Still more swimming to prepare for the Marquee relay on the 10th with about 11 rides (70 miles max). On Saturday the 9th, things got real interesting. While I was helping my cycling team with the state championships crit that we were sponsoring, I got a text that said Tempe Town Lake was unsafe for swimming (something about a rain storm and run-off water/bacteria) and the triathlon was going to become a duathlon by dropping the swim. While Michael Nemeth (bike) and Ben Gherardi (run) weren’t effected at all, I was now staring down the barrel of a 5K run instead of a 1.2 mile swim. Remember, the last time I had shoes to the pavement was on January 3rd! Well, nothing we could do about it now except lace ‘em up and get after it. I remember race morning being fairly chilly and that there was a car accident out on the bike course (same course as IMAZ) that delayed the start for quite a while. Eventually, I took my place at the front of the line and took off when the gun blasted. Not much to say, since it’s only 3.1 miles, other than I felt surprisingly good! In fact, I came in at 22:43. This would equate to a 7:19 min/mile average, but according to my Garmin data, the run may have been a bit short and my average was more like 7:26. Still, unbelievable that I could have had a 3 month layoff and then come out and crush it like that! Needless to say, I was off the hook happy with that performance. Kristi was able to get a pic of me just before entering T1 to make the handoff. Michael held his own on the bike coming in with a time of 2:32:17 (22 mph average). We managed a 47 second T2 time and then it was Ben’s turn. It wasn’t until after he had taken off that we realized that he may have still had his iPod in (a violation of the rules). No way we wanted a DQ, so I had to plead with the referee to let me take Michael’s bike out of T1 to find Ben on the run course. Yes, you heard me right, I had to plead with the referee to let me go find my teammate who may (or may not) be in violation of the rules. Fortunately, he graciously let me go and after a few trips around parts of the course, I was able to locate Ben. Let’s just say that there wasn’t a disqualification, so there wasn’t really a problem to begin with. He crossed the finish line, with no iPod, in 1:19:49 (6:05 min/mile average). Our 4:16:23 performance was good enough to clinch 1st place with a bottle of wine as the prize.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/78599803
My 1st run after 3 months. How confident do I look?
1st place baby!
Now that I was back on the running wagon, I decided to attend a free running clinic at the Runner’s Den here in Phoenix. We were video tapped running with our shoes on and then without. We went through some tempo drills and some posture drills as well. No big secret was learned when the guy told me I was a heal striker, but when he had me run without my shoes on, I no longer hit the ground heal first. So, before every run, I was to practice without my shoes for 20 – 30 feet to get the proper feel.
Outside of the Marquee race, and the fact that I started running again (4x) April was just another average month in terms of riding and swimming.
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