race

Sorry this race report took so long, I usually like to wait for the pictures to come out before I write the report. By far, my best race of the season. Since nationals, I've put in a solid block of training focusing on strengthening my weaknesses, the swim and the run. I figured I would gain the most return with the least jump in training, especially the swim. The result was an 18:54 swim time on a slightly short 1.5K course, and exiting the water faster than some guys I've never beaten. Out on the bike, I felt strong on the rolling and somewhat windy bike course. Only one rider passed me and he was in my age group. When he passed, I decided to try and keep him in sight as he looked like an amazing rider and thought this would be a good challenge. Within 2 mintues, I knew he was too strong and I would blow up trying to keep up. Turns out he is a former pro cyclist and he had the fastest bike split of the day, a crazy 54 minutes. I passed another rider from my age group and knew at best, I was in third place because Michael Ingardia, who I've never defeated, was ahead of me plus the crazy fast guy who passed me. Unsure, I raced as though I was in 4th place trying to get on the podium, something I haven't had to do all season. My legs were tired the last 3 miles or so of the bike and with lots of turns, I definitely felt myself come down a notch from uber race mode and was coasting in to transition. I tried to remind myself every second counts and I tried to get back into it but my legs were pretty tired. I had an amazingly slow transition where I racked my bike in the wrong spot and for some reason I could not get my shoes on. This slow transition later cost me as I was only 20 seconds from breaking 2 hours on the course and finishing one place higher. Heading out on the run, my plan was to find easy speed and run at my natural gait off the bike using as little mental energy as possible until mile 3. This worked great and I had amazing turnover and and passed a lot of guys with little effort. At mile 3, I decided to push a harder pace and start utilizing some mental energy to go hard. Immediate it started to hurt, maybe a bit too soon. At about mile 4, I saw Pete Kain and all this season, he has passed me in the last 1.5 or so mile (leaving in a later start wave too!). Not this time, I decided. I immediate set a goal to hold him off and mentally prepared myself for the hurt. I caught several more guys and passed a 21 year-old in an earlier wave. On the next downhill section, the kid went by me and then the next uphill, I re-passed him. This went on for the next mile and I kept thinking being old sucks, I have no leg turnover and speed an am all strength and power. Luck for the kid, the last half mile was slightly downhill so he slowly pulled away. Feeling secure that I would definitely hold Pete off, I eased off and cruised to the finish. Nobody passed me on the run, and I passed one more guy from my age-group which worried me because I really thought I was in third since getting off the bike. Maybe I didn't make the podium, which would break my string of podium finishes all this season. The bad news was that my age group finished 1st and 3rd overall, but I snuck in for 3rd in my age-group and 8th overall, whew! I hate maintaining streaks.