Its been about to long since Nations Tri. Sorry for the long wait with this post. Been crazy with work, life and training. Anyway I want to say thanks to anyone that played a part in my successful race. I have so many great people in my support network from Heather (best Team Manager ever , my training partners Andy, Dirk Zac who push me, John from getting me to believe I can swim and many more. Thanks so much to all you do.
The race couldn't have been more perfect for me, the lovely Irish weather that delayed the start was fine by me. It gave us time to get Dirk a back wheel, as his had a slow flat in it ! Well done to my boy Dirk who had a great race in only his second Olympic Distance. Also Andy crushed his goals.
I got out good in the swim and ended up out of the water in 23:47. Before hand I said to myself get out hard and hang onto some feet. A 80 sec PR, but need to be faster.
Then ran to the bike and Heather shouted 7min down as I got on, I realized afterwards her watch much have not hit the split for my Transition so it really 7min since the 1st guy exited the water, so I was about 4min down. The first 10miles on the bike I hammered it holding close to 30mph, as I was thinking I was alot behind. I caught the group and then couldn't see anyone, was I leading ? No way to early ! At the turn around I saw 4 guys ahead and did a split on each. I knew then I could relax back to tempo pace for the 2nd half of the bike.I caught one of the guys around mi 15. I got another time check from my man Edmund Burke on Key Bridge. Again I was closing in on the lead, then I took another time check about 4mi to the finish. As long as I had my running legs the race was mine. Off the bike I didn't have the best T2. The insole of my shoes curled up, so I spent a couple seconds fixing it. Ah well ! on the long run out I could see Dirk coming in. So I gave him a shoot.
Out on the road my legs felt good, to be honest real good. I caught 3rd well before the mile, then my eyes were set on the 2 guys ahead. I knew Adam Ostot was the man to beat he is well balanced in all 3 sports. Also a solid dude as I found out after the race. I caught 2nd place around 2.5mi and Adam was about 5 secs ahead. I rolled up with 5k to go. He ran with me for a bit we had a brief exchange and I held my pace. I did pick up the last 2miles to around 505-506 pace. I felt like I could have ran another 2miles if I needed today. Clearwater came into my ahead, but hey its a differant ball game when you have to bike over double the distance
Coming down the finishing straight was awesome. I realized I was achieving one of my main goals for 2010 and got excited. I couldn't help but celebrate, normally I just put my hands up as I cross the line. But I felt the need to do more. The crowd was awesome too, they came out in the rain.
Now back to work for Dallas and Clearwater. Oct 10th and Nov 14th.
