Denver Triathlon - Sprint Course - TriathlonSprint

Water was nasty and dirty. I thought I was swimming in goose turd soup

Nothing, I went all out and felt great!

Lost some time putting T1 stuff in my bag then dropping it into the box for transfer to finish.

Push harder, this was a sprint.

Riding an additional mile on the bike because I missed the turn


I've had a busy and stressful year. Working two jobs, spending 8 months trying to close on the purchase of a short sale house (Done!) and training for an Ironman. Not to mention spending quality time with my family. Let's just say I haven't been sleeping all that much. So while physically ready for this race, I might have been mentally drained and lacking the drive to win. The night before the race, I decided I was going to put it all out there. I would push myself as hard as I could and would not save anything for the end. No fear. I needed a mental boost before Boulder 70.3 and this race would be it.

SWIM:
Fast forward to race morning. Lined up in the water, to the far right. All the way in front. When we were given the go, I dove in and swam as hard as I could. I didn't worry if my arms were going to limp on me, I was letting it all hang out. To my surprise, I had only a couple of guys near me and ended up first out of the water in my age group. So far so good.
T1:

T1 went by fast, especially since I didn't have to strip off a wetsuit. just had to pack my towel into my T1 bag for the valet to take bak to the finish.

Bike:
Mounted the bike and took off hard. No time to adjust to going from horizontal to vertical. I just pedaled damn it. I figured if I could just ride hard all the way up to the turn around just east of Simms, then I could use my mass to my advantage and scream down to the 8th ave viaduct. I got to the turn around and was parched. Turned around with an avg mph of about 20.5. Drank a bit of infinite and pushed hard towards the next turnaround which would be at mile 12. Hit this turn around averaging 23.5 mph. I had no one in front of me at this point and I was all alone. I think this is where my confusion set in. I usually am behind someone and just follow them into T2, but not this time. Plus I had a guy on a motorbike following me. I though he was an official and I kept thinking "did I do something wrong, is he going to give me a penalty?" I also was red-lining it and forgot about where I was and ended up passing right by the bike finish and rode back up the hill towards Sloans lake, I totally passed the turn off! and didn't realize it till I was almost .75 miles away. When I realized what I had done, I panicked and turn around as fast as I could. Got down to the turn off and the volunteer was trying to direct me back out to the the turn around that I had already done, after taking valuable time to explain what i had done, he let me by to T2. I was mad at myself for not paying attention and just pissed off for pissing away 2.5 minutes of valuable lead time.
T2:
At this point I figured I could either let it get the best of me or just forget about it and run as hard as I could.
Run:
The run started with a slight uphill then out towards Elitches. I was only passed by 3 guys who I tried to stay with but just couldn't stay with for long. I was giving it everything I had. Not much to say about the run, it was over fast and I gave it everything I had.
I spent all last night looking at my garmin and calculating what might have happened if I'd not missed the turnoff, That 2.5 minutes would have gotten me about a 1:12:20. Good enough for 2nd overall according to the results, but not guaranteed if there were a foot race with the 2nd place guy. Next time I will pay closer attention.

All things considered, I am very happy to win my division. Oh and my Team: Z-Team took first in the Tri Club Challenge, so we have lots of swag.