Every now and then I like to do some shorter triathlons.  I love the long training rides and runs, but sometimes it’s good to get in races shorter than a ½ Ironman to maintain the speed in my legs.  So I decided last week to race the Tinman Traiathlon held this morning in Ft. Morgan, CO.  It was a 1000m swim, 36 mile bike, and 10k run.  I was really looking forward to it because it’s in a new place and the ride was right smack dab in the middle of the Colorado farmlands. 

The weather was great for racing: sunny and just under 80 degrees.  The swim was 2 loops in a chilly 56 degree lake.  It was a time trial start so we began every 10 seconds until we were all on our way.  I felt pretty good for the entire swim in my Blue Seventy TST wetsuit (www.blueseventy.com) although it was hard to get into a rhythm since each loop was 500 meters prompting us to get out after each loop.  I soon was out of the water and hopped onto my orange Trek (http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/2008/triathlon)  which always seems to make peoples heads turn because of the color.  It’s a point to point ride and a lot of it was with a tail wind.  I felt very fast as I imagine a lot of people also did simply due to the nature of the course.  My CycleOps power meter was giving me a lot of info I was happy to see, and I was happy to finish the ride 1^st off the bike with the fastest bike split of the day in 1:20 equaling a 26.9 mph average!   The run was hard as I rarely run a 10k either in a race or in an open running race.  I ran the two loop course in 37:24.  Not my best running time for a 10k but certainly good enough for the overall win by over 6 minutes.  Final time 2:12.27.  It was a fun day and I was so glad my family was there to cheer for me!

Thanks for reading!

Tim