Phil Spencer's Grizzly Triathlon Report

The first race of the season is in the books. I’ll file this one in the “mixed results category.” For those that don’t want to suffer through more details than anyone should have to read for a sprint race, the short version is as follows: I finished first masters and first in my age group. Also managed 7th overall taking a minute off my time from last year. Had you told me that going in, I’d have been thrilled but the way the race played out I actually think I could have done better.

So Montana’s Grizzly Triathlon is quickly becoming my favorite early season race. By April I’m starting to get a little race fitness and a lot of training staleness. I’m dying to mix it up again and this race provides the perfect opportunity to test my form against some crazy fast guys. Normally I wouldn’t drive all the way to Montana for a race that is over in an hour but this one is different. The Missoula Stampede triathlon team jokingly calls this the “Montana State Championships” as everyone shows up making it the areas biggest triathlon. To give you an idea how popular this race is, this year’s edition sold out in just 8 days! This team seems to have an endless stream of speedsters, many of whom go off to have successful pro careers and they all seem to come back for this race.

So the day before the race the heat sheet comes out and this year I was included in the Male Elite category. As if that’s not intimidating enough, I’m splitting a lane with none other than Ben Hoffman. Now the nerves really started kicking in but I was equally excited to be racing with these guys. The format is a 1000 yrd pool swim where everyone is seeded by projected swim times. The first heats go off at 8:00am and go all morning finishing with the elite women and finally the elite men in the last heat at 1:45 in the afternoon. Being in the last heat is nice as I got to sleep in on a race morning! Somehow, for the second year in a row, we got great weather as race day was dry, sunny and by the time our wave was set to go, about 62 degrees.

Waiting for the last of the elite female wave to finish I’m looking
around to see the rest of my wave looking ridiculously lean and fit.
Matt Seeley was apparently trying to fly under the radar as he was entered under the pseudonym “Calamity Seeley,” and showed up with a massive Goatee. I’m talking about an entire winters growth that you
could sit and stroke while contemplating the mysteries of the world.
If it were grey he could have passed himself off as a Jedi Master.
Surprisingly, Ben was one of the least intimidating looking. He looked so young, like he just came off the set of Mayberry. He was also really nice which helped calm my nerves a bit. One of the benefits of being in the elite wave was that, unlike the rest of the athletes having to fight with 5 per lane, we raced two per lane. By that time everyone else was done so the entire pool was full of people cheering us on. Once the gun went off, as always, the nerves are gone and you just do what you’re trained to do. Ben and I hit the first wall together only to find out that he comes off the wall on his left and I come off on my right side leaving us staring directly into each others face. We went through the 100 in 1:03 then settled into about a 1:10 pace and this is how it would go for the first 500. I considered making faces to try and throw him off but thought better of it. Meanwhile the swimmer in the lane directly to my right (17 year old age grouper Sean Niccolucci) is blasting off like he’s swimming an all out 100 and his lane mate (52 year old John
Weston), Montana’s version of Brad Williams, was not far behind.
Wonder boy hopped out with a time of 10:16 and John just behind in 10:40 for the first two out. By the 500 mark Ben had clearly tired of looking into my ugly mug and started easing away coming out in 11:34. I followed him 13 seconds later in 11:47.

Out on the road, Ben just slowly eased away as I knew he would. I caught the youngster just a few miles in and expected the evergreen Mr. Weston to come back so I could have my moment in second place before the masses caught me. Well, John was still well up the road but I made it to just before the turn around before Calamity Seeley went by, luxurious beard flowing in his slipstream. We hit the turn together and, much to my dismay, there were 4 guys together just behind us. I expected Matt to disappear up the road and the others to come flying by but Matt just sat out there about 100 yards up front the rest of the way back to transition. Adam Jensen and Matt Shryock finally caught me a couple miles before T2 and the three of us and John Weston all came into transition together with a couple more right behind. Finishing with those guys was a real thrill for me as I’ve never been in sight of most of those names after the bike.

So Ben was long gone, Matt had left T2 just a few seconds before we all pulled in and then there were about 5 of us all heading out at the same time. Adam looked comfortable as he slowly pulled away as did Matt who was flying. Brendon Halpin also went past me like I was running in cement. The run is along the Clarks Fork river on a loose gravel trail that makes it impossible to get into any rhythm as your feet slip around. Just before the turn, there is a detour that takes you straight up a single track hill that spikes your heart-rate to the max before an equally difficult descent that twists back down to the trail. To this point I hadn’t looked back but at the turn I got the chance to see three guys right behind me and they all looked like they were flying. I had about 1.5 miles to go and I went into complete vacuum cleaner breathing mode trying to hold them off and hang onto 6th place. As I lumbered along with about 400 meters to go, 22 yr. old Graham Meng came easing soundlessly past me…or quite possibly making all kinds of noise but with the God-awful racket I was producing at that point, I couldn’t have heard a train approaching. Everyone was screaming as we went by but sadly, I was already as deep into the red as I could go and had absolutely no response finishing 6 seconds in arrears at 1:04.12.

So for those of you keeping track...inspired by his awesome lane- mate, Ben went on to win handily coming in at 57:39 followed by the chia faced Calamity Seeley at 1:00.53. Local studs Mat Shryock and Brendan Halpin duked it out finishing in 1:01:03, and 08 respectively. Coming back from injury, Adam Jensen still killed it for 5th at 1:02:12. Finally that little bastard Graham pipping me at the line for 6th…Arnie, you need to teach me some of those blocking techniques!

As always, these early races give us a great barometer to gage what is going well and where we need to work. I was really happy to have taken over a minute off my time from last year and finishing 7th in that field was great for me…my run , however, was an absolute abomination.

Oh, Oh, one other thing...Lindsey Corbin was supposed to race but was still recovering from last weekends half-Iron so she was all over the course cheering us (really cheering ME) on. She was so impressed with my race she demanded she get a photo with me (it was really almost embarrassing for the poor girl the way she was following me around)! Cute as a button that one. And thus ends my Montana adventure. Special thanks to Leo for his great company!