2008 Triangle Sprint Triathlon

Due to our trip to Indiana and a couple of idiotic maneuvers on my part, I didn’t train much in the week leading up to the Triangle Sprint Triathlon. I ran once and rode once, with no swimming at all unfortunately. The one good thing was that I was rested.

Of course, I did my best to remedy that by playing an ill-fated round of tennis on Saturday following an easy 30-minute ride with my friends Nas and Patrick. I haven’t played tennis in about six years, so it was probably not a good idea to go and try to boom some forehands and serves right off the bat. It was fun to get back out there, though.

However, it turns out I felt great Sunday morning with no soreness from slugging from the baseline (I’m sore as hell today, though). The weather was perfect for this race, which always attracts a ton of fast people, as it tends to be just as much a social event as it is a race.

My swim was very well controlled, albiet slow. I swam fairly easily (that was mistake) and tried to just sight well and keep things in check. I exited the water with a 12:56 for 750 meters, which put me fourth in the Clydesdales, where usually I’m first or second. It turns out it didn’t hurt me much in my category as I passed all of them right off the bat (or so I thought) on the bike.

My bike was pretty decent, considering this course is crazy hilly for 14 miles. 40:27 was good for third Clyde, about 20.3 average mph. I had a hell of a time in transition getting my bike shoes off, so I lost about 30 seconds there I think.

My run was the high point of the race. I saw a Clydesdale who usually places in the sprints not too far behind me after the first turnaround. I figured I’d better get moving or he would catch me. Turns out, he didn’t, as I saw I’d put some time on him after another turnaround. I started to relax, but, then I saw another Clyde right ahead of me.

Shit! I thought I had them all. Anyway, I didn’t take me long to catch this one and I waited till the bottom of a hill to make the pass as I wanted him hurting if he tried to give chase. Fortunately, he didn’t and I was home free. My run turned out to be a 20:40, which is only 10 seconds off my open 5K best, but this course is known to be short, so I’m not buying it.

At any rate, I wound up winning the Clydesdales, making it the first time I have even been on the podium in this race, as I finished fourth here the past two years. I was 99th overall male of out of 538 who started, so not too bad there. My time here last year was 1:18 something, so I bettered that. I still haven’t done a triathlon where my time hasn’t been better than the previous year. My sense is that this trend will end sometime soon.

I’m overjoyed my wife and kids will be back, as they have been in Indiana for the whole week. I can’t even express how much I’ve missed them. This week, it’s back to training hard and doing things right. It’s only 32 days to Timberman!