Race Report

Well things on paper didn't look well, but overall I had a great race because I finished. On the way to the race, I got a crick in my neck and had almost no range of motion to my left and that is the side I breathe on in the swim. The swim was somewhere in the neighborhood of 3/4 of a mile instead of half and we had a cross wind of about 15 mph on the swim. Even with all that, I took six minutes off of my swim time from last year. That was a positive.

On the bike, I didn't remember it being that hilly, and big boys don't do well on the hills, so I was about two minutes slower on the bike. And we did have a headwind this year so I am not to worried about that.

Now for the real interesting part. Last year when I when I participated, there were no volunteers on the trail portion of the run so I thought it was pretty obvious as to where to go on the trail. This year, I found out that I had unintentionally cut about at the least 1/4 mile off the run. I was on pace to beat my previous time, but lost my drive to keep up my pace. I basically lost it mentally and walked more than I should have. It was about 90 degrees on the run and approx 66 percent humidity, so when I slowed, I really slowed down. I didn't bonk, I just didn't push it as hard as I should have. With that being said, I finished at a slower time this year than last.

My goal was to reduce my time by 15 minutes my coaches were pushing for 20 minutes, which seemed realistic. And maybe it should have been. It didn't happen. So why should I be happy. Maybe I had an off day on the bike, maybe I should have pushed harder on the run, but it is too late now.

I did find these positives:

I finished which is more than some folks were able to do.
I have found the race nutrition combination that works for me. (At last years race I passed out after I finished and had to have two bags of I.V. fluid.)
I improved on the swim by taking off six minutes from my time last year.
I am better than when I first started.

I AM STILL A TRIATHLETE!

Well numbers may not say it, but I had a great race. My son slept through the bike and run in his jog stroller, but when he woke up he didn't care what my time was, he just said, "I love you Daddy!" After that my shortcomings on race day didn't seem to matter as much.

Still Tri'n? (You better believe it!)
Michael