Crew Chief for Jeff Fejfar, Ultraman Florida Champion 2022
In 2020, I was crew chief for Jeff Fejfar when he finished 3rd Overall (2nd Male) and wrote about that experience at length. You can find the link to that article HERE. In this addition, I will cover any changes we made to the overall strategy/crewing preparation from 2020, but will try to not be too redundant otherwise.
Jeff had planned to return to the race in 2021, but the race was called off because of COVID, making this the first opportunity to race there again. Jeff had a lot of success in 2020, but there was a lot of room for upside going into 2022. This was manifested first in how we prepared and then in how we planned to execute the race plan (both for him and for the crew).
One of the benefits of having crewed in 2020 was seeing how the race dynamics played out and what could be done to better prepare in training. In 2020, Jeff’s primary challenges came on the last 1/3 of the bike on day two and then somewhat of a mixed bag on the double marathon day with a couple low points on the second half of the run. I had Jeff do a lot of longer bike sessions built on kilojoules/hour that were increased over time and were designed to match, or surpass, the intended energy output of day two. The longest run he did in training was 50K, but we did more qualitative long runs in the 2 hour range coupled with bike/run doubles later in the day.
As far as crewing tactical improvements, the primary adjustments came from knowing the course better and anticipating when stops could be longer at various traffic lights as well as understanding where busier sections of the course may be. Additionally, we hoped to be able to give Jeff a pacer for almost the entire run on day three.
The 2020 crew was phenomenal and 2022 was no different, although it did involve new team members. Three new members were added to the team: John Richardson, T.R. Maloney and Andy Cross. I had not met John and Andy as they are friends of Jeff’s in Jacksonville, but TR and I go way back to my early Boulder days. TR is now out of Asheville, NC and has experience as a bike mechanic, triathlete and ultrarunner (including Leadville 100). John Richardson is a triathlete with a high level track and field background including a stint in pro racing as well as being crowned the two-time Southeastern Conference Champion in the 1500 while running for the University of Kentucky (read: pretty ok at running). Andy Cross is a long time experienced long course triathlete that used to work with Brady DeHoust back in the Endurance Corner days (if you’re out there Brady, Andy and I talked about your concept of the “dim season” which I always greatly appreciated).
BEFORE RACE DAY
If you read back through the blog post from 2020, I go over some of the details of how we prepared before the race. We did not make a lot of changes or improvements. We still did the following:
Breakfast Burritos: Like 2020, we made up about 30-40 breakfast burritos and wrapped them in tin foil to be used throughout the weekend. Jeff ate the very last one the morning after the race was done so they all went to good use.
Crockpot dinners: We pre-made the ingredients for three dinners and this time we made the exact same thing each time: quinoa, potatoes, chicken and some veggies. Before we went out to race each morning, we would turn on the slow cooker and dinner would be ready when we got back. If you plan to crew, you don’t need to do this, but make sure you have a dinner plan for EACH night before the race even begins. These days are looooong and your decision making skills will be diminished by day’s end. Make those decisions early.
Loading and Unloading the Car: We made the decision to line everything up on one wall of the house that was to be loaded into the car each morning. Additionally, we completely unloaded the car at the end of each day. This helped us not lose track of where everything was and how much of everything we had. I didn’t snap a good picture of everything that would go into a car in the morning, but the below pic gives you the general idea.
Crew Assignments: The night before the first race day I gave everyone a brief rundown of what to expect. I would be driving the vehicle and keeping track of the nutrition plan, generally speaking. TR would be sitting shotgun and would be navigating the bike course. Additionally, if any bike issue came up during the day, he would take the lead and we would do whatever he instructed us to do. John and Andy would be prepping all bottles and nutrition and would be in charge of all hand offs. Of course, duties overlap as needed on the road, but with our general duties in place it keeps us all a little better prepared.
DAY ONE: 10K swim and 92 mile bike
Jeff said he thinks this first day is the hardest day of the whole race (now with two data points as reference). I told him I would remind him of that on day three.
However, I do believe him. Swimming 10K is no joke. Swimming 10K and then having to ride 92 miles is no joke. Doing all that when the water is only in the upper 50’s is also no joke.
The weather forecast had seen some pretty chilly numbers, which was mostly concerning if Jeff were to get out of the water after being really cold and then face cold air temperatures early on the bike. As such, we made two adjustments:
We would pour warm water down his wetsuit just before entering the water and would not enter the water until the very last minute.
We would make the water bottles as warm as possible. The first bottle being used would be half hot water/half normal, then the following two bottles would be full of hot water to be used later. This is a tactic used by ultraswimmers that race in cold water for long periods of time.
