Columbia Tri 2012 (Page 2)

I had great fun out there -- made all the better by the fact that I had been dreading the race beforehand and almost was a DNS. I took 7 mins off last year's time, and really enjoyed it. Even the run course. Gory details in my RR. I love the challenge of this race.

I had a couple of narrow escapes on the bike course. At the first roundabout there was a crash just a couple of seconds ahead of me. One guy took the curve too aggressively and slipped, bringing down another guy who was right behind him ... and who was not at all happy.

HillSlugger - 2012-05-21 7:16 AM I met my goals for swim, bike, and transitions, but then the run CRUSHED me. I HATE that run course. Still, I took 7 minutes off last year's time. Not sure I want anything to do with this course again

That is exactly what happened to me. I had improvements in all areas until the run where I ran about 25% slower on the course that I had been practicing on for the past month. I just had nothing left for the run.

Undertrained, unprepared, even tho it was my second year doing this tri.  Improved my overall time, somehow, despite averaging 18.1 on the bike - when my last race was twice the distance, on basically the same course, and I'd averaged 18.9 on that.  Just wasn't feeling it on the bike, and couldn't muster the strength to dig for it on the long, slow steady uphills, after the steep climbs.  And obviously, the run should not have shocked me, since I've done it before, but OMfrigginG, the hills somehow multiplied and got steeper.  If I could somehow reduce my recovery time after a hill, I'd be in far better shape, because once down gatorade hill we've got a long straightaway, and time to recover, and once I had that, I felt fine, and was able to sprint to the finish.  But up until that point, I was dying, and felt like I was running backwards!

Next time, I'll be trained and prepared, dammit!

I wish I were doing Eagleman!  Waited a bit too late to sign up.  Next year, I'll plan better.  But yeah, if you're in shape for Eagleman, then Columbia must've been just like an easy warm up for you.  Good luck!

Regarding the Half Full that you're planning to do in the fall, IMO, although the run course is twice as long as Columbia, it's actually far easier.  You skip over the hard back to back hills of the 6.2 course, and what hills that remain are widely spaced out, so you have a lot of time between in which to recover.