2010 Spring Fling Triathlon race report

April 18th 2010 I competed in the Spring Fling Triathlon in Rio Rancho New Mexico. I was particularly motivated for this race for a few reasons.

1) A buddy of mine, who is the author of the blog "Tales of a Southern Triathlete" sent me an FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) triathlon top to race in so I could show the world I was racing for Christ & that all the glory from my performance went to Him 1st!

2) my best friend Jimmy Murphy was going to be racing in this triathlon with me. The last 3 years Jimmy & I have competed against each other at least a couple times a year. He's beaten me soundly in each & everyone of them & I wanted vindication. Most of all I was glad to be racing with Jimmy because I'd have the company & camaraderie of a fellow follower of our God Jesus Christ!

3) This was my first USAT sanctioned race of the year.

4) This race was put on by Mark Mico who is one of the best race directors I've ever seen put on a multisport race.

5) I felt strong & fast coming into this race. I'd been getting faster each & everyday in my training & I was only weighing in at 189 pounds! Light is fast baby!

The only reason I could think of that I'd have a poor race on Sunday was because on Friday I completed a 2.5 hr bike ride, & on Sat (the day before the Spring Fling Triathlon) I went for a run of 1 hr 40 minutes. I thought about taking it easy on Fri & Sat so I'd have a better performance at the Spring Fling. But I ended up not resting because this week was my last push for my A race on April 25th, the Atomic Man duathlon. I decided to risk being a bit tired for the Spring Fling triathlon rather than risk feeling rusty for the Atomic Man duathlon the following week.

The Spring Fling Triathlon was a 5k run, 30k bike, 400yd swim. 1st off let me tell you, this is a VERY VERY hilly & grueling course on both the run & bike. It's probably the hardest short course triathlon I've ever competed in. In my opinion it's even more strenuous than the Los Alamos triathlon.

I started off the run with a fellow triathlete by the name of Rob at my side at an easy 7:30 per mile pace & decided to gradually increase my pace throughout the run. Starting off to hard on the run has always been one of my 2 biggest weaknesses (the other being hills which I'll get to shortly). Apparently Dave Fairbanks-clydesdale extraordinaire- was correct when he told me I'd be a much faster triathlete if I'd start off running slower & having a negative split because I ended up finishing the 5K run (3.1 miles) in 23:39 which is an average of 7:39 per mile. Considering what a mountainous and slow course this is I was very pleased!

The bike is as brutal as the run is. It's a 30K bike (18.64 miles). Even though I pushed myself as hard as I humanly could on the run I still felt GREAT on the bike, no fatigue or rubbery legs at all. I started passing people immediately & continued to do so until I hit a few of the bigger hills. I was passed by 3 people while in the midst of my max effort hill climbing! These were the only 3 people to pass me on the bike at all, it was no coincidence they passed me while climbing a hill. Only one of those was I able to repass after we were done with the climbing.

I have always known hills were my weakness on both the bike & the run. An athlete's ability to hill climb has to do with a persons power to weight ratio. To become a better hill climber a person can either build more strength or lose weight, preferably both. I spent this entire winter doing both. I did a lot of big gear training, hill climbing, & I also dropped 40 pounds of body weight. I assumed I'd be a powerful hill climber by now, but I was wrong. I have become MUCH MUCH better at hills, but hills are still my weakness. I'll continue working on increasing my power & dropping some more weight in the hopes of of becoming a stronger & faster triathlete in the hopes of using my passion & speed in triathlon to Glorify God!

Even though it was a bike course filled with hills (my kryptonite) I still finished the 18.6 mile bike in 55 minutes 6 seconds, which is an average of over 20 mph!

As I came into T-2 I was about to attempt a rolling dismount. A few feet from the dismount line I realized how fatigued my legs were & I decided to not attempt it. I think it would of ended up being less of a rolling dismount & more of a flying/ tumbling dismount. I found out later there was someone video taping the athletes dismounting & entering T-2, so I feel I made a good decision & possibly avoided becoming a star on America's Home videos.

I hit the water feeling GREAT! There were a lot of athletes close enough in front of me I knew I could work my way up the standings if I swam well and aggressive. In the first 25 yards a guy & I tried passing a much slower swimmer doing a breast stroke. Both of us attempting to pass at the same time make us 3 people wide in a narrow swim lane & made for a tight fit. I thought that was fun, that ended up being nothing compared to what was yet to come!

At one point there were 3 swimmers wide heading up one lane & 2 more wide coming the towards us from the opposite direction. Usually when this happens a few of the people will stop & wait for the group of people to thin out before swimming foreword to avoid a collision & thrashing around of arms, legs, & people. None of us stopped or slowed this time! 2 peoples heads made an audible & hollow thunking sound as they swam head first into each other. That left 1 person heading up the lane, he got kicked in the face dislodging his goggles. 2 people, me & one other swimming down the lane. The guy swimming the same direction as I was a far superior swimmer & he passed me with relative ease- even though I tried bumping & pushing him a bit to intimidate or slow him. When the bump & grind failed I tried catching his feet (drafting off him) but he was simply to fast.

I finished the 400 meter swim in 7 minutes 53 seconds. The 7:53 time included the time spent running into T-2 with my bike, racking my bike, getting out of my cycling gear & running to the pool. Not a great time, not bad either.

My finishing time was 1 hr 26 minutes 36 seconds. I finished 3rd place 35-39 AG out of 25. I was mistakenly placed in the 30-34 AG at the awards ceremony, but I'm actually a 35-39 AG this year. I finished 19th overall.