Cape Henolpen Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Since everyone was doing the duathlon, they sent us off in waves that were corresponding to our original swim waves. I learned that it is way too easy to get caught up in the initial pack-mentality running scheme. I realized that I was going too fast too early and backed my pace down to something more comfortable for me to sustain.

There was a modest rise leading to the turn around and I realized how much better I am at climbing hills than others. I could see their cadence slow as they tried to keep the same stride pattern, and some of them even seemed to lean backwards a bit from the incline. One thing that I had been taught from my run coach was to lean into the hill, shorten your stride length, and maintain or increase your cadence. From this I was able to pass about 3-4 people on the uphill, and then put a little more distance on them in the resulting downhill because of the 'controlled falling' technique that I had been taught.

Control the weather? :)

Ran back into transition and threw my bike shoes and helmet on and took off.

No problems with T1 with no wetsuit to have to strip out of.

My goal for this race was to exceed a 20mph average. I've never had an average over 20 in a race, and last year, I averaged 18.5mph.

On the outbound, I was cruising pretty well in a solid cadence. I even hit 27mph at one point. I was passing people consistently and felt like I was going to have a solid ride.

Then I hit the inbound winds. Now I know where that 27 came from. Not all me, but also the wind. I was pushing and keeping up around 17-18mph. I went down through the gears to keep the cadence high and was able to pass a bunch of people who were struggling in the wind.

Nothing out of the ordinary for a windy coastal ride.

Better bike.

Nothing out of the ordinary for this transition. Shoes went on easy, but it was a little 'icky' putting the sweaty visor back on. :)

When I went out onto the run, I was tailing someone with a 'CO3' on their calf, which was my category designator. I've never been in a position to play predator before, and I knew that this was going to be fun.

I settled into his rhythm quickly and realized that it was something that I would be able to sustain for the distance and still have some gas left at the end.

At the first hill around 3/4 mile, I pushed pass him to see what his reaction would be. I dropped him on the uphill, but he came back and passed me on the downhill by pushing past his comfort zone. So I settled back into a nice position just off his hip.

At the 2nd hill at mile #2, his cadence started to slow. I knew this was my window and I took it. The stride shortened, the head dipped, and the cadence quickened. By the time I reached the top of the hill, I had put a solid distance on him. At that point, it was about keeping the cadence up and carrying it home.

There was a long run through a field at the end. You saw the finish banner about 1/3 mile from the end, and it was hard to keep pushing all the way through the end.

Nothing.

It was an amazing experience competing in my first Anniversary race. Finally, I had a race where I could actually measure my progress over the past 12 months.

The run times had dropped from 12:10/mile to 8:30/mile. The bike speed went up from 18.5 to 22.4.

An 18:50 improvement in time over the course of 12 months. This is when the year's worth of effort pays off. When getting up on those early mornings comes back. When the hours spent on the bike is shown.

For my efforts, I even walked away with 2nd place in my Clyde category. What made it most special was that I didn't get 2nd by only being 1 of 2 or 3, but by actually hunting down and passing a competitor, and showing that I was the stronger person, willing to suffer more, on that day.