I weighed in on race morning weighing 191, this woyld be the lightest I'd ever raced at. March I had a BIG month of training miles, so I wasn't sure if I'd suffer on this triathlon from fatigue or if I would have recovered enough to get a speed increase. I started jogging to warm up about an half hour before the race & couldn't seem to get that nice warmed up feeling. I wasn't sure if that was a bad sign or not. Either way, it was time to find out.
The last couple races a guy named Dave has really spent a lot of time teaching me some of the more subtle things about triathlon. Such as: My biggest problem is pacing. I start every race like I'd been shot out of a gun. I take off sprinting, and slow down more & more as the run progresses. I decided I was going to force myself to slow down my run pace for the first half & see if I could get a negative split.
Even though I started slow I was in the top 4 for the 1st 1.5 miles. Like I'd said, I start out way to fast, so this is usual for me. What wasn't usual was that as the run progressed to the point where I usually slow, I didn't seem to be slowing at all this race. At the half way point I was maintaining 5th place overall, sustaining a 7 minute mile pace. Then something unusual happened. At the 3 mile mark I got a stomach cramp. I've only gotten stomach cramps at 2 other races before. This was unusual & very heart breaking because I was having such a stellar race. By the 5K mark I was running bent over with pain, I saw Dave slipping farther away & my competition catching me slowly but surely. The pain became so intense I was becoming nauseous. At the 3.5 mile mark the pain seemed to become to much for my body, so it did it's best to alleviate the problem, & I threw up. Problem alleviated! I felt great again & the stitch in my side was virtually gone. I took off again, back in the hunt!
I ended up finishing the 3.9 mile run in 27 minutes 45 seconds, keeping a 7:09 pace.
I hopped on the bike, which I'd really been working on over the winter & tried to reel in some of the leaders. There is something about the WSMR bike courses, they seem to be very difficult to have fast times at, even on a great day. My best WSMR bike average was 19.1 mph set this Feb at the Presidents Day Duathlon.
Today I felt like I had an average bike at best. I caught one person who was ahead of me right before the turn around putting me into 4th place overall. Then a youngster wearing a New Mexico State University triathlon team singlet passed me on the bike with 5K to go. I tried my best to hang with him, to no avail. This kid was FAST! I finished the bike in 5th place overall with an bike split of 62 minutes, which is an average of a little over 21 miles an hour- course PR baby! I got into T-2 approximately 45 seconds behind the NM state kid.
I had a fast transition & made up about 15 seconds on the youngster. I entered the pool & started trying to find my rhythm. Around 150 meters into the swim I passed the NM kid & was able to hold off the rest of the competition with an average at best swim of 8 minutes & change.
I ended up securing a 4th place overall finish, 2nd place age group 35-39 with a total time of 1 hr 38 minutes setting a personal course PR baby!
This was my 5th race of the 2010 South West Challenge Series. I now have 3 first place finishes, 1 second place & one third place finish for a total of 47 points for the SW series 35-39 AG. A fellow by the name of Gregory Gouveia is in 2nd place with 24 points.
My next race is the Spring Fling triathlon in Rio Rancho on April 18th. A fellow competitor has let me borrow his pair of Easton 404's for that race! Those are a $2000+ pair of wheels & he just said, "here ya go. Mail em back when your done!" Wow. What a great guy. I can't believe how wondeful this guy is! Thanks Jason!!!
See you at the races!
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