Kid's did awesome. Maddy was strong on all three legs. Levi didn't like the run plus a teenage volunteer ran with him telling him not to walk, he was a little upset about this but survived. Eleanor did great, but got a stitch in her side during the swim which bothered her pretty good the whole race. Great Fun Friday night.
My race:
Swim: 330 yds, 6 mins 40 seconds (133/299, this includes relay teams)
I did the breast - free every lap. I felt good, I did not kill myself. I was in the lane with a faster guy than me. The first freestyle lap was nice because I sat in his slipstream, he then pulled away from me. This was 20 seconds slower than last year, but I had put in some more work than last year in the swim. I wanted to go faster but only 330 yds, losing a little time here is not a bad thing. In my heat of 10 I was the fourth one out of the water but only 45 seconds behind the first guy.
T1: 1:06 Not bad, I had hoped to be quicker, but putting that shirt on over a wet body is a struggle. Ran out quick. I am pretty sure I was now in 2nd place in my heat.
Bike: 11miles, 31:36 (49/299, wow!, 20.9mph)
My OK transition was hurt by the fact that when I took my first pedal stroke my foot came off the top of my left shoe as I was trying to flip my right shoe over. I took an awkward stroke to reset the pedals and my left shoe fell off. I had to stop dead. A volunteer nicely grabbed my shoe and threw it to me. I put it on, velcroed it and clipped in and started. By this point two guys had blown by me, probably 20 seconds ahead of me. I started to hammer hard. My group was pretty equally matched, so it took me about 5 miles to catch the one guy. As I approached the turn around I realized I was right only two guys from my group were ahead of me and I potentially could catch them. When I made the turn around I realized another guy was catching me. He was close and as I was approaching one guy ahead of me the guy behind me passed me. Which helped. I paced off him. I kept saying "three bike lengths, three bike lengths". The next long straight away we both passed the second place guy in our heat. When we were about 1.5 miles from the end, I noticed the guy in front of me down shift and start to turn a higher cadence, so I put it in a bigger gear and blew by him. He still had a faster bike time than me but I wasn't going to let him get into transition before me. The straight away into the transition I could see the first place guy in our heat. I thought "I hope he can't run".
T2: 1:09 Once again not bad. I haven't put lock laces on these running shoes so I had to tie. Another guy came in from our group as I was leaving the transition.
Run: 5K, 23:49 (71/299) Would only be my second 5k, tri or not, under 24 mins.
Again, Wow! The one person left ahead of me in my heat was a 16 year old kid. I could see him on every straight stretch. My legs felt awful at first, I was cramping like a big dog, but I wanted him. I kept pushing. I was about 1 minute behind him at the turn around. I marked the spot where I saw him and timed it. I had an analog watch on, so I knew my overall time, but I kept losing track of my run time. I thought it was over 25 mins, but it was faster. I realized a couple guys were probably catching me at the turn around. This actually inspired me for the last 1.5 miles to stay ahead of the guys behind me. I felt better and the stitch had miraculously gone away. On the last straight away I could see this kid, I knew I had lost him. He was slower on the run than me, but he had done his damage by being 40 secs. faster on the swim and me losing my shoe.
Final time 1:04:20 (almost 6 mins. faster than last year)
56/299 ( I actually was in 50th place amongst individuals, only six teams beat me).
9/20 in my age group (stupid 35-39 yr old males, too fast)
Only my bike was faster than my overall placing, which was the same as last year. Great Race. I couldn't be happier with my time, but will play that shoe deal in my head a thousand times. My biggest problem now is I have just raised expectations of myself way too high. Do I have to perform this well all the time??
Thanks for reading, wish Matt & Genine had been here. I would have loved to race Matt to see how much he had improved, even though we know he had improve immensely.
Overall Results:
2008 Sprint Splash Spin
Yes, Vinnie won again this year.
10 comments:
Wahoo!!!
Very nice race!
I think we would have had one heck of a race if we were in the same heat.
I'm sorry I missed it.
Genine and I have been checking the blog all weekend waiting for this report.
Oh. So how did you feel when you finished? Same as the olympic distance races? Sounds like you left if all out there as you always do. So I'm curious.
I know we would have. I am curious to see how your run would do on a short course, now. I may have found something more in the bike if I was trailing you.
