New World Record! OK, so maybe just a new Phil record, but I'm happy with that.
This was the first race I've done where you are required to rack your bike the night before. That was kinda weird, but I got there almost first in line, and set up my bike right on the end of the first available rack from the swim (for my number group). Apparently first come first served doesn't mean anything to some people because when I got there in the morning, some woman had moved my bike more toward the middle so she could rack on the end. Really classy move I thought, but I was in too much of a rush (and probably not worth it anyway) to get into it with her. So I just got my stuff set up, ran to get my timing chip and marked up, and got ready for the swim.
My wave was the second to go off, at 6:33. Being Phoenix, the water was actually a nice temperature at this time, but I wore my wetsuit anyway (legal flotation is good). The swim itself went very well. Was hard to see as it always is, little waves, lots of splashing of arms and legs. Lots of bodies at the buoys to try to navigate through. My form in the open water is nowhere near what it is in the pool. I rarely take more than a stroke with my head in the water. I need to do sighting, but that is a bit much. I managed the whole swim without stopping at all, and ended up with my fastest 400m swim yet, 8:41. Looking at the results of my age group, and that was 14th place out of 55, I'm very happy with that.
First transition felt pretty slow, but on the time it wasn't too bad. 2:23 to get out of a wetsuit and get my biking stuff on, I'll take it. Had to run in my bike shoes quite a bit before I could mount, wasn't sure if I wanted to do that, or do the real pro thing of leaving my shoes in the pedals and just slip them on while riding... maybe later. I think I started out a little hot on the ride. And I forgot to start up my watch for a little (I think around .3 miles). Felt okay on the bike, but not great. I tried here and there to use the aerobars, but didn't feel comfortable with it still. There were more hills than I expected. The first few I was just downshifting and slowing way down, but on one of the last (maybe the last) I just decided to power up and push through it... I need to do that all the time. Managed to not fall down while dismounting (barely, I'm not sure what happened), and got through to the run transition. Bike time of 42:01 beat my previous 20k best by 7 minutes... just what I like to see. Looks like 31/55 on the bike, I'm a little surprised by that.
First bit of the run was a struggle. I wanted to run for at least 5 minutes, but I had to fight myself to do it. I limited walking periods to 1 minute, this seems to work pretty well for me. Still when I run in races, I run too fast when running, then have to walk. I'm sure this is not the best way to do it, but I don't know how to fix it so I pace myself properly. Looks like I walked at 5 minutes, then a little after 8 for the water station. Made it to 13:00, and then 18:00. At 24:00 walked a bit and had a drink. Had a small walk at 28 minutes, and then again at 29 to make sure I could run through the finish. While I was walking this last time, this guy told me that I had passed him 3 times and that I had to beat him now. I had noticed his wolf jersey a bunch on the run. This was good motivation, so I picked it back up again. When I caught him again he yelled at me to kick it... I felt pretty good here so I did, I was flying at this point through the finish, passed a couple more people on the way. Looking at my GPS data, I was running a 5:00/mile pace for the last 30 seconds, which is super fast for me. It is a very good thing that guy got me motivated there... I finished 18 seconds better than my previous sprint record. That last kick could have easily been the difference. Run time was 30:38, maybe my second best 5k... 43/55 on the run.
My overall time was 1:25:42. I finished 34/55 in the 30-34 age group. I would have been 13/26 in the Clydesdale group. Overall I was very happy with the race. My sprint at the end meant to me that I probably didn't completely empty the tank through the race. Not that far off maybe, but still was more there I could get out of myself.
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