first race this year
goal: survive the run w/out knee pain (this would be my first 10k off the treadmill all winter) and come in around 3:00-3:10

I arrived in Sunriver and went over to Toni's house for a little prerace BBQ with her family Friday. What a great group of people! And Paul dropped in too. We chatted and chilled and laughed. Thanks for letting us invade your condo and enjoy your Dad's great burgers! I enjoyed meeting you all! Maybe we can convince some of the other trifuelers to meet up next time...?

I went to bed at 10pm Saturday night and promptly woke up at 3am. I stayed in bed until I could just not stand waiting for my 5:30 alarm...5am. I think setting the alarm is mostly symbolic for me since I'm so anxious that I end up turning it off before it rings. I got my stuff together, had some cereal, and tried to let my family sleep a little longer before making them get up for the drive to the start.

I aged up this year and was somewhat pleased not to be in the first wave (less anxious I guess). Despite overnight temperatures into the upper 30's, the water was 62 and pretty nice, not a shock in the least! My wave was called, and I situated myself near the middle and took my time settling into the flurry of the start. The course was set up in a diamond and the first leg was actually pretty smooth, not too much bumping and crowding...maybe because I found myself swimming too far right! I recorrected and vowed to be more direct on the other legs. My mind, though, had other thoughts...the second leg I was really down on myself...asking myself why I was out there. I breathe to the right and could see the shore and exit ramp each time I came up for air, and I kept wondering when the swim would be over. I passed the second buoy, and all that bad mental stuff went away, and I hit my rhythm. Next thing I new I was pointed at the exit arch and headed for the ramp. My wife and toddler were right at the arch/timing mat and saw me come up the ramp! "Go, go, go Daddy!!!" That almost made me choke up...not good when you're breathing heavily and a little wobbly. The swim was not what I had hoped in that I thought I had made some significant speed improvements in training this year, but ended up 2 mins slower than last year, not bad, though... 30:30 (134/435 OA)...chalk it up to my sighting my way into doing a circular course, not the diamond point-to-point they had carefully laid out for the race. :)

T1 went well: 2:51 [55/435 OA (...wow! who knew?) This may seem long to some folks, but this was a point to point and we had to pack our stuff into bags for transport to the finish before hitting the bike.]

OK so the bike course was a little shorter this year (i think +/- 25mi compared to 28 last year)...and a little downhill too...[maybe someone can let me know what their bike computer got the distance as?]. I flatted at mile ten and was so focused on getting back onto the bike that I didn't check the speed sensor before taking off...so I only had the cadence numbers to keep me feeling like I was doing some work. The tire change went pretty well and i cranked it up to get back into the race passing absolutely anyone I thought had passed me. I was pleasantly surprised by several riders and one course marshall who asked if i had everything i needed...it lightened my mood while changing the tube so thanks! triathletes are very cool people! So, forgetting that I was trying to save myself for a run I knew might be troublesome, I hammered to S. Century Dr. and then spun a bit into T2. 1:17:25 (278/435 OA). (I must say I do look forward to next year when the race is not on the only available road to traffic so that my family can watch me race and not sit in traffic for hours.)

T2 was smooth: 2:26 [204/435 OA]

The only hill of any interest comes right out of T2 and is pretty short so I walked the short incline up to the tunnel under the road to get the run course started with as low a heart rate as I could. Then I started my shuffle and warmed my way into a jog. No knee pain for the first few miles but this was my first time doing the Olympic distance this year so I was feeling a little heavy and tired. I made a point of walking at the aid stations, just enough to get a little water in me, and then put the legs in motion again. In fact I probably could have run through the aid stations after mile 3 because I knew I was going to be fine. I could feel it. But since caution was the word of the day, I stuck to my plan (most of all, i didn't want to regress in my training). The old IT pain decided to show up after mile 4 but remained dull and in the background...not enough to make me walk. I was trying to ignore my watch in hopes of just being relaxed in my run and so I hadn't looked at my watch until the third aid station. I was very surprised to see that my overall time was setting me up to come in sub 3hr which would be a new PR. I ended up at just under 10min/mi at 1:0:08 (286/435 OA). I was VERY happy with that!

so, in the end, I came in at 2:53:20. 34 mins better than last year!! (admittedly on a shorter bike course, but STILL!) and a new PR for the Olympic distance!

2:53:20, 45th out of 60 in my new age group…229th out of 435 overall.