
great at Yuba. No way to get lost on this course!**
As I approached the bike turnaround, sure enough the leaders were sorting out. In order:
Kade, John, Jake and Kevin were ahead, already flying in the opposite direction. I
calculated that I was still a full 2.5 minutes behind Kade. Kevin was wearing a T-shirt,
flapping in the wind as I passed him. Let it be known that Kevin Kemp had one of the
fastest bikes of the day while still wearing a moo moo.
I entered T2 feeling just great with Jake, John and I all in T2 at the same time with Kade
ahead by an unknown time. This meant I had a 2-minute lead on Jake and John, but both
were capable of running more than 2 minutes faster than me and I decided it was best to
to hang with them. At the dam, Jake, John and I were all close together and John started
to surge. I stayed with him, and Jake started to pull back.
John did a great job pushing me. By the turnaround, I calculated I was 90 seconds behind
Kade in real-time, which meant I was 30 seconds ahead of him in the race. John went
turbo on me at mile 2 and I could not follow, but I was ok with that knowing that I just
had to keep him less than 2 minutes ahead. I crossed the finish line in 3rd, but won the
race just 49 seconds ahead of Kade with John in 3rd.
Notes:
-
Kade, John, and Kevin all had a T2 time of 37 seconds. Weird.
I had good transitions (Russ Southwick would be proud). If you take out the
transitions I was only 25 seconds ahead of Kade athletically.
*Yes
**Dave Sherwin DID manage to get lost on the course, taking a left onto the I-15
southbound ramp instead of left on frontage road. Too funny.
In 12th place was Scott Swift. Coolest name ever for a triathlete.
Jameson King comes out of retirement, hadn’t raced for 18 months and wins the
Olympic! That’s impressive.