The Woo Will Tri!: Race Report – TrySports Asheville Triathlon – Part 5

RUN:

After leaving transition, there is a short but steep climb around the parking lot, then down and across the bridge. I felt okay, though I was a little worried after I’d worked a little harder in the bike than planned. My legs were heavy, though I wasn’t hurting at all.

As I was plodding along, I knew I was only running about a 10:00 pace. I wanted to pick that up, as sub 9:00 was my “outstanding day” goal, but no matter how much I willed my legs to move faster, they just didn’t.

I was smiling, having a great time, not winded, heart rate was reasonable in the mid-160s, and I knew I’d have absolutely no problem finishing. I was talking to people who were coming back in. I got passed by a couple fast dudes. No problem there, I was expecting it. Then I got passed by a kid with an 11 on his calf. Yep, he was 11 years old. Damn. And this wasn’t like he crept by me. He blew my doors off.

I saw HilWoo about 1.25 miles into my run coming in on the bike. She looked great! And I was relieved as well. She’s strong on the bike, but was riding her mountain bike and on those hills I just didn’t know how she’d fare. Needless to say, she was awesome, and had a great bike split. It was fun to see her and get to yell encouraging things!

I hit the turnaround point, and headed for home. If I was going to turn it up in the run it needed to happen now, in the last 1.5 miles. It didn’t. I just couldn’t move these massive legs any faster.

Shortly after the turnaround, I got chicked (triathlon term for when a man gets passed by a woman) for the 2nd time of the day. The first was in the pool, but it sure stung the ego more on the run. That said, I was running SO SLOW that I wasn’t surprised.

This was also the point where a lanky guy running quite fast passed me. He had an “N” on his calf. Argh! He was a novice, and had started behind me in the swim, so I knew now that I was no longer leading the novice group. I still wanted to finish strong, but up to that point I thought I might have a chance of winning the novice category. Oh well.

As I neared the bridge, I picked up the pace every so slightly, and wanted to finish looking strong, even if it was slow. The finish was back up the hill in the parking lot, then down the other side of the pool. The announcer read our names and hometown, and plugged Greenwood as the triathlon mecca of the Southeast, which it is.

I finished with a smile on my face and completely upright – it was an AWESOME feeling.

Official Run Results:
30:41
Male Novice Rank: 11/13
Overall Male Rank: 93/123
Clydesdale Rank: 7/10

End Result: The run was WAY too slow. I’d hoped to run it in around 27:00, and even that is a slow time. I know what I have to work on – getting that run down under 25:00 is the key for future races.

OVERALL OFFICIAL RESULTS:
1:19:30
Male Novice Rank: 2/13
Overall Male Rank: 65/123
Clydesdale Rank: 4/10

EPILOGUE:

It was an incredible day. I can’t describe how much fun I had. The race went well. I had set out some goals before heading to Asheville. My “the race couldn’t go better and there were no hiccups and I surprised myself” time was 1:15:00. My “good effort, nothing crazy special, but solid all the way through” time was 1:25:00. And finally, my “drowned in the pool, hit the wall in mile 1 of the bike, and limped through the 5k” time was 1:35:00.

Considering I hadn’t seen the bike course, and likely would have revised those times upwards some, 1:19:30 was an excellent day. I can shave 30 seconds to a minute off of my total transition time, and I think I could have shaved another :45 to a minute off the bike if it weren’t for the “car in the way” problems.

Finding a way to run faster will definitely improve my overall performance. But, my ultimate goal at this point is running a half-ironman distance race next year, and slow is okay when running a half marathon at the end of a race rather than a 5k.

I’m planning on racing in the Greenville Sprint Traithlon in August, so hopefully I can bring that 5k time down quite a bit by then.

In the end, it was an awesome, awesome day, and I’m so happy I was able to do it – and be there with HilWoo as well. She was incredible, running her race in 1:32:22 and absolutely killing people in the bike while smiling all the way through. She’s awesome that way.

So, I’ll leave a few pictures at the end here just to sum up the day, and if they put up official race photos I’ll link to those later. There is a photo-spread in the Asheville paper here that has some photos, though we're not in any of them. Thanks for reading to the end!