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 Swim
Comments: Unfortunately, caught up with the girl in front of me after 4 laps and after tapping her toes on two laps and her not stopping, just decided to pass her mid lane since it seemed clear enough. However, that spiked me a bit. Anyway, swim was okay overall. Swam it a little harder than I planned. It was a bit faster than last year.  Transition 1
Comments: As always, could have been better. But it was the same time as last year and I did a few more things. Decided to put on bike gloves. Should have been under 2:00 though. What would you do differently?: Tri-suit? Gloves... hard to say.  Bike
Comments: Bike leg felt pretty good at the time. Wasn't passed by anyone and went by a bunch of folks. Did much better than last year at staying in aero - probably why this year was faster. Glad it was sprint length though. I could tell that I would have been in some "trouble" if it was a longer distance. Gearing was probably as good as it has ever been in a race. What would you do differently?: On a dryer day, I would have really pushed coming down the hill out of town. Forgot to start my Garmin. Transition 2
Comments: The questions on the transitions are a good indicator of how far I have to go. That being said, I thought T2 went reasonably well. What would you do differently?: Remember to hit the right button on the Garmin.  Run
Comments: Felt like a pretty strong run. Wasn't beautiful or anything, but for me, a pretty good pace and steady. Was passed by 3 or 4 20ish year olds, but seemed to hold my own reasonably well with everyone else. Back wasn't happy, but didn't affect my run. I did remember to take ibuprofen before the race which probably took the edge off some. Remembered to shorten the pace on the steep downhill - thanks to Randy/Michael. What would you do differently?: Nothing. Pretty happy with the run. Similar to last year. Post race
Warm down: Walked around a bit and then hit the showers at the Y. A little gatorade and a couple of cookies. Grabbed a piece of pizza later (wow, was it warm in the pizza truck - sweet!) Couldn't stay for the awards ceremony as I was playing at a church fundraiser in the afternoon. Plus, I didn't expect to podium! What limited your ability to perform faster: In all three disciplines, I felt a little lack of training. Not horrid, just could tell I wasn't in peak form (whatever that means for me). Probably the one "bummer" moment of the day was knowing that I could have raced in the Clydesdales based on my morning weigh in. I've still got 10lbs I could stand to lose. The positive spin on that is that losing those 10lbs is probably the best way to improve my performance. Still room to improve there :-) But I'd say this was probably my best race overall. Had a good balance in performance across the disciplines, no major errors, and yes, a podium finish doesn't hurt. Kind of surprised by that... I've been knocking at the door the last few years, but 2nd out of 17 is really a GREAT result for me - and my overall position (top 1/4) also my best. And took 45 seconds off last year's time in worse conditions. Can't be anything but pleased with these results! Event comments: I was expecting the worst from the weather, but it was just a light drizzle and cool. By afternoon (in Afton), it was awful, but we dodged one this morning. As always, this is a great race and well organized. I've met a bunch of nice folks down there. Saw Stacy (from Salem race), Mari (from last year's race), met Jen and Dallas (way to go, guys!!). Mari introduced me to Steve Bozeman, world record holder for double ironmans. That was a real treat. Super nice guy - is holding a biathlon on April 30th. Would love to go, but probably won't be back home yet. Last updated: 2012-03-17 12:00 AM
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Set Up Events
51F / 11C
Precipitation
Overall Rank = 46/190
Age Group = 50-55
Age Group Rank = 2/17
Day before thoughts: Really didn't have much strategy for this one. Was slammed with two unplanned on-line courses starting on Saturday, so spent most of the day just trying to sort that out. What thoughts were left for the race were mainly concerns about a rather ominous weather forecast. As usual, had to listen to many rounds of, "you're crazy" and "you know, just because you signed up, you don't have to do it", etc. Anyway, got home from town about 10:30 and packed stuff up with not tons of thought. But as it turned out, didn't forget anything.
Got up at 5am. Breakfast was some cereal and coffee and a glass of G2/water. Left the house at 6am and made it to race site at 7am. Some light rain. Got my number, etc. and a nice jacket for Karen (they were out of men's sizes - bummer, nice jackets too!) Set things up in the transition leaving the option open to wear a jacket. I think it may be time to invest in some decent tri-wear. Wearing my old LLBean jacket probably isn't very race savvy :-) And even the old race shirts pick up a fair amount of wind resistance, plus you have to put them on, etc. Definitely could improve my T1 time there... oh well. Set up wasn't the best location but better than last year. Start time was 45 minutes in - 4th after a 10 minute break, so less of a chance for log jams in the pool.
Lots of stretching and swam some laps in the pool. Sat and chatted with a recent grad from Liberty U who lives in Fredricksburg. Stopped by to say hi to Jen and Dallas from BT who were doing their first tri. They looked a bit nervous...but pysched to be there! I remember that feeling well. Wish the weather had been a bit nicer for them.