Well this is my first race report in a long time. I haven't been working near as hard as I did last off-season and yesterday gave me a good idea of how far behind I am.
The few days before the race, the weather was predicted to be cold and rainy. Saturday was supposed to have a low temperature of around 38, which is really cold for a triathlon. What I found out Friday night, is that low temp was for Saturday night, going into Sunday morning. And the rain came a little early by hitting us Friday night. So the roads were dry, and it was only in the low 50's race morning. That is still a little chilly, but it wasn't terrible, I've raced in worse.
I was the #1 seeded person again this year, so I didn't have to worry about fighting with people in the pool as I try and snake my way through the pool for the 400 yard swim. The swim was about normal, and without any highlight. I came out feeling pretty comfortable and took off on the bike. I pushed hard on the bike, but I didn't want to go all out because of my lack of fitness. Well, that plan didn't work because I found myself really hammering the hills and then asking myself why I was pushing so hard. My legs haven't felt pain like that this year so it tells me there is a lot of work to be done. Because I was the first cyclist coming through the bike course, all of the cops that were directing traffic were still in their cars so I had to stop at a stop light, but got lucky with the other intersections since I hit a few green lights. I came off of the bike and my legs felt like jello. My feet were numb from the cold wind on the bike and I just felt like I have never ran off of the bike in my life. It was pretty rough for about 7 - 9 minutes, but I loosened up and probably ran faster for the second half of the 5k. I forgot how nasty and hard that XC course was. I crossed the finish line in 59:57. Which to my surprise was less than a minute slower than last year, so I was pretty happy with my performance. I was hoping to run a little faster, but I haven't done any speed work so I feel that will come fast.
Thanks for reading.
2 comments:
Hey Tony,
Good to read your post. Congrats on your run!
Hey, I think I have a photo of you from the 2009 Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon. I was a volunteer photographer (and will be again this year!). If you go to the site I've created to promote the triathlon, you'll see your image in the photo gallery. (bottom row, far left; at the finish line!)
My web site address is http://www.chattanoogatriathlon.com. If you like the photo and want it, it's yours free and I may have others as well. Let me know if your interested and I'll send you everything I have in high resolution.
And, by the way, if you recognize anyone else in my photos, I'd love to give them away to the owners as well, and would appreciate it if you could help me tell people about the site.
So...will we see you here in Chattanooga this year?
don't think that you were alone in needing to stop at stop lights.....so much time had passed after you went through, the cops all got back in their cars before I came through. I stopped at one and a half stop lights.......that must be where I lost the race to you!! haha
Post a Comment