The Baxter YMCA has an outdoor water park with four slides. Two of which dump into the main outdoor pool (the blue and red). Last year they joked about starting on the slide, but this year, they actually did!
Yes. They did. They put the timing clock at the top of the slide and had people go off every 15 seconds. Now we got to choose whether you wanted to take the blue slide or the red slide. Most people opted for the blue slide since it came out on the side where you needed to start swimming.
I took the blue slide. I only saw a couple people go head first. Although I will say that those people executed it perfectly. I did make the mistake of waiting until I got to the water to start my watch. It didn't start, so I didn't get that segment recorded. Bummer.
People snaked around the pool and up the ladder waiting to start.
Swim 5:07 official, 25/52 OA, 5/13 AG
The swim here is pretty difficult as you go up and back in the same lane. The course is advertised at 300 yards, but is actually 275 yards plus the slide. So not sure how that figures out for my time per hundred yards. All's I know is that it was not good. After I got out of the pool and realized my watch hadn't started, I started it for a little bit so as not to mess up the auto multisport that I had programmed. I did manage to get that part right to record my transitions and bike/run legs.
The transition are was setup differently this year (its been different every year). I kinda like this variation better as its a long thin transition basically on the driveway. Its located more between the pool and the bike start.
Setup and ready to go. Had a little issue gettin my chinstrap on, but that was about it.
Bike 39:46 Official, 3/52 OA, 1/13 AG
Pretty much anaerobic from the get go. I wanted to really hammer the bike and break 40 minutes. The hills are pretty good and there is a long slow hill about 3M from the finish. Almost made a wrong turn at the beginning and locked the back tire up. Then at the turnaround there was no cone so I went the wrong (long) way around the police car. But other than that, happy with my time and place (only 7 seconds back of #2). Garmin had 15.74 miles so only about 23.7 average (would have liked to see 24).
Run 21:36 Official, 3/52 OA, 1/13 AG
Run was about a minute slower than I had hoped. Although I do think now it was a little longer than last year. I had 3.46 miles on my Garmin for a 6:16 average. I knew going in I had to go 6 flats on the run to crack the top 3 overall.
Coming down to the . . .
Finish 1:08:30 Official 5/52 OA, 1/13 AG.
So I missed the podium by 42 seconds. Like I said, needed 6 flats on the run. 3rd on the bike and the run, but 5th overall. How bad is my swim/transitions? Wow. Anyways I do this race because its so close to the house and the bike course goes right in front of my neighborhood. Won my age group again this year, but like I said, not a big race.
Its a fun race. I see a lot of people I know, so its fun to hang out after the race. I'm sure I'll do it again next year unless some bigger race interferes. Full results here.
