Tri The Rock Triathlon - TriathlonMini Sprint

I put in a time of 4:40 when I signed up, which is faster than I go but it usually puts me in with a group of guys my speed since everybody lies about their times. For the first time, I got put in with guys who actually do that speed. In fact, one guy had put down 4:40 but apparently swam a 4:11 earlier this week. So I got passed by about 4 people in the swim, but I let them go by at the walls & such so that they weren't fighting oncoming traffic.

Not much, the swim was about at my top speed for a 300. In fact, I'm fairly sure I would have PRed if I wasn't having to pull myself out of the pool before hitting the mat.

The transition was good, nothing much to report. It had been long enough since a race that I felt like I was forgetting something, but I had everything I needed. I don't think I could have shaved more than a few seconds off of T1.

Nothing.

Craig was going to be coming out of the water 3 minutes behind me, so my goal was to hold him off as long as possible. I didn't think I could keep him at bay the whole ride, I just wanted to make him work for it. ;) I kept pushing, trying to see how long I could hammer away. At about the halfway point, I turned right, felt the tail wind, and just started cranking. I never left the big ring for the last half of the ride. As the miles kept passing, I started to think maybe I could keep Craig away for the whole bike. OK, what I actually thought was that he must have had a flat. But I'll take what I can get. ;)

Sure enough, I rolled into T2 and Craig was still 15 seconds behind me. I know he wasn't racing against me, but I took it as a victory anyway.

Not much.

I didn't do a flying dismount; it had been long enough since I had tried that I didn't feel like taking a chance. So I rolled in, stopped, and dismounted. I put on my shoes, put on my race belt, and took off just ahead of Craig.

Maybe the flying dismount.

OK so it took Craig all of 10 seconds to pass me. He slapped me on the @ss as he rolled past, then pointed to his Ironman tattoo and told me I couldn't "touch this". Alright, I made that last part up. It would have been funny if he did that though.

The run was pretty uneventful, I just kept my cadence up and rolled through the course at a pace that's near my 5k PR pace. I walked a couple aid stations just long enough to get a drink of water, then started running again at the same basic pace. I was in no man's land for the last mile and change, there wasn't anybody within 30 seconds of me in either direction. There were so few people that the photographer near the end started talking to me a good 50 yards off. I told him to take a picture of my butt so I could send it to people, he laughed and as I ran away I heard him yell "GOT IT!". I gave him a thumbs up and kept going. I'll have to look for that photo when pictures come out.

Nothing.

Sat around what felt like hours waiting for the last bike to come in so I could head home, spent most of that time talking to Craig.


Speed work, I guess.


This was a well-done race, it's a shame it's going to be my last Ironhead race for at least a year. Jack's overall attitude towards his customers & epic pre-race meetings are a bit much for me at this point, and with the sheer number of other race directors out there I can find other races to do next year. I'll re-evaluate Ironhead in '11.