370 in the race, placed 98th overall, 50th on the bike, 113th on the run, and 271st on the swim. My swimming needs some major work.
Reverse Triathlon - run 3.1 or 2 bike 10 or so miles and swim 350 yards. Except for the swim, the course was not santioned, certified, etc. Rain and triathlons seem to go together, this make both my Tris- rainy mornings.
Pre-race: Triathletes arrive early, way early, like 1.5 to 2 hours early before the race. The reason, getting the choice spot for the bike transistion. This may seem silly, but, a race can be won or lost in transistion. We, me and my support crew, Sylvie, arrived 90 minutes early. I got one of the last prime spots on the bike rack.
The run - Tris are different starts than running races, except for the first 20 or 30, runners are content to run a consistent pace and save legs and energy for the bike and swim. They are still working hard, but, not likely to go out too fast and burn out. I lined up about 3 rows back at the start. From scanning the crowd, it appeared that about 300 were starting the race, we'll see how close my estimate after the offical results hit the web. The race started with a count down, 5, 4 and so on, ran hard the first half mile to ensure no clogging the lane for other runners. The run was a good effort, 7: 50 first mile and did not catch other markers. Sylvie thought I was 27:09, if so, the course must have been long, the effort and pace felt like about a 26 flat. A Garmin wearer said 3.2 run. Sylvie ran be in the last 100 years of the run, really helped.
Run to bike transistion - about 1: 20 - changed the shoes, etc. rather quickly, my legs were shakey from the run, walked the bike out of transistion to catch my breath. It took about 1/4 mile to get my biking legs.
Bike - this was fun, passed about 30 on the bike, a younger guy, about 30ish, passed me, I passed him back, he gave me a hand signal to stay on his wheel indicating we would work together. We alternated leading and passing bikers. He gave me a big pat on the back as we entered the bike to swim transisition and said good job. It is always fun to pass runners and bikers. The best pass, we passed a Tri-guy decked out in full garb, Tour De France jersey and shorts, very expensive bike, we blew by him, he tried to hang on my wheel, would have none of that, gapped him and did not let me hang on.
Bike to Swim Transisiton - Tender Feet, transision went well, except, forgot to take off my sun glasses, hand them to a race offical as I entered the pool area. The bike to pool run was about 50 yrds on asphalt an cement, my feet did not like.
Swim - wild swim, I was too pooped to dive into the pool, hopped in the pool, did the first 25 free and the rest of the 350 backstroke, about 6 swimmers passed me, darn. I hit my head twice on the pool side, ouch. As I exited the pool area, it was crazy in the pool, each of the 13 lanes have 5 to 6 swimmers, chaos, glad to not be in the masses for the swim.
Race summary - low energy day, Sylvie thinks it was based on stress from the airplane ride, very happy with toughing out the race on not my best day. Got a placque for 3rd in the 55 and older division, missed second by 30 seconds, first by 8 minutes. The goal has been set, improve my swim by 5 minutes next year, learn free style.
A little whine: I feel bad for a couple of the gentlement in my divsion that were 60 or older, being lumped into a 55 and older division. I feel the same way for the 15 and under division, how does a 5 year old compete with a 15 year old. Anyway, it seems older runners don't get enough respect, awards are called out last, few cheers from the crowd that is left. We may not have these great races today if it were not for the older runners keeping and pushing the sport to stay alive.
Stay Kool, B of BS Rools out | 