A talk with Jessica Broderick
This 18-year-old CU Boulder freshman started her triathlon career just three years ago after her sophomore year in high school with a few local sprint races near her home in Middlebury, Connecticut. Building on all-state honors in track (5:16 mile and 11:09 two miles) and swimming (5:25 for the 500-free) Broderick quickly advanced to contend in some national junior triathlon events and won a few sprint events in the Northeast. Just a few days after graduating from Pomperaug Regional High School, she entered the bitterly cold waters at the International Triathlon Union 2008 Women’s 18-19 age group World Championship in Vancouver last June and finished with a 2:08:24 Olympic distance time and a bronze medal.
That medal was a signal that she had great potential. But once she chose to attend the University of Colorado at Boulder, joined the Buffaloes triathlon team, and started training at a high intensity level with talented teammates and some internationally acclaimed pros, her learning and improvement curve skyrocketed. On Saturday April 18, Broderick shocked a strong collegiate field by upsetting pre-race favorite Ashley Morgan of the US Military Academy and all the rest of the women at Lubbock, Texas with a 2:18:34 finish and a 30-second margin of victory.
While Broderick may have arrived on the triathlon scene like a young comet, she seems to have absorbed a large dose of wisdom from her teammates, coaches and triathlon mentors in Boulder. She is delighted with her big win, but sees a lot of big improvements she needs to make on her winning 40:24 10km run if she wants to fulfill the rest of her triathlon dreams. But she’s patient.
“Being 18, I want to be in this sport a long time,” she says. “So I want to be healthy, get faster gradually, and not try to do it all at once. I want to train for the long term. I want to do this sport forever.”
Slowtwitch: The temperature of Buffalo Springs Lake in Lubbock was a popsicle-cold 53 degrees. The low 50s water at ITU Worlds in Vancouver left World Champion Vanessa Fernandes shivering and a badly beaten 10th, yet you scored a bronze medal in your first try. It seems you like cold water days.
Jessica Broderick: Like most triathletes I do not have much body fat and we all have to be careful with that and stay warm to perform. While I do not prefer cold temperatures, I swam in water as cold or colder last year at Vancouver Worlds. And we swim outdoors in the heated outdoor pool at the Flatirons Athletic Club in Boulder during snowstorms and freezing weather. So I am used to dealing with cold temperatures.
ST: I suppose you had a full wetsuit. Did you wear a hood?
Jessica: On this day I just wore one swim cap. Actually the only thing that was cold in the swim were my hands. I have a hard time getting my fingers together and I could not push them together to get the most pull. Besides that, I felt pretty warm. I purposely swam pretty hard heading out to warm up and the rest of the swim felt fine after that. I had no serious issues with the cold water as some people did.
ST: Your main athletic background is swimming. How did your swim go? A lot of people said the swim was long.
Jessica: I think I was third for the women. (Actually she was 5th, 40 seconds behind top swimmer Alice Henriques of Columbia University) I think the swim was too long. It felt like 500 meters long, but my time was 3 minutes 13 seconds slower than most of my time trials. I swam 23:13, and I was expecting 20:00. That would make it more like 200 to 250 meters long.
ST: Did you panic when you saw how slow your time was?
Jessica: I didn’t wear a watch and I was happy about that. I find it to be stressful when my times seem to be behind expectations. If I had looked at it I would have been concerned about a slow time.
ST: You had a big lead over Ashley Morgan in the swim. Did you notice where you stood?
Jessica: I didn't see Ashley Morgan starti ng the bike. The girl from Stanford (Alexa Merz 23:18) was on my feet the whole swim. She beat me out of transition because my hands were cold and I had a bad transition (2:11 to Merz’s 1:26 and Ashley Morgan’s 1:38, which put Broderick 46 seconds behind leader Lisa Fong of UC San Diego)
ST: How did you think you stood going into the bike?
Jessica: After transition, my coach (CU’s Mike Ricci) told me there was 1:30 between me and the top girl. I knew that I was gonna have to work hard on the bike, but I was ready. I worked hard on my cycling over the winter. I always tried to ride outside as much as possible even when the temperatures were 20 or 30 degrees. I like to prepare myself for any conditions.
ST: Did you have any aftereffects from the cold swim?
