In September I swam a total of 2 times, both of which were only around 2000 meters. A big change from my 40K total yards in April. I lost some of the edge in the swim that I had early in the season, but I was still able to hold a 1:20 pace through the 400 yards.

Cold transition! Running from 85 degree indoor pool to 60 degree weather was chilly. Everything went fairly smoothly, I only lost a little time fiddling with my race shirt.

Had some trouble getting going. Since this course is only 10 miles I didn't want to spend much time getting settled in to a pace, so I tried to go all out from the start. I never quite felt that I got into a comfortable cadence, in part because of the rolling of the hills and in part because I just felt tired on the bike. Only one person passed me, and I stayed within 20 yards of him for the remainder of the race. Got caught at one traffic light and had to actually come to a stop and wait for a green light! AHHHH!

I was hoping to get my average at 20 mph or above so I could come in under 1 hour for the total race time, but was unable to do so. Since this was a 'c' race, I'm not sweating it, though.

Bike shoes off/Running shoes on. Race number strapped on, and I was off.

This is the fastest recorded average per mile in a running race in which I participated, so I can't complain. I tried to maintain a fast cadence off the bike. It helped that the middle mile in the race was mostly downhill.

Running 9 miles the day before at a tempo pace (marathon training). Lack of swim training may have cost me 5 seconds/100 yards. Equipment issues with my bike may have cost me a little time (bottom bracket problems).



(written pre-race on 10/2): I entered this race for one last 'fun' triathlon before the season officially ended for me and I start a more focused training plan for a November Marathon. I did this race last year, it was the first time I raced with my new bike with the new triathlon configuration (aerobars, etc). My plan this year was to simply race and enjoy it. After the Delaware Diamondman 1/2 IM race in 6 hours, this races should seem very short to me.

Last year I did this race in 1:08, 9th place overall out of about 108 participants. This year I cut 4 minutes from my time. I'll post my overall placement once it is posted on the race web site.

Results are now posted:

Time was 1:04.16 (4 minutes faster than last year)
2nd out of 12 in age group (35-39)
8th out of 82 overall