Race Report: Wilmington Athletic Club Triathlon

CB took over a 100 photos with a point and shoot, she likes this one.

Pre-Race: Woke up early, showered and shaved. Could not eat my traditional wheat toast with peanut butter, honey and banana slices. I forgot the honey and had no toaster. I choked down the bread with PB and ate the banana. Then I had to pack the car of all the weekend junk while CB checked us out.

Once at the race site body marking, chip, and set up transition. Warmed up with a half mile jog with 4 sets of strides at race pace, then a ride in a near by parking lot going through the gears and working on cornering, lastly, I swam 200 with a mix of some favorite drills.

steam coming off the pool

Swim: I had doubts going into the swim. It was a TT start and I thought I may have seeded myself too fast. I seeded myself at the pace I was hoping to have improved to not my planned pace. Apparently many people seed themselves faster than they should. At one turn I had to swim under a kid and on another length I had to go down the middle to pass a woman doing breast stroke. Just before 200m I felt someone on my toes so I stopped at the next turn let him pass. He was number 116 and I was 112 so he had been doing well. I passed him back at the end of the next 50m. I can't imagine what an open water swim must be like because the last 25m was a meat grinder with 4 of us abreast fighting to the end.

My swim time is not really my swim time since once you were out of the pool you had to make a left turn run out of the pool area and then make a 180 degree turn and run up the side walk, past the pool exit and into transition.



Wondering if my elbow is positon is getting better



last 50



Long run to transition



long run out of transition



Bike: Started out feeling great, averaging between 19 and 20 mph for most of the first lap. I was right on 18.9 for the remainder of the lap. During the second lap I felt myself slowing a little so I tried to push, but be conservative to have enough gas in the tank for the run. Much like the swim, I was passed once but got him back shortly. BTW- I say I was only passed once, I should note I was lapped by some of the super fast riders two or three times.

The course kind of sucked. It was mostly flat. One very small incline. I dropped a few people on it (thank you training in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains) I loved the fast flatness of it, but what sucks was the high number of turns and the general road conditions (torn the hell up). Although I am happy with how I did, i think I could have been faster under better conditions......but if ifs and buts were candy and nuts......



Cb likes this one too



Starting the second lap



coming into t2- shoes off!! Getting yelled at by the guy behind me for not going fast enough.



Run: Although the course condition to the bike course everything panned out. I don't remember anything memorable about the run, I just ran hard and kept moving. I got passed coming out of transition by #122 and stuck as close to his back as I could. Every time I would get close enough to draft on him he would pull away. I watched my Garmin, I was slowing down he was speeding up if I got close. I thanked him for being a carrot after the race.

Scouting the 300 degree turn to the chute thinking WTF???

IN THE END: I had a great time and was very happy with everything. I talked with CB the night before about how I felt I should be a little more tense, but wasn't. This translated into the race. Everything was smooth, no thinking.

Swim 300m-6:32

Bike: 11.5 miles-38:03

Run 5k-22:42

Overall: 01:09:08

Men's Overall Place 44

AG 4 of 10

Final Thoughts- My coach's predicted time without transitions was 1:14. This is the first time I have ever made the 1st page of the results- GO ME! In the AG I was 22 seconds behind #3 and 60 seconds behind #2. I was just over 4 minutes behind #1 in my AG who was an Army Ranger down for the day from Fort Bragg. That makes me feel good. This a far cry from last year.

I. COULDN'T. BE. HAPPIER!