We arrived in Tampa late Friday night. It was a combo weekend. My wife joined me on the trip, which was a great opportunity to catch up on life, as sometimes it’s hard to even have a full conversation with three very energetic little boys running around our house. The other half of the combo was the famous St Anthony’s triathlon, which was celebrating it’s 25th year. This would be my first time racing in St Petersberg and I was really looking forward to it.
Saturday morning we headed over to the expo. I was totally blown away by the amount of vendors and the organization at the expo. It was a very enjoyable experience. I made my way over to see Team Timex’s former manager, Ben, at the Zoot tent. Tristan had set the Timex truck up right across from Ben’s tent, so it was a perfect location to get a look at the best athletic watches and the best running shoes in the market. There was a lot of activity around both areas as athletes and spectators were very interested in the newest technology. Tristan did a fantastic job managing duel roles of watch salesperson and team manager. He had everything running smoothly for myself, Richie Cunningham, and Ian Ray in our race preparation.
Sunday: race morning
We woke up to a beautiful morning. The male pro wave went off @ 6.45am and then waves were sent off continuously thru 9am, as there were 4,000 competitors participating. It was a beach start into a pretty choppy bay. My wave was the 2nd M35-39, which was the 9th wave of the morning. The horn went off and I found myself running into the water and attempting to dolphin dive for a bit (note to self, please practice beach start dolphin dives). I was not exactly graceful while attempting this and I managed to get quite a bit of water into one of my lenses. Oh well, we were swimming into the sun anyways and I couldn’t really see anything, so what’s wrong with a little salt water in the eyes. After going a little anaerobic at the start, I settled in and tried to keep a good strong stroke, which worked until we got out towards the first turn. It was really rolling out there and I think I swallowed about half the ocean in one gulp, ugh. I was very grateful for my Blue Seventy wetsuit as it gives me a huge amount of confidence, not only in clear calm waters, but the rough conditions we were experiencing on Sunday. Everyone was in the same conditions, so all you can do is put your head down and really focus on being as long as possible in the water, which is a little difficult for me with my vertical challenge, but I tried anyway. The remainder of the swim was pretty uneventful and I exited the swim in 23.17.
Ah, the bike. I love my Trek TTX and I was really looking forward to seeing how it would go on the flat, fast bike course. I felt really strong at the beginning of the bike and I wanted to try to get thru the previous waves, so I could get some open road. There are something like 30 turns on the bike course and I knew the sooner I could get out of the congestion the better off I would be, as I’m not a very technical rider. I prefer to put my head down and grind it out. About halfway thru the bike, I had managed to get some clear road and I focused on staying consistent and fueling. I’ve been talking with my coach about proper fueling while racing and I’ve come to realize that I just do not get enough calories in. So I decided to try some calories on the bike. I ended up taking 2 powergels mixed down with water for the duration of the bike and I felt much stronger coming off into T2. I ended the bike split @ 59.14.
Onto the run and I realized I needed to run a sub 35 to go under 2hrs. I wasn’t sure I had that in me, but I figured I give it a go. My perceived effort was there and I swear I felt like I was running fast enough, but the splits were telling me a different story,
1m 5.37
2m 5.58
3m 5.52
4m 5.50
5m 5.52
6m 5.37
.2m 1.12
Which put me @ 2.01.19 overall, 1st M35-39. I gave everything I had on the day and I have no regrets. This race was a phenomenal experience and I will definetely be back.