I arrived at the park shortly after 4pm for a 6pm start time. Plenty of time for me to check in, setup my transition area, and relax. I had everything setup in transition and was done in there by 5pm and then I roamed around the park checking out the first 1/4 mile of the run course and relaxing.
Finally around 5:40 I get my wetsuit on up to my waist and listen to the mandatory athletes meeting. After the meeting was over I slipped the rest of the wetsuit on, took my prerace GU, sipped down the last few drops of powerade and waited for the Olympic racers to get counted into the water. After they were all in and off on their adventure I jumped in line.
Once counted in I put my goggles on and made sure they didn't leak. Then I swam to the front of the left hand side of the start and patiently waited for the start. I was relaxed and confident and ready to go! The swim has become one of my stronger disciplines and my confidence is sky high for the moment. Finally, we get the horn and we're off. The swim goes rather well. I end up passing a few of the Olympic swimmers before I'm out of the water. Had a few bump ins with fellow swimmers but nothing major. Was out of the water and into T1 in 13:43, 10th overall, and 2nd in my AG. T1 went ok. It felt like I was dilidalying a bit getting my socks and shoes on but not much I could do about that at the time. Still managed to be out of T1 in 1:38 much to my surprise!
Jumping on the bike was not a smooth clip in and go event. I struggled to clip in which was odd. Once I finally clipped in and on the course I cruised past the first few racers. The bike course is a hilly winding out and back course full of steep decents that had me going 33+ mph at times. Sadly, I was riding my brakes on most of those decents as it was barely a 2 lane road and there was a possibilty of oncoming bikers on blind curves. I finally get to what would end up being 5th place on the course behind a guy that would end up winning my AG. We battled for a bit for the next 6 miles. I stayed back far enough that I wasn't in the drafting zone. On the second loop on our way back to T2 I was tired of waiting to pass him and decided it was time to make a go for it. As I did this my left calf had second thoughts and cramped on me. I held off for another 1/2 mile or so to let my leg relax. Finally, I found my chance to go around my guy and ended up beating him to T2 by a minute and 15 seconds. Now, I forgot my bike water bottle on the way to the race and just figured I would be okay without some powerade for 12.4 miles. This mistake came into play during the ride. I suspect I should have at least had a few electrolytes in during the turn around of the bike course as this could have potentially avoided issues that would populate soon.
T2 went off without a hitch. Wasted a few seconds take a quick gulp of powerade I had left in transition but waas still out to run in 46 seconds.
The run starts off feeling great! I quickly grap my GU I stashed in my race jersey and still feel good. Then I reach a point where we have a short rather steep climp to a 50m long trail to get back onto a road. This is where my legs both decide from the knees down to cramp up! My calves, my shins, my feet all cramp at once! I shuffle through the path and onto the road at what is a snails pace and this is where I find out the guy I finally passed on the bike was in my AG as he passes me on the run. Seeing his age helped my legs decide to jump back onto the race wagon but the damage had already been done. As much as I tried to he still had too much gas in his tank. He kept pulling away and there was nothing I could get my legs to do about it. At the halfway point I find out I have roughly as much distance between me and first place as I do with 2 runners behind me. I do what I can to keep them behind me. For the most part it works until the final stretch of the run! With about 200m to go I can hear the announcer say "we have 3 runners coming in", and I speed up some. Still too far away for my all out sprint. Then I hear something and kick into my last gear. But it's too late. I get overtaken in the final 50m by a 19 year old and there was nothing I could do. My fastest was not fast enough to keep up with him. Ended up with 2nd in my age group and 6th overall. Nearly a 7 minute improvement over my spring race on the same course!
Even though I got beat in my age group and in my sprint to the finish, I am very happy with my performance and grit to push through the pain, especially on the run. My final time was 1:21:34. I learned a few things Wednesday night. One, don't forget the bike bottle. It's good to have during a race. Even if it is only a 20k ride and it's cool outside. Two, looking back I'd like to have passed my AG winner much sooner than I did as I was holding back just a touch until I finally passed him. Finally, my running background is in my mind not my strong point in triathlon anymore. It has been passed by my cycling abilities and my swim is hot on runnings heels from my point of view.
Looking towards the not too distant future I have an Olympic distance race in about 2 weeks. It will be my last triathlon of the season in open water and I'm looking forward to the challenges of a long course triathlon.
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