Pre race warmup routine.
I was looking forward to having fun with this race as I was competing on my old road bike that Bicycles Plus fixed up for me. I even had my headlight on the blinking mode the whole time. "The Spanish Beauty" is needing some beauty work herself, she wasn't able to make it out this time.
I wasn't expecting to see my buddy and old competitor Tyler Johnson who has a few up on me in the short distance races. He started just before I did and I was after him, I tried real hard to get on his feet I only got right on his feet right at the end. I came into T1 a split second behind him in 4:25 for the 300 yard swim.
I knew the race would be between me and TJ. Our bike
s were close to each other, since I was on a road bike I knew this would cost me some time here as I waited for him to leave t1 first so I could "legally draft" off of him. Well, that didn't turn out so well, as he rode away. Just moments after that it became a downpour of a storm, with crazy winds, and hail. Let me just say that crap hurt, the hail. The bike was technical and there were several times I thought I was heading towards a ditch, but fortunately I saved just in time. Finally making my way around towards the major turn around, I notice TJ not that far ahead as I thought along with another guy and Aaron Patel was closing in on me. Well all of us that
I know of in that group blew by this turn we were supposed to make, it was absolutely not visible. I understand if it was just me, because we all know I suck at navigating, but when a considerable amount of people go by it..... When I was turning around the officer says "you have to go that way." and I said, "no, I missed my turn so I'm gonna go back that way." I catch up to this one guy and he tells me that the leader missed the turn too, that is how he knew to turn there, so I was like well maybe he isn't too far ahead so I start hammering again. Perhaps my slowest bike split ever of 18 mph an hour...ok if you included the extra mile and half I rode it would have been 20 mph.
Jumped off the bike without diving into the pavement this time.
On a mission now, got the look.
Starting the run I couldn't feel my feet. It took a good mile to get into it, I wasn't feeling good, then and was debating to drop out because I didn't think I could hold it, but after that I was running fairly strong and convinced my mind to stay with it. I ended up holding a 6:01 average, I didn't think it was too bad after not running for 3 weeks. I made up a lot of time but I was still down 3 minutes, when it was all said it done. I was 8th overall and 2nd in my age group.
Bringing it in ot the finish! I owe all my sponsors a huge thank you!!! The guys at Bicycles Plus for working hard on my bikes. (I hope to get a better result next time for you guys!! ) A big thank you to Jenn for coming and standing in the crazy wind, rain, and hail. Praise to the Lord for watching over us and keeping us safe from serious injury!
Next up is Cap Tex in Austin on Memorial day and maybe Play Tri Fest June 5th. Thanks for reading!
Crazy race reports from everyone local this past weekend. While many had their events cut short you found a way to lengthen yours! No sweat, the end result was excellent. Congrats on surviving a tri in hail!
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