Twain Mein's triathlon race history 2019

Greenfield Triathlon, Massachusetts

I met Brian Fitzgerald (“Fitz”) back in 1996 (along with Chang) when we worked at a start up called Four11. We had a product called Rocketmail (web-based email) which attracted Yahoo!’s attention. In fact, Y! bought our company in 1997 b/c of Rocketmail which is now known as Yahoo! Mail. Through those years, I got Fitz interested in triathlons and we trained together and did many memorable races, esp Wildflower – the best aspect of it was camping together with friends. In around 2005, Fitz moved back east but every year he would come join me and the crew for Wildflower weekend. I would fix up one of my spare bikes and get him a tent as well. He’d fly in to SFO, drive down, camp, race, and then haul ass back to the airport and fly back home. It was a tradition for years and sort of the triathlon highlight. In fact, in 2018, the Boston Globe did a story about Wildflower which primarily featured Fitz! We actually partied with the reporter and her friends until all hours that year…that was quite a night (Dean, Derrill, Fitz, Chang, Gary, feel free to chime in....)

Unfortunately, as you know, WF is no longer happening. And racing tris has sort of dropped off the radar with Covid. But Fitz wanted me to come out and visit this year; he lives in Amherst, MA. I suggested a triathlon and we found the Greenfield Tri which has been going on for 37 years. Self-centered bastard that I am, I told Fitz that if I was going to fly across country and race, it was important for me to win my age group to qualify for Nationals so placing first in the AG was important. So this wasn’t just a social visit, I was on a mission. I grilled Fitz on the bike I could use and asked him for aerobars on the bike. He said I could use his wife’s bike or his old bike that he had loaned to a friend.

Wife’s bike? Really?

I pressured him for his old bike and asked if he had aero bars. There were a few follow ups “yeah, I have the aero bars – but they are missing one bolt. But I think they fit”. Fitz assured me the aero bar would fit though I had my doubts. And he said he would get a replacement bolt.

So I arrive last Friday after the red eye with 1 hour of sleep. I check out the bike and the aero bars have all the bolts but…they don’t fit. They are size 26 while the handlebars are the more modern 31’s. F! Oh well, let’s just readjust expectations. That said, the bike is a super cool classic Ibis “Spanky” steel bike that was remarkably stiff and had great handling. I dialed in the fit and Fitz and I went on a pre-ride; wow, sweet bike!

Regarding the swim - the swim is very short; 1/3 mile and in a river. I assumed it wouldn’t be too cold but was also conflicted with what to wear. I didn’t want to lug my wet suit but wanted to be as fast as possible and also wanted to wear my HRM. The only clothing choice was my Team USA one piece. But I thought, what a jerk showing up with Team USA to a little communal triathlon! But that’s what I packed. The day before the race, Fitz and I did a pre-swim. You go down current and then back up. The water was bracingly cold (61 degrees). I went 1:19 pace down and 1:44 pace back up. After the swim I was shivering. F! Why didn’t I bring my wet suit? How would affect race day? Damn!

On to the race. We got there at 6:45AM in time for the mandatory race meeting at 7:30 when they then close off the transition area. Luckily it was pretty sunny and I relaxed about being too cold after the swim. Fitz would go off at 8:36 and me 3 mins later. I got in to the water and it was shockingly cold. Did some warm ups to try and get warm. Gun goes off and I’m in the top 4 but something is wrong. Totally shallow breathing. Feeling like I am going to drown. Ugh! Backstroke time! Interestingly, on the turn around, back against the current, it felt better.

Came out of the swim in a daze, got on the bike and was promptly dropped on the first hill by another guy in my age group on an immediate climb. WTF? This forced me to focus and I soon pedaled by and never saw him again. The course was actually pretty technical with rough roads in spots and some significant climbs. Interestingly, the road bike was better suited to a lot of the conditions and I ended up with the 3^rd fastest bike split despite no aero advantage. It was a total ego boost to pass guys on their expensive tri bikes! Cool.

