Monday, September 15, 2008

Black Diamond Olympic Triathlon


I have never done an Olympic distance race before, and this was only my second triathlon, so as much as I really wanted to set lofty goals, I only allowed myself to stick with one. This one goal I allowed myself to have was finish the race! As some of you know I have been hurt most of the summer and not able to race, but after quite a bit of persuading I was off to black diamond. Leading into this race I had not been swimming, barely running, but getting some good cycling training in, so the swim and run made me very nervous.

I was standing in the water with my nerves on end and then the race got underway. Right from the start there was allot of contact, I got hit hard a couple of times(once in a bad place to get hit) and took some big gulps of water. Even with all the contact I stayed very calm. I think the fact that I was getting hit, and hitting people made me forget all about how tired I was, and the fact that I haven't been swimming lading into this race. I even got some good drafting done on the swim which was excellent. I expected my swim to be anywhere from 30-35 min and when I got out of the water I had no idea what my time was I just ran as fast as I could to transition, and headed out on the bike. It turns out I swam a 28:59 which was way below my expectations, and I was more than happy with this time.

Swim: 28:59

T1 went fairly well I had a little bit of a hard time getting my wetsuit off, and I still made the rookie mistake of forgetting to un-Velcro my shoes. But this is why you race to learn from past mistakes.

T1: 2:12

The day before I thought up a plan for the bike, and as I hoped on my bike and headed out of transition, I did not follow my plan. My plan was to take the first couple miles easy to get my legs under me, and ease into my ride. But me being me I took off as fast as I could. The whole ride I just focused on who was ahead of me, and when I would pass people I would look and see if they were in my race. The bike was not as flat as I expected it to be, but that is ok. I pushed my hardest and rode a 1:03:26 I was more than happy with this time.

Bike 1:03:26

T2 went fine, it wasn't very fast, but eventually I will get there.

T2:1:03

Now it was onto the part that I enjoy best, the run. Leading into this race I have not been able to run too much, and don't know where my run fitness is at. From the start of the run I ran hard, I ran hard the whole race, and just picked off competitors one by one. I really liked this run course I do not know why, but I just enjoyed it. I pushed most of my run, and at the end kicked it into the finish. Later on I found out I ran a 37:14, I was not to happy about this because I know I am capable of faster.

Run 37:14
Overall time:2:13:01

Overall I was happy with my race it was only my second triathlon, and it was my first triathlon at the Olympic distance, I got 5th overall, and got first in my age group. I learned allot of things that I will remember for the next race. I would like to thank Matt Cusack, and Jessie Sullivan for convincing me to race, and also helping on and before race day with all my questions on where I should place things, and many other newbie questions I had. I would also like to thank Rodger Mckeon for the ride to the race. Phaedra was aslo racing, and rocked her race placing 4th overall, with not much training I might add.


4 comments:

Steve said...

Nice work. The triathlon world better watch out. You are getting faster and faster. Keep up the nice work.

Trish said...

Congrats on a great race Josh! Way to step it up and tackle an olympic distance for your second triathlon! What's next...half ironman? I liked your goal for the race. My goal my first season of racing was "Don't die...just finish!" Keep up the stellar racing!

Matt said...

Great race josh! You were flying out there. Glad ya came over with us. well..

LORIE said...

I just found you through MWB. Nice blog. Congrats and welcome to the world of Triathlons. Perhaps I will meet you at the end of the year party. Nice work!