More importantly we've added a child to the family for the next five weeks.
Luis Pablo (9) is visiting us from San Luis Potisi for 6 weeks for an immersion English exposure. My 5 year old Liam is beside himself with his new "Brother, Idol, Playmate, Punching Bag" etc. He arrived Yesterday. I'll be doing my best to send him back to Mexico with a perfect "Upstate NY Hick" accent.
On to the race....I finished the
Triangle Triathlon this morning in the Beautiful Wake County Park. I got there by 5:30 and had plenty of time to unpack and get settled in.
The race was supposed to start at 7:30 but was delayed like 15 minutes due to traffic. Since this is my first race I decided to sign up for the Novice Male Group. Each group took off on 5 minute intervals and mine was 12th (second to last).
I lined up with my swim wave as was looking around for some buff guys looking like they could swim good. I figured I would find a young ex college swimmer and try to draft of them thru the swim. No such luck. When the horn blew, we took off and the first jack rabbit was like 250 pounds and took off in the wrong direction. I just kept swimming for the buoy, and by the first turn 250 meters I was way ahead of the pack. I had caught the wave ahead of me....Mucho trafico for the remaining 500 meters. Visibility was horrible, so I just started swimming over top of people rather than resort to breast stroke. I exited the water 1st in my heat and in pretty good form. The transisiton run was real long. 250 meters from the beach to the T1 entrance and a big enough transition area for 1100 bikes. I got to my bike, and did a decent job though I sat down to put my shoes on.
I took off on my bike spinning in a pretty high cadence and felt pretty good. I hit the first park speed bump and launched my water bottle....(no turning back here). I rode pretty well for the whole 17.5 miles and was only passed by the relays in the heat behind me. I was super thirsty, but kept passing bikers the whole way. My GPS showed I averaged 20.6 mph, and official was around 20.3.
I came into T-2 really dehydrated and felt like I either had to poop or fart (I wasn't taking any chances here) and my stomach was starting to cramp. I forgot to undo my shoes and clipped out and lost some time after I stopped to take my shoes off in the transition area. The rest of the transition was ok except I was really thirsty.
I took off for the run, and after the first 1/4 mile, I knew I was in trouble. My stomach was cramping, and I still felt like I could poop any minute. After about 1/2 mile, I decided to walk some. I was walking up hills and running down. Then I started doing 1 minute runs with 30 second rest walks. Nothing worked, and I was drinking as much H20 in each stop I could find. At about mile 2 I got passed by the dude that won my heat. I never saw the guy who came in second place (must have been a Ninja). I started to feel ok around mile 2.5 and then it was too late to make up any time. I finished at about a 8:40 mile pace. Which SUCKS!!!!!
Anyway....I'm happy with the swim, ok with the bike but need to improve and really need to work on the run. Aerobic base, and training are a huge part of this. I signed up for a running
clinic next sunday to get some coaching.
In the end...174 overall in a field of about 600 men. 3rd in my group (Novice) I'll need to move up sooner than later.
Major area of focus in the next months will be Brick Transitions, and Running (pending shin splints, since they still hurt)
Also....I was super happy to have my family, as well as Oliver and Vanessa there with me. Cynthia and the kids were there real early and walked into the park like 1.5 miles to support me. Since we forgot the camera, Cynthia cozied up to one of the event photographers and had the kids start shouting PAPA, PAPA, !!!!! She remembered us and hopefully there will some nice pics on her website.
I'm really fortunate to have the family support.
So long day. Next race....Looking at the Trysports series locally.
~Dave
