14 Days, 6 PRs

2011 is well underway with 4 multisport events already completed. After a less-than-stellar showing at the Texas Motor Speedway Duathlon, I hit my stride in March, scoring 3 top 5's at St. Patrick's, Mean Green, and Champions triathlon.

On the 13th, I jumped into the Keller pool at the start of the St. Patrick's tri and cruised through an uncomfortable 300m swim. Getting out onto the bike, I worked to maintain a decent place before the run. My 33:50 split was good for 11th on the day and set me up well going into the run. Not knowing my placing after the time trial start, I went out hard on the run looking to run in the 16:15 range. Still feeling good after a 5:11 opening mile, I tried to press to catch the runner up ahead. Nearing the turn around only two more guys were ahead on the road. At 4K I continued to push, passing former teammate Brian Miller. Kicking hard with 200 to go, I kept a solid effort through the line to split 16:18, the fastest run ever at the St. Patrick's Triathlon and an outright PR. My total time of 56:32 claimed 4th, just 56 seconds behind the race winner.

A week later we were in Denton for the UNT hosted Mean Green Triathlon, OSU teammate Lucas Shannon making the trip from Amarillo. With the wind howling, I knew I was in for a tough bike. What I should have been worried about was the swim. A seeding snafu caused some ordering issues, placing me 45th into the water with the small field of 200. This wasn't right. After six minutes of struggling, taking kicks in the face and head on collisions, I exited the pool, frustrated and checking my mouth for blood. I headed out on the bike (on a sweet Orbea Ordu I have on lend) and flew through the opening section, riding the 20+ mph tailwind. Five miles later, the struggling began as side and head winds hindered my ride, losing 3:17 to eventual race winner Dustin Joubert of A&M. I took off fast on the run once again, pushing hard all the way to the line in another PR: 16:09, which moved me into 5th position overall, but only 3rd in my age group. Lucas, meanwhile, had a fantastic day himself, posting an 18:37 5K and taking 19th overall and 1st in the 16-19 age group.

The next Friday, Lucas and I drove down to Pflugerville with our teammate Michael Mansfield for the first Olympic distance race of the year (and ever for Lucas). This race brought a great opportunity to get in the open water and go head to head with some of the A&M athletes once again. After leading for the first of two 750m loops in the swim, I was passed by a couple of athletes and left behind as they cut off some buoys on the way in to shore. Not letting the gap get to me, I hit it hard on the bike and split 1:07:30 for the 41.7K course. Despite being one of my best rides ever (and on a windy and rolling course), I had a big deficit to make up on the two athletes up the road, Scott Wilkinson and Dustin Joubert. Splitting 16:27 at 5K I cut significantly into the gap. Seeing Dustin not far up the road motivated me to keep the pace high even though fatigue was setting in. Passing him around four miles I continued to press. I wilted over the final mile but still finished with a 10K time of 33:47, a new PR. A total time of 2:08:30 was a PR as well after scaling the time down to account for the long bike leg, and good enough for second overall. Lucas had a great finish coming in around 2:19, and Michael had a good day as well at 2:46.

The very next day marked the final two PRs of the two week span. Doing a sprint tri relay with Steve Wood and Bart Robbins, I raced to a 5K time of 15:50.5, with a negative elevation first mile split of 4:48.8. We won easily over the other relay divisions.

Now it's time to look toward Nationals on April 9th, the first big race of the year!