The run was pure survival though, And age has sapped speed. I was struggling at 7:20 pace but just kept it there. It is so crushing how 7:20 pace feels like 6:20 pace of years gone by. Mercifully it was only 3.1 miles. I finally crossed the line, sprinting like a wounded deer, but got first in the AG (55-59) and 5^th overall. Fitz, in the 45-49 AG was 2^nd AG.

So we both podiumed which was sweet.

Anyhow, it was super cool to use a tri race as an excuse to visit a dear friend and it was an epic experience.
Fingers crossed that this punches the ticket to Nationals as well.

The day before, the family went down to Santa Cruz for packet pick-up. We discovered another location for our favorite breakfast burritos, the Point.

Lily also taught me to surf at Pleasure Point. We did it on her board and the SUP. Did over 1 mile of "swimming".This said, the water wasn't that cold and the kelp seemed safe.

Race day it was a long line to the porta-potties! Best part was seeing Derrill. Second best part was that me, Derrill, and Dean were 1-2-3 in the sprint division for 55-59 age group.

Bonus points: Chang was 2nd in his AG for Olympic. Jimmy Sopko, 2nd in the Sprint/1st AG, Xavi 2nd AG, 5th overall.

It is admittedly sort of ridiculous that a sprint tri has this kind of long-winded recap but here goes:

For once I wasn’t late to a race – or so I thought. I arrived at 6:55AM and my wave start was 8:15. Incredibly, when I got there, the public bathrooms were empty which was a huge bonus! (of note, this race did not have additional porta potties). Headed over to packet pick up and was feeling pretty relaxed but then time suddenly stood still. The registration line was huge. And the line into Transition was overly complicated with mandatory body marking and a sort of security check that wasn’t staffed with enough people. Suddenly it was 7:30 then 7:40, sh@t!

I finally registered (Penny who runs Finish Line productions – and put on the Santa Cruz tri on Aug 8 was volunteering with registration. What an amazing lady) and went over to transition. Tim Sheeper had smartly organized us at the very end of the transition area which was the bike in/out. Interestingly my parent’s (and Derrill’s) podiatrist, Jim Ratcliff, was doing the race as well as the doc who repaired my torn ACL in 2006, Alan Mishra. Sister Sinda was doing the race as well as my 16-year old nephew, Finn. Finn is a cycling phenom but has never run 4 miles and has never done a tri. It was also awesome to see Andrew Hughes and then Thornton with his mega-watt smile. Plus Gunnar and Martin were cheering us on with Gunnar providing great tips like how to best run in the sand and how to prep for the bike.

I did a short warm up in the swim. Oh man, it felt cold and the waves felt larger than they looked. I should have stayed out longer but went back to the shore. I was worried about my sister who would go out in the earlier wave. But she gamely went to the front row of athletes and charged in to the water like a veteran ocean-swimmer.

Finally the gun went off for my wave and it was dicey trying to figure out when/how to dive in to the surf. I tentatively did and was immediately tossed back. Meanwhile a woman on a relay team just attacked the waves and seemed to gallop off in to the distance. I tried to make up for lost time and started swimming hard but it was challenging; waves would smack you in the face while the swells moved you up and down and it was difficult to get a full breath. About 1/4 of the way out I was suddenly overwhelmed. Could not regulate breathing. Holy shit, is it possible that I’ll just DNF right now? That thought entered my mind fully. But I couldn’t see any life guards near by; no where to swim too. Near me, the relay woman who had exploded out front was also doing breast stroke to complement my back stroke, overwhelmed just like me. It is so interesting how triathlon pushes you to these mentally and physically challenging situations in an instant. And how you have to mentally work through these challenges to allow your body to react.

Mercifully, finally made it around the ship and the waves pushed us back in. Unfortunately we then had to swim parallel to the beach and once again, faced with waves crashing and pushing from the side. Finally finished. Waddled up the stairs, completely traumatized.

Gunnar shouted out that Thornton was about a minute ahead; I saw him leave transition. Thornton’s open water swim practices were paying huge dividends.

