June 4 - June 10
S: 11,000 yds - 2hr 42min
B: 64.26 mi - 3hr 30min
R: 10.78 mi - 1hr 18min
Total: 7hr 30min
What a roller coaster of emotion. Leading up to the race, I was lacking all kind of confidence. I have not felt that great on the bike lately, and even though my running has been going good, it just seems like my training has been pretty spotty as of late due to traveling. I honestly didn't know what to expect coming into the Buster Britton Triathlon, but I eventually reasoned with myself that a good fitness base of 350 hours so far in 2012 does not just leave the body, so I should be able to be in the running for a win or at least a top 3 overall. Here's how it went down, unofficially:
Swim (400yd) - 6:16
The race was a TT start, and I was 3rd in the water. Most likely, the swim was a tad longer than 400 yards...but what triathlon swim is the "right distance" anyways? I felt pretty good about my effort, and it felt like I was moving fast. I was passed by a couple high school kids, but I knew I could track them down on the bike.
Bike (13mi) - 32:29
The bike went...well let's just say that it was crushed. Fastest on the day by a good 45 seconds. Starting the bike, I had 4 riders about a minute in front of me. By the halfway point, I had passed 2 of them and had a line of sight to pass the next 2 within two or three miles. I made sure to slam it for 10-15 seconds while passing the last 2 riders, just to get in there heads and make them think they were getting crushed. After passing that last rider, I was solo for the next 4 miles or so into T2, just trying to chase the lead motorcycle and build as much of a gap as I could.
Run (3mi) - 18:49
The next riders were just coming into T2 as I was heading out on the run. The first bit of the run was pretty rough. My calves were tight and I couldn't get anything going. To make things worse, the first 0.3 miles was pretty much uphill. After cresting the hill, my calves calmed down and I felt like I could finally push it some. Mile 1 was semi-slow in 6:40, but after that I started to pick up speed. Mile 2 was a 6:10 and I started seeing the gap I had on some of the athletes and knew I was going to beat them. This was very motivating, which created a 5:57 mile 3 into the finish line. I knew every second counted, as one of the race favorites Aaron Ainsworth started a bit behind me so I wasn't sure how much time he made up on the run.
Total - 59:29
It turned out that Aaron absolutely crushed the run and took the win, with my effort putting me in 2nd overall with a good 30 second margin over 3rd place. But like I said, this was unofficial. I later found out that I was slapped with a 2 minute "position foul" penalty on the bike. Apparently, I was riding in the center of the lane, which I tend to do when hitting high speeds of 40+ mph down curvy descents. Bad luck. Oh well, nothing I can do about it. This penalty put me back to a 1:01:29 and 9th place overall, which is pretty frustrating and unacceptable. Besides that, I know I executed the race well in terms of raw speed, so I'm pretty pumped for a couple more good races this summer.
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