I got everything ready Friday night. It didn't seem like as much stuff as my normal races, I guess as I wasn't spending the whole weekend at the race venue. I was up at 4:30. I pumped my tires up, toasted a bagel, and packed everything in the car. I left by 5, and the 1 hour drive got me parked around 6am. I had googled the parking area, and it looked like there was a parking lot, but when I got there, I didn't see it. People were just parking on the street, so that's what I did.
I got all my stuff out of the car, and put my BTA bottle on my bike. I decided to walk down to the transition. In hindsight I probably should have hopped on bike instead of walking. The website said it was a half mile walk, but it was more like 3/4 miles. Anyways, I figured it was a good warmup.
I knew I was bib 16, so I went straight into transition and racked my bike and put my stuff down. I then walked over to checkin. Showed my driver's license and USAT card, and I had my stuff. They said I needed to check back later because I signed up too late to be guaranteed a t-shirt. I went over and got my chip and then headed back to transition. Nice thing is that all that is like 10 steps from transition.
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| Transition |
Then I decide I need visit the port-o-let. I don't see one at transition. The guy on the PA says there is one at swim start. But I decide to hike back up to the finish to use those. Again, a good little warmup. Prolly the right call as there was no one there.
I get back to transition, put my swimskin on to my waist, take one last look and I head down to the swim start. As I'm walking down, I figure it's time to turn my Garmin on. It's then I realize that I forgot my garmin. It's back at home charging up for the race. Oh well I think, it's only a sprint. I don't need it for the swim, I have my 820 for the bike, it's just a 5K run.
I run into fellow Fort Mill'an Peter. We met a loooong time ago when both our kids were playing t-ball. He's starting doing tri's and we've kinda reconnected. We talked for quite a bit, til I decided I wanted to get my swimskin all the way on and do a little warmup.
I had just gotten this Kiwami Aquarush full sleeved swimskin about 10 days ago. I needed a new swimskin and used Father's Day as the excuse to lay out the cash. I really wanted a sleeved one, since my tri suit is sleeved, and there aren't many options out there.
When I got the suit, my wife couldn't get it on me. I had debated even bringing it to the race, since it was only a 500m swim. But I thought it would be a good test before Boulder and Worlds. And as the saying goes, always try something new on race day. I pulled it up and found a lady near the swim start to help me zip it. It zips down from the top like the Blueseventy stuff does. I warned her that it was a little hard. She didn't seem to have any trouble at all.
The fit is good, very tight. I waded in and did a very very short warmup. Prolly only 100 yards. Then they had a few instructions, the national anthem, and then announced that the open wave would be in 3 minutes. The 13 of us in the open wave stood waist deep or so.
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| "Tri The Midlands" the T-shirt |
Anyways, I digress. I told the guys around me good luck. They gave us the countdown, and we were off.
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| Venue Overview |
11:55 Officially 8 / 9 Open Males 29 / 98 Overall Men
Most everyone zoomed out ahead of me quickly so it wasn't too congested. Just a little bit in the first 100 yards or so. The main group kinda went way off to the left. I just kept sighting on the buoy and kept a straight line to it. We got out to the first turn buoy pretty quickly. I felt fast in my suit, and was still with a couple of open people at the turn.
On the backstretch, I actually thought the water was pretty rough. I was kinda surprised, and looked around one time to see if there were boats going back and forth. The lake isn't really that wide, so I'm not sure where the waves were coming from. So my normal swim: people pulling away, me flailing away.
Finally made the second buoy and the turn for home. Just tried to push, but it seemed to take a while to get to the shore. My hand finally touched land and then I stood up to run out of the water. So I only beat 1 person in the open wave, which was pretty much what I figured. I also go passed by 3 guys from the male wave as well with a 3 min stagger. Yeah. Thinking about contacting Kiwami and see if they will sponsor me. The deal would be that I not tell anyone I swim so slow in their suit. Cash money, baby!
TRANSITION 1
0:50 Officially 8 / 9 Open Males 25 / 98 Overall Men
I tried not to sprint up the hill for all I was worth. At the Jimmie Johnson last year, I did that, and it put my heart rate up so high, I couldn't push any watts on the bike.
Video of my run up T1 I'm the guy in front.
My T1 was kinda slow as I put on my shoes. But going out is a slight uphill and I didn't want to have to fart around with getting my feet in my shoes.
