Rain on Race Day - Boo! I woke up this morning to cloudy skies and some drizzle. A glance at the weather/radar map showed the current rain subsiding, but a second storm cell to hit in a few hours - right around our 8:30 AM start time.Oh well, I've raced in the rain before, so I headed out to Texas Motor Speedway to do the 6th Annual TMS Sprint Duathlon - my third time attending this event.
The race field was definitely sizeable - bolstered by collegiate teams from Texas Tech and Univ of North Texas. Ironhead Jack said that over 375 people had registered for the race. Some of them didn't show up - probably scared off by the weather - but there were still 300+ participants (301 finishers).
I got to TMS a little after 7:00 and ran into Lee and Serena heading to the transition area. Always nice to see my tri buddies! We got our bikes set up, picked up our timing chips, and relaxed a little in and around the transition area. On the next bike rack over, I was welcomed by Archie, whom I hadn't see in almost a year (since last year's St. Patrick's Day Tri). Melissa arrived a short time later and set up for her first multi-sport event. The standard pre-race meeting at 8:10 and then a little more waiting for the first wave to start.
Unfortunately, as feared, torrential rains (accompanied with thunder and lightning) hit around 8:25, but thankfully the start was delayed until 9:00. Aside from water on the course and a little wind, race conditions were almost perfect. No rain during the actual race. Very nice.
I crossed the finish line in 1:17:05 - 2 minutes & 42 seconds faster than my time from last year (which was already pretty darn good for me). I'm extremely happy with my performance - especially since my legs have felt so tired and sore the last few days. (I did an 8-mile run on Friday afternoon - my last longish training run for the Cowtown Marathon - and my legs just never seemed to recover from it).
My official results:
- 4th out of 21 in my age group
- 55th out of 205 men
- 59th place overall (out of 301 finishers)
- Run 1 (2 miles officially): 15:05 (7:33/mi, 143rd place)
- T1: 01:11
- Bike (16 miles officially): 44:20 (21.7mph, 43rd place)
- T2: 00:45
- Run 2 (2 miles officially): 15:43 (7:52/mi, 119th place)
Compared with last year, I was faster in every part of the race except for T1 - I took some extra time to ditch my long-sleeved DRC Half running shirt (got warm after the run and I needed to be more aerodynamic on the bike).
Here are my stats as recorded by my Garmin Forerunner 305 (split times very close to the official chip-timed results):
My average heart rate was 2 bpm lower than last year despite the faster finish time. Below is my heart rate and elevation stats for the race. I'm not sure why there is a crazy elevation fluctuation during the first run leg (between the 10 and 14 minute marks) and the heart rate spike at 12:00 (which means my max heart rate for the first run leg and overall should be 180 instead of 185).
Unlike last year, when Lee passed me at Mile 1.25 of Run 1 (because I had a 2:00 head-start on his wave), this year he passed me right at the start since we started in the same wave. I didn't feel great during Run 1 (or Run 2), so I was shocked to discover later that my run pace for both legs was my solidly faster than the last two years.
For the bike, I also felt that I wasn't pushing as hard as I should, so I was surprised that I shaved 1:24 off of last year's bike time. Part of it was probably due to the aero Louis Garneau Rocket Air helmet that I picked up a couple weeks ago on clearance. Nonetheless, I was very happy to have a strong bike performance considering that I haven't really ridden my bike since last October (see Monster Triathlon) aside from a few times around the block on Thursday.
The final run leg was also difficult but uneventful. As I rounded the final turn, I saw Lee, who had finished a little earlier; he shouted words of encouragement and jogged me in to the finish line. Done! After catching my breath, I did the same and cheered on Melissa and Serena as they worked on their Run 2 efforts.
So in the end, it was a day that didn't look that great for a race, but it all ended up quite well.
Congrats to Lee (who placed 3rd in our age group - I was in 4th, but finished over 4 minutes behind him so it wasn't even close :-P), Archie (3rd in his age group as well, and 31st overall), Claudia (3rd place in her age group in her first multi-sport event) and Melissa (also doing her multi-sport event).
Full results at: http://www.mychiptime.com/searchevent.php?id=4070
Next up: The Cowtown Marathon - my next 26.2 in only 6 days!
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