J-Hawk EarlyBird Tri

First triathlon is in the books for wife and I. It was fun. One of us got our ass kicked by the other. I won't say who beat who, but let's just say I'm not happy about it. G did a great job, placing 5th in her age group and 18th overall out of 100 women. She pulled out the big can of whoop ass today, and I humbly bow to her greatness.

As for me, I felt really good about the race until I looked at the actual race results. I did the entire thing without a watch so I had no clue what my actual time was as I went. I was guessing I could do 90 minutes, actually finished in about 95. It's only 5 minutes, but as far as immediate perception, it was disappointing. First time I finished slower than expected.

Swim (11:53)
Swim splits were taken as we left the building. I was in an earlier wave, and it was still damn cold out, so my time included a quick towel dry, putting on bike shorts, and pulling on a long sleeve compression top (not easy), was very wobbly going through this. I had to have been out of the pool in less than 10-minutes, which is a good 30-seconds faster than any 500 I've ever swam.

Bike (49:49)
Bike splits started from the time you left the pool building. From there I walked to my bike, got my socks, shoes, helmet, and glasses on, ditched my extra warm clothes and gloves, and walked to the mount line. Likely wasted another 2-3 minutes here.

Bike was largely uneventful. Slight headwind going out. With the wave starts there weren't many people on the course. I passed a few within the first couple miles, then it was pretty desolate until around the 7-mile mark, where I caught and passed the tail end of the the wave before.

Desolation again until about the 13-mile mark, when an older guy passed me. It was the first time I was passed on the bike. One of my prerace goals was to try and not let that happen, it was really only 17 people I had to hold off, minus whoever beat me out of the pool or transition. Two hills were between us and the finish and I caught him at the top of the first hill and beat him in. Small victory.

Run (33:06)
Run splits started the moment you arrived at the dismount line. I again walked back to the rack, changed shoes, threw on a t-shirt, and walked back out to start the run. I had a brief talk with the guy who passed me while changing. He said he was behind me the entire race and was thankful I was out there to pace off of. I never knew he was there. Probably killed another 3-4 minutes in T-2.

The run was a meandering off-road course. At times I felt like a lab rat in a maze trying to find his way to the cheese. Only saw three others on the run course with me, two I passed, one passed me. With no watch and no mile markers, I had no idea where I was on the course. Mile markers (and someone to chase) would have been nice. Nothing really noteworthy, had too much liquid in me from the bike and it was tough to get going.

Recap
I thought it was a well run event, other than mile markers on the run course, everything was well marked and very clear, and everyone I encountered was very nice. I think G and I will likely due another sprint before Bigfoot. I need me some revenge, and between you and me, I think she's hooked.

I feel pretty good, legs are a little fatigued, but not bad. Time to get back on the training plan. The last couple months have been very hit and miss. I blame the weather, couldn't possibly be my doing.

And the old guy, he beat me out of transition and I never saw him again.