I drove up to Lake Havasu on Friday morning with my coach. His company, Durapulse Perfromance, was one of the race sponsors and he was doing a Junior Triathlon clinic and I volunteered to help. I have to admit, I was not very excited to do this race. I was concerned that a poor perfromance or other mishap on the day would be a psychological downer with only 3 weeks till IMAZ. I didn't want to go through my taper thinking I sucked.

We had about 18 juniors at the one day camp. I demonstarted the transition portion of the class. It was great fun to work with these kids, age 8-18. They were so excited to be part of the sport and their enthusiasm was infectous! Good thing because the weather was terrible, cold and raining and some mis-informed person told me the Lake was 52 degrees!!?? It was 62 thankfully. Went to the race meeting and packet pick up and was in bed at the hotel by 8:30.

Woke up at 5:45 to get my gear together and met with my coach to head down to the start. plastered one the side.The skies were clear and blue and it was nice and warm, so I was feeling good about the day.Transition was a little crowded but I found a spot on the rack and set up my gear and waited for my start. Did a quick 5 min swim in the chilly lake. Water wasn't too bad, very clear, but I got out as I didn't want to get a chill.

The Swim:
The swim course was out to the first bouy, turn left paralel to the shore to a second, turn left again and swim up a channel towards the famed London Bridge, turn around at the green marker and back out the channel and into shore. Swim was very nice as the water was very clear. I swam allong side one guy for most of the channel portion. He kept stopping to site, so I just kept a nice steady pace and let him do all the looking. I kept an eye on him until the turn around and then dropped him on the way out. There was no one around to draft off of.
Swim Split- 22:43, 1:23/100 yards average

T1:
Boy, it's been a while since I had to pull of my own suit and it showed! I had to plop down and get it off my ankles. I miss the strippers! Once off, everything else was fine, I had my shoes clipped in and ran out and up to the parking lot barefoot on a carpet. It was a looong run to the mount line!
T1 Time- 1:27

The Bike:
The bike course was a basic out and back with 2 side trips into residential areas. VERY technical and hilly in those sections. So the bike course was....interesting. You rode down along a beach front road for a few miles and then turned up and climbed into a residential area with a lot of long climbs, short down hills, more long climbs, and lots of 90 degree turns. It was fairly technical and required attention to gearing and pacing. You dropped back down onto the beach front road and continued out to the turnaround. This was a pretty fast section and I passed all the college team guys who started ahead of my wave as well as one or two AG'ers.
On the way back, they detoured us through another residential area that was nothing but mutliple, extremely steep climbs, extremely steep descents, back to another steep climb! It was a roller coaster of doom! You would be going 40-45mph and then have to make sure you geared down enough to climb these absurdly steep grades, drop down at speed again and then bang a hard left or hit a fence! It was actually fun, but funky!
The ride back to transition was nice and fast althought there was a bit of a headwind. I was riding my new Zipp Disc and LG Rocket helmet and they both helped me go fast. I finished with the second fastest bike split for the race, only :42 seconds behind Gordo Byrn, who was in the lead and finished the bike in 1:02:34, so it was a tough course. My split was 2nd fastest on the day.
Bike Split- 1:03:16, 23.57mph average

T2:
When I ride really hard, my toes go numb. Like 10 little rocks with absolutley no feeling numb. When I went to put on my running shoes, my toes got all jammed up and I had to fuss around to get them on right.
T2 Time- :54

The Run:
The course was a quick run into a little recreation of a London street and then up a steep flight on stairs to London Bridge, and then a long out and back on a rec path in a state park. As I headed out of transition, I passed this REALLY big guy. I mean big like giant, muscular big. I didn't know where he came from, but figured he must be part of a relay. Anyway, I past him at the exit and got into my grove. The stairs up to London Bridge come around the 1/2 mile mark and really make your legs burn! Once up on the bridge, it nice and flat on road and rec path. Around mile 2, I begin to hear the rythmic slap of racing flats coming up behind me. It can't be that big dude, I thought, so looks like I have some company. I glanced back and saw this guy coming up fast, tall, lanky, great form....I'm in trouble! I had passed him on those crazy hills back on the bike and had put a solid 1:30-2:00 on him during the bike. Looks like I needed a little more! He moved by me and eventually finished 40 seconds ahead of me. By the turnaround, I had a chance to see where everyone else. It took another few min until I passed the next athlete, so I knew I was safe for the rest of the race. I felt strong and consistant over the last 3 miles and crossed the line.
Run Split- 37:45, 6:05 pace.

So my final time was 2:06:04, good for 4th overall out of 262 and 2nd in my AG out of 30, behind Gordo, who happens to also be 38 :mad: . No way, no day I'm beating him, so I was still thrilled. I have dropped my Olympic swim time by 4 min. since my last race Olympic in September and brought my run below 38min for the 10K for the first time. But the key is my bike. My coach as made me focus and get stronger on the bike and that really pays huge dividends. It's very encouraging for IMAZ and I'm so glad I went and did this. Now I can enjoy my taper and look forward to April 15th! :D