The crew duties surrounding the swim were: John was lead kayaker. Coming out of the water, Andy and I would assist in getting Jeff ready with clothing change. TR would ready the bike, helmet and shoes at the mount line. Then Andy would assist in all the kayak clean up duties while we got into the car as quickly as possible and out onto the road.
While the swim was cold, the conditions were quite calm. Since Jeff had John as lead kayaker, it was John’s duty to set the line to swim and to make sure Jeff stayed on a feeding schedule every 15 minutes. Jeff exited the water in first place and even swam a couple minutes faster than 2020 with a time of 2:40:17.
On to the bike, Jeff started rolling along pretty well. Early in the ride (maybe 30-40 minutes) we realized that Jeff’s rear bottle cage wasn’t holding. The general plan was to use two cages on the bike, one with a calorie-filled bottle and one with plain water. Without the additional cage, we opted to only keep the calorie bottle on board. This meant that we would only hand off water for short periods of time where he could quickly take some in and then toss the bottle for us to retrieve. This might have been problematic on a hot day, but with the cooler temps, we were able to get away with not having copious amounts of plain water on board.
The second minor hiccup we had was when Jeff’s rear bike light came off (required for all racers), but we were in a great position in the car and TR was able to run out quickly, remount it and get Jeff back on the road. The rest of the day went well and Jeff finished the day in first place.
DAY TWO: 172 mile bike ride.
Day Two is the most intense day for the crew, in my opinion. Supporting a rider on the road all day long takes a lot of work and there is surprisingly little-to-no down time. Additionally, after going through the bike course in 2020, I knew there were various locations where we could get held up on traffic lights (riders follow all rules of the road) and we wanted to avoid the back half fade of the day two ride in 2020.
The weather on day two looked to be solid. Cool, but not cold, to start the day with very little wind to speak of (contrasted to 2020 when it was warmer and quite windy). In 2020, the front riders stayed in close contact, but this time, Jeff was on his own after the first 10K of the bike.
Before the start of the race, I told the crew to do running hand offs for the water bottles whenever necessary and I told them to not be afraid to open it up if we were in a fast section. The closer our speed was to Jeff, the easier the hand off becomes.
As the morning went on, things were moving along without any real issues. There was a light around 60 miles into the course that took a very long time in 2020 and Jeff made it this year while it was green. Then around mile 95 there was another light that we got stuck at for several minutes last time and once again Jeff rolled through it on green. Additionally, throughout the ride I was looking at Jeff’s body language on the bike and I just wasn’t seeing any struggles at all. Struggling might look like: sitting up when you shouldn’t, pausing when you shouldn’t and pushing too big of a gear from baseline (cadence is the first thing to drop when fatigue kicks in). When he made that light at mile 95 I had a conscious thought to myself that we were witnessing a great day for Jeff. It was like watching a pitcher on their way to a perfect game. And along those lines, I certainly didn’t say anything out loud to avoid jinxing it. We just needed to let him do his thing and help whenever we could.
Jeff proceeded to break the day two course record and also set a combined day one and day two record for Ultraman Florida.
DAY THREE: The Double Marathon. 52.6 mile run
As great as the first two days had gone, that can all be quickly erased on day three. The time losses for bad sections on day three are massive so any lead an athlete has can be forfeited in a short distance.
The weather forecast had called for cooler, wet conditions which could be good or bad depending on the severity. As it turned it out, it was very favorable as it was only raining lightly for the first couple of hours and then the cloud cover basically held the rest of the day and tempered the high temperatures on the day.
The pacing plan for the day was the run a mile and walk 15-30” the whole way. Jeff had to run the first 3.5 mile on his own and then I would join him for pacing while just taking a couple short breaks. Then at mile 29+, Jeff would do a shoe change and John would take over the primary pacing duties.
The first half of the run went according to plan. Jeff went through the first marathon around 3:34-5 and after a few more miles, it was time to for John to take over the pacing.
In 2020, Jeff saw a rough patch around the 50K mark of the race, but after a few miles, he bounced back and had another good ten mile stretch before having some more challenges in the final 10 miles or so. This year just didn’t see that at all. Jeff slowed down a little in the final 10K, but even then there was not additional walking outside from the planned run breaks. As we got further in further into the second marathon, I had a similar feeling to what I had at mile 95 on the bike the day before: that wasn’t just a special day, this was a special weekend. Once again, we just needed to let Jeff do his thing and be there he needed something. He didn’t win the day three stage; he was second by a few minutes, but he took the overall victory and ran the third day just short of an HOUR faster than 2020. His total time was 21:40:25 and he is the 2022 Ultraman Florida Champion.
I’ve had the pleasure to work alongside one great athlete and two great crews at UMFL in 2020 and 2022. Jeff has hinted at taking a break from the UM world so I guess it’s time for John, Andy or TR to step up.
Until the next one.
