Wow what a great race all around! The fans were fantastic, the course was great, and the weather was pretty much perfect! Overcast the entire day with high of maybe 75, occasional misting until the rains really came down after 3pm.
Swim:
I was looking forward to the wave swim start, as I knew it would lead to less congestion and hopefully lend itself to me having a better swim time. I was in wave 14 which means my race didn't start until 8:24 am, almost a whole hour after the pros started at 7:30. My time quickly approached, and I made my way down the ramp to the dock along with another 120ish 35-39 year old males. After jumping in the water and making my way to the starting buoys, the current quickly became apparent as we had to continually push bckward to maintain our position. The airhorn goes off and I shoot out of there like a cannon! I quickly find my rhythm and find myself in the lead group with about 8 other people. I find some feet for the first few minutes then make the pass as I feel I can go a little bit harder. I do my own thing for the next few minutes, then look around and realize I don't see any other white caps. Holy sh*t you mean I'm actually LEADING the swim wave? I flip back over and get back in the rhythm. Occasionally I see a white cap come up along side me for a few strokes before falling back.
This is definitely the fastest swim on the 70.3 circuit in North America. Swimming downstream in a river will do great things for your swim time! Slowtwitchers have said it typically takes about 5 mins off your normal 1.2 mile swim time,and I think that was pretty accurate.
Bike:
Super flat and fast course with just a couple of rollers. First 30 minutes legs felt really tight, glutes were screaming at me so knew something wasn't right. Cadence seemed to be a little high and I had to keep telling myself to slow it down. Stood and stretched a couple of times and tried to find a good rhythm and finally clicked into one about :40 into the ride. From there smooth sailing, big gear and steady cadence. Bike time of 2:32.
Run:
Right off the bat I could tell my run was not going to be as strong as NOLA. I felt OK and was clicking off 7:30ish miles for the first 2 or 3 but could tell I wasn't gonna be able to do that for the full 13.1. Pushed along at 7:40-:50 pace until 10.6 miles, when my damn calf and soleus seized up. I've been having some plantar fasciitis and tight soleus issues on that side for the last six weeks and it reared its ugly head with a vengeance. I'm just glad I made it through that much of the race without any issues. Managed to keep moving with just two one minute spans of walking slowly trying to ease the cramp. still managed 8:40ish miles for the last two and a half miles so not terrible, but brought my final time down from a 4:45ish to 4:48.
Overall very happy with my race! HUGE PR by over 31 minutes! Good way to end the season, and possibly career. Time to spend some more time with the wife and baby! Feel a huge amount of guilt every second I'm training and not spending with them, so think I'll switch gears for a while and just try to be a better husband and dad. Until next time!
