Seemed like it was just the other day that I was in Florida. 3 weeks flew by really fast and next thing you know I am back in FL to race St Anthony;s Triathlon. Part of the plan for this season was to race some of the biggest short course races in the nation and then finish off the year with some long course racing. So race #2 on the tri schedule was St Anthony's.
I arrived into Tampa mid day Friday and my AF Tri Teammate and roomate from last year at Armed Forces, Mr. Boobs (Nick Chase) picked me up at the airport. He is by far the best homestay I have had to date. Took great care of me, kept me fed and had a great location within 2 miles of the race. I was able to get a nice swim in on Friday and then build the bike up. We had quite a few AF members and Team RWB members in town for the race so it made for a fun weekend. Friday night myself, Nick, John, Ryan, Amanda, Nicholas, Heather and Hila all met up for dinner at an amazing place called California Ciccios. It was AMAZING!
Saturday was the typical pre-race day. Got up early went and got an easy spin and easy run in and then headed down to the transition area to drop off the bike. I met up with a new sponsor, the guys from Clever Training, Matt and Andrew. We had lunch at another great place Tryst, about 1/2 mile from the race expo. Great lunch and great meeting! I then headed back down to the expo area and met up with Dave from ISM Saddles and got educated on their saddles. I have been riding ISM Saddles for over 4 years now and have always been extremely happy with them but wanted to know more so I can help other people when they ask about the great saddles. After that I headed back to transition area and went out for a short swim.
Saturday night was another great dinner with Team RWB this time and some great people. John, Nick, Hila were all there again and then my teammate from Kona, Jolene showed up and the Team RWB awesome Kona Sherpa Donna joined as well. Some other Team RWB people were there as well and it made for a great night. Thanks to Kelly Williamson for recognizing the eagle and stopping by to take a picture of our group (which is below) and for supporting Team RWB. Her husband Derrick runs the Team RWB Tri camp down in Austin (which I still owe a blog about) and they are great people!
Then came race morning and another typical race morning. Honey Stinger protein bar, can of FRS Healthy Energy and the typical bowl of Oatmeal and then a banana. Seems to do the trick so I keep things consistent. The rest of the morning was uneventful until we got to the swim start.
Swim- 10:42
Yeah that is a super quick swim for an Olympic distance race, I told everyone I was going to work on that swim and boom mission accomplished! Well actually here is where the eventful part started. The pro men and women went off and then the race director got on the PA system and started talking to everyone. He informed us the swim was being cut short to 750m due to the choppy and rough conditions. I was completely fine with this because 2304 pissed off triathletes is better than 2303 "happy" triathletes and 1 dead triathlete. I am sure there were only a few hundred pissed off "swimmers" about it being cut short. At first I was happy it was cut short, but more on why it may not have been the greatest thing later on. So for safety reasons the swim was cut short for the amateurs but the transition run was extended from about 50m to 600m. I had a decent swim in my opinion and lost 1:23 to the leader and only 46 seconds to Jake Rhyner, who had put 3 minutes into me at SoBe in 1500m 3 weeks ago.
Bike- 57:27
I got on the bike and knew I had some work to do as quite a few athletes were ahead of me. I got into a groove and just keep pushing hard. There was a few "groups" of athletes out ahead of me and I slowly started making my way up. Around mile 15-18 I made a pass and moved up 13 spots. That is how big the "group" was. I will not comment on the "groups" because for the most part I didn't see any blatant drafting, however I was on the move the whole time and was never in a "group". From what I heard by some other guys on the move they saw some pretty close wheels.
Overall I was happy with how the ride went and how the new "David Wenger" fit is working out. I will write up a review off that whole process and some comparison data in the coming weeks.
Run- 36:27
I started the run in 3rd/4th with Nat Glackin. He slowly pulled away from me and just kept increasing his lead over the run course. Shortly after leaving transition area Randy Arriola went flying by me and ended up with an amazing 34 minute run and finished third. I would then get passed by a few more guys and ended up finishing 8th. I was not happy with how my run went, not sure exactly what happened but felt like I should have been down in the 35's, but you can't have great days everyday.
Total- 1:49:25
Overall I was happy with how the day went. I went into the race wanting top 10 and would have been really happy with a top 5. This is one of the biggest amateur races in the nation and draws one of the best fields for an early season race. Being down in Florida to race twice this early in the season at top notch events was a great way to start the season. I have never been able to race these type of quality fields this early in the season before, one of the reasons I am glad to be stationed back in the states!
Swim (750m) - 10:42 / 25th Elite Male / 55th Amateur
T1- 4:01
Bike (40K) - 57:27 / 4th Elite Male / 4th Amateur (http://app.strava.com/activities/51464731#)
T2- 0:49
Run (10K) - 36:27 / 12th Elite Male / 15th Amateur (http://app.strava.com/activities/51464152)
Total- 1:49:25 / 8th out of 54 Elite Male / 8th out of 2404
Amateurs
Lastly, I just want to once again say thank you to everyone
for all of there support. Also, a huge congrats to Jake Rhyner on leaving
the amateur ranks of triathlon with 2 back to back wins in 2013 and I wish him
all the best in the pro ranks. A great athlete and humble dude, looking
forward to racing against him again in the future. Thanks to Clever
Training for a great lunch and meeting on Saturday and too Dave from ISM for
educating me on the product line and for some sweet socks. Then of course
FRS Healthy Energy, Honey Stinger, Kiwami, HED Cycling, Zoot, teamTBB, Fort Worth Cycling and Team RWB for all of the support!
Here are some pictures for everyone to enjoy!
1 comment:
Thaanks for the post
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