This was my first race of the season, 'C' priority and supposed to be in the middle of a build cycle. I had been experiencing a frequent ache/pain in my left achilles for about two weeks prior to the race, so I didn't run or bike for 5 days before the race. Consequently, I was a little more rested before this race than I had intended but with the injury I was not expecting anything great. I told myself that if the achilles was really hurting on the run I would walk it in and see a doctor right after, unless I was in contention for first place.

I woke up at 3:45 because I had to drive an hour and a half to get to the race. I was not very nervous at all, which was unique because this was the first tri I have done that wasn't part of my peak. The morning was pretty calm, but I think my lack of sleep had an adverse effect on my ability to function; I took the wrong exit, almost ran out of gas, tried swiping my debit card backwards several times, etc. No major problems, but a bunch of slight hassles which suddenly had me feeling frustrated and antsy. Perhaps that was also due to the pent up energy from not being able to train properly.

I managed to get an outside spot on the rack, and the very first rack in line- great news for me, because I didn't want to have to search through inner spots on the rack. I prefer to be in and out very quickly. This was notably going to be my first race with a wetsuit, and I was pretty excited to try it out. Don't worry, I had taken it out for a test run the week before, and practiced getting in and out of it 3 times. I think most people can really improve their sprint times by practicing transitions, because I practice 3 or so times before my first race of the season and I generally have some of the fastest transitions. Don't overlook the 4th discipline!

It was an in-water start, but only waist deep so there was pre-race water treading. I lined up on the far right because the course was a counter-clockwise loop and I wanted to stay wide to avoid traffic at the buoys. As it turned out, I gently brushed against someone's leg at the first buoy and that was the extent of my contact with all other swimmers... I get a lot more beat up hitting people in the next lane during masters swim practice, so this was a nice relief from the normal swim blender! The distance between buoys #2 and #3 seemed very long as I wearily tried to sight without losing too much energy. I had done 2500y continuous in training so I was not concerned about finishing, but this seemed like a lot more than the the 500y I signed up for. Later I would discover that I did not read the race description very closely, and the swim was actually half a mile. Whoops! (For all the fish out there, search for Multi Sport Maniacs or race director Chad Krebs because they always seem to have a longer than normal swim).

There was a pretty large gap ahead of me as I exited the swim, but I thought I was probably in the top 15 and ready to reel in a few on the bike. I passed some people in transition because I start with my shoes clipped to the pedals, and then 2 more on the way out to the main road where I got into the bars and settled into my tempo. I was passed by a quick moving 24 year old with a Spiuk Kronos, which is a very fast looking helmet. Inspired by this guy's fast looks, I sped up to keep pace with him, and stayed a bike length behind but to the side and outside of his draft zone. I find it really helpful to ride with someone during tri's because it keeps my effort more uniform and lets me push myself much harder. One of the bystanders said that we were 5th and 6th on the road, which made me want to push harder to try and get in the top 3. We ended up catching a few guys, and by the end there were four of us yoyoing around for 3-6th. About 1 mile before the transition, my left calf began to cramp badly. This is when I realized my main mistake of the day: not eating a banana or taking in quite enough water. I tried to stretch and loosen up as we reached the finish but I think I lost 30-45 seconds on the end of the bike and throughout the run because of this cramp which I just couldn't shake.

Into T2 I unclipped and stood up on my left pedal while still rolling as I always do. The calf seized up again and I swerved sharply, brushing against a lady on the side of the road and almost crashing into the finish clock. I luckily managed to stay upright and went through the transition a little shakily, but unscathed. The run course was mostly on trails and very muddy, which was great because it helped to distract me from the effort. The only negative part was that I had no idea where I was or where my competitors were, with one exception: about halfway through, a true runner with long hair and neon orange shorts blew by me like I was standing still. I glanced at my Garmin and saw I was doing 6:20/mile at the time so I figure he must have been doing about 5:30 or less. After that, I slowly began to close in on one final runner. I made sure to keep my pace steady and close the gap just a bit at the time so I didn't blow up before the finish. I passed him with 1/4 of a mile left but never opened a huge gap, so I ran scared all the way to the line thinking he might repass me. Later I would discover that this was the guy with the Spiuk helmet who I rode with the whole way, and we were in the same age group which made my finish feel even better.

Results
S (.5 mi) 12:32, 10th
T1 :42, 1st by 9 seconds
B (18 mi)- 52:06, 5th
T2 :45, 20th. Damn calf!
R (3 mi) 20:10, 11th
Overall 1:26:15, 3rd overal, 1st AG

I did see an orthopaedist because the achilles pain returned, and he said its tendonitis. Hopefully this doesn't set the rest of my season back too much, but I'm getting an MRI first to make sure that it is not partially torn. In any case, this was my best finish to date and my best executed race. I am very happy with the result and I feel like I learned a decent amount as well because of the few problems I encountered.