Deer Creek Triathlon - Sprint - TriathlonSprint

This was my first tri in a few years, as I had derailed this part of my life, but am back on course. That said, it was just fine. First time back in my wet suit, and it actually fit. I can tell I filled out in the chest since the last time it was on, as it was moderately snug, but not overly restrictive. I was in the second wave, seperated by the first "younger" wave by 2 minutes. If I was passed, I don't remember seeing it, but I was more concerned with staying on course, as a rectangel required 4 turns, so I was doing A LOT of sighting, every 6-9 strokes. By the half way point I had caught up to the first wave, which surprised me, being as swimming is my weak leg. There was little to no chop on the water, and I didn't do to bad navigating, but as I neared the end, I knew I had picked the right race to do today, as the International Distance would have been a bit much. As I neared the end, I had passed several of the first wave, and was pleased with my swim.

Nothing really. This was my first race in years, and I trained plenty for this distance, and swam as good as I am capable of, and perhaps better than I thought I could. It was a challenge.

Everything came off pretty good. I always feel a bit off kilter going from the water to the transition...kinda like a motion sickness feeling. Wet suit came off fairly easy, as my PAM worked just fine. I wear socks and don't do the fancy "shoes stuck on pedals" trick, which probably slows me down a tad, but I'm good with that.

Nothing.

Got off to a shaky start on the bike. First few hundred yards were fine, but when I shifted into my big ring, off came the chain. DRATS! It only took me a few seconds to correct it, and may have actually lit a fire under my ass to push harder. I jumped back on and hauled ass. I kept my mph between 20 and 23 most of the time on the flats, which is fast for me. I knew I was pushing a bit harder than I usually train at, but kept telling myself that it was only 13 miles (20K), so I could afford to push harder. I passed several more people from the first wave again, and was only passed 3 or 4 times, the last being about 3/4 mile from the end of the bike, and by someone in my age division. I kept this guy in my line of sight, and made him my competition. I was going to get this guy back on the run. This was a fact. Only saw two idiots. One guy obviously thought this was a draft legal event, as he was sucking tire for the 5 minutes I watched him, until I passed him. He was going from person to person, drafting anyone near him. The other guy was doing all his passing on the right, when there was plenty of chances to pass on the left....maybe he was from England? Some guy yelled at him as I passed him, so maybe he retracted his head from his rectum and got a clue....maybe.

Nothing.

Nothing special here. Dismounted where we were told, prior to the transition area, ran as fast as one can in bike shoes, racked bike as efficiently as one can, sat, tore off bike shoes and slapped on running shoes, took as swig of gatorade and jogged away. Forgot how tired legs could be after a bike, and how that slows down the beginning of a run...NOW I REMEMBER.

I need to get some of the little plastic do dads for my running shoe laces so I can quickly tighten them up without having to tie them. Lost a whole 10 seconds there....which made absolutely no difference today.

I suppose my start was a good as it gets considering how hard I pushed the bike. I usually have a pretty good run pace, but this felt sloooooow, but I saw my age group competition in front of me, and headed out, about 80 yards behind him. As we approached the first mile, I could see I had cut my distance from him by over half, and I was finally getting my running legs back. This helped me pick up the pace even more, but still felt slow. A few hundred yards beyond the first mile I passed him and put on a little extra speed, just to quash any ideas he might have of making a comeback. By the turn around I could see I had put about 60 yards on him, so I kept trying to push. All along I passed others from the prior wave here and there. with about a mile left a 21 year old guy zipped passed me. WHERE DID HE COME FROM? Anyhow, there was no one else ahead of me but him that I could see, and as I looked back, no one was within 100 yards of me, so there was no one to challenge, or be challenged by. I suppose I could have pushed the run a bit harder if there was a place to pick up or defend, but I didn't see the point. I was running good and saw no reason to destroy myself the last few hundred yards...so I didn't. I cruised in and saw Mary, Erin and Conor....my cheering section! As I crossed the line, the guy at the end told me I "just" missed a medal...bummer, but I felt good about the race and knew whoever had "just" beat me, did a great job, as I had no idea who it might have been. Result tomorrow will tell.

Nothing.

Takes swigs of water....drink some....spit some out...let Conor take swigs of my water to practice his spitting techniques.


Having a job that takes 40 hours of my life away every week, which could be used to train with.


This race was iffy as we drove 1 1/2 hours to get to it. As we drove north on I-71 approaching Columbus, we saw nothing but black skies and lightening, eventually driving into a moderate thunder storm. As we arrived at the race, the rain all but stopped. I've been out of the TRI racing scene for a few years, but easily fit back into the tempo of the activities, which at its core, really didn't change. It's a bit more commercialized and expensive, but that just seems to be a natural progression of this sport. It was well organized, and fun. We didn't get a chance to stay for the POST race activities, if there were any. I had to get home to work 2nd shift, so we loaded up and headed south, making a quick stop at Wendy's and Taco Bell. My usual post race activity is to go home, order pizza and drink loads of Guinness, but work is short on bodies, and vacation time needs to be saved, so off to protect society I go.