My results at the 2009 Stansbury Triathlon

Our family slept over at Diana and Brendon's in a tent in their backyard. It was fun. We watched "Lil Rascals" projected on to the side of their house last night. The kids loved it and ate popcorn. I slept great last night in a sleeping bag in our tent. Got up naturally just before my alarm went off at 6:30.

Went in got ready, had some quick breakfast and headed over and got my timing chip and setup my transition area. Met up with Duane and Brian and Teri. Brian, Duane and I all started at the same time. I positioned myself right at the front by the buoy and when they said "Go", I started my stopwatch.

I was planning on bilateral breathing, but I ended up just breathing on the right side. I was disappointed with that cause I like to think that I'm now a fully converted bilateral breather, but this just goes to show that I'm still naturally a right side breather. Anyhow there were about a 9 people ahead of me that stayed ahead. My goggles were very foggy that I couldn't see the red buoy's very well off in the distance but as I got closer, realigned. Felt great on the swim and when I got out I looked at my watch and it just turned over to 20 minutes. That's great!
I was aiming for anything less than 30 minutes.

On my way back to the bike I stripped off the wetsuit fully and threw it over to Cathi who had my bag. The transition to the bike was very fast, just as I practiced at the SDRC clinic a few weeks ago. The bike course was flat and was just a four turn per lap course. I turned on my GPS just as I left the transition area and I fully got satellite connection after probably a half mile into it. According to my GPS:

Distance: 26.1 miles(not accounting for satellite acquiring time)
Time: 1:07
Average Speed: 23.2 mph
Max Speed: 29.8 mph

I was a little over zealous hoping for less than an hour on the bike. I was passed by about 15 bikers (All of them with the goofy beak helmets). And I passed about 30 people during the second lap who were all from the Sprint race.

When I transitioned to my run I looked at my watch and it said 1:31. When I got to the start of the run my watch said 1:33. During the run it was still a little cloudy, but I could tell the cloud cover was minimal and felt the heat of the sun coming through. My mouth was dry and at every aid station I took advantage of it. During the run I also thought about the half marathon I'm running on Monday (in two days) and kept telling myself to save something for that race. I didn't want to push it and be crippled for Monday. So I held back just a little.

I saw Duane, Brian and Teri during the run and they all seemed to be going strong and we shouted encouragement to each other each time. I saw Cathi and the kids all shouting for me about 50 yards from the finish line and I immediately jumped into sprint mode and ran for my life across the finish. I stopped my watch at the finish line and it came up with 2:24:52. That meant my 10K run was done in about 52 minutes. I was aiming for less than an hour. So I was pleased with that.

I was impressed with this race. It was flat. The turns were well laid out and the path from swim to bike transition was fully paved so I didn't need to worry about wearing shoes or flip flops for that portion. The aid stations were well manned and supplied. The only thing that concerned me is that some people after the race were exiting the transition area out of the bike-in gate where there weren't any race staff checking numbers. Most people went out of the bike out section where there were two or three number checkers. I'd be more concerned if my bike weren't on the low end of the value scale for those road bikes I saw. If someone wanted to risk a felony stealing a bike, they'd pick something that cost a few thousand more than mine.

Anyhow. Teri took second place in her age group for the Sprint distance. She was so happy and it was cool to see her get that. I took 9th in my age group out of 17. With this being my first one, I'm just glad that I was able to meet my run and swim goal. My bike goal was a little lofty, but now I know and can set a more reasonable goal for next time. Still, 23.2 mph average is dang good for me, so I'm not beating myself up over it. And if I ever get one of those goofy beak helmets, feel free to give me a good punch in the arm.

Here are the official results.

Cathi used Teri's camera for pictures, so I'm at her mercy on getting those pictures emailed to me which I will then add to this post.