End of the season

I raced my last triathlon of the summer yesterday. Since the last entry I raced in the Tiger-Tri in Republic, and the Mountain Man in Branson. That's a total of five sprints and one Duathlon for the summer. I have enjoyed almost every grueling minute.

Republic Tiger Tri- This was a very well organized race that fielded nearly four hundred athletes. Chris my neighbor Dennis and I rode over together. I had a good race. I knocked off about 45 seconds off of my time from Willard. I was a bit faster on the swim, but T1 and T2 were not as fast as they could have been. The ride course was advertised as "Flatter and Safer than last year". I would hate to have seen last years course. This course was not flat at all. But, what do you expect for this area. I had ridden part of the course on a training ride the previous week, so I was prepared. The run was pretty uneventful, and I did okay with an 8:24 pace. At the end they had Popsicles, my favorite post race treat, and pizza. Dennis managed to win third in his age group.

Mountain Man- This was a tough race and the longest of my season. Many of the participants of this race are prepping for the 70.3 in September. I wish them all luck. I did about as expected in the swim and my transitions went fairly well. The bike was the hardest ride I've ever done. One huge hill right right at the beginning, a long slow climb, followed by a short steep climb. The downhills were thrilling with speeds approaching 45mph. Everyone I saw was slowed to a walking pace several times by the challenging hills this course provided. The run was equally hilly and difficult. I had the worst 5k of my life I think. Pace was over 10 min. I don't know if it was the hilly course, or following a difficult bike, but I started cramping about halfway on the run. This was something new for me. I probably needed to hydrate better than I did for such a long race. One thing that was a little distressing and cost me some time was getting to the second aid station and finding they were out of cups. By this time I really needed water. I wound up grabbing a discarded cup to get a good drink. This alleviated the cramping for a while, but I still had to walk portions of the last half mile. This was along fairly steep up hill. By the time I got to the finish, I was about locked up. More water and some massage and I was okay. It was a fun race even with the difficulties. My friends Chad and Zach, and Dennis each won prizes for placing in their age groups. Congrats fellas.

It's been a terrific season. I want to do all of the same races again next year. I think I can improve on all aspects of my game. I'm done swimming for a while, but I'll stay on the bike to cross-train and switch to running farther to begin training for the half marathon in November. We'll see how training goes. My goal next year is to do the Concrete-Man long course. With that goal in mind, I'll have to train harder, but I should have a better base from which to start.