Then the bike. I struggle with it for an hour and twenty two minutes. I am used to not getting passed much on the road so it was frustrating seeing so many people go by me. This year was better in the fact that I didn't crash. I was happy to get off the bike in one piece and headed off to the second run. Goal for this winter and spring, ride the trails.
By this time it was getting hot again. Luckily I took my water bottle with me so I was able to pour it on myself and stay a little hydrated. I ran down a few people but for the most part I was alone. I just kept telling myself not to walk and it would be over soon. I finally got to the finish line in 27:33 and a total time of 2:18:06 good for 26th over all and 10th in my age group. Apparently 30-34 year olds love to mountain bike and are a lot faster than me.
I was about 9 minutes faster than last year but 13 places lower overall. Looks like this race is getting bigger.
The next morning I forced myself out of bed and made my way back to Lake Draper for the on road version of the race. This was a 5k run, 24k bike and 5k run.
For some reason once I started the run I felt really really good. I was really pushing my pace but my heart rate was real low so I kept it up as long as I could. There were some fast runners out there but I didn't lose too much time to them.
I finished the first leg in 22:41 which was almost equal to my personal record for a 5k. I couldn't believe it when I saw that.
I hurried out of transition and hopped on my tri bike. There is a hill at the start of the course that some people were having problems getting cliped into their pedals and going so I passed quite a few people there. I was able to get into a nice pace and was moving right along. There wasn't a lot of wind this year which was a nice change. I was back and forth with a few people along the back side of the lake and that kept me pushing the pace. I finished the bike in 43:39 .
I hopped off the bike, threw my running shoes back on real quick and went out on the second run. I felt like I was plodding along but my pace was pretty good and I was passing the people that I was jockeying with on the bike. Towards the end of the run I spotted a guy from my age group up ahead and focused on pulling him in. I caught up with him with about a quarter mile left. After drafting behind him for a few seconds I pulled in front. He picked up his pace but I was somehow able to pick my pace up even more and he dropped back. I was able to finish the second run in 23:49 and beat him by 30 seconds overall. My finishing time was 1:31:48, a couple minutes faster than the previous year.
After the race I was wiped out. I grabbed a beer, my cooler for doing both races and headed home to veg on the couch. A great weekend of racing but I am starting to like tris better, just because of the whole less pounding on the legs thing. Too bad my next race is running up a mountain.
No comments:
Post a Comment