On
Saturday, I went up to Carlos’ house so that I could borrow his front tubular
Zipp 404 to go along with the tubular disc that I still have from the state
TTT. I was questioning on if I should
carry a spare tubular or if I should buy some Vittoria Pit Stop (a flat
repair/inflator canister for tubular tires).
Ultimately, we decided to put some Stan’s tire sealant in there instead.
Coach’s
instructions were simple:
1.
Swim
like you know how
2.
Bike
the bike as you would on a regular 70.3
My start
time was approximately 6:45AM, so that meant that I needed to be eating
breakfast by 3:45AM. Here is what I had:
·
1/2C
egg whites
·
1
egg
·
2
pieces of whole wheat toast
·
2T
Peanut butter
·
Coffee
·
Water
Kristi
signed up to volunteer, so once the transition area was closed, I was able to
hang out with her and my son before I got in the water. As luck would have it, ONE Multisport was
supplying the volunteers, so K was able to request to hold up the starting sign
for the silver caps (my wave).
I got into
the wetsuit legal water (74) and found my way to the front. After two bad swims in this very lake, I was
determined to get it right this time. I
was aiming for a goal time of 28 with a stretch time in the 27s. I was able to quickly find a nice rhythm that
allowed me to break away from the group with a few others. At this point, I wasn’t pushing it too hard, but
felt strong. A new problem started to
appear….or disappear in this case. The
sun was blinding. At one point, I couldn’t
see any sighting buoys, nor could I see any other caps in front of me. I was literally swimming blind. Finally, I saw a huge round, yellow,
marshmallow like buoy and started sighting off of that. After a bit, I picked up my head again and
was surprised to see a kayak in front of me.
The lady in said kayak was pointing to my right and yelling something
inaudible. I look over and, sure enough,
I had gone off course. Why in the world
did the event organizers put this random buoy in the MIDDLE of the
course?!?! As I set off, I noticed that
a few people had followed me too. Sorry
about that! Finally, I find the turnaround
buoy and make it around cleanly. Now it
was time to make up for the mistake I made, so I gave it a bit more gas. Since the sun was behind us now, I was able
to sight efficiently the whole way back.
I round the corner and make it up the stairs where I promptly stop my
Garmin. Kristi was there to help strip
off my wetsuit before running into T1.
Again, as before, I slowed down to a jog/walk to bring the HR back down. As I turned down my row, I passed all of the
other relay cyclists waiting for their swimmer to come in. Here is where they had a distinct advantage. I had to do a full transition while all they
had to do is take the timing chip off of the swimmer and put it onto the
cyclist. In the past, when doing 3
person relays, our transitions are about 40-45 seconds. This time around, my T1 2:10….YIKES!!!!
Garmin
time = 28:26
Official
time (includes wetsuit strip and short run to timing mat) = 29.22
The bike
course was three loops of curvy streets around downtown Tempe. It was almost identical to the Nathan’s tri
and the Rio Salado Tri I did months back. Right out of the gate, I felt STRONG! I kept pressure to the pedals and was
constantly passing people. In fact, I
only counted being passed 2 or 3 times myself.
Whether that’s accurate or not, I don’t know. I seem to be HORRIBLE about assessing my
position on the race course. In fact, at
this point, I calculated that I was sitting 3rd and had a chance at
a podium finish. The aero wheels felt awesomely
fast and I was comfortable. Here is my
nutrition on the bike:
·
200
cals EFS
·
400
cals EFS Power Shot
·
200
cals Gu
Official
time = 2:25:56 (23 mph average)
Garmin Data
Our T2 transition was closer to that 45 seconds I was talking about earlier as all Klas had to do was take the chip off of me and put it on him before taking off.
Our T2 transition was closer to that 45 seconds I was talking about earlier as all Klas had to do was take the chip off of me and put it on him before taking off.
I made my
way over to my bike rack and saw Kristi and my son waiting for me. After letting my “vomit line” retreat from my
throat, I switched out of my kit and into some more comfy clothes. I fully remembered that Carlos wanted me to
do a 3 mile brick after the ride, but I wanted to spend some time with them and
to take in some additional fluids. After
putting in what seemed to be a gallon of Perform and water, I texted Carlos to
tell him my results. He indicated that
he was in the parking garage and was heading over. “I haven’t run yet” is the last text I sent
him before he showed up. Once he did, he
said, “Well, what are you waiting for?”
With that, I kissed the fam goodbye and headed back to the transition
area to don my kit again. Looking back
at the Garmin data, I started the bike at 7:22 and it took me almost 2 ½ hours. That means I came into T2 around 10. I didn’t start my brick until almost an hour
later at 10:51.
I headed
out of the same gate as the other runners, but I ran in the opposite direction
so that I could stay on the softer dirt path on that side of the course. I received a few oddball looks and a few
people even made comments about me going the wrong way. It did feel kind of odd. On the way back, I was going with the runners
and was passing quite a few. I thought
to myself, “So this is what it’s like to pass people on the run instead of
being passed” Anyway, I bagged a quick 3
miler in 26:59 (8:59 pace) before my day was officially done.
Just before heading out on my brick:
Here is
how we finished:
SWIM – 29:22
(5/73)
T1 – 2:10
BIKE – 2:25.56
(23mph ave)(6/73)
T2 – 00:39:01
RUN – 1:35:17
(7:17 pace)(12/73)
OVERALL –
4:33:26 (6/73)
Just for
fun, here are the top 5 relay times and, if I’m not mistaken, they all had 3
participants:
1.
4:19:12
2.
4:22:54
3.
4:24:54
4.
4:31:14
5.
4:32:44
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