New Race Colors

I'm excited that I just got my Team FCA-Endurance jersey in this week. I've been racing in a tri-suit or just bottoms and I've wanted a two piece outfit for a while. Since I've been getting more involved with FCA-E, I wanted to get the team's jersey to show off the colors and put another face to FCA-E in the local races. Be on the lookout!

Tri The Midlands Sprint

Finally made a podium...3rd place in my age group. This was a first year event. I liked the bike course a lot, nice rollers throughout but nothing killer. The run was a very hilly out and back, mostly on a paved sidewalk trail in a development.

Swim: open water lake swim. Sighting was ok, got decent water throughout, but never got a strong stroke established. Place 68/240. Time of 11:06 (with a 250 yd run to transition)

T1: Pretty good transition. Long run to bike start. Had my shoes clipped in and got into them ok after hopping onto the bike. Time of 0:50

Bike: Nice course. Tried to ride fairly hard without killing my legs. Still got passed too much. I've got to ride more in training. Place 103/240. Time of 35:15

T2: Another good transition. Bike racked, shoes on, pick up number and I was out. My watch said 0:39...official time of 0:48

Run: Hilly. Most of the run was on a paved trail along the road that was about 4 feet wide. Since it was an out and back, there was not a lot of room to pass people. Pretty good showing overall. Place 23/240. Time of 20:36

Total time of 1:08:33 put me 52/240 overall men and 3/9 in my age group.

Festival of Flowers Olympic Tri

I went into this race thinking about a B maybe C priority event. Mostly here to preview the course for the Half Ironman in Sept. No real pressure, just have a good race and see what happens. I was so glad to have spent the night camping out before the race with some FCA-Endurance folks because that put me 3 minutes (by bike) to the transition area from my bed. This sure beats driving for 1.5 hours before the event!

First off...this is a stacked field event because it is the SE Regional qualifier for the USAT National event. Secondly, the heat was unbelievable for this time of year. It was 77 at the start and 95 by the time I finished.

Swim: Ok...never found open water until the last 750m and had some sighting problems throughout. I probably swam about 1600m in all with the zig-zags I was making. Didn't push too hard since I had only logged one training swim at this distance this year. Time of 31:46

T1: Only real mistake of the day was here. I had forgot to load my gel packs up before the race start so I had to fish through my bag and grab two. Ran out of transition with shoes on. Again, two people blocked me getting onto the bike. Time of 1:05

Bike: Better than I had planned. I thought I might ride about 19-19.5 mph avg, but finished at 20.4 mph. I drank almost 40 oz of Gatorade on the bike in all, nearly double what I might otherwise, but did I mention the heat? Time of 1:10:01

T2: Nothing great, nothing really bad. Took time to slip on socks for the 10k. 5k run I'll go naked in the shoes, but I like the extra cushion for the longer run. Time of 0:51

Run: Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot....hot! Miserable is the word to describe miles 2-3 and 4-5 because it was in the blazing sun! I stopped and walked through every water station to drink a cup of water or Gatorade and to pour a cup of water on my head. I even stopped to stretch my quads at mile 4 station because they felt like they were going to cramp any second. Pace was a little slow, but under the conditions I wasn't dissappointed. Time of 44:34

Total time of 2:28:16 put me 6th out of 11 age groupers with only one local guy (age group) beating me and 64th out of 186 men overall.

Also, I beat my season goal of a sub 2.5 hour Olympic distance race!

Clemson Sprint Tri

Rule #1: Thou shalt arrive at the race site at least 1.5 hours before the start.

Officially broke Rule #1 and waited in the packet pick up line for 40 minutes. My warm up included racking my bike and setting up transition, running 1000m to the truck for my sunglasses, and putting on my wetsuit. Let's just say this set the tone for the day.

Swim: Not bad overall. Sighting went fair and I had pretty clean water for most of the swim. Arms felt heavy by 600m, but I didn't really lose much pace. My first swim in the new wetsuit. Time of 14:56 (with a 1/4 mile run to the transition!)

T1: Terrible! couldn't get my left foot out of the suit. Horrible mount onto the bike. Three people stopped in front of me to get around. Time of 1:13 (I mentioned terrible, right?)

Bike: Rolling hills my rear end. This thing was hilly from start to finish. No warm up, plenty of hills, and my cyclometer sensor was out of line lead to a much slower than anticipated time of 34:52

T2: Didn't think it could get much worse than T1, but it did. Forgot to get my feet on the shoes before the dismount line so I had to run in with them on and get them off. Then my racing flat's paper thin insole totally folded up in my left shoe putting it on, so I had to take it off, fix it, and put it back on. Time of 1:02

Run: Legs felt ok off the bike considering I had done a total of zero bricks in training. Mile one felt good at about 6:30 pace until I hit the hill going up to the dike. That thing sucked the life out of me and took me the rest of mile two to recover. Finally got back up on the bridge and ground out a good last leg. Time of 20:34 (btw that's a new 5K PR...just happened to be in a Triathlon)

Overall time of 1:12:39 put me 6th out of 21 in my age group and 88th out of 320 men overall. I guess I'm ok with the result if you take into consideration that it was my first race of the year and I did so many things wrong!

Here goes...

So Triathlon season is in full swing already. This is my second year of racing. My schedule for this year includes:

May 10th: Clemson Sprint Tri
June 8: Festival of Flowers Olympic Tri
June 21: Tri the Midlands Sprint Tri
July 12: Tri the Pee Dee Sprint Tri
July 19: Union YMCA Sprint Tri
Aug 17: Greenville Sprint Tri
Sept 7: Hartsville Olympic Tri
Sept 28: SC Half Ironman
Oct 11: Hickory Knob Olympic Tri

My goal is to train hard and smart, stay injury free, and place near the top five of my age group for the season.