Virginia Run Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

felt great in the swim. i always start too eager in pool swims and flood my goggles the second i start, but i was able to avoid that this time. passed 2 people, but had a lot of open water. great swim.

not take off my warm clothes until closer to the start.

good t1. pretty uneventful

nothing.

i usually bak off on the bike and expect my run to carry me, but i planned on going all out on the bike this time. i was very lucky to have someone up ahead going the perfect pace. i was able to use them as a rabbit by keeping them between 10 and 20 yards in front of me. if i ever started to back off he would drift way ahead of me and i had to concentrate on reeling him back in.
i was able to pass him at the end of the first loop, but he passed me back before long. i felt good and no one else passed me the whole ride.
my only mistake was thinking i was closer to t2 than i was and taking off my shoes way too early. i pedaled the final mile with my feet on top of my shoes.

the course was really only ~12.2 miles so that pace isn't correct, but it was still well over 21 and probably my fastest solo ride ever. very happy with the ride.

take off shoes at the right time

the parking lot is paved, but very rough and covered in gravel. i should have just left my shoes on because it hurt so bad i tried to hold myself up on my bike as i ran through t2 to try to keep the pressure off.
i even complained to the race director as i went by.

leave shoes on.

i was happy that scott (3558) hadn't caught me on the bike, but as i left t2, i heard someone coming up behind me loud and fast. it turns out i was unsure what my running legs would be after going all out on the bike so i couldn't have been happier to have someone to pace with. we've run a few of the same races, but for one reason or another have never had the chance to run together, so this should be fun.

scott mentioned he was counting on me, but he was looking strong and immediately started to pull away. i thought i was going to have to let him go, but i was able to limit my losses and finally reel him back in after about a half mile. luckily i caught up just in time to jump in front of him when we saw the photographer so it looks like i'm leading in the photo! unfortunately for me, they post the results before they post the pictures...

i was ahead by a few steps when we hit the turn around, but i knew scott started after me so even if i finished in front of him, he would still win. i checked my watch though and regardless of where i placed, i had never broke an hour and that was my #1 goal. it was going to take a sub 6:00 pace, but it was still possible.

we continued to run people down and scott's watch continued to beep reminding him to drink on the bike. i tried to get him to head back to the turn around for water, but he wasn't falling for it, so i picked a spot to make my move with ~.25 mile to go. we were flying by the transition area and into the finishing chute. scott had a great finish and came by me at the final turn, but i was :14 seconds away from caring about that. my watch was stopped at 59:46.

nothing.

stretched and cheered on the other racers.
k had her long run still to do so we had to skip the bt breakfast, but there were raffles and several bt'ers claiming hardware, so we stuck around for a while until that was over.


still early season?


good local race. there are some annoyances you have to deal with (terrible transition surface, always freezing, inconvenient packet pickup, early start, etc.), but once all that is over, i always enjoy the race.
good course, good finish line atmosphere, good schwag, and a good cause.