Saturday's race was my first triathlon this year. It was also going to be my longest run since the marathon back in May. So I really did not have any performance goals other than that I wanted to feel like I did my best for where my fitness is right now. This race has a wave start separated by 10 minutes and I was in the 2nd wave. So as I stood on the beach watching the 1st wave swim away. I set a new goal for myself, catch someone in the 1st wave. I remember when I did this race 11 years ago that I got passed by a couple of guys in the wave behind me, so I wanted a little revenge. When my wave started I went out pretty hard,for me. I was just trying to stay on Ron Crenshaw's feet. At about 3/4 of the way to the 1st turn I noticed that Ron had veered a little wide going into the turn as I was beside him. I took the shortest route and was headed for the next buoy. About 1/2 way to the 2nd turn I realized my 1st goal and passed someone wearing a neon green swim cap, color of the 1st wave. Then something weird happened. I passed a couple more green caps, then a few more. Then I was bitch-slapped back to reality when I was passed by a gray swim cap. He/she was in the 3rd wave. This turned out not to be an anomaly as I then got passed by a few other gray caps. I chugged along swimming a very straight line as smooth as I could and was soon standing up and running up the beach.
T1 was a complete disaster from a time standpoint. I have to wear socks, I hate blisters. Getting socks onto semi-dry feet is one of those things that the harder you try the harder it gets. Nearly 4 minutes later I roll out on what is sure to be a great bike ride. My goal was push hard for the whole ride. Since my run was going to be slow anyway I might as well try to push as hard as I could. I passed a lot of people on the way to Higgins Point. When we hit the big hill my legs felt good so kept left and continued to pass riders up the whole hill. I let it rip on the downs and kept my cadence up on the flats and continued to move through the "young" people. Did I mention that the 1 st wave was people 39 and younger. I does help the ego to pass a 25 yo guy on a hill. When we hit the final downhill I let the Serotta fly. I got right on the center line and let her rip, top speed 49.5 mph. Once we were back on flat ground I kept the cadence up picking off as many people as I could. T2 went better than T1 and as I took off on the run I was able to see Roger coming in for the win. You really need to read his race report, it's a good read.
As I said this was to be my longest run since the marathon in May. It was also my 1st brick run of the year. If you have never run right after riding your bike you need to. Until you get used to it, it's like running on a couple of canned hams. Jayne was all over the place taking pictures. I saw her at the beginning of the run. About 1.5 miles later I look up and there she is again. This really blew me away not that she was taking pictures, all of you that know her know that she is always taking pictures. But how in the hell did she cover the 1.5 miles fast than I did, I knew she could not have drove we parked to far away, she did not bring a bike, WTF. Turns out that she sprinted through the neighborhood, it was probably still a mile. The run went well no pain in my foot, but my run fitness was definitely not there. I just kept plugging along, I was still passing some of those 20 somethings though. However I did get passed a few times as well but mainly by team people. As I got back towards the finish line I saw Jessi and once she saw me, I was not in "uniform" she was screaming at the top of her lungs, totally pumped me up. As her voice began to fade I could then hear Jayne screaming, again this totally got me fired up. At the same time this guy tried to pass me, so I picked it up a little to get back in front of him. Apparently he did not like that so he passed me back and I was trapped behind him and next to 2 other runners. This pissed me off, as soon as I got and enough room I blew by that guy like he was standing still and finished strong.
Overall I was pretty happy with my race. I have made progress on the bike and the swim and I know that as I'm able to run more that fitness will return.
Speaking of running tonight is the 2nd race in our tri-clubs series Hot Summer Nights.
5 comments:
Great part about coming back to reality. Hilarious. Great job out there. That is not an easy course. Good to hear the foot feels good and serious, you picked the CDA for your first brick? Crazy!
I thought I was the only one that wondered how people could get around an out and back run course so fast when they were having to run too.
Nice work on setting goals in the swim. I think that really helps things go by. And as for the "socks" there is an easy way to do that. I used to wear socks in sprints, and still had some pretty fast transitions.
Way to push through to the finish and "un pass" as pass. Often hard to do.
Roger
You rocked it, Bryan! Loved seeing you out there pushin' it to the end. Well done. See you tonight!
It was good to read that you are back in the swing of things. It does feel good passing some on the younger racers on the course.
Keep rocking buddy!
Bryan, I was on Dave Erickson's blog and read where you crashed coming down Mt Spokane.
Wow - you definitely look a bit worse for wear. I hope your injuries are minor and short term, although I expect you are in for some sore, painful days.
Take care of yourself buddy. We need you on point out there!
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