Wool Capital: Finding My Inner Cyclist

Finally I'm back in the game. Aside from a sub-par swim, I found myself on form at Wool Capital after a string of less than glistening performances.

After a good running warmup, I found myself a little late for a swim warmup. There was a prerace meeting the night before, so one race day was unexpected and just as I got my feet wet, athletes were called out of the water. I tried to get through as many arm rotations as possible to get everything going. Starting in the 3rd of three waves, I was 9 minutes behind the 40+ guys and 4 minutes behind the 30-39s. I started off probably a little too conservatively and didn't get any feet to follow because everyone took different paths to try to get through the curving swim course. Coming out in 25:30, I was a little disappointed but felt better than I did after going over 26 in Waco.

I got onto the bike and felt good right away. The first mile out the park was with the wind and I used that to get into a comfortable rhythm before facing a headwind the rest of the way to the turnaround. I stayed calm and pushed hard, past the level I am usually willing to go, knowing that a non-priority race is the place to try things out. After 29:30 of riding the leader passed me in the opposite direction, telling me I was probably closer than the 9 minute starting gap. At just over 32 minutes I passed Will Brewer who is in my age group, signaling that he was probably the leader of the race. To my shock, I came up on the turnaround in just over 33 minutes, giving me hope up going under 1:03 if I could ride the wind to its full potential.

I swung around the turn cone and quickly went up to speed, passing a couple guys right away to put me in 16th on the road. Flying faster than I ever thought possible for 20K I came into 2nd transition in 1:02:49, a 40 second PR for 40K, and moved myself into 15th. Posting one of the top transitions of the race, I passed two more people on the way out and got into a groove right away. I had no idea how far behind I was so I just had to push hard and hope for the best.

I cruised along the "Dirt Road From Hell," passing its many victims along the way. At 18:08 into the run (the course was out-and-back but not the same distance, still totaling 10K though) I passed Will who had already passed everyone that started in front of us. I got to the turnaround a minute later telling me there was hope if he wilted, and even better, I was 2nd in the race even though I was 7th on the road. I continued to push the pace as hard as I could until I reached 4 miles and started to really feel the ride and tough pace and hills of the run. I fell to about 6:30 pace the last couple miles but still posted the 2nd fastest run split with 38:28, ten seconds slower than Will. I crossed the line 4th but still finished 2nd in the end with a total time of 2:08:05, an Olympic Distance PR by more than 4 minutes!

I'm fired up right now and ready for some more racing. I know I'm fit right now and I can only get better as the countdown to the U.S. Open continues. The homestretch of the season is here and I'm ready!