Jessica: Out of T1 had trouble getting my feet in my bike shoes which were clipped into the bike pedals. I was able to slide my feet in. Sometimes they flip over and bounce. But this time I took the time I needed to get them clipped in before riding up a steep hill out of transition. After that, I passed the girl from Stanford right away, and I knew I had two more to chase. There was one woman ahead of me from UC San Diego. (Lisa Fong, who swam 23:07 and turned a very quick transition in 1:25). I passed her later on the bike and one other woman at the turnaround.
ST: What were conditions like on the bike?
Jessica: The ride out was pretty speedy. We had the wind behind us and I made sure to take advantage. On advice from my coach, I made sure my cadence was high and pushed high wattage. But I didn’t use my SRM because didn’t want to stress myself.
ST: Last year, you were not strong enough to stay with the leaders on the bike. How did you ride to this level?
Jessica: In cycling I found what I call a New Level of Suffering. It's just a thing I had a breakthrough in training. Instead of being a cyclist who slows down and drops to a lower gear when fatigued, I learned to become a more efficient cyclist and work through periods of high heart rate and high power output was exciting to feel so strong on the bike and not be cold. I have done so many rides in 20 or 30-degree weather.
ST: Was it speed work or over distance that was the key to your bike improvement?
Jessica: I do a lot of long distance riding in Boulder. We call them epic rides – up Highway 36 to 66 and riding up to Jamestown and Ward. The Carter Lake ride is my favorite. I usually join the group for rides from about 2.5 to 3.5 hour rides every Saturday with a brick run afterwards. This off season, I bumped up my mileage and did a lot of climbing. And I ride with people who push me. On group rides the whole team goes out. I’d ride a lot with Steve Richard, who is the number three guy on the men’s team and Matt Hudson. And I would ride with my friend Flora Duffy (of Bermuda). She is an awesome professional triathlete and a great person and I really enjoyed training with her.
ST: Did you go all out on the bike and hope to hang on in the run as John Dahlz says he did? Or did you take some middle approach?
Jessica: I had to bike hard because I knew Ashley Morgan was a great runner. My coach told me to go hard but stay smooth. By the time I came to the turnaround I was in the lead and it seemed I was a minute up on her. But looking at the splits, it must have been more. Coming back into the wind, I remembered my coach told me not to grind hard and push too high a gear or my legs would not be ready for the run.
ST: Your bike split was sixth fastest – 1:11:36 – and it gave you the lead. Morgan was 3 minutes 40 seconds behind after the swim, but took back 33 seconds in transition. After the bike, Morgan’s second-fastest 1:10:13 split took back another 1:23. Starting the run, your lead over Morgan was 1 minute 44 seconds. What was the plan?
Jessica: Coming into T2, people were yelling and the announcer said, “Here comes a Colorado Buffalo.” When I dismounted in T2, my feet were freezing and the only thing I was worried about was would I have sensation beneath me when I started the run. Going out on the run I was feeling bad, but I’d had bricks where I felt worse in training. So overall I was optimistic.
ST: Did your coach offer any strategy in transition?
Jessica: As I started the run I passed by my coach Mike Ricci and he told me “Relax! Relax!” That helped me a lot because when I am tired and stressed while running, I roll my shoulders and exert too much energy in my upper body. I passed my entire team on way out and they were all screaming for me and that was really cool.
ST: After your strong bike, you must have been feeling the effects on the run?
Jessica: On run I felt pretty strong, but I was definitely fatiguing. I made sure to grab water at every aid station. When you run at high intensity it’s hard to get fluids down. I also tried to dump water on my head. By then it wasn't overly hot, but it gave me a refreshing feeling.
ST: Where was Morgan at the run turnaround?
Jessica: I saw Ashley Morgan and I thought I had about 45 seconds on her. At that point of race, I definitely did not think I had it in the bag.
ST: How was the run traffic?
Jessica: Right then, I keyed on a guy from Arizona State University in the race. He wasn’t pacing me but I was going about the same speed and I made sure to keep up the effort when I’d start to fall behind. I was determined not to let him get farther in front. I also tried not to waste energy look around.
ST: How did you fight off fatigue?
Jessica: During the run I definitely felt better thanks to the adrenaline rush and the momentum and the enthusiasm from my team. And I remember that Mike always tells us, “The faster you go, the faster the pain will be over.” I also kept thinking of all the hours of training, all the miles I’d run.
