I won my first race!

This past weekend Conor, Teresa and I traveled down to Rend Lake, just outside Benton, IL, where Conor and I competed in the first ever Last Chance Triathlon. While 172 people were registered for the short and long course races in the aggregate, only 36 people ended up starting the long course. The race distance suited my strengths pretty well, with a 1.5k swim, 67k ride and 15k run. I have barely swam since Louisville (efforts to swim at MSU were thwarted by the university's new no-non-student policy), so I didn't expect great results in the swim. I came out in 28 minutes and change, which Teresa informed me as I exited the water was 7 minutes down on the leader. Okay, make up half of that on the bike and half on the run, I thought.

The bike was flat and on good roads. I thought I could average 24.5-25 mph with a good effort, but I think my lack of tri-bike rides since IMLou has hurt my wattage. I busted the tri-bike out on the Wednesday before the race to reacquaint myself with it, having spent the past month exclusively on my steel cyclocross machine, and was surprised to feel awkward while riding and abnormally sore after riding, particularly in the posterior. The slight difference in muscle groups used by the two bikes was apparent. While I hoped to average 260 W or thereabout, I ended up with just 239 W, resulting in 23.9 mph. It may have been worse, but I was passed by a 50 year old (50!) about halfway through the bike. I upped my effort so as not to let him out of sight and stayed about 100 yards behind him for the next 20 miles. Maybe the low wattage could be a result of reduced training lately, which would be good.

On the way into T2 I was told the leader had just left. I ran hard the two miles to pass him and put some distance in, pushing my HR to 175 bpm. It would have been a tough race to hold that effort for the rest of the run, and I dropped to a more comfortable 170 bpm or so (meaning, I dropped my effort level - I only look at the data post-race for HIM and shorter). The run was out-and-back, and at the turn-around I noticed I had a few minutes lead. I ended up averaging 6:02/mile at 171 bpm on the very slightly hilly run.

Total: 3:13, good for a comfortable margin of victory. Of course, I'll be happy to be in the same time zone as the second and third place guys, who combined average 20years my senior, when I'm their age.