Sorry about the delay. I didn't get the splits until Sunday afternoon, then family stuff kept me off the computer.
I believe I held back on the swim. I wanted to really bust the bike. It was frustrating to lose my shoe, but I didn't swear (out loud). The kids were cheering for me, then I heard Levi say, "He lost his shoe!" I calmly just put it on, then said "Let's go".
I was red lining pretty good on the bike. I think I was starting to lose it a little when that guy passed me. Luckily it was downhill and I recovered.
I hurt bad in the first 1/4 mile of the run. I just kept telling myself, "fast feet, fast feet". After that I started focusing on seeing the young kid. The turnaround also helped. A guy I recognized from two years ago was in the heat in front of me, and he realized I was having a good race by the numbers and yelled at me to pick it up. I was pretty shot at the end. I felt just as bad as any Olympic, but I would say the recovery was a whole lot quicker. I acquired a headache in the afternoon, but we hung around and swam in the pool with the kids after the race. They kept it open all day for families of contestants. So, I didn't really get to rest until about 5.
Two things I can't get out of my head from losing my shoe. One is I was 20.9 mph, without the shoe incident I should have recorded 21 mph. Secondly, I was 1:04:20. Losing the shoe kept me from breaking 1:04, MAN, I can't stop thinking about it. I am pumped for next year or my next race. :)
way to go, dude!! get the tie things for your shoe!!
Great race! Matt had better watch out. You will be a tough one to beat the next time you two face off.
Achilles heels! Mine is the swim. I fully expect Matt to start recommending races with swims that are proportionally longer.
"I fully expect Matt to start recommending races with swims that are proportionally longer."
Hey now!! I wouldn't do that :-)
In fact I was talking to Maija this morning about the Bassman and how that might be the race we would do.
It would be awesome if next year I'm the one counting how much of an "overall" lead I have left after our races. Because that would mean we are both cruising!
If Matt chooses races with swims that are proportionally longer, then I am going to get farther ahead of him there, so he better not do that. Of course with all these track workouts he's been doing, I will have to swim like a dolphin to be far enough ahead of him by the time the run starts. You guys are killing me. I haven't been training like I should lately. School and work started again this week, so I am really going to have to cram training in. Matt's doing these 5:45 AM workouts...oh my goodness. I think I might faint just trying to walk without walls to lean against at that time of the day. Maybe it is just a biorhythm I'm going through. I need to follow your examples. Uh, and stop eating Doritos before bed every night.
I'm starting to get the feeling you guys are saying that I happened onto the perfect distance races to beat you guys. Ha ha!
Well I guess I'm not going into next year's races as the "dark horse", but I'm not going to go down without a fight! Bring it on guys!
Oh and Shawn, put down the doritos and pickup the kettlebell. The Full Tango is closer than you think. I'm looking at the Philadelphia Half Marathon November 23rd, I think you should join me. What do you think?
You can randomly insert "...put down the doritos and pickup the kettlebell." in any post you have. I would say 75% chance of getting it right. HaHa! Of course I won't be any more or less guilty than Shawn.
Are we saying Shawn has officially become the Dark Horse for next year? If Matt was the Dark Horse this year and we all knew Shawn couldn't run, my spot as the favorite was short lived.
The Dark Horse slot is the place to be. Everyone expects you to lose, and in my case that seems like a pretty solid thing to expect.
Speaking of replacing the Doritos with the kettlebell, I have come up with the perfect solution: a 50 pound bag of Doritos! I will carry them everywhere. I will have arms like a silverback.
Based on this year's results...I have some hope that I can present a reasonable season next year. If I lose as much weight over this winter as I did last year, I could be quite surprising. We know from M-town that my swim is not far behind Matt, so with a little more work there, I might have something. Get rid of this gut and my bike should approach Craig, unless he gets better too. And if I train for a half marathon with Matt, I will be able to keep the lead I built on Craig in the swim. Seriously...with only a little less fat on me, Craig would have been highly motivated to rock the run to catch up to me. If I were 10 pounds lighter, I would have been at least another minute ahead of him on the bike and he wouldn't have seen me in the transition, but would have seen my bike cooling off in there, and would have had to put the hammer down. It will help us all if I slim down. I'm trying to help out the group here!
I will call Frito-Lay and get on this plan. Look out, fellers.
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