Just the numbers
Race Date: 7/16/2011
.5 mile swim: 15:36 pace 1:56/100 yards
12 mile bike: 31:51 pace 22.61 mph
3.1 mile run: 20:47 pace 6:42 min/mile
Finish Time: 1:10:26
Pre-Race Thoughts
I decided to race the Hayden Lake Tri at the last minute. I considered doing the Tiger Tri, but the drive to Colville and the additional cost for the registration lead me to the Hayden Tri. This race was STACKED. I say this for a couple of reasons. First, Brian Hadley, a local professional triathlete who placed fourth overall at the CDA Ironman, was racing and so was Derek Garcia who is another local athlete/Kona qualifier. I was actually looking forward to see Hadley and Garcia go at it. In my age group Ken Collins (team mate) was racing, he did 4 Ironman races last year alone, wow! Additionally, while I was getting my stuff ready in transition, I noticed A LOT of Ironman tattoos on the back of calves and a lot of IM CDA finisher hats on both men and women. This was a small town triathlon with big city talent! :-)
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| Tri-fusion team mates from left: Dave, Jeremy, Natalie, Russ, Amy and Rene |
The Swim
I could barely hear the countdown and the horn went off kind of sudden. This swim was in Hayden Lake, a half mile clock wise loop. In my wave were males 25-40 (I believe). I ran and dived in and started swimming away. I got kicked on the right side of the head then on the left! What??!! My left goggle moved and a little water got in. I kept swimming to see if I would have to stop and drain it or I would be able to continue swimming. It seemed to be OK so I continued. After about a hundred yards we dispersed a bit and I was able to swim comfortably. I tried to draft, but the guy in front of me was swimming too slow. I moved ahead and multiple times I was bumping into people on the left and right. As I was getting closer to the beach I noticed I over shot (swimming more yards) and had to angle myself to get back on course. I got to the beach and as I started running I was falling over to the right and losing my balance. I quickly gained my composure and started to run toward transition. I saw Melissa with her video camera and gave her a thumb up as I passed.
The Bike
I knew I lost some time in the swim, but didn’t know how much. As I was leaving transition I couldn’t get my peddles clipped on! I tried about 3 times and finally was ready to go. Once I turned on to Government way I noticed a pretty good head wind going on. I tried to stay as aero as possible and kept my cadence up. My heart was pounding and I was breathing real heavy. The head wind lasted to mile six, then on the way back we were flying! Before the turn around I could see that Ken Collins was way ahead of me and I also saw Dave Erickson. I was passing people the whole time then there was one fellow who was passing back and forth near the end. We both reached transition at the same time. I skidded in, jumped off my bike and did what I needed to.
The Run
My legs felt good and I felt great coming out of the gate! I looked at my Garmin and I was going faster than I wanted to. I slowed myself down and was cruising. There weren’t many people in front of me except Dave. I saw him turn around a few times to see who was behind him and how fast they were coming. I think I caught him somewhere around mile one. After I passed him I didn’t see ANY other racers in front of me the rest of the race. Once I turned the corner on Honeysuckle Ave I sprinted as fast as I could to the finish line. Surprisingly I thew my arms up at the finish, maybe because I still had that Ironman finish engrained in my head?
The crowd was great and were cheering along the last stretch and finish line. Lots of energy near the finish. I picked up a water and went over to cheer my team mates on. Natalie and Amy were still on the course. Natalie came around the corner with about four or five people within striking distance, I yelled “Catch him Natalie!! Goooooo!!” as the rest of the folks cheered. She picked up her pace and passed them all. Amy came around the corner a little later with a big smile on her face (I was standing with her sister and husband Jeff). I grabbed her water bottle so she could finish the race without carrying it. She picked up her pace and finished strong. It was Amy’s first triathlon and I was happy to see she had a great experience.
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| The Finish |
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| Third place in age group |
Dave Erickson interviewed a few of us triathletes after the race, I was babbling about being kicked in the swim. :-) I am also in the race footage they took. The footage shows me approaching T1 after the swim, coming off the bike and my run finish. Thanks Dave and Melissa from SwimBikeRunVideos.com for the footage!
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