Firecracker Sprint Triathlon- 3rd place... again!

Ran the Firecracker sprint Tri yesterday. My goal was to have a really good run, wanted to run three sub-7 minute miles for the first time.

The swim was advertised as 500 meters, but was anything but. It was probably around 650 meters with 2-4 foot waves. A week prior there had been a surfing contest on the same beach- so the waves were decent. Combined with the occasional shallow chunk of random coral, this was not a fun swim. Took me 11:24, I felt like I was pushing really hard... somehow good for 3rd in my age group- slow day for all I guess.

exiting the swim

Had a really solid bike. Started out fast and stayed fast. the first two miles were a long slight uphill and knew I could get some good momentum on the field if I came out firing, so I really pushed hard and passed a lot of people. I got into a loose group of fast cyclists and hit the long, straight stretch along Roosevelt dr. and kept it around 27 the whole way. I hopped out of the saddle when we turned back into the wind and broke from the group before heading back on the slight downhill to the beach transition. With a half mile left I got passed by some old guy on a nice grey cervelo... he was flying! Talked to him later and found out he came out of t1 about 100m behind me and just kept me in his sights, he recognized my bike from the Haleiwa race and knew I would be moving, so made me his target- a nice compliment, although would have been nicer to stay in front of him all day.

T2

For the run I had my GPS set up to pace me at 7 minute miles. As soon as I got started I got up to speed and couldn't maintain it. I wasn't breathing too heavy, my legs didn't hurt, I just couldn't go faster. This was frustrating because I knew if I could just hold on and have a decent run I'd be in the top 15 -20 or so, there were only a dozen bikes or so in the transition area when I came in.

Just couldn't hold a decent pace and settled for about a 7:40 pace. I got passed by the lead women at around the turnaround point for the run... probably got passed by a dozen people in all... very frustrating!!! I asked a couple of guys who were passing me in the last mile how old they were- if they were 25-29 I was going to try to hang... sure enough a guy came up behind me with about 400m to go and said he was 26... "crap, I've gotta beat you" says I, and I matched his pace. He took off in a sprint with 200 to go and I couldn't hang, he beat my by 10 seconds... totally demoralizing!

finish line

RACE RESULTS HERE

For once my GPS matches what the course distance says it was... ran my 5K in 23:46... not too speedy. It was good enough for 3rd place of 28 in the AG, and 28th place overall out of 200 racers. That's 3rd place for the third time in a row in a sprint race... can't complain!


Oh and being that it's the end of june and half the year is gone, let's revisit the weight loss issue.

A year ago, this is me, ~208 lbs

yesterday, this is me ~ 190 lbs

hooray, triathlon!