Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Buffalo Springs 70.3 2013

This year was my third year racing up in Lubbock, The first year  I had just moved to Texas and was not ready for the 100 deg plus weather that we got on race day.  I ended up dropping out at mile 4 and walking back to the start. Last year I had a breakthrough 70.3 performance and finished 3rd with a solid time on a hot day also. So for 2013 I had high expectations for a good result especially with the ok temperature and also based on my racing fitness and last year finish. If only things were that easy!!

The long and the short of it was I had a subpar day overall and thankfully my bad days are still ahead of 2012 average races and I was able to get some decent points towards 70.3 World Champs. I move up in the ranking and we will find out in a few weeks if I  get to race in Vegas this September.

As for the race, I got out to what felt like a decent start in the swim, but didn't have that extra gear to keep moving up and lost the feet I needed to be on early. I came out of the water with 4 guys and 3 of us worked together for the bike for the most part. My thoughts were, "ok your not feeling great now but its a long day and anything can happen on this course" I also I kept reminding myself of how strong I rode the second half of the race last year. I was 5min + slower that last year on the bike and  would have been ok to catch 6th if I had my normal solid run. I didn't even need it to be great!! Anyway off the bike I felt fine but just couldn't find that extra gear again. I really just focused on running steady and hoped some guys up front would fall off. In the end I finished 8th and was pleased to finish this beast of a course. It's truly a gem and Marti and Mike Geer do a great job.

on Monday I didn't feel the effects of the race and got in a good swim and a easy bike. This morning I felt somewhat under the weather and think it might be have been in my system on Sunday. That would explain the subpar performance, if not it is more than likely  the lack of sleep!

In positive  news Rory was 7th weeks old on Sunday and it easy to forgot a bad race, when you had a amazing Son and supportive Wife to come home too!




Up next is Muncie 70.3 on July 13th


Thanks,
Robbie