Stoaked Off-Road Triathlon or Xterra Half Blind
Overall it was pretty nice day for a race. It was cool in the AM but not excessively so. I was at the water with plenty of time and hoped that my whole two weeks of training prior to the race would pay off. (I wouldn’t advise anyone of this method but didn’t have time from the beginning of summer until later July.) The race started and I started out toward the end of the pack to avoid what happened anyways. I ended up in a big crowd of people and got anxious. I had to swim with my head out of the water for a bit and then I decided to head to the outside and this helped quite a bit. After that I didn’t have any problems.
I exited the water feeling pretty good about where I was located within the pack. This ended at the transition out of the water. I lost a decent amount of time changing into sneakers before going by the timer. Twenty eight plus minutes. Oh well. Next I headed to where our bikes where located which was quite a few hundred yards away and up a decent size hill, change into bike shoes and head off. While in transition I notice I wasn’t seeing quite well and thought I had a contact that slid up in my eye socket. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case and I went through the rest of the race with just one contact. It made some of the technical sections of the bike course more technical. The bike course also seemed different than when I did the race two years ago with a different entry area. It had as much or more single track and a lot more hills than last time. It was a fun ride though if a bit growling due to the lack of training. An hour fifty minutes plus.
Next was the run. Of the three disciplines it is the one I had the most training in in the prior two weeks. (Unless you include commuting to work on bike.) The run was the usual route they’ve had in years past through gravel paths and a big, hilly field. Fifty plus minutes for a 3 hour ten minute plus overall finish. Quite tired in the end but I finished and had a heck of a lot of fun.
TOMmy
