Alcon Tri For Sight

So it had been raining really hard the past couple days, and part of the bike course was flooded the day before the race. I was expecting it to be shortened to a 14-mile bike course, but the water receded, and we did the whole thing. Here's the Race Report (800-m swim, 18-mile bike, 4-mile run)

Swim: This was a pool swim set up in 8 50-m lanes. The swim snaked, and so we changed to the next lane every 100 m. This was fun, but everybody started in 10 second gaps, so there was a whole line of people right next to you on the pool deck watching your first 100. This resulted in me swimming a record 100 m and then slowly fading into a not so great swim. The sliding to the next lane thing slowed me down a good bit because I was right behind people coming to wall multiple times, but mainly just went out too fast and wore myself down. Swim Time: 14:44 ( I know, it sucks)

T1: This was about a quarter mile run from the pool to the transition area. I was wet, and still have to improve here. Time: 4:41

Bike: Due to the weather/schedule lately I haven't been getting much biking in, so I was slightly apprehensive about the bike, but it was a decent course compared to some of the roads one could ride on around here. I stopped about 5 miles in to help a girl who (pretty sure it was her first tri) was riding a cruiser and threw her chain going up a steep hill. This cost me about two minutes, but I thought she was going to cry on the side of the road, and we just can't have that :D. The rest of the bike was really good, but wet. I almost tanked it twice at the turnaround in a slick driveway. Thankfully I didn't. I passed about 15-20 people on the bike, and only got passed once by somebody doing the bike leg of the relay. Bike Time: 54:48, 19.7 mph (If I didn't take the two minutes helping with the chain, my bike was 21.15 mph). This would have only changed me one spot in my AG and two/three spots overall, but no worries. I'm glad she had a good race.

T2: Not bad, but I changed into a dry pair of socks as mine were soaked from the bike. Time: 1:19
Run: I'd only done one brick in the last couple months because of marathon training, so I was a little toasted from pushing harder on the bike than I'd been training for. I know the guy who set up the run, and he's a great runner/triathlete. I'm gonna kill him. :p We ran at the UK arboretum, which has no huge hills, but it's tons of quick ups and downs, so really difficult to get into a rhythm. I still had a decent run, but I'm looking forward to more speedwork once I run this marathon. Time: 26:44 (6:41/mile)

Summary: Fun race, and for only my second tri I feel pretty good about where I'm at. With a good offseason in the pool and on the trainer, I think I can improve quite a bit. Hope springs eternal. Overall time: 1:42:14

Side Note: the guy who won overall and my AG swam the 800m in 9:38, biked the course at an avg. of 24.0 mph and ran 5:30/ mile. Smoking!