Well, I have experienced the most pain that I have ever experienced during a race today during my first ITU race. There have been some bad races where I didn't feel good, but today was just blazing. I didn't feel bad, it was just sssooooooo hot that I had trouble with the heat. There were 52 guys on the start list, so I was excited about my opportunity to race some ITU guys that I don't race very often. I tend to run my mouth to my buddy Kuendig about how awesome I could do against some of these middle of the pack Pro triathletes. Well today I had my chance, and most of them put me in my place, haha. Actually, a few surprised me, but I held my own against most of them. There were some fast guys here that I knew I would almost have to have a perfect race to beat so I didn't expect a victory or anything going into the race.
The swim was very brutal. We started off sprinting and I was lucky to hold on. I didn't get a great position for the in-water start to begin with. I was really working hard and was sprinting for the first 400 or so. I tried to pick some feet to swim on, but I was really getting beat up. Once we made the first turn, I was in a pack that was right about my speed. I found some feet, settled down a little, and got into a rhythm. Unfortunately, our speed wasn't quite as fast as the top guys out of the water. The group I was with came out in around 18:25 and we were almost 2 minutes back from the top guys. The main group of guys were almost a minute in front of us.
I had a great transition and was out on the bike with about 5 other guys. We formed into a pack quickly and caught about 5 - 7 more guys in the first lap of five. Our pack was about 12 guys and only about 4 of us really worked hard. We were almost 30 - 40 seconds down from the "main" pack of guys and we were losing about 5 - 10 seconds per lap. We just couldn't get organized enough to really do any damage.
We came into the second transition almost 1:30 down from the main pack. I had a great second transition and was off onto the run. I felt like I had eaten a burrito on the bike because of all of the gatorade I was drinking. It was extremely hot and I wanted to stay hydrated, but I guess I should have taken a bottle of water and a bottle of gatorade instead of two bottles of gatorade. The first half mile on the run, my stomach was upset and I felt like I was going to throw up, but I felt like I was running kind of fast. But the heat hit me about a mile into the run, and it was ugly from there. I was only passing the guys who were almost walking. I did not handle the heat well. I ran 34:59 according to the results, but I know the run course was short because I was not running that fast, haha. I finished 26th out of 48 starters. Only 38 guys finished.
I had a great time in my first ITU race, and it was great experience, but I know what I need to work on. My swim needs to improve A LOT!!! I guess I'll just start swimming with UK and doing lots of harder sets in the water. I felt pretty good today in the water and was still towards the back of the pack today. But it was my first race, so I'm excited to have finished the race (which was my goal when I was running, I felt so bad, I thought about stopping and walking, but I kept it going today unlike St. A's) and to have gained the experience.
Until next time.
Tony
Results can be found here:
http://results.active.com/pages/searchform.jsp?posted_p=t&numPerPage=50&rsID=78761&eventClass=ITU+Pan+American+Cup&queryType=division&orgID=216392
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