Pre-race pic:
The swim was cold again. The water is about 58 and the air temp was about 50 this morning. Another time trial start from the beach. Every 3 seconds they let another of us run into the water. It's a great way to start a race! Makes for a very peaceful race course with no bunching of riders. I started about 20 minutes after the first racer. He was well into the bike course before I even got wet! Tony was about 5 minutes in front of me:
The bike course was absolutely brutal. I thought that the Greater Cleveland Triathlon was a tough course. Not any more! This one was just SO HARD. I was in my 39/27 a lot. A real testament to the course was that Tony ran out of gears. That never happens. Not even on my favorite climbing hills (even Sherman!). I tried to just settle in and take it easy. I ditched the HRM and watch for the race and just went by feel. The course was extremely scenic. The only downfall was that the first 5 miles was under construction and there were a ton of these strips of gravel everywhere. There was mass carnage with flat tires everywhere. There were also a couple really squirrelly downhills that you had to take at like 5 mph so as to not end up as permanent graffiti on the sides of cliffs. But the end was a nice fast 5 mile descent. Unfortunately, in 3 hours we get to go back up it...
The run was again, the hardest run course I've ever done. It went kind of like this:
2.25 miles straight uphill
1 mile downhill
Then turnaround
The 2.25 miles on the way back straight downhill was really tough on the knees. It was a cardio break, but the joints were screaming. Oh joy, we get to do that 3 more times in the next 24 hours...
And the big finish!
We ate a ton of food and now I'm a total zombie. I can't believe I have to do an Oly in less than 3 hours and a half in the morning. Holy moly! But I'm not complaining. I'm having the time of my life here. The competitors are amazing. The top men coming flying down the hill to the finish were cheering us on as we climbed up the hill. And then next 2 races are the team time trials. Team Undermedicated is in da house!
:-)
Bike/Swim/Run
24.8/1500/6.55
in T-2 hours 15 minutes....
2 comments:
Good times! Kick ass buddy! Also, save that energy. That is the key to this race Matt tells me.
your previous post... on the swim... "I'm pretty sure it was uphill." hilarious..
wow..your description of the bike course..and that tony ran out of gears...holy incline batman!!! yikes...
You look great in the photos..you are kicking butt and taking
names....one more day and collapse time, right??
thanks for the post on this..always was intrigued by it.
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