BIKE
35:09 Officially 2nd Overall
24.7 MPH average
Once I got going on the the bike, I passed people pretty quickly. I looked down at my Garmin and got the (unfortunately) familiar "---" watt reading. Damn you Batteries! So after forgetting my Garmin watch, and now dead Power Meter Batteries, I figured I was destined to race "Old School".
No biggie, it's a sprint. I mean really, there's no pacing, just pain. Go hard, Redline the entire race. So I got in a groove and just tried to crank them pedals hard. I kept passing people pretty regularly. This course has a few rough roads, when you are cutting across from one more major road and back. There are also a couple of hills, but not too bad. Especially when you are just trying to hammer the whole time. I only averaged 23.6 the first 5M split as it had some uphill out of transition and a few turns.
The second 5M was mostly straight and slightly downhill, so I cruised through there with a 27.3 average on ?? watts. I hit that 10M mark, my garmin beeped the split. I looked down to see the time. When I looked up, all I saw was SQUIRREL! But just as fast as I saw him directly in front of me, he was gone.
Remember when you were in school and you would lean back in your chair, kinda balancing on the back two legs? Sometimes you would lean back a little too far, and it felt like you were going to fall over backwards, but then you would grab the desk and catch yourself at the very last instant. That feeling is what the squirrel encounter was like. I spent the next couple of minutes just trying to calm myself down.
Once we made the turn back into Carolina Lakes I basically soft pedaled. There was a guy in front of me and cars parked on both sides, so we just came into transition together.
TRANSITION 2
0:41 Officially 7 / 9 Open Males 19 / 98 Overall Men
I had my usual good dismount. My spot was right next to the guy I came into transition with. I got my shoes on quickly. No socks for a sprint. I used the Jen Keith baby powder trick in the shoes. I looked over and saw there were 3 bikes already racked. So we were in 4th and 5th place.
RUN
19:35 Officially 3rd Overall
I came out of transition about 2 steps behind the 3T guy. As I passed him, I patted him on the back and told him nice job. He offered me some of his water, but I said I was good. Then I went to work.
I tried to get a pretty quick turnover at the beginning. There was a slight uphill coming out of transition. I think the first mile was pretty quick. Obviously I really have no idea. I felt ok until I started up the big hill sometime in the 2nd mile, after the bridge.
It's a pretty long hill. As I was struggling up, I could see the top 3 guys coming down. Fast. You really feel slow when you are going up a hill and you see guys coming back down flying. I kinda died near the end of the hill and was glad to finally come around the bend and see the turnaround.
As I made the turn and came back around on the sidewalk I could see everyone right behind me. There were 3-4 guys that were quite hot on my tail. But then I thought, I really need to crush this downhill and do what I do. I think the last mile was pretty fast as well. I ran with my hair on fire all the way back down to the turn back onto the main road. I gave a look back as I made the turn, and didn't see anyone. Then I just pushed for home and felt good at the finish.
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| Finish Area |
FINISH
1:08:09 Officially 4th Overall 1st Masters
Came through the finish and grabbed some water. It started to get a little warmer, but still not too hot. I went over and talked to the top guys at the finish, and some of the 3T guys. I got more got water, and soda. Peter was over by the soda, so we talked for a bit again. Full Results Here.
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| Scrolling Results |
I saw one of the canopies had t-shirts. I went over and asked for a shirt. I got a Large, as they only had a handful left. Then I jogged back down to transition to pack all my stuff up. I saw some other 3T guys as I was leaving transition. They were asking me about the 70.3 World Champs course, and how tough it is gonna be. I rode my bike back to the car, threw it in and then drove back down to the finish.
I changed and put on my Podium shirt. I got some food and then hung around for the awards. I hung out with EPT Racer Christa. She was super pumped to get 2nd in her AG as she outsprinted 3rd and beat her by 2 seconds. I was pretty pleased to nab 4th Overall and finish as the first overall masters. As they went through the awards, they jumped around all the different AGs. No real order after the open awards. So Christa's AG, F40-44 was last. She got her award, and I took some pics.
I then hopped in the car for the drive home. I took the afternoon off, but Sunday morning I did an interval ride and a 8 mile run at sub 7 pace. I kinda like these sprints. I should do more. I just rested for a few days and felt fine for the race. Then they just don't wipe you out like a half and you can literally jump right back into training the next day. I'll have to find some to do next year. For now, back to the Half at Ironman Boulder 70.3 in August. That will be fun!
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| First Place in ..... ? Anything you want. |
