[fittotri]

ST. ANTHONY'S TRIATHLON
Swim 1.5K · Bike 40K · Run 10K
Sunday - April 24, 2005
143 31:12 2:35 109 1:10:48 1:34 136 51:06 119 2:37:13
Went to packet pickup Saturday, live about an hour from the event. Had the wife and kids with me, got lucky and found a bread and breakfast with a room. The four of us stayed overnight and slept in one bed. It was an easy 1/3 mile walk to the event at 6am after a shower and shave. Chilly for this area at start, 50's. My swim went well. 1/2 mile was my longest swim before this and I did the breast stroke alot. I have been training at the YMCA 3 days a week for about 2 or 3 months, paid off! Wore overall type wet suit that I picked up from a dive shop the week before, worth the 110 bucks. Water was crowded but I swam to the outside slightly and cut in at the buoy's, this worked well and was in open water alot. Found out that I do swim fairly straight without looking forward to much. Getting out of the water I didn't feel to bad, I threw up a little salt water in the transition, drank a little water at the beginning of the swim until I found my rythm. I was so excited that I got out near the 30 minute mark that I forgot to get my wetsuit off my shoulders, stood there in front of my bike like "yeah I probably should take this off before I get on you." Decided to put my bike shoes on in transition. There was a brick road the first 1/8 mile of the bike. Lots of people were struggling to put there shoes on, very bumpy. I had been using aero bars but took them off because I just didn't like the feel, going to look for better fitting ones. Lots of turns in the bike course, "I love corners without aero bars". Had two gel packs taped to my bike, took those and finished my water about 4 miles from the end, good plan. About 6 miles from the end a pack of 20 riders came up on me and another guy who I was pacing off of, not drafting! About half of them went around us when I realized this was one big drafting pack, entered some corners were I now found myself breaking in a crowd, got mad at the situation, noticed the guy on the Lightspeed that I had been riding near was now hammering about 100 yards ahead of this pack. Proceeded to put spin class to work, shifted to a small cog and started dancing on the pedal, 30 seconds later the pack was behind and I said to the guy on the Lightspeed, "what did you think about that", he said "that was nothing but illegal drafting" in a harsh manner, I agreed. We never let them catch us and seemed to feed off one another the remainder of the bike. The run was pretty smooth, for me. After the first mile I just settled into a pace. Sprinted the last 200 yards and passed two of my age groupers for a little personal satisfaction. My first tri of this distance. Pleased with my results. Later.

[daphne]

Congradulations!! Seems like you had a great race. You placed very well for a first time olympic race. Thanks for posting.