Racked and tucked in on race day eve.RACE Nation's Tri Sun. 9-14-08
Hot. Humid. Really hot and humid.
* 2,393 finishers
* 952 women
* 1,440 men
* avg time 3:10:35
Me - PR at the Oly distance. PR swim. PR bike.
Finish - 2:21:57
Swim 30:52 (66th/225 in AG; top 30%) (394/1440 men; 28%)
T1 2:45
Bike 1:05:03 (22.9mph avg) (13th/225 in AG; 5.6%) (72nd/1440 men; .5%)
T2 1:34
Run 41:45 (6:44) (2nd/225 in AG; 1%) (22/1440; .15%)
Men 35-39: 15/225 ( 7%)
All Men: 67/1440 ( 5%)
Overall: 72/2,388 ( 3%)
*******************
NOTES
70's and 90% humidity at 4:15a. Whoa. Shades of Blackwater 2007.
Swim - 7:20 start in 4th of 20+ waves, 77F water temp, wetsuits legal, generally calm waters, not smelly at all, swam mostly straight lines buoy to buoy, couple leaky goggle stops, 29:4x when climbed out of water.
70's and 90% humidity at 4:15a. Whoa. Shades of Blackwater 2007.
Swim - 7:20 start in 4th of 20+ waves, 77F water temp, wetsuits legal, generally calm waters, not smelly at all, swam mostly straight lines buoy to buoy, couple leaky goggle stops, 29:4x when climbed out of water.
T1 - loooong, gave up 1min+ here. Fought getting wetsuit off, getting race jersey on.
Bike - Awesome completely closed roads, at times multiple lanes each way closed. Riding the Whitehurst, Rock Crk Pkwy by Kennedy Cntr, Clara Barton, around the monuments, all super fun. Good effort, thinking was to ride with no regard for run. Stayed focused almost all the way, cadence reading wasn't working, probably rode a slightly lower cadence as a result, muscling one gear bigger than optimal... maybe. Guess ~86-88rpm avg. Pedaling at 90-92avg might have given me a bit better run, but tough to say as run was still very good compared to the competition. Flat course cassette, nice tight 12-21 (9 speed). Only 2 folks passed me, after I had caught them they passed me back before T2.
T2 - uneventful.
Run - hot like a Charlize Theron in The Valley. Sun had burned through the haze. Had to force the urgency in my effort, mentally peaked on the bike. Still pushed it pretty good. Was hoping for sub 40min to match my 39:xx effort in other races this yr. Coming out of T2 at 1:40:xx was gunning for 2:19:59 finish.
Passing folks like fence posts. No one passed me. Dude that I slooooowly caught over miles 4-5 turned out to be 38yr old in my AG. We dueled over mile 6. I could not match his surge in the last 200meters.
Didn't go close to sub 40min, but 41:45 was still a good time against the field, so chalk it up to the heat, suspect everyone lost 2 or (many) more mins to the oppressive conditions.
