My sister who lives in Sydney AUS is back in NC for the month of July. This afforded me an excuse to make the trip back to where I started racing triathlons to see her, my niece and nephew (who woke me up from my nap & is now out of my will, tough lesson to learn at 11months but better now then never, sorry dude), Mom, Dad, Nana and Granddad. My sister also happened to have the good sense to come back when I could get in a race.
I started back in triathlon in 1988, here in NC. In 1989 I raced in my first elite wave. 20 years later, I tee’d it up in the open division. Some of the same people I raced back then are still racing open now. Us old dudes still have some get up and go, not a lot but enough to teach the young bucks a lesson or two. Pretty good race overall, googles didn’t leak one bit during warm up and immediately filled with water once the gun went off. I think they filled with water before I even got into the water. Swim went ok, non wet suit, I rode my friend’s Stacey’s feet most of the way, I didn’t feel great but I’m chalking that up to not swimming since Monday due to travel. Decent T1, only got passed by 2-3 people on the long run to the bikes. Bike went well, lost my bottle right off the bat. No liquid refreshment for me on the 17 mile bike. Just as good though as I was having heartburn from everything I ate and drank this morning for some reason. Good ride, took me a loooong time to catch the train. Finally got on after chasing for 10+ miles and moved through it up a long hill. The train broke into 2 parts, 3 of us dropping the other three. I was pretty happy to catch on, it’s hard dangling 50-100m off the back of what started as 1 guy then became 2, then 3 and eventually grew to 5 guys and keep them from pulling away. The pace was fairly high though, so I got lucky that they weren’t rotating through. The stronger rides were at the front and the weaker riders were in back. Had they been attacking and rotating through, their pace would have been higher. I probably wouldn’t have made it on. Rolled off the bike in 5th place. Passed one person in T2, and tried to run with 3rd place leaving transition. After 1km he had put ~:05 on me, then he put another :20 on me to the mile mark. Found out later he is a 15:0Low 5k guy and a 69:00 half marathon dude, so no matter what, my running is not going to keep contact with him. He disappeared in that .4 mile, way out of sight. Was able to claw back some time on the guy who ended 3rd OV but not enough to move onto the podium. Pretty happy with 4th OV, didn’t know what to expect since I haven’t raced a tri in NC in 10+ years. For those interested in power NP was 270 AP 260. Here is a link to the results: http://www.setupevents.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=event_results&id=1377
I could really use a nap right now, but with an 11month old and a 2.5yr old running around the house making noise, I don’t see it happening. Good thing I got 3hr and 20 min of sleep last night. Tonight I’m taking an above recommended dose of Lunesta and going to sleep..hopefully for 10 hours. Maybe a nap on the plane tomorrow, hopefully there won’t be any noisy kids around me when I try to sleep on the plane.