Well since I have been in Turkey for the past 13 months I have had some amazing weather. I think through the winter it might of been down in the 30's maybe a handful of times. The low was normally in the 40's and it was a very enjoyable winter. Waking up yesterday morning and heading out the door to race was like a winter morning in Turkey. It was 40 degree's and CHILLY! Well to mother natures defense it was 4am. So yeah 340am wake up and a 2 hour drive later we had arrived at the race. I started off the morning with the traditional race morning coffee and instant oatmeal. I also threw in a new twist and had a Hammer Whey protein shake.
I had a lot of family there, 2 of my 3 grandma's both my mom, dad, stepmom, stepdad, and little sister. So having family at the race always makes it nice, something I am not use to racing primarily overseas. So having them there is nice but sometimes makes for an interesting morning with all the questions, but all in all they are a tremendous help.
SWIM-
730 was the start for the first wave which was Male 34 and Under. Off we went in the warm 60 degree water, it was actually the first race I have ever been happy to get in the water. With it being warmer than the air temp it was nice but still 60 degree water is chilly. I wasn't expecting much from my swim since my training this year has been hit or miss. However on Friday I felt really good in the water and was excited to see what I could do. I just concentrated on staying on some feet and staying in the draft. I found some feet early, then lost them then at about half way stuck to some feet from there on out. I was able to save some energy this way and perhaps this was the reason I set my swim PR for the OLY distance. I came in at 25:19 and was shocked when I heard my mom call out my split, funny thing about her calling out my split was in Florida last November she tried to call out my swim split and was about 6 minutes off. So this time luckily there was a clock at exit and I double checked and sure enough she was right. THANKS MOM!
T1-
Wasn't really sure if I wanted my long sleeve jersey or not and wanted to dry off but ended up not drying off. Was really indecisive here and kind of wasted some time.
Bike-
With Wildflower coming up I would of been really happy if I could of found a hilly OLY race. Well without knowing it I found one and it had some good rollers as well as one good climb. Having trained on base on the 8 mile FLAT loop over the past 5 months I am skeptical about my bike strength. Well I put it to the test yesterday and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Rode really strong didn't pass as many people as expected but when I came out of the water there was only 12 people ahead of me and they were all fast. I think I passed one guy and was passed by two guys. Ended up passing and staying legally with a group from about half way on. I say legally because out of the 4 of us 2 of them got hit with 2 minute drafting penalties, I was at the back at the time and was legally back and the guy pulling had been honest throughout the bike leg. One of the two guys got stuck in a bad situation and then the one guy deserved the penalty as he had been wheel sucking since I had passed him. It was good to see race officials out there and actually do there job.
T2-
Was pretty slow in my opinion and should have been a lot quicker. It took a little long to slip into my shoes, might throw some body glide on the heel area next time in hopes of slipping right in.
Run-
Left out of T2 with a group of 3 other guys and they were out a lot faster than me. Good thing was only 1 of them was in my AG, so I just concentrated on him. At mile 2 he was 40secs up on me. I just kept slowly working on him and really concentrating on him. At mile 5 I finally caught him and stayed about 10 feet back hoping he wouldn't know I was there. He never looked back but I am sure he had an idea I had caught him. At mile 5 1/2 I pulled up next to him and made a surge for about 30secs just to see what he would do. I knew there was no one ahead of us in our age group so knew I couldn't worry about my overall time but just needed to concentrate on playing some mind games with him. Those 30secs he started breathing pretty hard and was trying to keep up and he hung in there. So I slowed it back down and waited another 30 seconds and then decided to push hard till the end and see what would happen. Took about a minute and then he dropped off and I put some distance on him. Run ended up being a little slower than I wanted but felt I could of been a bit faster but conserved some energy to make sure I could pick off the one guy that was in reach.
Splits-
Swim-25:19-72nd (1:41per/100m)
T1-1:01
Bike-1:06:24-14th (22.4mph)
T2-1:09
Run-41:48-31st (6:44mi/min)
Overall Time-2:15:42*PR -22nd/239 OA 2nd/10 AG
Overall I was really happy with my results, PR'd by 4mins and felt really good. I can't wait to get on a flat course in Korea and see what I can really put down. Hoping to concentrate on the short distance stuff the remainder of the year after Wildflower and see what happens with my speed. Glad to have all the family there and it was a good time. Below are some pics from the race!
Also this race was one of the best races I have participated in. They had some great SCHWAG for the overall winners and they even had prizes for the premium winners of Swim,T1,Bike,T2,Run. Swim fast times got Xterra wetsuits, truly amazing for a $100 entry fee. Not to mention top 3 in each Age Group got a bottle of wine. And the best part that is really hard to believe FREE BEER post race, as well as the usual carb/protein food! AMAZING RACE put on by great people for there first annual race. THANKS http://www.thresholdracinginc.com/
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