I stayed over at my friend Mike Schimpf place with a few other guys. Mike was racing at 7:45am for the Olympic distance course so I got up early to drop off my transition stuff and watch him race. I ended up running into a few other people so I was hanging out a bit with different people and still trying to watch Mike at the different points in the course.
My race was to start at 11am so I made sure to get ready plenty early this time and set things up correctly. I felt pretty nervous earlier in the morning but I was feeling good as the start time approached. After LA the previous week, this swim should be a piece of cake. We started off as the first wave of the Sprint distance race and the swim seemed pretty good. I wasn't fast but I wasn't at the back of the wave like last year. I exited relatively close to the main pack and felt pretty good. Got through a speedy transition and started the bike ride. The wind and slightly rolling hills still got me this year but it went much better than last year's race. The aerobars were nice for the descents and straights, especially in the wind.
Finally, that was done and back to the transition area. This was my biggest hiccup for the day because I had trouble racking my bike because the bikes next to my spot were already there and there wasn't room for my bike. That took a little bit of time but I got it done and got quickly through the rest of the transition. I'd been toying with the goal of 1:15 but wasn't sure how realistic it was. I didn't know what to expect on the swim or bike but starting the run, it now looked achievable so I put the number in my head. I needed to run under 20 minutes or so for the 2 miles to hit 1:15. I felt slow on the run but okay. Last year I cramped horribly but this year I didn't feel that coming on. My biggest problem I think was not knowing exactly what my limits were. I didn't want to push to hard at the beginning for fear that I'd die at the end. I kept a steady pace which felt good but was still worried about the time. I just made sure not to slow down at any points, including on the hills, on the last mile. The run course has a quick detour up a hill before the finish line that I was fearing. It turned out to be barely noticeable after LA the week before. I had a few minutes to spare on the hill so after it I decided to push to the end. The end happened to be closer than I expect so I finished just over a minute ahead of my goal. I was even able to push pretty hard on the last 200 meters.
About a 25 minutes improvement over last year's time. Granted, the previous year went very badly but still it was a hefty improvement. Afterwards I rested a bit and then went to watch the pros do their swim and get on their bikes. When they were on their bikes, I went to clean up and come back to watch the finish. The 1st and 2nd place guys ran together for most of the run, but Chris McCormack pulled away on the last 1/4 mile to take another victory. That's 19 wins in a row in the US for him, crazy impressive. Anyway, a good fun day overall for me. Actually, quite a bit of hassle for 75 minutes of exercise but fun anyway.
| Swim | 00:08:50 | |
| Transition 1 | 00:02:21 | |
| Bike | 00:43:48 | 16.9 MPH |
| Transition 2 | 00:01:35 | |
| Run | 00:17:21 | 8:40 min/mile |
| Final Time | 01:13:55 |
Overall, 136 out of 324 in the Sprint distance event. 104 out of 165 among the men in the Sprint. 25 out of 31 in my age group. Nothing great but not bad either. And still a great improvement over last year.