OK. That picture was sorta disgusting, so here's (hopefully) a better one.
This past Sunday I raced in the Redondo Beach Sprint Triathlon. This was my second consecutive year racing in the RB Tri, which is a super short race: 1/2 mi swim, 6 mi bike, 2 mi run. Leading up to Sunday, I was unsure if I was going to race due to shin splints. I got the doc's approval to race last week, so I decided to go ahead with it and I'm glad I did.
My strategy as always during the swim was to latch onto the draft of the fast guy, or if I found myself to be the fast guy, try to pull ahead of the pack so they can't draft off of me. Yes, I know that doesn't sound fair, but this is racing. Not so much give and take, but more take. I ended up being the fast guy, so I pulled away and pretty much swam alone the whole way. I think I need to work on my open water swimming and sighting as I'm pretty sure I didn't swim the most direct route. The thing sticking out of the water between the boat and lifeguard in the picture below is my arm.
There was a long run on pavement into T1. I was worried about it bothering my heel, but I took the run gingerly and didn't have any issues.
My hear rate was pretty high when I got on the bike, but with only 6 miles on the saddle, there was not enough time to allow my heart rate to drop and get in a groove.
I pretty much put my head down and pushed as hard as I could on the bike. Coming out of T1 I knew I was in the lead of my wave and I think I increased that lead on the short bike route.
The run course weaved through the Redondo Pier and the surrounding area. With the many turns it could have been an easy course to get lost, but there were plenty of volunteers at each corner directing me which way to go. Overall, the run felt fairly good. Last year I had a mean stomach cramp throughout the run, but this year the cramping managed to stay away. I started to develop a cramp right near the end, but it was close enough to the finish to not bother me.
Lots of fanfare comes with being the first to cross the finish line. First, I was interviewed by the local newspaper...
Then, I was given a case of protein shakes by the mix-1 ladies...
Unfortunately, there was a faster guy in a later wave that beat me by 16 seconds.
Final Results:
Time: 42:02
Placement: 1st AG, 2nd OA
The Easy Reader wrote a nice article on the race.
The overall winner, Jason May, won for the second year in a row. Last year, he beat me by almost 3 minutes and this year I was able to close the gap to 16 seconds. It seems like I'm moving in the right direction. I keep on thinking how things would have played out if we were in the same wave and were able to race head-to-head. Likely the same results, but it at least would have been more exciting. I got edged out by a Kona qualifier who swam and played water polo at UC Berkley. I guess I'm OK with that...for now.
Special thanks to TriSports.com for their support.
Now I'm going from the shortest race I've ever participated in to the longest. Up next is Vineman 70.3 on July 17.
