St. Louis Tri | Octomax (Sprint)

First Congrats to Ryan Harwell (MTC) for taking the WIN in the Halfmax (4:18:16)- second place came in almost 30-mins later (4:46:03).


We had a great weekend in St. Louis. Drove in Friday and dropped kids off at my parents and hung out with them for awhile and had some dinner. After that Caroline and I headed back to Warrenton to check into the hotel.

Set the alarm for 4:30 and was out the door by 5:18. It's a fairly short drive to Innsbrook Resort - maybe 15-mins. When we arrived it was overcast and the humidity was near 100% although once the cloud cover cleared, right at race start, the humidity dropped back to around 70%.

I was really looking forward to doing the race again since this was my first ever race last year and the venue is awesome. Unfortunately they completely changed the course so I can't really compare my performance to last year. Also last years weather was about perfect with low humidity and much cooler temps.

I want to say right up front, Ultramax yet again put together a great experience, which included everyone's favorite - Ironband. Decent food at the end for racers and good beer from Rock Bridge Brewery.

Ok back to the race. This was my "A" Race this year and I would say training leading up to it was pretty good. I dropped 14lbs over the 12-weeks, however in the early part of the Peak Phase my right knee and left achilles flared up a bit which required a few days off followed by less than maximum efforts the following week - nothing that really concerned me.

I was feeling really good going into this race and personally thought I might see some PR's. In the end I would have to say I am a bit conflicted in how I feel about my effort. After my results in the KC Tri, I told myself I would improve my transition times and increase my LPE on the bike. I followed thru on both of those of those items. Where I'm conflicted is my poor results within my age group, not that I expect Top 3 but closer to MOP is what I was looking for. Based on the stats, I really need to pick up major bike fitness (hills really take a hit on me) as well as continue to work on the run.

Hopefully the improvements in my run will occur as I begin training for my first Half Marathon this fall. As for the bike, I'm going to build in longer rides throughout the summer and more hills (short & long).

OK here is the race by the numbers:

SWIM | 500m
Time:.....10:14 (2:03) PR
Age Pl:.....6/12
Male Pl:.....38/89

T1
Time:.....3:15
Age Pl:.....3/12
Male Pl:.....25/89

BIKE | 19-mi
Time:.....1:12 (15.7 mph)
Age Pl:.....11/12
Male Pl:.....67/85

T2
Time:.....1:45
Age Pl:.....7/12
Male Pl:.....55/89

RUN | 3.4 mi
Time:.....37:12 (10:57)
Age Pl:.....10/12
Male Pl:.....59/89

TOTAL TIME:.....2:04:56
Age Group (M45-49):.....10/12
Male:...64/89
Overall:.....90/165

Additional thoughts:
Going into this race I was most concerned by the ALL MALE Wave Start. With 89 guys starting at once this was going to be a new experience for sure. In my past two races the groups were much smaller and it didn't take long to find some clear water to swim and settle into a rhythm. I really didn't know how I would handle this. I decided to HTFU and positioned myself toward the front instead of hanging back and get some experience swimming in close quarters - and boy did I! I quickly tucked in behind the first feet I saw - thankfully this person swam at my pace :-) I had racers on either shoulder and hands hitting my feet for the entire 500m.

Honestly I really like the long distance on the bike for a Sprint (even though it exposes my weakness)

Bottomline: 3-years ago I didn't swim or run and only occasionally rode my MTB. Yesterday, I competed for 2-hours and lived to tell about it ;-)

I would highly recommend this race for those in KC as a nice alternative to those hosted at Clinton and Longview. Great venue, scenic course, clean lake and hills, hills and more hills :-)

Now I need to pick a late season race to do just for fun...