Day 50, MiltonMan Tri Race Report.

Barb and I got up yesterday at 1:50am and headed up past Akron for the MiltonMan Tri for my 5th race in 5 weeks. We left the house by 3am and arrived by 5:30am. The check-in procedure was a little different than most Tris, but still very organized. The volunteer had our name and told me to go to the designated bike rack and I would find my packet. It was there with rest of the old people's packets...lol. The Olympic waves started off first and then the Sprints. I was the next to last wave to enter the water versus the first wave as normal in HFPs elite wave. The sprint consisted of one 750m swim, two 8-mile laps for the bike, and out and back 3.1 mile run. I estimated that I would eventually pass most of the field either on the swim, bike, or run since the Olympic folks had further to travel with a 2 lap swim, 3 lap bike, and a 2 lap run. I had a great swim staying with the fastest person in my wave and coming out around 12:15 for the swim, and the transition was nice and quick. Out on the bike course I just tried to hammer as fast as I could in a good aero position passing athlete after athlete on a mostly flat and fast course. My only real challenge came was on the first lap when a 35 year old male passed me. I stayed with him and finally passed him for good about a mile later. I figured I was going to slow and decided to hammer it a little more to get distance from me and him. I tried to keep the speed over 24mph on most of the course and came in under 40 mins for the total 16 mile leg. I had another error free transition and headed out for my run. I maintained a good pace averaging 7 min pace for the first 2 miles and then under 7 on the last. My final time was 1:16:30, and my run was error free with no cramps this week. I guess I need to push it a little more, but I had no idea who my compeitors were. I was just racing against the clock. This was my best race of the year and felt faster today even though I had to wait so long on before the start of the swim. After talking with the announcer I found out that I had placed 3rd overall, but the winner was 16 mins faster. I thought that had to be a mistake, and come to find out later that he was disqualified for a wrong turn. That moved me up to 2nd place. They gave out special awards for the overall top three in each race, which was really cool. Based on my times I do know that it was not as competitive as HFP races, but I'll take the 2nd anyway i could get it. The next race is the outer limits here in Columbus, this coming Saturday.