Swim
Comments: A good swim for me! I felt strong and comfortable, and enjoyed working my way through most of my age group and into the previous wave's swimmers! It definitely got me pumped up for the bike segment. Exit was a set of stairs up onto the pier, but it worked out fine. What would you do differently?: Nothing! (wow-did I just say that?) Transition 1
Comments: Good T1 - there was a bit of a run from the swim exit, but I felt as though I got out of there reasonably well. Will the tire hold? Let's see! What would you do differently?: Nothing - always room to hustle a little bit more. Bike
Comments: Well, the ole busted rim managed to hang in there, and got me through a very pleasing bike segment overall. Can you say lucky? I can't credit any impressive cornering, mainly because I was scared the rim would buckle or something. I breathed a sigh of relief coming into the transition area after a safe ride. Better riding in than walking in any day. What would you do differently?: Nothing, really. I see quite a bit of room for improvement for next season in the bike department. I think 20mph is an attainable base from which I could build upon in 2008. Transition 2
Comments: What can be said about T2? Hurry up and get the heck out, right? Well, that's what I tried to do! What would you do differently?: Nothing. Run
Comments: I definitely knew that I had given a bit more effort on the bike than in races' past. Heart rate never got out of Z4/5, but I just pressed on anyway. I wished I had more in the gas tank, but I did manage to pick up the pace at the turn. The guy who took 3rd AG was the only person who passed me on the run - he was too strong to hang with, though I managed to at least keep him in sight. Next time...next time. What would you do differently?: I think I need to make a concerted effort to do more bike/run bricks. That might help the heart rate stay under control a little better, and help the performance some. I was really chasing an AG finish (26 seconds off the 3rd place finisher - so close!), but I can't say that I could have done much better today. Post race
Warm down: Walked around with the kiddos and touched based with wyecrab (sweet performance!) Dtraining and crabsrule. Great job by everyone! No true cool-down per se - since we weren't in a rush, we lounged around for the awards ceremony, and enjoyed a fun day in Ocean City, then back to the hotel for some relaxation! What limited your ability to perform faster: Spent too much time worrying about the bike rim, and as always, there could have been better training. I beat last year's time by 14:05, so certainly no complaints! Cheers to the 2007 Triathlon Season! Event comments: As always, the Blazers put on a personal, heartfelt race event. Raceday registration got off to a slow start, about 45 min. behind schedule, but with a 9am start time, there was plenty of time to get everyone situated in time. If you can travel to the eastern shore, than this is a great race to put on your schedule. Last updated: 2007-04-27 12:00 AM
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United States
Maryland Coastal Bays Program
78F / 26C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 50/224
Age Group = 30-34
Age Group Rank = 5/15
We roused the kiddos at a brisk 4:45am at the hotel, and donned the day's uniform. Ate a blueberry bagel, and had a cup o' Joe (of course) and headed out at around 5:30 to arrive at the packet pickup at 6:00am. We were the first people there, so I had the honor of breaking the seal on both the transition area and the fresh port-o-johns ;) . Here's the real fun part; since the wheels are still new and a bit unfamiliar to me, I had some trouble pumping up the back tire with the new valve extenders. The gauge was reading strange, as if it wasn't holding pressure. I decided that it felt fine - then, as I began removing the nozzle, BOOM! The carbon rim ruptured with the force of a gunshot, which split my new rims right down the middle. I hadn't been putting any air into the tube, but rather the cavity inside the carbon fiber fairing; apparently air was escaping past the extender into that area, and the rest is history. Bummer. Game over? Well, I pushed them back into their original shape as best as possible, and took them for a checkout ride. They were still spinning true, and the physical integrity seemed ok, so I sucked up my selfish pity tears and decided that game was on. Amazing luck. I'm still steaming.
Did the ~1 mile bike checkout ride, then got into the water and swam about 200 yards warm-up.