login
 Swim
Comments: This is the first race where I actually had a wave go off before me. That was nice since I was still a bit hazy about how the swim course went. After watching them for about a minute, I had it figured out. We lined up, wade start, and the RD said "take your mark"........one minute. Everyone took a deep breath thinking we were about to start. Man, that was one long minute. Count down from 3, 2, 1, GO! I started off strong, but just could not find my rhythm for whatever reason. I thought about my recent speed work and started to relax and stroke my form. Focus on form, not muscling through the water. A bit of full contact swimming, but not bad. About half way down the front side, and I found my rhythm. Not sure if it was me finding my rhythm, or I finally relaxed, but I was in the groove now. Once I found my groove the buoys started flying past. I would spot, and next thing I new I was passing them. Rounded the turn buoy, and headed to the next. I remember thinking that I wish the sun would come out. Without the sun the lake seemed like swimming in a dark gloom. I had reached the next turn buoy, and rounded it. Again, I was swimming very straight, and my navigation was spot on. As I headed back to shore, the sun came out. For some reason that made me happy, as now I was starring at a green hue; however, it made me smile. Still focused on rotation, form, glide, and headed home. Spotted the swim exit, and hit a bee-line straight there. Swam until my hand hit the bottom and popped up. What would you do differently?: I need to push harder.  Transition 1
Comments: The swim mat was right as you exited the water, but it was a long run to T1. I started running to T1, and for whatever reason I could not find the rip-core to the WS. I tired several times, but just could not locate it. I started to freak out since I was about to get to T1, then I found it. Lifted the tab, unzipped, and had the WS peeled down to my waist in a blink of an eye. Got to my rack, and kicked off the WS, but on my final step out my heel got stuck where I had ripped it. Cleared that, and threw the WS on the rack. Helmet on, glasses on, grabbed bike, and headed to the exit. A volunteer shouted that I needed to cut through the racks to the other side to head to the exit. Apparently, you exit on the right, not the left. I had no idea, so I cut across between racks trying not to clip a guy getting his stuff on. What would you do differently?: Don't get stuck in my wetsuit.  Bike
Comments: Exited T1 and mounted the bike. I quickly got up to speed, and shoes strapped down. Then, I started to push the pace. The goal of this bike was to break 22 mph avg. Exiting T1 is slight down hill, so I was at 30 mph in a flash, and then got to a mile long grinder. It was not steep, but it continued to climb. After that it is mainly rollers with one flat section. The flat section would have been great, except I was nailed with cross winds the entire time. My disc was catching the cross winds like a sail. Basically, I was leaning into the wind to keep from being pushed all over the road. The out was uneventful with the exception of my left contact was trying to dry out. I was having to be very careful not to look down at my speed, computer, etc. for fear of it popping out. Nonetheless, I was picking a few people off here and there, hit the turn around, and started back home. One guy from TN that we had talked to before race had stated the return is faster than the out, so I was looking forward to that. The only issue was that the return was packed with a headwind. Several times in spots where I should have been cooking along, I looked down and I was doing 18-19 mph. Stupid wind I kept saying. Basically, I kept it steady and rolled back to T2. What would you do differently?: I have plenty in the tank, so I just need to hammer it more. Still, I was able to set a new bike split PR with 22.1 mph. Transition 2
Comments: Flying dismount, and headed toward my rack. Again, a volunteer shouted at me that I needed to go down the left side and not the right. Ok, I headed that way, and then cut down the rack to my spot. As always, I put my glasses in my mount in route, but for some reason they got cought up in my chin-strap so I threw then on the ground, unfastened the helmet, racked the bike, and then put the glasses back on. Shoes on, grabbed race belt and head out to the door putting the race belt on as I went. What would you do differently?: Speed it up, and not fumble with the chin-strap.  Run
Comments: I knew coming out of T2 was a slight downhill for about half a mile, so I left T2 like I was on fire. Picked off a few runners, and then hit no-man's land. I had a strong runner up in front of me, but he was a good ways off. Nonetheless, I found my rhythm and started that mile climb. Right about at the top of the hill I had caught the guy in front of me. It turned out that it was one of the two guys I had talked to before the race. He and I chatted a bit, but on any downhill he started pulling away. On any uphill I would catch him again. The issue was that after the turn around the majority of the course was back downhill. I tried having that conversation with my legs about going with him, but they just did not want any part of a faster pace than 6:30's downhill. If it had been flat or uphill I would have gone, but the knees just did not like the downhill. So, I let him go. Made my way back to the finish, no problem. Cruised on in to the line nice and relaxed. What would you do differently?: The conversation with my legs needs to be more forceful with the end result of them running faster. Post race
Warm down: Warm-down HA HA HA it was 57F and freaking cold. I went back to the race course and cheered on the other racers as they finished. What limited your ability to perform faster: I just need to push harder. Event comments: Great local race with 290-300 racers in total. Tons of volunteer support, and lots of people/family/etc cheering the racers. I was actually surprised at how many people were out there in support of the race (e.g. cheering). Most of the racers were either local from the area, or from lower TN which was nice to have a new group of people to race against. There were a handful of very fast people there. Overall great race, and I really enjoyed it. The awards took a bit long to get started, which would not have bothered me but it was on the cooler side out that day. If they speed that up, I would have been extremely happy this this race. Still, solid race, great competition, etc. and I will be back to give it another go. Last updated: 2010-09-16 12:00 AM
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
View profile
Add to friends
Go to training log
Go to race log
Send a message
View album
CONNECT WITH FACEBOOK
United States
Southern Adventist University
57F / 14C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 13/290
Age Group = 30-34
Age Group Rank = 2/15
The start time of this race is 12:30 PM, which is a first for me. However, that did mean sleeping in a bit before meeting at Derek's house and heading up. Met up at Derek's house around 8:30 AM, and then we drove the 1:30esh up to Cohutta Springs. We arrived in plenty of time to get checked in, set up, and check out how the layout would work, etc. The people/volunteers were great, and the lady we got to do body marking really knew how to make your ego get big. Man, she was a hoot, check out these muscles, wow look how hard they are, look at you,etc., etc. She had me rolling.
Another first was that the timing system they used (e.g. chips) had a results table with three 40" flat screen TV's with the results scrolling on them. Very cool.
Derek and I were standing around, and two guys came up and said they did not recognize us, and asked where we were from. Long-story-short, they are local guys from TN that do this race often to cap the season. We chatted a bit about general stuff, the course, how they had recently finished IMKY, etc. Wished the luck and went to get the wetsuit on.
Derek and I ran about a mile as a warm up, but nothing big. I was actually happy to put on my wetsuit since it was a bit chilly at 57F with a breeze, and party cloudy. One thing that sucked was that as I put on my wetsuit I some how stepped on the heel and ripped a hole right at the bottom. Kickazz, $650 wetsuit and I just ripped it. Way to start the day.
Anyway, got suited up and headed to the water. I swam a couple hundred meters to get the feel of the WS, and adjust to the water,etc. and then lined up ready to rock.