I will call this a race report. I competed in the "fun" high school cross country team triathlon. This is the fourth or fifth year they have done it. Some of the athletes I use to coach are still on the high school team. My high school coach is still there, after 21 years.
We started at the Spanish Fork reservoir. It was a 7 AM start time and it was windy. I had my nice cosy full wetsuit on, and few others had a wet suit. Last year they started the race as I sat on the pot so I got a 2 min late start. That did not happen this year. I think I swam about 90 seconds faster than I usually do. I felt pretty good and was leading after the first minute. I come out of the water 57 seconds in front of second place, an dad who is a triathlete.
I did go for socks on transition. I took a few luxuries, since I figured I was going to beat them anyway. We went zooming down the hill and traveled along the highland canal road. It is a dirt road so I had to use my $100 Walmart mountain bike instead of the tri bike. I did not have clips for my feet so it was a different pedal stroke for me since I could not lift at all. I ave. 16 mph on the dirt road. We finished at Mt. Loafer elem and dropped the bike and switched the garmin over to running from bike mode. The run course is 2.5 miles on the Salem Days course. I was please with how good I felt on the run. I hit a 6:00 mile then a 6:05. It is down hill but the second mile was not a lot of down hill. Came in feeling good and 6 min ahead of the field. I have taken first place all three times I have competed in this event. I am not sure if I had the fastest split on the run. We there were some good runners, but I am not sure how they competed after the swim and bike. I am pretty sure I won the bike leg, even though one of the high school boys prides himself on biking (I beat him on the bike last year).
I ran the course backwards to my bike and then biked back up to the resevior. That is the first time I have biked up to the resevior--and my legs have felt that all day.
As an advocate for wellness, it is nice to go back to my old high school team and be able to compete at that level as a 40 year old. I hope many of them will value fitness enough to stay fit when they are 40 and beyond. | 