Last year I did this race expecting it to be a sewer swim and I was pleasantly surprised with the clarity of the water. So, I signed up for it again expecting the same. Unfortunately it wasn’t. The water was very low this year and with the thunder storms we’ve had it a bit muddy.
While getting my gear ready I ran into a married couple on the UV Rays and chatted with them a bit. I took my new tri bike out for a spin, which I finally got it back from the bike shop Thursday. After this I got my wet suit and headed to the river, took a short swim and waited for the start of the race.
Last year, when the water was higher, there was more room to spread out. This year I was trying to site a lot better and tried drafting when I could. I’m not sure how successful I was with the drafting but I met one of my two goals for the swim this year, either one I would have been happy to have met. One was to break thirty minutes in the swim since I did it in thirty one last year. The other was to finish in the top half of the swimmers since it was my best event last year but I didn’t place in the top half. I was able to place in the top half of swimmers this year but my time was actually slower in the swim at just over 33 minutes which makes me wonder if the distances were the same this year compared to last.
Anyways, getting out of the water and into transition went pretty smoothly other than trying to get my wetsuit over my timing chip. Next up, the bike. It was 26 miles total with two 13 mile loops. It seemed to go pretty smoothly, passing some and being passed by others. I felt like I was trying to push myself a bit more this year and did feel faster. I didn’t wear a watch and didn’t see a official time clock anywhere on the course except the finish even going past the transition area on the second loop so had no idea how I did until the end. My time did end up at 1:23 which is well over ten minutes faster than last year.
When I got into transition from bike to run I remembered to get myself something to eat since I didn’t remember in the first transition. I ate about 2/3 of a banana and got my running shoes on. Off to the run. Same as the bike in that I passed some people and got passed by others. It was a flat out and back run with no major glitches. I grabbed water at each water stop since it was humid and I didn’t want to get dehydrated. I felt like I was keeping a good pace but didn’t feel like I was necessarily faster than last year. According to my final results I was about four minutes faster at just under fifty four minutes.
My final time was 2 hours 50 minutes 40 seconds. I took almost fifteen minutes off my time from last year. I guess, having a family reunion the day of a race was a good motivator. I didn’t stick around for anything after the race except a bagel and water.
Of the 70 finishers, I placed 27th on the swim, 41st on the bike and 36th on the run.
