Swim
Comments: I had seeded myself based on an expected swim time of 25-26 minutes. Really dissapointed when my watch showed 30 minutes as I exited the swim. My swim is usually the weakest area but I felt I had a consistent solid swim in this race. In looking at the results from last year 11th best swim in the AG was 25:49....this year my 11th was 30.07. Everyone I talked to said their swim was a least a couple of minutes slower than expected...same in the race reports I have read so far. Maybe the course was a little different...conditions were fine. Maybe everyone I talked to was just slow like me?? No worries. Nice lake and not overly crowded just thought my time was slow. What would you do differently?: Nothing really. I was shooting for sub 2:30 race and was immediately behind schedule after the swim. Transition 1
Comments: First 300-400 yards on bike was a no passing zone but folks in front of me were moving along pretty good What would you do differently?: Could have been a little faster. Had some trouble with the suit but overall OK. Nice big transition area was a plus Bike
Comments: I started off strong and was in a good rhythm until I dropped my chain as I started up a long hill somewhere in the first third of the race. It was wedged between the frame and smallest cog so I had to slow down, pull over and wrestle the chain back in place. Nice to have a handfull of chain grease for the rest of the race..I really thought 2:30 was gone given the 2-3 minutes lost. Kept on plugging and ended up with a good bike split(for me). In looking at power numbers NP was 240 which was my best race effort so far. What would you do differently?: Not drop the chain. I had adjusted the gears when I swapped wheels and ridden on them several times the week leading into the race without issue. Maybe just one of those things that happen. Also, in looking back if I knew my hands would have had a bunch of chain grease on them I would have brought a black visor for the run. :) Transition 2
Comments: Nothing special...could still shave a few seconds here. Run
Comments: As I exited T2 my watch showed an elapsed time of 1:40. So, I needed to get under 50 minutes(8 min/mile) on the run to break 2:30. I had run very little (maybe 20-30 miles) over the previous month as I had been dealing with some quad and hamstring problems. I was not confident that I could break 50 minutes but felt pretty good. Decided I would shoot for a 7:45/pace and see how long I could hang on. Stayed consistent to the turnaround so had a little time in the bank for the return leg. Faded for about a half mile around 3.5 miles but started feeling better at 4 mile marker and decided to bump it up a little. Pushed a little harder at 5 miles and hung on to the finish. Pleasantly surprised with the run as I had not broken 50 min. 10k in olympic distance before. What would you do differently?: Nothing...went better than I expected. Post race
Warm down: The usual..stretch, water, pizza. Visited with some folks. Checked results and saw I was 7th in AG-awards went 5 deep in AG since this was USAT SE Regional Championship. Almost made it but really cant complain. Packed up and made the 4+ hour drive home. What limited your ability to perform faster: Looking back I did well with the things I could control and didn't let the problem on the bike or the slow swim time get me down. A couple of unexpected problems but that is part of racing. Overall I am pleased. Event comments: Since this was designated as the USAT Southeast Regional Championships there seemed to be alot of strong racers. Everything was well done and had a "big" race feel to it while not having a huge number of participants. Very well done and I will pencil it in on the calendar for next year Last updated: 2011-04-20 12:00 AM
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United States
Tri4gold
70F / 21C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 65/438
Age Group = M45-49
Age Group Rank = 7/50
Drove up Friday. Drove the bike course and picked up race packet. Everything well done at check in. Morning of race up around 4:00am after the usual restless sleep that seems to always happen the night before a race.
Got to transition around 5:20am. Body marking-nice to have racks set up for the bikes for use while getting body marked. Set up transition and a short swim a few minutes before race start.