The OLY race only had about 75 people bc the sprint had over 150 due the past weather issues I believe. A lot of the fast looking people where doing the sprint so I am going to use their times to compare to.
SWIM
The swim started great. The first buoy has about a 130 degree turn so I wanted to make the first group and actually went 2nd! around the first buoy. Then the sun was directly in line and everyone, i mean eveyone, was all over the place bc there were tons of boats around that would grab you eye when trying to site. Most did a lot fo breaststroke through this section of about 200m. The only bad thing I did was but my swim cap under my goggles for some idiot reason so I got some leakage. Only really dumb thing all day though. Came out of the water in 19:06 so a good 300m short. But the good news is that I was only down 1:02 to the first two guys and in 5th place!
T1
1:16 Had the second best transition most likely due to my barefoot running ability bc the asphault was very sharp. Got 30 seconds into many people and 6 seconds into first place.
BIKE
This is where the story gets interesting. There is a 450 ft hill that puts me standing in my granny gear not long after transition. A 400 ft section lasts over 5 minutes and you have to be careful not to blow up. I paced myself to catch the leader at the top which is 5 miles into the course and I did just that. Very sad to not see a pace car though. Then about 3 miles in the hard to see signs showing where to go start. This is NOT the course of 3 years ago and NOT the maps online. Crap. There are also NO volunteers to help guide through a twisty turny neighborhood with 2 very very steep hills. I actually get excited a little bc I am a good handler. But then there was a sign saying to go left around this loop again that couldnt be. So I went right. Then I saw guy and yelled and he said "two" so I turn around and went back up that stupid huge hill until I caught that guy and he had meant two out and back sections but by then I had crested the hill and had to do another turnaround. Nevermind I was in the wrong gears the whole time to be doing this. I set off to make up my lost time bc i was PISSED. After checking the garmin I lost 2:20 roughly by doing this. One good reason to have a graphing computer on the bike. After the race the sign was wrong but the 2nd place guy knew the race director and had talked about the course that morning. Lame.
I couldn't tell how many people had passed me but I knew at least 1 had. I sped up and caught him at mile 11. I burned WAY too many matches doing that as I made up a 1/4 mile in about 1.5 miles on a good biker. 5 minutes of way past redline was stupid. It took me 4 more miles to put a gap of more then 200m on him. Then back up the big hill which went well bc I had calmed down and started to panic about the run bc my 40 ounces of water were already gone.
My time was 1:04:43 which was still good for second on the bike and a 1:02:23 . The course was only 24.0 miles but with 1200 ft of change and all the turns and pacing I am really happy. So a 23.1 mph avg. The sprint course winner (race was more competative) avg was only 22.5 and the best bike split was also 23.1. I was rocking the bike at the time of the incident and my goal turned from time to WIN.
T2
Posted a time of 56 seconds with putting socks on and getting in some separate drinks of water. Lost a little time here but I know the run is brutal.
RUN
Started out at a 6:13 mile trying to demotivate my chasers. The second aid station did not have water and only super concentrated gatorade I couldn't drink at a walk. First on there so it must have settled in the cooler, GROSS! At the turnaround aid station I was able to get a bottle of water and very slowly drank it and poured some on my head. I ran with it for a while bc I knew the middle aid station had no water. Went out in 20:30. I had a 4 minute lead so I just shut down into 6:45 pace mode for the hills and to let the water I drank absorb. Going back the middle aid station found water so I got some there and just jogged it back in for the WIN! My final run time was 42:09 which was second best on the day by 5 seconds but I celebrated at the end instead of sprinting so it was worth it. The run course has 400 ft of hills and two sections of 130 ft climbs that are steady to its hard to get a rhythm. The short course winner was 18:05 but biked the equiv of a 1:07 and the next best was 19:30. To place in the top 50% you could run over 1 hour for the 10k portion. I had hoped for a 38 which I think I was on pace for before the bad turn and absent aid station.
In the end I am very pleased with my adjusted time of 2:05:55 which puts me a full 5 minutes ahead of second place. Full Results are on the link. I have read many posts in the past about how bad it is to lead a race and now I know why. I never even thought about the gatorade settling or not having the stuff set up. There was no aid station on the bike set up either which was bad for the slower finishers as I ran out with my 40 ounces. Very bad race directing and I was sad to just get an age group medal for the overall and nothing else but that is just my personality so to make up for it I wrote this bragging post.
As far as things to work on are. Swim: New wetsuit. I getrubbed really really really bad and extension is horrible. 10 year old suit needs replaced.
Bike: Endurance so I can have enough left for the run.
Run: Longer runs and 40 mpw mileage.
Sweet victory. What's next? And stay away from my DeSoto Water Rover wet suit. Just announced they will be illegal in USAT starting in 2013. Congrats again!
ReplyDeleteWell in a few weeks I will be starting to work from 6am til 6pm outside in the heat for 2 months but I may be able to bike and run during work until 10am or so. I am planning a half Iron for Sept bc I will either get in tons and tons of training or none during the week and get in long base stuff on the weekend. We will see and will have a plan after the first week of work like that.
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