Results: 3rd Overall – 40k Bike (1:04:18), 10k Run (35:56))
The Columbia Triathlon was my last “prep” race before Eagleman and I was excited to get out on the course and see how the past few weeks of training had worked out. While I had a good bike at the Richmond Sprint a few weeks prior, Coach Jenny and I felt like there was plenty more that I could do so we decided to have me push things a little harder. Unfortunately, the swim was canceled a few days before race start because of all the rain we had in the area and poor water quality, so the race started off with the bike leg(after a short run into transition to get your bike). Nonetheless, a big shout-out to my new sponsor, XTERRA wetsuits for shipping me a new wetsuit the week before the race…I can’t wait to race in it!. I was able to push relatively hard and had a solid bike leg – perhaps a little better than expected. Since my bike power numbers were up quite a lot from racing just a few weeks prior, I was a bit nervous I had pushed too hard and didn’t leave anything left for the notoriously challenging 6.2 mile run. As I came into T2 transition, I probably should have been less focused about my bike power numbers and more focused on the task at hand: getting off the bike. And here is the visual lesson:
Pretend there is a picture here of me launching myself over my handlebars. And then…
Fortunately, my injuries weren’t so bad I couldn’t jump back up, get the bike into transition, and out on the run. I was also lucky that Candy Cane wasn’t injured too bad either!
I actually had a blast on the run. It was nonstop hills but the legs felt pretty good, and I was able to lock in a sub 6min/mile pace which was faster than I had expected. With the day, I ended up with a bunch of completely unexpected things: a bloody toe, shoe, knuckles, and shirt, bruises on my ankle, forearm, shoulder, knee and, hip, a scratched up bike, and a 3rd place overall finish. I suppose it wasn’t too bad a day after all…
Next Up: Ironman Eagleman 70.3 June 8, 2014