Race the River Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

There were about 30-40 people in my wave, very little contact for the first hundred yards and then none after that. Tried to draft off a couple different people early on, but they ended being too slow. The lead group of about 8 were pretty far ahead and I seemed to be at the front of the peloton, so there were no more opportunities to draft. Still had one of my better swims, although my time was two minutes slower than last year - probably due to the fact the current was milder this year because the race date was a little later in the month.

Pick out one of the faster guys at the start and try to stay on his feet.

Even with lube and practice, just can't seem to get the suit off cleanly. I always have to reach down and pry that last few inches over my heels - it probably costs me at least 20 seconds.

Practice removing the wetsuit more.

Last year the bike course was chaos, this year they spread out the swim waves and it was much better. Started with shoes clipped in and got up to speed quickly. Everybody was pretty well spaced-out on the first two laps, passed lots of people and the only people passing me looked like they were the elites or fast AG'ers on their last lap. Things started getting a little more crowded on the last lap, lost some time on a few turns because there were five or six of us going into them. Much better than last year though, everybody was more spread out and I was able to finish before the slower riders were a factor.

Work on cornering speed, I used the brakes a couple of time when I didn't need to.

Smooth T2 - no issues.

Run out a little faster.

This was my fastest 5k yet (even though the official time didn't agree with my Garmin). Went out fast off the bike at about a 7:40 pace for the first mile. Leveled off to around an 8:00 pace on the climb during the second mile - about 9 min. pace up the steep hill. With about a mile left, I saw two guys about 80 yards ahead that looked like they might be in my age group. Gradually reeled them in and with a half mile left, passed one who wasn't in my age group and saw "51" on the other guy's calf - race time! I got on his heels and planned to just draft and take him in the last fifty yards before he could react. He started slowing considerably and I really had to hold back to stay behind him. I knew if I passed, he would see my age and turn it on because we were likely in the podium hunt. Finally decided we were in danger of getting passed by somebody else, so I made a strong pass that would discourage him from even trying. It worked, he tried to catch me for about fifty yards but soon gave up. Garmin said 7:23 for the last mile.

Not sure what was going on with the official time. My Garmin said 3.2 miles in 24:47 (7:44 pace) - the official result was 25:21 for 3.1 (8:10 pace). Talked to four other people that said they saw the same thing, the mile markers, total distance and run time was not in synch with their watches. I'm going with my Garmin on this one because I know for a fact I averaged less than 8 min. miles.

Nothing, good run - passed lots of people and maybe only two or three people passed me.

light stretching then a couple of beers at Bardenay's.


Bike still seems to be my limiter.


They go five-deep for the podium in this race, so I managed to nab the last spot. Pretty happy to make the podium since the top three guys in my AG are real fast - like top ten overall age-grouper fast. The race and awards were much better organized this year - fun event and course.