The SG Tri was on Saturday, May 19th. We showed up in St. George the Friday afternoon before the race and went immediately to check-in. Because of when I signed up for the race, I ended up getting a free run hat! That's pretty cool of the race directors, and might have almost taken away the bitterness for them cancelling my favorite race. Anyway, we ended up eating dinner at Iggy's Sports Grill (because Olive Garden had, like, a 15 day wait...), and then we went back to where we were staying. Rachel has some friends who live in Hurricane (right next to St. George, and closer to the race venue), and we were going to stay with them. But they ended up putting us up in their parents' house, as their parents were out of town that weekend. It was extremely nice to have a real bed!
Saturday morning came early. I had been nursing a minor case of plantar fasciitis, so I had some ibuprofen along with my oatmeal and banana breakfast, and then we headed over to the race.
It was a perfect morning: temperatures (air and water) were great, winds felt non-existent, and I ran into a lot of people I have met over the years of racing. And then it was time to race. My new wetsuit was great, except that I didn't realize how high the neck was until I could feel the chaffing half way through the swim. I made a mental note to put more anti-chafe balm on my neck for the next race. It was an easy out-and-back swim, and then on to the bike. I felt nice and strong on the bike, even up the nice, long hill we had to climb (on the flip-side, it felt great to FLY down that hill on the way back).
And then came the run. As always, the run is my hardest event, but this time, I knew it was slower than usual. Probably because of my foot "issue." I was still able to finish strong and hold off some stiff competition at the end. And what's even better, my foot felt better after the run than it did all week long. That in and of itself was a victory for me.
Overall, it was a great race! I finished 7th in my age group, which means another $10 goes from my bank account to Special Olympics Utah. And since we were so close to Vegas, we finished that drive to spend the rest of the weekend with my family and have a great recovery meal at the Hofbrauhaus!
Next up was Daybreak. This one was just this last weekend, the 9th of June. That Saturday morning came early, too. We were up before the sun to make sure everything was ready and there on time. We got up to Daybreak a little after 6:00 a.m., which is when transition opened. I have done this race before, but transition was set up on the opposite side of the lake from previous years, so we had a little bit of a hard time finding it. But we finally found it, picked up my timing chip and swim cap, got body marked (they were using some pretty cool rubber stamps), and got my transition set up.
After a few words from the race director and a USA Triathlon referee, we made the walk to the swim start. This one was a point-to-point swim, basically meaning we swam a partial length of the lake. They were also doing an accelerated time trial start, meaning they sent one person off every 5 seconds. That was a little different for an open water swim, but it was fun. I was the about the 14th or 15th person to start, and I immediately started passing people. Rachel said she was quite surprised with how quickly I took off; I ended up being the 4th or 5th person out of the water. It was interesting, also, looking for red siting buoys against the green and brown background of the shore (I'm slightly red/green colorblind), but I guess I can't complain too much, seeing as how I had the fastest swim in my age group and the 9th fastest swim overall.
I felt very strong on the bike again at this race. There were some long, steady climbs that really taxed my legs, but there were also some great, fast downhills. My max speed on this course was 46 mph. There were also a couple of guys that I kept battling it out with on the bike. They would pass me on a downhill, and then I would fly past them on the uphill. On the final uphill, I got a good enough jump on them that they didn't catch me again until after the last downhill and just before the finish, about 5 miles later. I still finished the bike just before one of them. It turned out, Rachel had befriended his wife just before the start of the race, and so I had a chance to have a great, if short, talk with him after the race (I couldn't hang with him during the run).
And then there was the run again. If I could run as well as I can swim, I might have a chance of racing in the elite category. As I mentioned, I wasn't able to hang with my biker buddy during the run. I tried, but I'm just not as strong on the run. It ended up being a long run, too. It was billed as a 6.2 miler, but upon some research spurred on by my time (slower than at SG), it seems the run was actually a little over 6.5 miles. I want to take my bike up there and clock it with my odometer. Despite the extra distance, I still finished strong. My fast swim and decent bike allowed me to still take a 3rd place age group finish (18th overall, out of 101 men). That means I earned a podium spot! My first of the season! And that means Special Olympics Utah gets $25 from this race!!!
It has been a great start to the season! My next race is in two weeks: Provo Tri. It's another Olympic distance, and I will be going for another podium spot! I'm also going to be aiming for a PR in the run. Let's see what I can do.
How are you enjoying your summer?
