Athens Tri 2010

Another race has come and gone this season. The Athens Triathlon in Athens, Texas was my first tri of the year. Looking back I can't really be too disappointed in my results, but I definately wasn't happy with my performance. Overall I took 14th out of 300+ competitors and was 4th out of 24 in the 25-29 age group. The week had been pretty stressful already after some stuff going down at work with some repeat idiot basketball players as well as my bike deciding to not want to work on me on Wednesday. Anyhow, on Friday I ended up getting off of work late, having to throw my gear into the car, and then fly to Athens before 9:00 PM to pick up my race packet or else get disqualified. Stupid rule for a Saturday race, but what could I do. Later that night it took me over an hour and a half to get to sleep after trying to get something resembling a late dinner in and then I woke up several times during the night. After waking I had my usual oatmeal for breakfast and headed to the Cain Center for the race. After getting a light jog in with a friend from work, Marc Noble, I headed to get a warm-up swim in to be rudely told by the USAT Official to head upstairs and not get in the water. Then I listened to a long spiel about the rules and such by the race director as everyone wasted any time they may have spent in getting a warm-up. Once we lined up numerically for the start we had to wait another 10 or 15 minutes for the pool level to be lowered. Fiiinally I had my chance to enter the water and quickly realized how ill-prepared I was for this swim. I didn't do flip-turns for the first few laps nor did I take long and powerful strokes as I had planned. I finished up the 300 Meter swim in 5:07 (ranked 58th overall) and headed to T1 and was out in 0:52. I then had a pretty good flying mount onto my bike already in my tri shoes and took off around the corner onto the chip-sealed S. Palestine Street. The road was still like this for the first mile or so of the loop as well and then we had a very nice, smooth shoulder to ride on until the same point on the way back. For the 13.8 miles I averaged 21.0 MPH on the bike (25th ranked) and reached 38.7 MPH at one point down a long hill just before the turn-around point. Noble and I had our turns playing tag before the turn-around after the point at about the first mile of the bike leg. I even yelled out at him once "Tag, you're it!" and another time "I want your wheels back!" He was gracious enough to let me borrow his Zipp 1080 race wheels for the duathlon two weeks earlier and was using them during the Athens tri. My legs never did feel all that great during the race, but I didn't fuel myself adequately the night before and think that was a result of not doing so. Then I had a good flying dismount and tried to run on the painful parking lot surface and finished up T2 in 0:45. My first mile went by in 6:11, the second was at 12:52, and then I finished up the 5K with a disappointing 19:20 (13th ranked), but did have a pretty good kick on the last stretch in the somewhat muddy grass. I then ate some food my father had brought and went up to the gymnasium to get an Active Release Techniques session to work on my right arch and left IT Band/Glute with chiropractor Lezlie Maloy. Then I went back outside to enjoy the uncommonly beautiful day for this event and great overall atmosphere of the athletes as the others finished up their runs. Considering where I was at this point last year I can't be too disappointed and look forward to resting up my slight injuries and racing the rest of the 2010 season!
I'd like to thank my parents for their everlasting love and support of me in this great sport, my friend William Ritter (Nice 7th place finish!) for hooking me up with a place to stay down there, and for the awesome friends I have met through the sport.