Well, I finished my fourth race in four weeks this past weekend. It was another sprint triathlon that had very challenging climbs on the bike and run. Buster Britton in Birmingham, AL pushes your abilities to pace effectively. Swim was fast and hot. Small lake in Birmingham that wasn't very deep led to a steamy swim. I am just glad that it was only 400 yards...really would not want to spend much longer in the water than that. Transition was a bit of a run from the swim exit but I felt good. Kept up a good clip up the hill and into T1.
From T1 I got on the bike and headed out on the bike course. I have to admit that my SLS3 kit is uber comfortable on the bike. Gives good movement in the legs and throughout the shoulders. All this without the suit flapping around in the wind. The course was a hilly out and back with at least four real good climbs. My legs were getting a little cooked on the way in as the fatigue of the past few weeks starting catching up to me.
Got my feet out of the shoes a bit to early. Had the last .5 mile with my feet on top of the shoes. Jumped off the bike, had a fast T2 and headed out of transition. As I lifted my head I saw the same racer that went in the water in front of me about 45 minutes ago. He was moving at a real strong pace and I decided I was going to hang on to his heels. We headed up the first climb and I knew this was not my pace and not a pace I could hold going up the hill. Still, this is a tough realization to make...that you have to let him go. I made that decision and slowed my pace back down. I had burned a few matches in this foolish effort to keep up with this rabbit. I eventually got my heart rate back down and got back into a good zone.
The run progressed nicely. It was another hot, hilly day in the south. I came up on the 2 mile market and was feeling pretty good. I knew I had some more climbs to come and as such I tried to pace for the last half mile. I have started to race without my GPS so I try and use time as my distance tool. I checked my watch around what I thought was the half mile mark. It just didn't jive. The time was under my projected pace at this point. I started to pick up the pace a bit to try and make a final push. Came around the last bend and there was the finish line. I had run out of race....
The race still went well. 1:11 on a hilly course is a real good time for me. It was still a tough pill to swallow when I found out I had lost first by :25 seconds. I know if I had a better idea of where I was on the course I could have made this time up. However, this gives me the motivation to make sure I don't leave any fuel in the tank this weekend at Monster Tri here in Tennessee.
Over and out...race hard, train smart.
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