Moses Lake Triathlon 2009- Race Report

We left Friday night to avoid a 4am wake-up call on Saturday and headed to Moses Lake. This was the site of my very first triathlon in 2006. Back then I signed up for the sprint and really had no idea what to expect. This year would be the first time I have done the Olympic and probably a little bit more prepared. In 2006, I swam about 450 yards in just over 16 minutes. It was brutally slow. I sidestroked the all but about 50 yards and even laid on my back and flutter kicked. Welcome to the sport of triathlon :)

Getting ready for the swim.

This time the swim went great even though I got punched in the eye at the beginning and had to try to empty my goggles. I was able to keep my cadence high and felt strong throughout the entire swim. My sighting was much better and I was able to swim in relatively straight line.

Coming out of the water. It is me, Nate right behind me and Trevor in the background.

Throughout the swim I saw the familiar face of Trevor Blackwell and felt a oh so familiar grabbing of my feet from Nate (see CDA Olympic 08 Race Report). This time the results were much better for Nate as he didn't deserve a quick kick manoeuvre.

Swim: 18:03

I entered transition feeling good and felt ready to go. I had a great T1 and even tried the flying mount with my shoes on my bike. This was my first attempt and just like we always say "never try something in a race that you haven't done in training". Well it worked great and I was on the bike heading down the road.

Coming in off the bike...FINALLY :)

About 10 minutes in I knew something was off. My hips were burning and I just didn't feel that strong. Since I don't really have anything but heart rate and perceived effort to go by, I just kept pedaling. Shortly after the turn around my heart rate began to drop. Eventually reaching my heart rate I hope to keep for Ironman. Definitely not good during an Olympic race. I finally reached T2 and couldn't get there soon enough.

A few highlights of the ride was the nice shower provided by a huge agricultural irrigation sprinkler, the rain that fell and getting off of the bike:)

Bike: 1:02:04

T2 went great, mainly because I was the first bike in the transition area and was off on to the run. Even though the bike was weak, the run felt great. I was hoping to chase down a few of the people who passed me on the bike but they were all good runners.

Finishing the Run!

I felt solid throughout even though I fought a side ache the entire run. The run was long at 6.55 miles so I wasn't able to get a true 10K split but if I average it out it would have been in the 41:12 which would be a new PR. I averaged 6:39/miles so I am slowing working my way to the sub 40 goal.

Run: 43:32

Overall this was a great race and I had a great time. It was awesome to see all the Tri-Fusion athletes out there rocking the race. It is difficult to use the race to see if I had improvements because the swim and bike were shorter than normal and the run was longer. I can take the fact that even though I struggled on the bike I still felt pretty good on the run. It was another pretty good day and another race under my belt.

Total Time: 2:04:38

I am heading down to Blue Lake to do the sprint triathlon on Saturday and cheer everyone on during the Olympic on Sunday. We are now officially under two weeks until Ironman.