I look forward to this race each year since it's in my home town. It starts with a 5 K run then a 14 mile bike. My training has been quite a bit better the past month than it has been all year but still quite a bit short of what I was doing last year. I felt like even though I have only been riding my bike a couple times a week for the past 6 weeks that I was having some good results on some of my training rides and might be able to PR even though I would be a bit off on the running side of things.
I ran a 1 1/2 mile warmup before the race. The 5k was first and I ran the first 1/2 mile in about 8th place. By the time we hit the turn around I had 2 guys just a little ways ahead of me then a good sized gap up to three high school and college runners. Shortly after the turn around I passed the next 2 ahead of me and continued to increase the gap on them throughout the rest of the 5K. I ran past the clock at the end of the 5K and it was just turning over to 19 minutes but it was still quite a ways down to the bikes so I didn't hit the button on my watch until I got to my bike which was closer to the correct 5k distance. That ended up being 19:24. I was pretty happy with that time considering my current fitness. I ran a 19:27 5k time trial last Friday but was quite spent at the end. Today I ran about the same time but without killing myself so bad. That was what I had hoped to do. My transition took 1:05. That included riding my bike down to the other end of the parking lot then making a u-turn out of the lot onto the road before hitting my lap button to start timing the bike leg. After making another quick turn I could see a rider about a block and a half ahead. This would give me somebody to focus on catching. After a half mile or so we came to the next turn but the rider ahead of me kept going strait. When I got to the intersection I could see the sign to turn and new this was the route so I turned and though maybe he was not part of the race. I couldn't see anyone else ahead of me but had a guy gradually gaining on me from behind. He finally caught and passed me about 8 miles in. He got about 30 yards ahead of me and I worked to keep from letting him get any farther. For the next 2 1/2 half miles I stayed in this position [ far enough back to not be drafting]. At this point I passed him back and just tried to hammer pretty good the last few miles. I ended up finishing about 1/2 min ahead of him. I was 37:55 on the bike leg. Average speed was 22.2 MPH. I was hoping to be a little faster on the bike. 2 years ago I finished the bike in 36:03 for 23.3 MPH ave speed. I was hoping to beat that but that year they did the bike first so I guess that just shows what the 5K takes out of you. My overall time was 58:24. After finishing my wife said I was the 3rd to come in. I knew there had been 3 runners ahead of me and I also thought I may have been passed by somebody in the team category [that was on the bike ready to go when his runner came in] while I was in transition for a minute getting my bike and changing shoes and putting on my helmet. I went over and checked the board and both of the guys that finished ahead of me had been teams which left me first overall for the individual category. One of the 3 runners ahead of me was Luis Vidal [who just recently joined the blog] from Logan. He won the individual race last year. He ended up coming in a few minutes behind me. I talked to him after the race and found out that he had missed a turn and the rider I saw miss the turn was the team rider that had passed me in transition. He was focused on Luis a block ahead of him and had missed it also. The 2 of them went quite a ways before getting back on track. The first year I did this race I finished 15th. Then I finished 4th the next 2 years then 2nd the last 2 years so it was sweet to finally win it but I wouldn't likely have beat Luis if he haden't missed the turn so I guess this one gets a big asterisk next to it. My overall time was 38 seconds slower than last year but I guess I don't feel too bad about that knowing how much better my overall fitness was last year. Hopefully I can make some good progress over the next 2 months and get back in good shape for the St George Marathon.
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