Race Report - Tri the Midlands

First race of the 2009 season is in the books. I improved my swim time by over 3 minutes versus 2008 and my run time by 1:37. The bike course changed so no way to compare results but even though I held back, my split was within 60 seconds of the open/top finishers. Not sure what happened in transition but in looking at my times, I could've showered and shaved in the time it took me in T1 and T2. I was over a minute slower in total transition versus 2008.

They changed the run course slightly and instead of running the sidewalk out and back, we ran the road out and sidewalk back. The change resulted in a much steeper grade on the out portion of the run and such that I saw many people walking the steepest point. I was hoping for a sub 21 run but just didn't feel it. I wore my cushion shoes - Nike Vomero's to help me absorb the shock of going down hill and I think the additional weight kept me from a quicker turnover. Still improved my time over 2008 but not where I wanted to be. Knowing that there was only one peson in my age group ahead of me (several minutes) made it hard to push myself over the hills/etc.

22 out of 255
3rd place Masters (second place was 5 seconds faster)
2nd place 40-44 AG

500M Swim (plus 60yd run to T1) - 10:43
T1 - 1:36
Bike - 14 miles - 37:40 (my computer says 14.6 miles)
T2 - 1:14
Run - 5K - 22:08

1:13:18