I had great time racing. Like any athlete I had hoped to have better times. It was awesome to have Matt, Shawn, Genine, Amy, and Fiona in town for the race.
Swim: 43:43, 163/180. Ouch! Compared to the Mooseman, even with the shortened route I had calculated 35 mins for this swim on the slow side. I had not anticipated this. I don't wear a watch, mostly because I lost it two days before the Mooseman and haven't decided what to buy, hoping I will find it. So, I really had no idea I was doing this bad. You may think I was really struggling, I was not. I felt quite comfortable and that was precisely my problem. Two ways to go faster in the water: efficiency and stroke speed. I felt efficient, but I know I kept my stroke speed and count way down. On the good news side I did freestyle the whole way, no breaststroke. First Tri at any length were I did this. Seemed to help my legs and heart rate. I could easily hear my wife and Genine cheering, probably because they were in a small group of fans left by the swim.
T1: 3:42 Probably the best thing I did all day. It may seem long, but you had to run about 200 yds or better to get to the T1. I felt great after I rolled up onto the dock. I took off like a shot, still with no clue how far behind I was. I didn't see many yellow hats (my heat), and I did know it wasn't because I was ahead, but I continued on my carefree bliss.
Bike: 1:18:56 88/180 (still didn't beat Matt) I felt great. I jumped on the bike, put my foot on top of the shoe already clipped on the bike and started to pedal. Worked great. I blew by about three people right away. Gave me a shot. Got my feet in the shoes and I was off. This was the fun part. I started to pick people off. Came behind a friend I met two yrs ago when we were both volunteers. I told him to go faster, he looked at me and laughed. Then he said, "Hey I beat you out of the water", I smiled and said yes you did. I made the first turn and started a long steady climb. Near the top I saw my neighbor, and got next to him and said come on Smith get moving. He laughed and said good bike, then "Hey I beat you out of the water". Can you see the theme here. I laughed again. After the long steady climb I put the hammer down, small hammer by some standards, but I am working on it. Came up behind a woman I know, she was trying to pass a Ford Escape that got stuck on the road between the pack of bikes. This guy was nervous. He was hugging the yellow line, which kept us from passing him for about a half mile. I finally told the girl, I am going and swung out around them. Pointed to the guy to move over a little, he looked lost. The steep hill on the bike came up right after this, not as bad as I thought it could be. Started to beat down the rain at this point, OUCH. I pushed hard downhill. I blew by 5 people who had passed me going uphill. I went strong almost to the end. The road was rough and narrow near the end, and we had a lot of Half Iron people coming towards us. As I made the final swing in towards the transition, the cheering crowd were there. My wife was yelling "Way to make up time". I had no idea why she was saying this?
T2: ??? probably 2:00ish. I realized why my wife was yelling at me. Shawn came running by me in the transition as I was pushing my bike. I knew at this point I had accomplished one of my goals (which is always a goal), I was going to beat Shawn despite the near ten minutes he had put into me on the Swim. :)
Run: 1:08:42 129/180 (included T2) Started out good. Passed Shawn around mile 1, saw him again coming towards me after a turn around. Saw Matt just past the 1 mile marker, ahead of me coming towards me after he had turned around. It was flat for the first 4.25 miles. I was feeling good until about mile four. Then I started to suffer. I then turned off the flat rail trail and started up 6th street. Oh MY! I had driven Shawn and Matt up it the night before. The car made it feel easier than it was. I walked. Everyone else on the hill was walking. I kept a strong pace and was catching people but I walked. I had trouble starting again at the top, I ran, walked, ran, walked. One guy did coming running by me, he may have run the whole hill. Then a small downhill, which then went up again, I took a few walking steps again, felt like someone had strapped 20 lb weights to my legs. Then back down again only to go back up, again a couple walking steps then started to catch my stride. Mostly steady down hill to finish. I came in pretty strong at the finish, which led me to believe I had not left enough on the course.
3:15:04 122/180 overall, 3/5 XL2 Clydesdale division
I was happy with the race. I have no sense of what will make my times and races more consistent, but it was fun. I smiled a lot more than the Mooseman, even though the Mooseman was very fun. It was fun to get a plaque, even though Matt destroyed me overall. The race was organized until it came to getting results posted and awards given out. They told us one time then it wouldn't happen then another time and it still took forever. Matt and Shawn had to keep moving checkout times for the hotel and we couldn't get the hotel on the phone. I/We were not to happy how the day ended waiting for awards, but until then it was nice atmosphere, talked to a lot of people I knew and hung out seeing things happen.
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