When I heard Rev3 was posting a race in the Northwest I knew I wanted to be racing at their event. I was excited to race a tough hard course that featured downtown Portland. When I was notified that the course was changed to a flatter course I originally was not excited. But this disappointment soon changed. I realized that I have never raced a fast course like this and it would be something new, offering a great test for me. I am going to keep this blog short.
The swim-31:41
- My swim skin from blue seventy was great!
- The water felt awesome and I was not cold at all.
- Ok yes my swim was a disaster :)
- I better get back into the pool.
- Due to my slow swim I spent the majority of the bike alone.
- The first lap of the course felt great, but half way through the second lap I was ready to get off the bike and start running.
- I tried to ride within myself, and set myself up for a solid run.
- I actually liked how you could always see your competition at every turn around.
- Yes I know what you are thinking, How short was that course? I asked other pro's who wore Garmin watches and most had exactly 13 miles, so we were about .1 short.
- I ran with my Garmin watch for the first time ever in a race to pace myself, and yes I will probably be doing this in the future :).
- I have never felt so relaxed and happy while running in a triathlon.
- I am thrilled with this effort and I feel like I have now started to run at a level I feel I am capable of.
I would like to give a huge thanks to Mike and the crew and Blue Seventy for helping me get a swim skin for the race, Gu Energy supplied me with all my nutrition for the race and all I can say is I didn't feel anywhere close to bonking. I would also like to thanks Manny and the crew at Fitness Finatics for letting me borrow a disk wheel for the race.
Here are some photos from race day
Here are some photos from race day
6 comments:
Killer day Josh, bike was no faster than troika but a lot more dull ;) 1:11 is sick! Not many people around can touch that, a feat on ANY course!
Nice job Josh! I expect even faster runs from you this season. Just a tip though. It's okay to wait 3 seconds after finishing to hit your watch. It'll give you the chance to smile for your finish line photo :)
Although the numbers I heard wouldn't put that run over 12.8 miles, two things are certain ... you had the fastest run regardless of the distance and it was still INCREDIBLY fast. I'd take that as an open time any day. As hard as you work, the swim will continue to improve and let that run put you closer and closer to the sharp end of the race.
Also, I don't mean the 12.8 as a slight against you or your time. I'm just a bit obsessive with numbers. Even so, it would be a VERY short list of athletes who could have run the split you did. It's scary fast and I have to say I'm jealous ;0)
Michael, look thru the other pro splits there are right about where there normally are, at works case it would be a minute off, I too had a garmin on and it definitely said more than 12.8. Look at Jesse Thomas , he ran 1:13 at wildflower which is a whole lot tougher and ran a 1:11 here too..so not saying it was dead on but I am saying it's easy to do the math but being that he out ran several guys who have been running 1:14-15 this year I would say it's damn close and he just maybe one of those few guys. For racers some days just workout perfectly, and joshs run may have been that for him, 1:11 or not he showed he can out run most of the pro field and no math needed ;) since I am allergic to math
I wish you could compare courses and splits like that, despite distances, course difficulty and conditions varying like they do. All you can really compare is ranking and gaps by percentage. We now have an alleged sub 29:00 10K and a sub 1:09:00 half marathon in a triathlon. Too good to believe.
That would be a fun research project for an article. It's hard to know what's possible and probable. At least we know who the really fast guys are and that Josh outran one of the fastest. You can't take that away no matter how pessimistic I am regarding course accuracy.
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