Race morning was just like any other, except I got to sleep in my own bed. It was almost a normal morning for me. Waking up around 5 am, making some coffee, eating a light breakfast, then heading downtown to the race site. Casey made the decision to race this year, it being her first Olympic distance triathlon. She did amazing and won her AG.
One thing that was different was how hot it was going to be. It was one of the hottest days of the summer, and made for a sufferfest. The sprint distance athletes started first around 7:30 am and then it was a time trial start from there. Being number 506, I knew it would be a while before I started. Somewhere shortly after 8am, I was off. There was one other pro who races mainly sprint distance ITU events. He started right in front of me so it gave me an advantage to sprint the first bit of the swim, get on this feet and sit right in. I was there for about 1200 of the 1500 meters of the swim. We came out of the water together, we both had a good t1, and was off on the bike. I made it a goal to really push the first few miles on the bike just to get a feel for doing that since that is how most Pro races pan out. Come out of the water in a pack, hammer the first few miles on the bike, and then settle in. I passed the other pro a few miles into the bike and never looked back. We had a nice tail wind on the way out, but a brutal head wind on the return trip. This made for a slower day as the way out is slightly uphill and the return trip is downhill. The bike course was an unusual 27.5 miles even though it's advertised as an Olympic distance tri (and one small section on the website says it is 43k, which is still shorter than 27.5 miles). I pushed a good effort on the bike, but didn't over do it considering the heat and came off the bike with a nice little lead.
I started the run controlled and took a :15 walk break every 2 miles to help deal with the heat. After the first loop, I saw I had a big gap on 2nd place so I backed it off even more to make sure I got in enough fluids and didn't trash my body. The bad part was the lack of aid stations. They had 5 on the run course (technically 6 but the last one was 100 yards from finish) and two of them were only about a 1/2 mile away from each other. So you had to run 1.5 miles from aid station 2 to 3 and even then, there were only 2-3 volunteers passing out tiny cups of water or powerade.
The finish line couldn't have come soon enough but I'm sure everyone felt that way. I went straight to the cooler and grabbed 2 bottles of water. One went over my head and the other I drank. I couldn't drink enough fluids for the rest of the day to recuperate from the fluid loss I had during the race. After the race, I checked my phone and it said it was 94 degrees with a "feels like" temp of 103.
The local paper got a few nice photos of me at the finish and wrote up a good article. You can find it here the Tennessean It is always nice to get a win, but that fire still burns to be competitive in a "Pro" race. With the inaugural Challenge Half distance tri in New Albany on the same weekend, it made me wish I had gone up there and maybe fought it out for a little prize money. I'm headed up to Steelhead 70.3 on August 10th to race some of the big boys.
God gives me strength and endurance every day. Without Him, none of this is possible. Just getting in the workouts that I do, while working almost 40 hours a week and having free time to enjoy with Casey is a blessing in itself. Casey is a true blessing that the Lord has given me. When I'm feeling down or overwhelmed, she is always there to listen, or tell me the harsh truth that needs to be said. We knew this was a rebuilding year, and I just continue to chop wood and carry water. Reading posts from other pros is truly inspiring to keep at it. Watching what guys like Jordan Rapp do is amazing. I couldn't imagine racing five 70.3 races in a span of six weeks but he did it and did well. In his blog, he talks about why he did it and it's a really good post. Rappstar blog
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| Me after drinking 14 bottles of water. |
1 comment:
I am so very proud of you. You are such a kind man, a superb nephew, a wonderful husband, a brother, son, friend and an outstanding athlete. You are faithful and give praise to God for all that you have. You make me smile.
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