I wasn't quite sure what to expect out of this race. I did it last year and I figured I would be faster in the run this year but I have felt slower on the bike. It's a little intimidating to pull up and see all the nice race bikes being unloaded. A lot look like the time trial bikes you see them using in the Tour De France with the rear disk wheels, aerobar handlebars, and carbon frames. A lot of these guys are into cycling the way people on the blog are into running. I'm just glad in running you don't need to spend thousands on equipment to stay up with your competitors.
This race starts with a 5 mile run then you do a 16.5 mile ride. I have learned from past experience that I can't go all out on the run and still have good energy for the ride. There is a lot more time to be gained or lost on the bike. My plan was to try to keep my run at about 6:15 to 6:20 pace. I started out with a 1.6 mile warmup The run is on a loop course that you run around twice. It has a few small hills. I hit my first mile in 6:14. This was the only mile marker and my garmin was right on. My second mile was 6:19 and still felt pretty good. My third mile I thought I was keeping the same pace but it read 6:29. My fourth came up 6:38 which I didn't understand as I felt I was keeping a consistant pace. The last mile my Garmin read short and said I finished in 5:39. It said I ran that at 6:19 pace. The effort still seamed about the same and I didn't sprint the finish. The hills are pretty evenly distributed so mile 3 might have had the most uphill but mile 4 I didn't understand. I measured this course last year in the car and it came up a full 5 miles. I know cars are not that accurate but usually close. My garmin is off by .02 on some miles but this was a .1 difference. I read Logans blog and his 4th and fifth miles came out about even. My heart rate averages on miles 2-5 are within 2 bpm per mile. Not what I'd expect to see with such a big slow down then speed up so I'm not sure what to think. I finished the run in 31:21. Best case at a full 5 miles is 6:16 pace. Worst case 6:24 pace. I suspect it is somewhere between.
From there I went into transition to change shoes, rehydrate, put on helmet, and get on bike. After a little fumbling this took 1:54 which is way to long. The bike course is an out and back course that is always either slight up or down whith a couple steeper hills big enough to slow you way down then hit 37 mph going back down. I think there must be a little more uphill on the way out and I averaged 20 mph. On the way back I averaged 22.1 for a 21.1 mph average. My bike computer read it at 16.62 miles and it is very accurate [ I wish I would have checked the run course with it afterward ]. It took 47:18. My overall time was 1:20:34.
I'd like to have a do-over at the transition. I could have been 50 seconds faster there. I finished 15th overall and 4th in my age group which included all the way from 40 to 49 years. I know at least 2 of the first 3 in my division were just over 40. All in all I'm quite happy with the race. Other than the transition and miles 3 and 4 of the run [ and that may be partly a garmin error]. I finished over five minutes faster than last year. 1:38 faster in the run and 3:30 faster in the ride. | 