On the bike, the roads were wet and it was foggy with light rain in places. The road was littered with pot holes and there were a lot of newbies swerving around. “Careful on the train tracks, they are slick!” a volunteer yelled. The bar tape on my base bars doesn’t have any texture so they were really slippery (mental note: replace the bar tape with cork!). I was fixated on catching this one guy who looked to be in my age group and I finally passed him. Good I thought – he’s done! Well I’ll be damned but he passed me and then I passed him back. We then hit a climb and I thought I’d ride away from him. But the reverse happened, he just dropped me (turns out his name is Jerome Guionnet and he is the President of SVTC). Wow, humble pie! Soon after came a treacherous descent. The road was really bumpy and the rain was stinging. Me and another guy on his tri-bike were just hanging on for dear life; 2 others on road bikes blew by us including a 61 year old woman! At this point I just wanted to finish without crashing, who cares about even trying to catch Thornton, let alone that other dude. As a side note, reportedly there were quite a few crashes. Some nasty road rash on peeps in the transition area.

Finally finished the bike mentally and physically frayed. I couldn’t even pull my shoes on, it was ridiculous. Then we had to run down some stairs to the beach with full on booty-lock and then trudge through the tossed up sand. Ugh. Finally zig-zagged down the beach in a death march unable to maintain higher than 160 heart rate. It was hard to focus on anything but finding hard sand and dodging the waves.

Because it is an out and back I saw Andrew come blazing back and then Jerome with Thornton right on his heels. I struggled to muster up some motivation thinking “maybe” I could catch Thornton. But dodging the debris and waves just made it too difficult. To add insult, the final run back in to the finish line was now churned up with even deeper sand. There was no way to sprint, only to try and find footing!

In the end I finished 3^rd to Jerome and Thornton in the age group, 16^th overall. My “little” nephew, Finn, riding a road bike must have just crushed it on the bike and run, let alone swimming in the wet suit he borrowed from me. He got me by 5 seconds! Sister Sinda was also 3^rd place in her age group. All in all, Team Sheeper got 9 podium spots which was an impressive showing for the team. And Andrew won the 50-54 AG and was 4^th overall, just amazing.

It’s really interesting how I raced Santa Cruz 2 weeks ago and it was sort of non-eventful; mostly about seeing good friends and being able to focus on racing hard. Yet this race felt so much more traumatic. It became less about pure output and more about finishing. It is so cool how triathlon combines self-improvement, self-awareness as well as camaraderie. And how you can never really predict or completely prepare for what will happen on race day.

