After a very long day on Saturday, I woke up at 5:15am for the race. I ate a Honey Stinger protein bar and drank some water. After getting everything together, I left the house around 6am. The race was at 8am and transition was going to close at 7:45am so I had plenty of time. Jeff suggested I ride the bike for 10 minutes and run for a couple of minutes to warm up. I was able to get my warm up in and check all of my stuff into transition. I went to the pool and swam a hundred meters as a warm up as well before the race starts. Jack runs a very structured race so there is no line jumping. However, lots of people severely fudge their swim time. I put 7:30 as my 400m swim time. All of the lanes with the exception of the first and last were down and back in the same lane. Passing was in the middle. Interesting, because if anyone falls out of line there will be a collision. I bonked heads with some guy and locked arms with another guy swimming the other direction. I had someone try to pass me on the inside which sucked. He was the only person to pass me in the water. I probably passed 3-4 people. I thought my effort was really consistent. However, it was hard to know pacing considering the confusion in the water. My swim time by my watch was 7:26 which was 4 seconds faster than I anticipated so I was happy.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/285563088
My transition to the bike was 1:08 by my watch. No problems in transition and I was happy with the time.
The wind was blowing from the south and the course was out and back. We were going north with the wind heading out and south against the wind coming back. It was probably blowing 10-15mph. I held my aero position really well throughout the ride. I was flying on the way out but knew it would be tough coming home. I could tell at the turnaround I was slightly behind where I needed to be so that was a little discouraging. I stayed with it and tried to finish strong. I drank one bottle of Accelerade and took two honey stinger gels on the bike. I stepped out of my shoes once I was close to the Nat. I had a pretty clean dismount and ran to my rack spot. I was definitely hoping for sub 40 minutes on the bike. Unfortunately, I was 40:47 by my watch. I was a little bummed for my time but I knew my run should be really good.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/285563107
My transition to the run was :47 which was really fast. I had a girl next to me blocking me from racking my bike but it didn't cost me too much time. Very happy with this transition.
The run started well. The wind blowing in my face on the way out to the turnaround and at my back on the return. It was a two lap course. I took it a little easy on the first mile and knocked out a 8:05 mile. I wanted all of them to be sub 8 but that was ok. I took some water at the first stop and never took another drink the rest of the way. It was 3.1 miles so who needed it at that point. I had plenty of nutrition on the bike. The second mile was a disappointing 8:10. At that point, I picked up the pace and ran hard for the rest of the run. My 3rd mile was a 7:28 mile and I was running with a college kid and we were trying to keep each other going. I probably could have run harder on the second mile but I can't change the past. My run finished in 24:07 by my watch. I was pretty happy with the result. My finish time was 1:14:15. I figured 1:10:00 would win the age group but I really wanted to place. I have never done that before.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/285563125
I watched the results come in and thought I finished second but there was a late arrival who bumped me to third. I placed which was a nice accomplishment for me. I was hoping to win but I don't know what I could have done to trim off 4 minutes. That is a significant amount of time. I was tired after a full week of driving across the country. Perhaps that hurt me on the bike. All in all, a good result and I'll take it.
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