My second tri

Yesterday brought hot weather and the 20th annual Macon Triathlon! It was my second tri, and considerably longer in distance than the first -- let's remember that "considerably longer" is relative. The first tri was 600 meter swim, 12 mile bike, 3.2 mile run. The Macon Tri was 1/2 mile swim (that's 800 meters for you metric system folks), 20 mile bike and 3.1 mile run. The first tri had the bike and run sections split into 6 mile bike/1.5 run/6 mile bike/1.5 run. This tri wasn't divided like that -- so it seemed a lot longer!

I arrived bright and early and got all my gear in place. I wasn't nearly as nervous this time around. The only thing that worried me was the mass start. At the last race we went off in waves, but this time we were all starting together. When the gun went off I hung back a few seconds, letting all the hammer heads get a good start in the water. I really don't care enough about my time to warrant getting kicked in the head. The swim seemed L-O-N-G and I had to flip over and do my (now standard) backstroke/side crawl/freestyle swim. It may not be the fastest, but it serves me well. And I noticed this time that I wasn't the only one employing the backstroke technique. I set a swim goal (based on the last tri) at 20 min. I was out of the water at 19.

The bike went great. I just looked at it as a long TT, and used the people ahead of my as my rabbits as I pedaled along. The course was too long to pass a lot of folks, and I couldn't judge how much time I was making up. I passed a few people, and a few people passed me. I set a bike goal of 1:10. I finished it in 1:07.

The run was harder than I expected. In fact, I'd say it was the most difficult part of the tri. The 20 miles must have left me a little more drained than I anticipated, because I had a hard time running and felt like I was going a lot slower than normal. The course was 1.5 miles up hill, and 1.5 miles right back down. I had to break out my walk/run a few times on the uphill, but cruised down the back stretch with no issue. On the start of the run I caught up with a girl in front of me. She was in my age group. I tried to pace her as best I could, but she got away from me on that uphill. I was cruising along to the finish and when I got about 25 yards from the finish, the official standing there said "run faster! you have two girls behind you!" I didn't even bother to turn around to see if they were close my age, I just hauled ass to the line. I set a run goal of 35 minutes. I did the run in 31.



I finished the tri at 2:01!! That's 9 minutes ahead of my goal time. And I got THIRD PLACE in my age group. Sweet!!

I have no idea how many women were in my age group. The race organizers never posted up the results at the race, but said they'd be up online sometime today. Even if I was 3 of 3, my time was only 1 minute slower than second place, so it's not like I was far off. However, the winner in my age group was 6 minutes ahead of me.

This event has left me more stoked than ever about the Xterra race. Alas, I think I will SERIOUSLY get my butt handed to me at that event, but doing tris is just so much fun, it really doesn't matter. Hmmm... that's the same way I look at cross country mountain bike racing. Win or lose, as long as you challenge yourself, beat your personal goals and have a great time, that's all that matters ...

... although, showing off my third place plaque at work was pretty awesome.
:)