Music City Tri

This past weekend, I headed up to Nashville, TN to race at the Music City Triathlon. I rode up there with 6 others from the Alabama Tri club, so that made the drive a little less boring. We got up there on Sunday in time to pick up packets and ride over the bike course to see what kind of terrain we'd be dealing with. It seemed fairly hilly with a few flat sections, but the one thing that I noticed is that there were a ton of turns. After riding over the course we headed back to the hotel and then met up with the Tennessee, Vandy, and Georgia teams for some dinner.

I woke up at 5 am on Sunday and downed my regular pre-race breakfast: 1 banana, 1 nature valley-yogurt bar, 1 blueberry muffin, and a pack of crackers. After loading the bikes, we made the 5 minute drive to the race course and began unloading our crap. The sky looked pretty cool when we got there....but we soon started feeling the wind from Hurricane Ike. The water was pretty rough and choppy, and after the first 6 of 13 waves had started, they canceled the swim. Once the buoys started floating away and kayaks starting flipping over, I think it was a pretty easy call. They turned it into a duathlon, with the first run being from the swim exit to T1, and then the normal 27.5 mile bike and 6 mile run. My wave consisted of all 29 and under males. I was second into transition, and first out on the bike. For the whole bike, there were 3 of us that were dueling it out. One of us would attack for a mile or 2, get reeled in, and then the next would go. At mile 22, I finally made an attack that stuck and held them off all the way to T2. It was so windy at some points that I did not even feel comfortable in my aero bars. Overall, I averaged slightly over 21.5 mph. My bike was second fastest in the age group, but I had a faster T1 so I was in the lead coming into T2. The run was a 2 x 3 mile lap with a decent hill at mile 2. As soon as I started the run, I began having trouble breathing, I think because I hammered the bike really hard. I finally caught my breath after a quarter of a mile or so and was good to go. Overall, the run was alright but I still think I can do better. I ran the first 3 in 23:50 and the last 3 in 23:17 for a total time of 47:09. It's about 2 or 3 minutes faster than my last olympic distance tri, so I guess that's good.

I finished in 3rd place overall, so I was pleased with that. The top 3 of us all had bikes within 30 seconds of each other, so obviously the race was decided by the run. I was 1:40 out of 2nd and 3:30 out of 1st, so a 43-44 min run would have put me in 1st place. I know I'm capable of running that, it's just a matter of getting some more base in and keeping my IT band uninjured. Here's me on the stand (on the left)!