Huntersville Triathlon Race Report

This was the same race course as the Cool Breeze Triathlon, the only thing different was the swim was twice as long (500 yards vs 250).  Thanks to Sakshi reminding me that I had forgotten my towel for my transition area last time I managed not to forget a single thing for the race.  Everything in the morning went smoothly from getting to the race to setting up my transition area and warming up.

While I was getting ready to start the swim my “cheering section” showed up (Sakshi:  wife, Nancy: mother, Sandy:  friend, Scott:  friend, and Cami:  dog).  It was great to have them all there.  Tried to take the swim nice and smooth, which I was able to do, that being said the last 150 yards I struggled to keep my form totally together. 

My transtition to the bike was very smooth and I was out on my Specialized Transition quickly.  Was able to average 238 watts for the ride after starting my Garmin 500 (at the bottom of the first hill), which worked great and was able to display all the information I like to see on one screen (current watts, avg speed, time, heart rate, average watts).  I felt pretty good coming off the bike and starting the run.

Hung my bike and helmet on the rack, pulled on my NewtonDistance shoes and was off.  Felt pretty good most of the run, looking back on it I might have been able to push it a little harder, but I also might have blown up if I had done that.  Crossed the finish line and greeted my cheering section, everyone was happy to see me except Cami, who probably didn’t recognize me because I smelled to bad (at least that was Sakshi’s thought).  But after she recognized me she was very excited to see me too.

Thanks to TV displaying results almost immediately after you finish I was able to see I finished in 58:56, and was 4th, shortly after I came in a guy finished with a faster time and bumped me down to 5th, unfortunately he was also in my age so I was second in my age group).

Since it was a pool swim, awards weren’t for about 3 hours after I finished, which gave us time to stop at Wendy’s (quite possibly Sakshi’s favorite restaurant) for lunch.  The announcer was very surprised when only about half the award winners stayed around to collect them, I felt like yelling out that they finished 3 hours agao.

Overall I was very happy with the race and how smoothly the race went.  This time the 15 year old girl (Malia Ellington, who won the women’s race) didn’t beat me on the run as she did last race, she beat me on the swim and her total transitions were faster than mine.  

Maybe the most surprising thing about the entire race was how close my times were to Cool Breeze earlier in the month (I couldn’t have been this close across the board if I tried) click on the image to enlarge.

Pictures