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| sucha momma's boy Pic: Mark Barber |
If there’s one takeaway from the 2013 Desert International Triathlon, it’s finally learning that a good or ideal day in each sport seldom occurs. You’d think after 4
years of racing triathlons, I’d have figured that out long ago. The biggest
positive from this past Sunday was that I didn’t get down on myself after a
tired/sluggish bike ride, & stuck with it. I know this race is small in the
grand scheme of my season, and it’s early, being the 1
st race of the
year, but I enjoy the excitement of competition.
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| Pic by Mel Kurek |
& The Race Deets:
Around 200 meters into the swim, feeling I’d been moving
fairly quick, I surveyed the sitch of nearby swimmers and there were 2 guys
around me and 1 dude that somehow had like 1-2 minutes on us. That was blowing
my mind, how do you put that much time into a group of elite swimmers within 200
meters?? (Turns out it was Rob Lea, a former collegiate freestyle sprinter).
Somewhere around the midway point in the swim, I realized I was swimming with
one of my swim heroes (& buddy), Max Biessmann. This was a small victory in
itself, as Max always smashes me in swims. Ended up having a bit of an extra
kick and exited the water in 2
nd behind Rob, who was minutes ahead.
(After 4 years of the same exact swim results, it’s kind of exciting to see some progress
& improvement occurring. Thanks to
Grace Van Der Byl for helping me and shaking
things up with my swim stroke. As stubborn as I am, she’s slowly turning me
from a surfer into a swimmer;-)
Apologies to those of you expecting a monster bike split,
I’m aware of it. Not at all worried about my cycling right now, though.
It’s there.
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| Thx to Ben Travis for the pics & the splits on the course |
Like I had mentioned earlier, as I rolled into T2, I didn’t let
myself get down and stayed with it. A few people along the course mentioned
I
had around a 2 minute deficit to the dude in 1
st… 2 minutes is a lot
to make up in 6 miles, but for whatever reason, I felt extremely confident in
my running. I ran the 1
st 3 miles at a 5:30 pace and didn’t let
myself run any faster. One of the few times I’ve been conscious of pacing in a
shorter race. At the beginning of the 2
nd lap I caught sight of Rob
and realized catching him was very doable. I turned up the pace & ended up
passing him somewhere a bit before mile 5. Ran the last mile in 5:13. It hasn’t
been typical of me to negative split runs- happy I’m slowly learning how to
pace myself & not go “Pre” all the time. Props to Rob for gutting it
out and pushing the pace up at the front.
It was definitely fun to race again; I’ve missed that
feeling. It was rad having so many people I knew out there, both racing and
cheering. Congrats to all my friends.. I heard about multiple PR’s. Solid day
for B+L athletes as well;
Rebecca Travis tore it up & was 2
nd
overall. Also, one of my good friends, Bill Jones, won the UCLA triathlon
earlier that day too.
Very fortunate to work at a place that supports my racing so
much.. As always, thanks to Mark Palmer &
B+L Bikes- & my bro-dog (the
best mechanic I know) Kevin, for staying until 10pm to build up my new Shiv
(more on the Shiv in a near future post). A big thanks to Mark Barber for all the help this weekend. Mark wins the award for giving the most accurate in-race timing splits. I was stoked my mom came out
to watch and got to witness a bit of race drama unfold. I'm sure it wasn't easy for her to watch a come from behind win.
Next up: Superseal (Olympic dist) March 17
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