Terre Haute Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Big pack the whole way. I was stuck in the middle. I lined up just behind my coach, but should have lined up next to him. As soon as we started I was slammed on all sides with feet, arms, bodies, everything. Coulnd't break free so I just battled it out until the first turn. I pulled off a corkscrew turn so break out a bit, and managed to find some open water. Followed some feet until the next turn, when I lost them as someone torpedoed me from the side. No feet to follow on the home stretch so just dug in, focused on form and breathing and brought it in hard.

Better start position. If I'd been able to get in front of the big pack, I could have gone faster.

This wasn't a chip timed race, so T1 time is counted in the bike time. I'm guessing it was about 2:30. I got hung up taking off wetsuit, and then we had to run a short little distance to get back to transition. I had to find my sandals and put them on as it was across some sharp asphalt.

Get wetsuit off faster. Sit down, rather than try to do it standing up.

I just cut loose. I wanted to see how much I could push the bike, so I hammered everything. On the downhills I didn't coast. On the uphills I was climbing out of the saddle. On the flatter sections I pushed as hard as I could.

Took two gels on the bike. Probably the hardest nutrition I've taken. I was pushing so hard, they didn't sit well at first. Almost thought they were going to come back up.

I negative split the bike. I was a couple minutes faster on the return. I pushed harder, and I had a tailwind.

The zipps and aero helmet were great. I like 'em.

I wasn't sure how I was going to run, and I wasn't "saving" anything for the run. I figured I'd find out how well ( or not ) I could run after pushing the bike really hard.

Push even harder. :)

Good T2. Let's call it about a minute, though I think it was faster. I flew through this one.

Nothing.

Okay run. It was fast. But again, not sure what's going on with that HR. My LT should be around 170. But I ran almost 10 beats under that. But I was faster than my LT pace? How does that work?

Good news is that I was able to run very well off the bike. I think I could have pushed the run harder though. I had enough gas left for a good sprint to the finish to keep from getting passed.

Push harder on the run. Not knowing the course, didn't quite know what to expect around each turn.

Got a gatorade, and walked back 1/8 mile from the finish to cheer in the rest of the Tri Club! Stretched and talked while cheering everyone in.


Hmmm, not much. This was several PR's for me.


Small race, so things were a little delayed, but not by much. It was a good race. Lots of fun.

Sitting at the picnic table after the race, I didn't realize at first but the guy sitting next to me was Dave freakin' Scott!!!!! He raced ( 7th overall ) and was just hanging out talking tris and comparing post-race notes with the other racers. I realized who he was after someone came up and asked for a picture. That was cool.

Only thing I'd change was a better water station on the run. There was only one ( passed twice as it was an out and back ) and they didn't have enough volunteers, so my second trip through, I didn't get anything as they had nothing ready.