Downtown Columbia Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Interesting swim. We started 2 at a time, and I had the inside part of the lane (next to the rope). The guy that started next to me swam a bit faster in the first 50, but since i was next to the rope, I totally had the advantage. After that, smooth sailing. Passed three people.

Swim more. Broken record here, I guess.

Since there was a pretty steep hill right out of T1, I decided to put my shoes on first. So, T1 was a little slower, but it saved me a lot of hastle (like, as in not falling over).

Not much.

So, two things (well three if you count the inadequate warmup) conspired against me. 1: hills where I haven't ridden any; 2) Scary-ass bike course where I had 1 near car/bike collisions and at least 2 near bike/bike collisions. The first lap was fine...I felt flat onth ehills, but that's to be expected when I'v edone litte riding and what I have done was on the trainer. Hard to fake it on this course. BUt when th esecond lap started and more bikes were out there...wow. I was passing slower cyclists all over the place, and since there were a lot of turns, I had to be super careful. Coming down the big hill into 5 POints in the second lap, I very nearly got t-boned by a car that blew through the intersection...he passed right behind my rear wheel. And then on the third lap, on that same hill, I was passing a slower cyclist while going nearly 40mph...I called out "on your left" only to see him drift to his left. I then shouted "left" only to see him drift more towards me. At that point, my front and his rear wheel overlapped, nearly touching...with me shouting "left left left left...". Then we were next to each other, our bars nearly touching (romantic, right) at which point he realized I was on his left. Funny how that works.

And then, as I was finishing the bike and starting my left turn into the TA, some dude tries to pass me on my left (this was a no-pasing zone according to th epre-race instructions) and we both nearly go down.

So...freaky bike.

Not freak out?

Pretty good T2...adrenaline firing, I guess.

Good effort, but just felt flat. Probably a combination of poor niutrition pre-race, not enough warm-up and a general lack of training. Good effort, though, since I ran really hard almost from the get-go.

Train more, eat more, warm-up more.

Ran about another 3 miles.


All the things mentioned earlier. You were paying attention, right?


So here's the thing. I made the podium again. That makes 5 podiums in my last 5 races and I used to *never* place in my AG. I've been doing these things off an on since '84...probably 150 tris, and until last year, I never..literally never placed in my AG. But apparetnly something has changed. I know my AG isn't any easier (M40-44 is tough, man). So...it must be my running. I'm still not great...but I'm definitley alot stronger than I used to be.

So here's what I've learned: if you want to run faster, sure, running more is a good start. But what you really need to do is just run the hell faster, in training.

No charge for that.

Also: props to my TNTers. I brough 5 folks to this race, four who had never raced a tri before, and th eother was doing her second. Lindsay won her AG, and everyone else did awesome...all finishing strongly and smiling at th eend. The all rock!