Sunday, July 26, 2009

Music City Triathlon RR

This weekend I headed up to Nashville for the Music City Triathlon. It was a good opportunity to hang out with Paulo while also getting in a solid effort with friends. Coming into it off a pretty hard week I wasnt sure how it was going to turn out. Regardless, I was still looking forward to the race as after having only raced 70.3s this year, I was ready for the Olympic Distance.

Swim (20:34, 3rd): With the TT start I was the 4th to jump in the river and immediately tried to catch one of the two guys in front of me, as I knew catching teammate "First Out of the Water" Bruce Gennari (who started first) would be all but impossible. Unfortunately they both swam away from me pretty quickly initially but about a third of the way through I finally caught one. No one from behind caught me so I exited the swim in 3rd.

Bike (1:02:19 including T1 + T2, 2nd): I felt a little sluggish at the beginning but after passing the 2nd place guy around mile 4, I finally got into my grove around mile 8 or so. The bike was a two lap out and back course so by this time we had gone through the first turnaround and I noticed Bruce was about a minute ahead of me. I had heard he was about 50 sec up out of the water, so I figured we were riding about the same speed. Coming back into transition, Paulo alerted me Bruce was about 50 sec ahead, so I figured we were riding about the same pace. I felt a lot better on the second lap and really tried to focus and lessen the time gap to Bruce. With about a mile to go, I sped past Bruce but as I went by I heard, "Got a flat." Always a bummer.

Run (34:45, 2nd): Heading out on the run, I felt fine but was still worried (due to the TT start) that maybe I wasnt actually in first place. I ran the first lap of the run alone and and then Paulo gave me time gaps to a couple of people both of which were fairly substancial. At that point I was feeling pretty confident about the win so I cruised the second lap and that was that.

Still a little worried, I was relieved when the RD finally announced the OA awards. All in all, this was a really cool race. The start and finish was at LP Field (where the Titans play) and the run course cut through downtown Nashville which provided a cool urban setting.

Results can be found here

5 comments:

K80 said...

Congrats Andrew! I'm so proud!

Cyber Stalker said...

Wow! Who Knew! Congrats Andrew nice work.

Unknown said...

Way to go Andrew..sounds like a fun day!

alyssa said...

Way to get the W!!! Awes job.

Looking at it now do you think the TT start was any help? I agreed with your initial musings that "you should all just do a swim/bike/run and send your time in" but maybe being able to relax and just focus on yourself is actually the best thing in a race? Thoughts?

Andrew said...

It is definitely a good idea to "focus on yourself" regardless of whether its a TT start or mass start because you cant control what others will do. Also, most of the time the TT start vs mass start really wont make much difference in the OA finishing places as they just usually arent that close.

However, if the race is close, it is exciting to see someone you are catching (or who may be catching you) out on the course while you are racing as opposed to just visualizing him or her in your head. Endurance sport is largely mental so seeing that person can be the extra motivation you need to push that little bit harder. On the other hand, if the race isnt close, its nice knowing in that last mile that you dont have to dig really deep. This way you can just maintain your pace and dont have to kill yourself for the next week of training.

So yeah, good point, but I'll still take a real race any day of the week! :)