What a great day to race: we made great time travelling to Toledo, the weather ended up being near perfect, and I had a lovely 3 and a half hours of sleep. Lucky for me, I also had my chocolate covered espresso beans.Actually, I had a great race! Both the first and second runs were well above average and the bike was decent. I still have a lot of work to do with the bike. I just need to make time to start logging some serious miles. I finished 3rd in my age group, catching and passing the 4th and 5th place finishers on Run 2. My time was 1:27:24. I'm happy with that, as I don't have any other races at this particular distance to compare to yet.
The start of the race saw temps in the 60's with a slight breeze which made for just the slightest chill in the air. I started up towards the front, about where I'm comfortable being with my pace. The run loops around a man made lake and then heads out along the Lake Erie beach to the turn around. My split at mile 1 was 6:02. I was running hard, but not too hard, and still feeling good. Approaching the turn around, I saw that I wasn't as far behind the overall leaders as I usually am. Those guys really take off. Eventually I settled down into a pace I could maintain back to the transition area. Finishing run 1 in 20:44, I made my way down the entire length of the transition area to my bike. Off with the running shoes, with their indispensable elastic laces, and on with the new cycling shoes. The one Velcro strap made things much faster than the previous 3 strap version. On with the helmet and I was out of transition in 54 seconds.
The bike leg began a little rough. Literally! The road out of the park was rough. I lost the sponge/foam "cork" from my new aero bottle on one of the bumps. I saw it go and made the decision to leave it rather that stop and pick it up. Fortunately I already have a replacement one. That breeze began to pick up by the time we were on the bikes. It felt like it was out of the West, and that's the direction we rode first. I kept waiting for the big packs of cyclists to catch me and I could latch on, but it never happened. The race directors added more wave starts to the triathlon, spreading everyone out. The big packs never materialized. So I was surprised to find myself riding solo. The ride went well. I didn't crash. The bike leg for the sprint distance is only 12.2 miles, so I pushed hard. Heading back in with a tailwind, I finally felt like I used to on the bike years ago. I really need to do more bike work. I finished the bike leg in 43:15, averaging 19.8 mph. I'll take that.
Transition 2 went just as well as T1, and I was in and out in 40 seconds. Now, run 2 is where I usually start to fall apart. That's one reason I switched to the shorter distance for this year. But this year I have a couple things going for me. One, I've done way more bike/run training bricks than last year. Two, I logged a lot of miles last fall and finished two marathons. I was surprised at how well I felt running out of transition. I was passing people left and right. A little voice suggested I tone it down or risk a major breakdown. Once out of the packs of runners, I did ease back a little. Shortly after that my right quad began tightening on me. That was around mile 1 of the final 5K. So I pretty much ran in pain for that last run. My breathing was fine so I just went. I passed one of my age group competitors early, but came upon the second with maybe 3/4 of a mile to go. The thought crossed my mind to just sit behind him and wait till we got closer, then attempt to sprint past him. But for whatever reason, I chose to pass him and encourage him to keep it up and finish strong. If he had some energy in reserve, he might have made the ending interesting. But he didn't. I was able to put 15 seconds on him and I pushed into the finish chute without looking back. My time for run 2 ended up being 21:52. That time is better than I've been able to achieve at just a 5K. I'll definitely take that.
So a great race to wrap up the weekend. I'm taking today off to rest. My legs are a little sore, especially my quad. Tomorrow we have another speed workout at the track, so I need to be better by then. I need to squeeze in some miles on the bike this week too. I have my next race this Sunday down in Columbus. I'm looking forward to it now.
Mr. P
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