News & Reviews

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to travel to a destination that I have never been to before and compete in the Rev3 Costa Rica Olympic Distance event as well as take part in the 2011 Trakkers/Rev3 Team Camp.  With my new approach to the sport that started at the beginning of the year and the season starting very early I had a few goals in mind for Costa Rica Rev3 travel, race preparation and race execution which all went smoothly.   With Costa being my second race of the season already and with my first race of the season in Roatan, Honduras being a minor success, I was really looking forward to the event with a positive outlook and a low pressure feel regarding the weekend and race.  Keeping the ball rolling in the right direction with another good race was the main objective for the weekend while I enjoyed the company of all of my Team Trakkers/Rev3 teammates including some I just met for the first time over the course of the weekend. 
 
The race course provided some great challenges with a choppy ocean swim, gravel section on the bike with some substantial steep climbs.  Also,  about forty percent of the run was on the beach and gravel trails with the paved section being mostly uphill and on a narrow and steep golf course path and side walk.  With all that said, the course suited my strengths fairly well and as I checked out the course prior to the race a few times, I became even more anxious for Sunday morning to roll around. 
 
Sunday morning started at 3:30 AM which granted me about 6 hours of sleep.  I was staying at a large house with eight other athletes.  Although it was not close to much civilization, the house was a gigantic mansion and reminded me of the house that Tony Montana called home in the cult classic, Scarface. The only logistical challenge was that it was forty-five minutes from the race site.  Not a problem.  I just rolled with it and planned accordingly.  I woke up and started out with my pre race breakfast which included my pre race staple Cappuccino Ultragen shake which was blended with a banana, water, ice, day old room temperature coffee, soy milk and a splash of maple syrup.  The maple syrup addition is fairly new and I like it enough to make it permanent.  On the ride over I ate some pretzels primarily for the salt intake and some EFS Wild Berry Liquid Shot which has definitely not gotten old.  With a mostly liquid breakfast I don’t have to worry about food floating around in the stomach come race time which can be a problem for most athletes. 
 
With the 6:15 AM start time the sun was just beginning to rise as I was going through the tail end of my warm-up in the water prior to swim start.  I was feeling good with my warm up and lead up to the race while I anxiously awaited the start of the inaugural Rev3 Costa Rica.  As the gun went off, I found myself in the water and at the front of the swim with one other athlete, Leondro Chacon, to my right.  I hesitated for a second to see if he wanted to push the pace and go to the front of the swim allowing me to sink in right behind on his feet but Chacon seemed to have the same plan with me while content letting me lead out the swim which ended up being the case.  After 200 meters or so I was able to get into my rhythm at the front of the swim and progressively build throughout the 1500 meters.  With the chop and the slight current I was able to break up the swim fairly early with three athletes managing to hold my pace behind me as we transitioned from the water to the bike.  This was my first time wearing the TYR Torque speed suit on a swim in a race and it went well for me being that I led out the swim and into transition one in first. 
 
Onto the bikes we go.  A long small ring climb, gravel and down hills with round-abouts were the first major challenges right off the bat as I found myself with Matt Reed, Leondro Chacon and Manny Huerta.  As we climbed, Leo was successful in opening up a gap on all of us on the steep climb out of the resort area.  After the climb I was able to settle into a rhythm on the flatter and rolling section of the bike which allowed me to move up to 2nd place for the time being early into the ride.  At about fifteen kilometers, powerhouse cyclist and pedal masher, Andrew Starkowitz came by which most of athletes in the field are used to seeing being that he is a great rider.  At this point my goal was to keep him in site and continue to open up a gap on the contenders that were behind me.  Watching Leo Chacon pull away from the field and have the fastest bike split of the day was a bit of a sting but I was able to remain focused on putting in a solid forty kilometers while taking in plenty of fluids including diluted First Endurance EFS grape with a splash of FE Race Day thrown in the bottles.  Having worked on my pedal stroke this off season upon realizing that I have had a huge dead spot with my right leg including ten years of engraining the poor form into my neuromuscular system is beginning to pay off now being that I had a solid bike split and remained in great position going into the run. 
 
I came off of the bike in third place and went into the run close to two minutes down on Chacon and 50 seconds down on Starkowitz.  As I got after it and kept things strong and controlled I was able to real in Starky by three to four kilometers into the run and establish a solid second place position in the race with five kilometers to go.  I knew I had to keep pushing with Richie Cunningham and Manny Heurta not to far behind me.  I had a solid effort and performance from five to 7.5 K and as I turned around I saw that Manny Huerta was barreling down and closing in fast.  I had almost 25 seconds to spare on Heurta with 7.5 K to go and it was all up hill and getting very, very hot.  I bit down hard and knew that the next eight minutes were going to hurt but I knew I have been there plenty of times before and come out successful.  This time would prove to be a big test for me in holding myself together while under enormous fatigue and the pressure coming from a good friend of mine, Manny Heurta.  Who would have thought it was going to be Manny as he closed the gap on the last hill and made the pass?  I gave it my best effort and tried to hang.  The 115 pound Manny Heurta was having the run of his life and staying with him on the last steep climb with 500 meters to go was not going to happen on Sunday.  In for third with another solid race result to reflect upon and gauge progression throughout the season with. 
 
After the race, Team Trakkers/Rev3 had a photo shoot which was a great way to end the race weekend.  After all was completed with the race and photo shoot including a great team dinner at the JW Marriot, I was able to get back to the hotel and pack up and set the alarm for 3:30 AM once again.  Yes,  it is rough sometimes but I love it.  Traveling to the airport was an adventure in itself with our initial scheduled transportation not showing up which forced myself and four other athletes to scramble through the Costa Rica Yellow Pages at 4:30 AM and find an alternative solution which ended up working out.  As we traveled twice the speed limit on a two lane road to the airport while weaving through cars and testing the limits of how close we can get to the oncoming traffic, we were able to arrive at Liberia International with a few minutes to spare.  It was an adventurous ending to a great weekend and I look forward to my first race in the US in two weeks which will be the ITU Clermont Sprint National Championships on March 5th. 
 
Sincerely,  Brian Fleischmann