Willard Triathlon

A photo from the Du-Series I found last week on Facebook.

Just knocked out my first tri of the year. It was fun. I outdid my time from last year by nearly seven minutes. I was very pleased with that. Every aspect was faster this year including transitions. The back half of the bike leg seemed very slow to me, but it's terribly hilly. I seem to be better than many climbing, although I hate it. I like seeing the younger folks at these races. I wish I had taken up this sport at a younger age. Not that I would be better at it by now. But I could enjoy it for that much longer. It really is kind of a habit forming sport and there are some great folks involved in it. My time this year would have been good enough for me to place in my AG last year. It seems that everyone this year was faster. I noticed that attendance this year was slightly less than last year. I'm wondering if I'll do this one next year myself. It didn't seem very well supported. One big beef I had was the shirt situation. I know doing no one runs any of these races just to get the shirt, but at the same time I could hardly believe that all they had were small and X-large shirts. Post race snacks and drinks were kind of sparse as well. I'm considering the Tin Man for next June's race.

Du-Series #4 & MTB

Well, Don and I did the 4th race in the series Tuesday evening. I traded places with a woman on the race about five or six times. She and I finished within seconds of one another. She pushed me harder the entire way. This is why I like to compete even if I'm pretty far from turning in a winning time. Keeping track of times at the Du-Series is kind of a pain. It's done by stopwatch and pencil. I kept my own time on this race and I'm happy I did. I completed it in 1:09:43. Three minutes faster than last year. Any improvement from year to year is worth the training in my book.

I went on an MTB outing with Don last Thursday. It was hot, sweaty, dirty, rocky, hilly and awesome! I really enjoyed it even though I suffered through some of the hill climbs, had two flats, and slid down the ridges several times. MacGruderville as it's called, is a privately owned piece of land with eight miles of trail hacked out of the Mark Twain Forest. It's pretty challenging, and graded as "Intermediate" on an MTB website. I'm still working on my proficiency on these single-track routes. They are way different than road riding. One of the coolest things about this place is the owner has a cookout/campfire for post ride comradery. Beer is drunk, food consumed and stories swapped. I got in very late and stayed the night with my folks, which was a bit of a bonus in itself. Thanks for the invite Don.