2011 Tri! Ballantyne Triathlon

Headed up to Charlotte with the family on Friday so the girls could take part in the 2nd Annual Tri! Kids Ballantyne Triathlon on Friday evening. Kids had a great time and the event was well run and we will be back next year.

It rained on and off Friday night and was raining Saturday AM when we headed over to the race start. I dropped the air in my tires to compensate for the rain but as my luck would have it, the rain moved out and the race course was basically dry. I left my pump in the hotel room which had the crack pipe for the rear disk so I was unable to inflate my tires to the right pressure which probably cost me some time. I say this as I was 25" slower this year versus last.

SWIM

Horrible. That pretty much sums it up. The off season this year will be filled with pool time and lessons as I cannot continue to give away time to the other competitors.

300M - 5:36 with run to T1 (2010 - 5:29)

T1 - 0:53 - too long. Almost my entire rack came out within 45" of one another and caused a traffic jam. (2010 - 0:56)

BIKE

Uneventful. Already bummed about under-inflated tires and then I ran up on the SAG vehicle right before a right hand turn. I had to sit up and wait for the vehicle to turn thinking it would either speed up or move to the side. It did neither. I waved my arms and finally yelled for the drive to MOVE IT at which time he/she floored the vehicle and finally got out of my way. This is where I lost the race as this delay easily cost me the 28" I needed to take 1st overall.

12.7 miles - 31:50 @ 24mph (2010 - 31:25 @ 24.25mph)

T2 - 0:29 - Much better. Decided to not wear socks for the bike/run and this helped my time in T1. I also put on my race belt in T1 which may have cost me a few seconds but probably a wash with what I made up in T2. (2010 - 0:39)

RUN

Goal was to break 20:00 for the 5K and I came up short by 1". I felt great during the entire run and was in the zone for the last mile. Didn't wear my Garmin so ran on feel.

5K - 20:00 @ 6:26/mile (2010 - 20:20 @ 6:32/mile)

Overall

58:47 - 2nd Place Overall (out of 425+) (2010 Result - 58:47 - 4th place overall)