Star Triathlon Race Report

The Star Triathlon is held here in town at the Rec Center, less then 5 miles from my house. It is a sprint, 200 yard swim, 14 miles bike, and 3.1 mile run. This didn't really match my training plan of a 2500 yard swim and a 3 hour bike but I just couldn't skip this race. I knew my legs would be tired from Fridays run, I just figured I would take a public stomping and move on.

Friday morning I ran 13.5 miles in 2:10:55. That 55 seconds is what it took for me to get home. I was having some stomach issues and knew it would get messy if I stopped and walked.

Friday evening I got a voice mail from Lana telling me that I had a good shot at overall female. She would be there to cheer and expected to see me win. Now I had pressure.

So I got up Saturday morning and rode my bike the 4.85 miles to the rec center. I racked next to Tim. I got my transition area set up and got body marked. Then my other buddies started showing up. Amy and her son, Will then Eric, who was doing his first ever tri There were a lot of first timers there and Tim and I did our best to answer any questions. It was fun to see all these new people getting excited about triathlons.
I handed my camera off to Don, who was volunteering not racing. He became my official photographer.
I had mailed in my registration and it did not have a place for estimated swim time. So I got stuck in the back. They were letting people move up but I decided to stay put and went it at the very end. I think there were 4 or 5 people behind me.When I got to the mat for my turn to go in the water, I did ask for a few extra seconds so that I would have a little space. I took me the first 25 yards before I caught up to the swimmer ahead of me. I ended up passing quite a few people in the pool and got smacked in the head once in the process. I pulled myself out of the water after the 200 yards and headed off to T1.200 yard swim 3:44
In T1 I put on my helmet and shoes, grabbed my bike and was outta there. T1 0:53
Now the real chase was on. The bike starts with a few turns in town then an out and back on the highway. In town I had to get past several people while making turns and trying to stay out of their draft zones. I got to the highway. Usually the wind would be a tailwind going out and a headwind coming in. I am hammering along and only seeing speeds of 17, 18, 19 mph. I told myself this is not going to win the race. I continued to try to pick up the pace and chase people down. I finally saw the leader coming back in. Tim was in 3rd and I cheered him on. I looked for women and once I saw three I ahead of me I stopped counting. Right before the turn I saw a female in a blue top heading back, I set my next goal to catch her. I made the turn and tried to catch her. I realized then that the wind was backwards. Now I was seeing much better speeds but still could not catch the girl in blue. I tried but she made it back to transition just ahead of me. 14 mile bike 41:33, 20.2 average.In T2 the girl in blue sat down to put on and tie her shoes while I just slipped my on and was out of there ahead of her. T2 0:44
I was really feeling my Friday long run by this point but I was running on my home turf. I run this route all the time. I made it to about the one mile marker before I saw the first female. I looked at my watch intending to time how much of a lead she had on me. I grabbed a quick drink and went to the turn around. There were only 3 females ahead of me and I passed one of them right after the turn around. Now I knew if I could just hold pace I would finish in the top 3. I forgot to check my watch again to time the lead of the lead female. I made it to the final turn and there was Lana. I said 'There are two ahead of me right??" She said "I think so". I said "I went in last". She said "Well you might have them, push it". I gave my final push to the finish. 3.1 mile run 22:42, 7:18 pace.
Total race time 1:09:34
Hung around the finish talking and cheering in the rest of the racers.
I took my bike inside and went out back to find the official results. I couldn't even get near the results so I grabbed a few orange slices and chatted. Then Lana walked up and told me congratulations I did it 1st place overall female!!! I couldn't believe I did it.
I got a super cool transition bag and a medal.
Everyone did awesome.
Will got first age group
Tim got first age group
Eric got third age group
Amy got first age group

After everyone collected their medals, I went back to the pool. I swam my required2500 yards. I thought about counting the 200 from the race but I need all the time in the water I can get.
Then I got my bike and asked them to hold my new backpack at the front desk. Riding home with one bag was enough. I took the extra long way home for an additional 2 hours to get total ride time for the day to 3 hours.

Totals for the week
swim 5200 yards
bike 105.7 miles
run 29.79 miles