This year was a pretty uneventful race. I woke up at 4:30am and ate my bagel with pb and drank my coffee. We ended up leaving the house around 6:00am and headed to the Westside Aquatic Center. We arrived around 6:15am. As I was unracking my bike, a lady next to me asked if I could pump up her tires. It was only her second tri and was unsure how to use her pump. Even though I was running a little late, I thought back to all those people that offered to help me last year and said, "Sure, I can do that for you." We got them pumped up, wished each other luck and Sara and I headed to set up transition. I got everything set up and started walking with my goggles to the pool when I realized I was missing something - my timing chip and body markings! Ooops. I ran back into transition to get my race number to prove I was a contestant and got that taken care of.
Swim: My warm up consisted of one two hundred meters. Everything felt great. Just needed to stretch out and wake up the muscles. My number for the race was 55. This means I was seeded as the 55th fastest swimmer out of the 585 competitors, according to the times other turned in. As I waited for my time, I met my lane partner. He was a real nice guy. It was his first tri and he was a little nervous. I told him not to worry about it. He would be fine and gave him a few other pointers. We both thought we may have over-estimated our swim times. Pool swims usually pretty uneventful. This one started off with a bang - almost literally. The swim course was supposed to zig zag. Up one 50m lane, under the rope, and down the next. As I hit the 75m mark, I just happened to look up to sight (I don't know why. I was in a pool!). Right when my face comes out of the water, I see a girl right in front of me, coming right at me, in my lane! She did not go under the lane line! That was a close one! The rest of the swim was pretty uneventful. I pushed it pretty good and caught some guys in front of me which slowed me down a little, but eventually got past them.
Swim: 400 meters - 6 min 56 sec.
Bike: The 15 mile bike portion was pretty uneventful. I really wanted to push it hard to get my average over 20mph for the race. The course was not too hard. It does have some hills that aren't long. They are just in bad places. As in - places you don't have much speed going into. I kept it in the small chainring quite a bit as there were not too many long flat stretches. I probably could have used the big ring a little more, but that works the legs a little more. I did not want to do that. I needed to save some energy for the run. As the ride came to an end, I tried something I had been working on - getting my feet out of my shoes while still on the bike. It actually worked!!
Bike: 15 miles - 42 min 36 sec (21.13 mph!!!!)
Run: The run is a two loop, 5K course. It starts with up a dirt trail then goes on a couple roads behind the finish area. Finishing down the dirt trail. My run started off okay. I was a little concerned because I did push the bike a little harder than normal. I did not know what this was going to do to my legs. For the first 1/2 mile, my calves were so tight. They would not relax. Eventually they let go and I could pick up the pace. I felt pretty good the whole way and really pushed it hard. I gave it all I had during the last mile and sprinted through the finish line.
Run: 3.14 miles - 23 min 20 sec (my fastest 5K time ever!)
Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes 38 seconds
Overall, I am very happy with this race. I beat my goal of 1 hour 20 minutes. I am there to break personal goals and nothing more. It is good to see my training is paying off. The only bad, but exciting thing about this race being over is that I don't have any other races before Augusta. The big one is next and it's coming fast!
1 comment:
Great Job! Dill
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