First, Rev3 Williamsburg:
It’s been two weeks since this race happened and I’m just getting around to posting about it, so as you might imagine it was a disappointing race. I had an OK swim, exiting the water a minute down from Kyle Leto and eventual race winner Eric Limkemann. In the first few miles of the bike I caught Kyle after he got a stand down penalty. My first thought was, “I know it’s just Eric and Kyle up there, how do you get a drafting penalty with only two people?” I learned the answer soon enough, as a couple of miles later after riding 2 abreast with Kyle I got my own penalty.
“You were within 10 meters of the other rider for more than 40 seconds,” the ref said.
“Yes, but I was 2 meters staggered on the other side of the lane. You know, the stagger rule.”
But he didn’t know. I tried to protest after the race but apparently it is a “judgment call” by the ref and you cannot file a protest for this sort of penalty. So that was a bummer.
After the penalty I was swallowed by a large group that swelled to 10+ people. This is where I usually find myself, so all was not lost. “Maybe I still have a shot at the podium,” I thought. But that wasn’t to be – around mile 25 I felt my front rim hitting the ground. Flat tire. I was having a rough day. I fixed it with my flat kit and rode the rest of the way in by myself, pissed off at everything and contemplating dropping out. But there was an $833 run prime on offer and I hate not finishing races so I stayed on it, although my tire was slowly leaking so the rest of the ride seemed to take an eternity. The run was the highlight of the day as for the first time in my life I actually ran an even paced race, clocking a 1:13:58, the fastest half marathon I’ve posted all year. It was also the fastest run of the day so I got the prime, and I moved from DFL to 8th to earn some Rev3 Series points, so I didn’t come out empty handed.
Apparently the camera adds 10 lbs…to my left leg.
Colorado Kid’s Tri:
Last weekend Lindsey and I helped out at a kid’s triathlon in Commerce City. This is the same group that puts on the race I used to help at when I lived in Florida, the First Coast Kid’s Triathlon. They are now involved with NFL Play60 and are trying to expand to more NFL markets, so Denver became their 8th race on the Kid’s Tri schedule.
Rest of the Season:
All that racing in May and June left me in need of some real training if I want to continue racing well, so I’m back in Boulder and getting into a 10 week training block before the HyVee/Vegas double. Vegas is the priority, and I actually haven’t even qualified for HyVee yet so that might not happen. I get to race locally at Boulder Peak and Boulder 70.3 so it will be nice to not have to pack the bike into a bag for awhile.
Leave it to master photographer Tim Carlson and the stunning Boulder scenery to actually take a good photo of me! The awesome new kit from blueseventy and the brand new BMC help, too.