Overall	AG	First	Last	#	Wave	Swim	Pace	Rank	T1	Rank	Bike	MPH	Rank	T2	Rank	Run	Pace	Rank	Overall
1	-1	Paul	Mikuszewski	-213	8	7:15	1:19	1	1:15	6	38:44:00	23.8	1	1:14	64	22:17	7:14	13	1:10:45
2	-1	Daniel	Bensen	-127	6	10:32	1:55	25	1:51	23	39:04:00	23.6	2	0:48	25	20:34	6:40	8	1:12:48
3	-1	Mitchell	Tebo	-256	7	8:38	1:34	7	0:45	1	44:08:00	20.9	8	0:32	6	20:20	6:36	7	1:14:24
4	1	Matt	Cain	-141	8	10:04	1:50	16	2:26	54	43:16:00	21.3	6	0:40	16	19:22	6:17	3	1:15:49
5	1	Twain	Mein	-209	9	8:59	1:38	9	1:20	8	42:16:00	21.8	3	1:04	45	22:24	7:16	16	1:16:04
6	2	Win	Whitcomb	-269	9	8:19	1:31	4	1:11	5	43:33:00	21.2	7	0:56	34	22:52	7:25	18	1:16:51
7	1	Isaac	Bingham	-130	8	8:13	1:30	3	0:55	3	47:20:00	19.5	21	0:26	3	20:16	6:34	6	1:17:11
8	1	Jack	Brown	-134	8	9:54	1:48	14	1:22	9	44:23:00	20.8	9	0:36	8	22:54	7:26	19	1:19:10
9	-1	Joellen	Reino	-232	6	10:16	1:52	20	1:33	14	44:34:00	20.7	11	0:44	20	22:28	7:17	17	1:19:37
10	2	Brian	Fitzgerald	-160	8	10:59	2:00	34	1:48	20	42:57:00	21.5	5	0:54	29	23:11	7:31	21	1:19:49
11	1	Ric	Haupt	-173	9	9:59	1:49	15	2:23	52	45:01:00	20.5	12	0:42	18	23:51	7:44	26	1:21:57
12	1	Davis	Wheat	-266	7	11:02	2:01	35	3:13	96	48:03:00	19.2	23	0:34	7	19:23	6:17	4	1:22:15
13	2	Benjamin	Simanski	-247	8	12:55	2:22	78	1:31	13	46:16:00	19.9	14	0:45	24	20:58	6:48	10	1:22:27
14	3	John	Reino	-233	9	11:33	2:07	46	2:52	81	42:29:00	21.7	4	1:08	49	24:30:00	7:57	30	1:22:33
15	1	Charles	Chokel	-149	9	8:35	1:34	6	2:14	45	46:43:00	19.7	15	1:12	61	23:54	7:45	28	1:22:39
16	2	Edward	Sparkowski	-251	9	10:52	1:59	32	1:39	17	44:33:00	20.7	10	1:03	44	24:38:00	8:00	32	1:22:47
17	2	Paul	Jahnige	-178	9	10:14	1:52	18	2:00	32	47:01:00	19.6	20	0:23	2	23:21	7:35	23	1:22:59
18	2	Jacob	Revelo	-235	7	11:15	2:03	41	1:26	11	46:46:00	19.7	17	1:43	95	23:22	7:35	24	1:24:33
19	1	Lukas	Martin	-203	8	12:13	2:14	61	1:25	10	46:50:00	19.7	18	0:42	19	23:51	7:44	27	1:25:02
20	-1	Gabrielle	Galat	-161	10	8:43	1:35	8	1:57	30	49:55:00	18.5	30	1:09	50	23:33	7:38	25	1:25:17
21	4	Elliott	Kelly	-184	9	11:14	2:03	39	2:21	50	51:30:00	17.9	41	0:30	4	21:17	6:54	11	1:26:52
22	2	Mark	Waller	-263	8	12:46	2:20	76	1:54	26	45:44:00	20.2	13	1:01	43	25:38:00	8:19	36	1:27:05
23	-1	Alicia	Wendolowski	-265	11	10:08	1:51	17	1:19	7	46:58:00	19.6	19	0:45	21	28:14:00	9:10	62	1:27:24
24	1	Lisa	Ritchie	-236	11	9:08	1:40	12	2:44	71	50:09:00	18.4	32	0:54	30	24:36:00	7:59	31	1:27:30
25	3	Will	Gray	-167	9	8:29	1:33	5	2:46	73	49:01:00	18.8	25	1:10	55	26:18:00	8:32	41	1:27:44
26	1	Nicholas	Peterson	-220	7	14:19	2:37	111	3:09	92	52:39:00	17.5	46	0:31	5	17:47	5:46	1	1:28:25
27	1	Fred	Buse	-138	7	12:14	2:14	63	2:58	86	52:08:00	17.7	44	0:45	23	20:40	6:42	9	1:28:44
28	3	Matt	Powers	-224	7	13:45	2:31	99	3:03	89	47:44:00	19.3	22	1:13	62	23:19	7:34	22	1:29:04
29	1	Lisa	Chase	-148	12	10:35	1:56	27	1:08	4	52:05:00	17.7	43	0:56	35	24:51:00	8:04	33	1:29:36
30	3	Zachary	Wheat	-268	7	12:12	2:14	60	3:42	116	50:39:00	18.2	35	0:57	36	22:18	7:14	14	1:29:49
31	3	Paul	Rabenold	-227	9	11:24	2:05	43	2:01	33	48:25:00	19	24	0:58	40	27:36:00	8:57	56	1:30:24
32	1	Jodi	Stevens	-252	11	11:48	2:09	51	2:50	77	52:55:00	17.4	50	0:37	10	22:20	7:15	15	1:30:30
33	1	Sarah	Howe	-176	12	9:02	1:39	10	1:51	24	51:00:00	18.1	37	1:19	75	27:54:00	9:03	59	1:31:06