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| Transition area all set up. |
This morning was the
Pirate Tri at Point Sebago, ME. The race organizers were thoughtful enough to order up some gorgeous weather and it was the perfect day for a tri. I started things doing exactly what you're supposed to not do: something different on race day. Today was the first time I really tried to mount the bike with the shoes already clipped in and then get my feet in on the fly. Thankfully that worked with little to no hassle.
Swim:
Unfortunately, not everything worked out that way. The strap to my goggles broke about two minutes before the start of the race. Being a former Boy Scout, I had an extra pair of goggles. The problem is, they were in my bag in the transition area which was already closed. What should have been a nice 1/3 of a mile swim, something where I could gain some time on some of the field, turned into a rather annoying experience. I tried the whole Tarzan thing for about 100 yards and then switched over the backstroke. Given the issues with the swim, I did pretty well and was only a few seconds off my normal 100 yard split - doing freestyle.
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| Not what you want to see 2 mins before the race. |
T1:
The first transition went pretty well. Had some issues getting the wetsuit off (I managed to knock my well placed helmet and sunglasses onto the ground trying to get the suit off) but made up time (in comparison to my previous transitions) by having the shoes mounted on the bike.
Bike:
Hills. Usually hills aren't a horrible thing for me. But there's something about my tri bike that makes hills very, very difficult. Thankfully, there was still gravity on the course and what goes up must come down. And the downhill was fun. Very fun. Overall it was a really (and fun) bike.
T2:
I also tried something new at T2 and got out of my shoes before getting off the bike. Once again this probably should have ended in catastrophe as I had never done it before. But once again it all worked out and I was able to make my transition to the running that much faster.
Run:
I'm not sure what exactly it was but my legs did not feel as ungodly heavy starting the run this time (probably means I could have gone faster on the bike). The lack of lead in my legs allowed me to pull out a pretty decent run. I averaged a 7:17 mile which is actually pretty fast for me, especially after having done a swim and bike right before hand. I probably could have kicked a little harder at the end (and am kicking myself for not doing so), but overall I was pleased with the run.
Overall I placed 44th out of 241. I was 36th out of 109 men and 6th in my age group (there were 13 total in my age group, three of which were in the top four so I don't feel too bad).
Post race:
One of the greatest things about doing these races is coming home to the family. We decided to take advantage of the awesome weather and go to the beach. Overall it was a great day.