ST: Were you worried that Morgan was running you down?
Jessica: With a mile and half left, a fellow teammate, Todd Darlington, passed me. He gave me a few words of encouragement and a few little hints that helped because I was not looking back. He had just passed Ashley Morgan and said: “You’re gonna do it. Your pace can hold her off. Keep pushing. You’re going to be national champion!” Then he passed me and kept going. Then my teammate Cedric Wane, who had just finished third overall among the men, ran back beside the course to cheer me on. Then another guy from our team, a track specialist, ran back to me. He had raced the sprint and told me what to fix in my form. ‘Drop your arms, get on your toes, and drive your legs forward.’
ST: How much did that support help?
Jessica: Todd and Cedric and I all swim in the same lanes at practice and are all great friends. So to see my friends and hear them give me encouragement in the last few miles of pain and suffering was really helpful. Then I turned the last corner and had 600 meters straight to the finish.
ST: How did that look to you?
Jessica: I saw the yellow colors of my team the banners and they all were going crazy. From where they were standing, you couldn’t tell who it was coming around the corner. Later they told me they kept seeing people and thought it was me or Ashley. As I got closer they started yelling. When I came to the final stretch and entered the finish chute, they were banging on the sides of the netting that was covered with big USAT and sponsor signs. Even other teams banged on the sides making noise as I came in, and that was really cool.
ST: What were you thinking at the finish?
Jessica: When I crossed the line, I started crying. Which is not like me. It never happens. But this was overwhelming. It seemed almost surreal. You see I had a recurring dream of grabbing the tape – which I had never done before. I’d won some smaller races, but they usually only held the tape for the guys. So this was my first time grabbing the tape – just like I’d been dreaming.
ST: Who was there at the finish?
Jessica: I saw Todd (Darlington) standing at the finish line. He’d put a minute on me after he passed me and waited for me. And then my parents came and I got big hugs. Then Cedric (Wane) came to congratulate me. It was overwhelming and awesome in every way possible.
ST: Did you share a few words with Ashley Morgan?
Jessica: When Ashley finished, she looked like she had really pushed on the run. She was bent over and breathing heavily. I held a hand out to hers. For a while she didn’t see me, and finally we shook hands and I said, “Great race.” She said, “You too.” We didn’t say much, because we hadn’t known each other before.
ST: What was your athletic background?
Jessica: As a kid and in high school, I swam, I played soccer, I swam for my local USS team and I swam and ran track for my high school team from my sophomore through senior years. I have always been an endurance athlete. In track I ran a 5:16 mile and an 11:09 two mile. In swimming I did the 500 free in 5:25. I was all state in swimming and track. I was our class division champion in the two mile.
ST: Was your family there to see you win?
Jessica: My mom Susan and my dad Timothy and my two little 10-year-old twin sisters Hannah and Scarlett came to Boulder on Easter Sunday and stayed all week. Then we all drove to Lubbock from Denver on Thursday. They have been huge supporters of my triathlon career.
ST: What did they think?
Jessica: Afterwards, my mom was speechless. She tried to videotape it, but the camera was shaky and she pointed it everywhere but she did not get me finishing. My dad was pretty speechless too. He gave me a huge hug. On top of that, to celebrate with your team is awesome. I am so happy that I got to share it with everyone who had supported me in triathlon and allowed me to get to the place I am.
I felt especially great to share it with the CU Boulder Triathlon team. We are all close and have great camaraderie. They are like a second family, like brothers and sisters. We spend so much time doing so much hard work together, pushing each other to perform past our old limits, it’s truly amazing. Normally, the sport is all about individual performance. I had never been part of triathlon experience so team-oriented. I’ll never forget. It is true we push ourselves and we determine how our race goes. But when you run by your teammates and they scream for you, you push yourself for your team. When you cross the finish line, no matter what your time or place, they love you. I’m generally not a corny person. But being part of this team leaves me speechless because of how close we are and how great it is and how comfortable I feel in Boulder, so far from my home on the East Coast. Now I can call Boulder home because there are so many people around here who are great friends and who support me in my triathlon home.
ST: When is your 19th birthday?
Jessica: July 4. My mom says I’m a firecracker.
Photos courtesy of Jessica Broderick. The lead run photo was taken by Hannah Broderick.
