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Over all today went well. I didn't hit my goal but I tried my best. It was a great experience. In the end I had fun.
There were some Murphy's law moments that I had to contend with that made it interesting and I contemplated quitting at one point.
So last night at about 7:30PM I am getting all my gear ready. I get everything organized packed up and ready to go. I get my bike wipe it down and check the air pressure in the tires. The back tire is low. I get out my little air compressor. Crank it up and go to put air in the tire. The nozzle doest fit the valve stem. It's not that low so I decide to just leave it alone. I go to put the valve cap back on and the stem breaks. Out comes all the air and I don't have another tube. It's now 8:30PM my bike guy is closed and the packet pick up area that had a bike service area is closed. It's a long shot but I ran to Walmart to see if they have a tube that would fit. No go but I did buy a hand pump. I decide to get the mountain bike ready just in case. The transition area opened at 5AM this morning. I was the first on there. I pick my spot and put the mountain bike in place.
The bike company doing service for the event showed up at about 5:15AM. I ask the guy if he has a 650 tube. He wasn't sure and says let me get set up and I'll look. By the time he got set up it was 5:45AM. He had one 650 tube. I ran back to my house and put my bike back together. I got back to transition at about 6:20AM and traded the bikes. Transition closed at 6:30AM.
The swim consisted of a 100 yard swim out to a marker a left turn 220 yards to the next turn marker and back to shore. There were roughly 1500 competitors today. From what I understand the start was a little unconventional. They started in groups of ten, ten seconds apart. The organizers stated this was for safety reasons. I was probably in the 15th or so starting group. From the start to the point where we entered the water was approximately a 100 yard run. I didn't kill myself getting to the water so not to tire myself out. There was a decent size swell creating some nice breakers. Which I was hoping for. Yesterday it was dead flat like a lake. What I wasn't prepared for was the other people. People not knowing how to get through the surf being pushed back into me. Being kicked and bumped while swimming. People stopping right in front of me to take a rest blocking my way. I watched the youtube videos and knew this happened what I didn't realize was how much energy this battle uses up. By the time I rounded the first buoy I was getting winded and frustrated. I cleared the marker and kept swimming. I keep lifting my head out of the water to see what was going on in front of me so I didn't swim up on people. This was very draining. As I passed the halfway marker I looked up to spot the next marker. "WHACK" some guy on his back doing a sort of backward butterfly smacked me in the face with his hand. I stopped swimming to regain my composure. As I was treading water a wave broke on me and I inhaled water and then another. Now I'm disoriented and gasping for air. I looked around and it was like the scene at the end of Titanic with all the people flailing around. I almost quit at this point. I composed my self and finished the swim. I was truly spent as I exited the ocean. I tried to run but as soon as I hit the soft sand my legs were like rubber. I walked through the sand about 100 yards.
I struggled a little putting on my shirt during transition. Being wet it stuck to my body. After that all went pretty smooth. I think my ride went pretty much as planned as did my run. I am not really sure what I could have done to change the swim. I can't think of any way to practice or prepare for what goes on. I guess you just learn how to deal with it by experience.
So I trained against the tenth place finishers time from 2012. which was.
Swim T1 Bike T2 Run Finish time
16:35 3:22 32:55 2:36 27:21 1:22:49
My time today is below. I finished 210 out of 440 males and 27th out of 60 45-49 years old males
13:20.1 4:49.6 31:21.3 3:00.1 27:14.4 1:19:45.5
This years 10th place male 45-49 time was
10:18.7 3:42.5 31:59.3 2:58.2 21:24.7 1:10:23.4
I have signed up for two more sprint Tri's. Atlantic City in September which is the same distance and run by the same organization that ran today's event and another in Morehead City in NC in October which is a 20 mile bike.
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