First mile was about 6min as everyone got sorted out. There weren't any big hills but enough that it made a difference to know how to run hills efficiently. A couple guys kept surging up the hills and passing me then coasting on the downs. I'd "spin" easy up and then keep a quick light stride going down. I knew it would catch up with them eventually. I dropped one guy for good on the second lap and exchanged places with another most of the way to T1. I felt good coming into transition...paced it about right.

Transition was set up on the football field which was mostly fine but there was a narrow chute leading out that out really sloppy. There was about a 150 run from transition to the mount line up in the parking lot. I put my shoes on in transition so I was running in mud and on wet blacktop in my cycle shoes...no problems though.

I didn't know the bike course so I wasn't sure what the hills or turns were like until I was there. Just like on the run, several guys insisted on hammering up the hills, even getting out of the saddle and grinding away. I traded back and forth with one guy for a good 20 miles. Every relatively long hill he's pass me while I kept a high cadence in a light gear and then he'd back way off or even coast the downhill where I'd fly by him. Again, I knew that strategy would probably come back to bite him. I just kept focused on my power meter and pushed 230-250 on the flats and 260-300 on the climbs. The guy even made a comment about how swapping places so much was making him tired. Maybe it was the hammering up the hills making him tired? I passed him one final time with about 10 miles to go and never saw him again. I planned to shoot for about 250W NP and ended up a little under that but it felt about right. In hindsight I was probably a little too conservative over the final 10 miles.

I probably paced a little too conservatively.

Long run with bike in bike shoes from parking lot through sloppy mud into transition. I typically slip out of my shoes before I dismount but I knew the transition area would be really muddy.

I usually pick up a few places on the run primarily due to good pacing up to that point IMO. Coming out of transition one guy passed me and we ran together for maybe a mile. On a long downhill I pulled away and dropped him. I figured I was running in about 10th place and could only see a couple of guys way up ahead. the leaders must have been kicking my ass. Just after starting the second lap I was starting to close on someone when I saw another guy off the side stretching...must have cramped up. Within another half mile or so I passed the first guy who seemed to be suffering a little ans the the other guy shortly after. Before long they had both dropped way back. I had about a mile left and it didn't look like there was anyone near me from behind and I could only see one guy ahead and he probably had a good 300m on me. I figured there was no way I could close that gap in under a mile but I just kept on doing my thing and closed in. I gave one last push hoping he was fading and was only about 50m back as we ran up the hill and onto the school grounds where the course either went right for lap #2 or left around the track to the finish line. Turns out he was only on his first lap and I busted my ass for nothing. Turns out the next closest finisher in front of me was over a minute ahead.

I know I really should get an easy cool-down jog but I was wet and cold so I headed for the car to get some dry clothes and start cleaning and packing my gear.


This was only my second race of the season and mostly a training opportunity. Knowing it was a World Championship qualifier I hoped to do well but knew I couldn't afford a trip to Europe so there really wouldn't be any big loss if I got my doors blown off. I ended up taking my age group and 8th overall. Top 2 in each age group qualify for the World Championships in Geel, Belgium later this summer. The overall winner Josh Beck would have been in my age group but he crushed us all and bumped into the overall.


Unfortunately the weather kind of sucked. There wasn't any heavy rain but everything was plenty wet from the past day or rain and there was an on-off mist. It's hard to rate the overall event with such crappy weather. The race was well organized and the course was pretty good. There wasn't much in the way of activities after...Cliff Bloks, water, bagels, and oranges. There was music playing and it probably would have been a decent post-race if it was a little warmer and sunny.

Results are online: http://results.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?orgID=216396&rsID...