The Matt Mason Memorial “Cowboy UP!” Triathlon - Triathlon

Pretty good swim for me. Probably one of my best non-wetsuit swims. The swim out to the first buoy didn't have any siting buoys but there was just enough swimmers in front of me at that point to have something to follow. There we a couple of relay swimmers ahead of me which helped form a line before I could see the buoy.

There was one buoy between the first turn and the second turn so siting was easier going across. The lead swimmers were really fast and given the time trial nature of the start there was little chance of drafting.

Nothing really

Typical transition for me, not too fast not too slow.

Nothing

Got on the bike and right away sunglasses got fogged up. I use anti-fog spray on my swim goggles maybe I should try that on my sunglasses. Anyhow removed those and put them in my back pocket while rolling out of transition.

I took my time getting up to speed as I'm not in my best shape and didn't want my legs to tighten up too early in the ride especially given my lack of run training this year. There was little traffic on the first loop since the long course athletes went first. With over 450 total athletes racing on a 3.8 mile loop it got a little more packed on the last 3 laps but overall navigation was not a big challenge as most athletes stayed to the right to give room for the quicker bikers. I had to slow down on a couple turns near the entrance to the rectangle where the athletes started the loop from the park road. Cones separated entering bike traffic to riders starting their 2nd to 4th loops. I came close to hitting cones a couple times as I was trying to stay at a good speed as there was an uphill section just after that turn. I was out of the saddle each time going up.

Main reason for me was that I knew my main competition in AG was a much better runner so I wanted to put as much distance between us starting the run. He beat me last year (short course) but this was the first year of long course and a 10K is much long than a 5K and the bike was only 18.8 miles as opposed to a standard distance of 24.8 miles.

As I got closer to the end of the bike I missed to turn into T2. There was a guy in a shirt saying something but I couldn't understand what he was saying and there wasn't a sign stating "bike finish" or a right turn arrow or anything. I think there may have been a small sign but I didn't see it. So I went passed the turn in and ended up turning into the bike exit path. So I'm riding against bike traffic leaving T1 and finally realized I was not right. So I turned around went back to yellow shirt guy and shouted "Is this the bike finish" and he said yes of course.

I was thinking "dang it, that probably cost me an AG award". When looking at my bike leg afterwards, that little mishap cost me about 80 seconds.

GPS showed my average moving bike speed of 22.1 mph, going over 19.1 miles.

Uh, know the course better. The finish was the same as last year but I guess my 1 year memory isn't so hot.

Pretty happy with the result as it's not exactly a flat course with over 1,400 feet of gain over only 19 miles and with so many 90 degree turns.

Typical T2 for me. Last time I ran 6 miles without socks I blistered up pretty good so this time I put socks on.

Nada

This is where the big question mark was. Number one, would I be able to complete the run without walking? Number two, would I be run down by others in my AG? I strained a hamstring on June 9th and had to DNF a duathlon. I tried to run a 5K a couple weeks later but couldn't make the first mile without feeling it. On July 7th I did a hilly Olympic tri and was able to complete the 10K run without the hamstring acting up. Then I rested the run legs another couples then ran 3.5 miles on July 23rd then again on July 30th.

I was hoping to at least hold an 8:30 pace for the first few miles then see what god would give me the rest of the way. I took the first mile at what I thought was an easy pace, watch clicked off an 8:20 for mile 1 so I thought, OK I'll try and hold this pace. Mile 2 clicked off at 8:04, then I negative split miles 3 and 4 as well. Mile 5 I started to feel it so I backed off a bit and by mile 6 I was really feeling it, much to the effect of thinking about walking. But the one guy I knew cold run me down what not there. So I decided to Cowboy Up and endure the suck to the finish line.

During that 10K I was passed by 3 or 4 guys in the 40's and maybe one or two younger athletes, at least one was a relay runner.

1 8:20 /mi 151 bpm
2 8:04 /mi 155 bpm
3 7:52 /mi 159 bpm
4 7:49 /mi 163 bpm
5 8:25 /mi 165 bpm
6 8:26 /mi 165 bpm



Nothing really, pretty happy with run splits given the lack of training. My total run mileage year to date is only 172 miles.

Walked around, drank water and ate a couple plums and some grapes. Was glad to hear on of my masters swim buddies son was 1st OA in the short course and my buddy Brandon run well without a calf issue.


Training of course.


So it turned out I had nearly a 10 minutes lead over the next guy in my AG starting the run! The guy that beat me in short course last year did beat my 10K split by 5 minutes but there simply wasn't enough real estate left to run me down. A good day in the water and on the bike proved to be enough on this day.

This is such a great event I'll be back for sure.