6/30/07

Lowdown on National Age Group Championships

Let me start this race report by saying one word, WOW!  That one word embodies this trip entirely.  The scenery and beauty at this race site was unbelievable.  Unbelievable not just because of the surroundings, but also because this course was the toughest and hilliest tri course I have ever seen.  I like hills, everyone knows that, but I was definitely scared.

The swim was an “in water” start with your individual age group, and up to that point I wasn’t too intimidated.  Right before the horn blows the announcer decides to make it worse by telling us that the 25-29 age group was one of the largest fields competing that day.  The swim wasn’t too eventful other than the sun glaring on the water so you couldn’t see the buoys, and the fact I got hit in the jaw and bit my tongue.  I have had worse though, and as usual I start to feel good near the end of my swim.  I came out of the water at 28:10 (35^th in AG) happy that I didn’t humiliate myself yet again on a swim.  I did however come back to an almost empty bike race, which instantly told me I wasn’t going to finish where I had originally planned.

 have a great transition and head out on the bike, or should I say rollercoaster.  The 1^st  loop I tried not to kill myself b/c I knew that those same hills would have to be attacked a 2^nd time.  By the way, I would compare those hills to Saluda hills avg. over a mile long.  I have to say I

I start the run feeling kind of weak, but I guess my Enervitine kicked in about 2 minutes later b/c I start to feel better.  I know I have to start out easy b/c that extremely tough bike course is also the run course.  Yeah, try running up Saluda.  I really felt good on the run until about mile 2 when my knee starts to lock up.  I had this happen about 2 years ago and it subjected me to walking.  My original goal for this race was to have fun and feel good after finishing.  Now my goal suddenly changes to being able to finish without walking.  I manage to clear the last hill and sprint to the finish with a run/jog time of 49:10 (40^th in AG).  Not exactly my best 10k time, but with all things considered I was happy with my finishing time of 2:33:10. 

So, if you’re wondering how I faired in my age group with the countries best, I placed 45^th out of 96 which means at least I made the top 50% in a race I went to have fun at.  I met tons of great athletes, including a couple of World Champions, National Champions, Team in Training coaches, and just some all around awesome people.  I had a great time and only beat myself up about my finish for about an hour, which is pretty good for me!