The result of this one was a 6th place finish in a time of 2:03:14 after taking a hard fall on the bike. Here are the results: http://www.setupevents.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=event_results&id=2438
Today I'm still sore especially my ribs which I think may have some cracks and my upper calf and knee which are preventing me from running (just tried it - hope it's nothing serious). I was able to get back on the bike this morning (Tuesday) and hope to get back in the water tomorrow. The road rash is annoying but managable.
So the swim went well I felt. I haven't felt fast in the water lately and swim training has been the least consistent for various reason so I was doubtful for a very good swim.
I was relaxed the whole time (as is usually the case when I swim no wetsuit) and found a good set of feet in the front bunch and stayed on them until the last few hundred meters. Came out of the water in 22:30 or so in 6th place and with the run to T1 the official time was 22:49 just at the back of the lead group.
T1 was pretty smooth and I managed to get out before Peter Kotland who came out of the water ahead of me, moving me up to 5th place.
The bike started well I passed one guy within the first 2 miles and moved into 4th position.
I was playing cat and mouse with Peter who I was looking forward to battling on the run and we swapped places for 4th and 5th a few times. I should have figured it was going to be an strange ride when I hit and killed a squirrel at about mile 7 or so. Lucky I didn't go down then. About 26 minutes into the ride a dog came out at me and in trying to avoid him I got onto a rumble strip on the white line and went down hard (it looks like I need to work on my bike handling skills!!). My bike ended up on the other side of the road and I got more road rash (road rash on top of the road rash from 2 weeks ago) on my legs, arms, back, shoulders, etc and got the breath knocked out of me. Also I did something bad to my upper gastroc just below the knee, not sure if I twisted my knee or what. We (Peter and I) were being followed by a draft marshall and police officer and the officer stopped to help me (I was lying on the side of the road near my bike). He asked if I needed to be picked up. Initially I said yes but after laying there for awhile I got my breath back and told him I wanted to continue the race. He offered to follow me and told me I could pull over anytime and he'd radio for help if I needed it. Only one person came past me in those few minutes on the side of the road. I determined the whole incident took a little over 2.5 minutes by taking the official bike slit chip time and subtracting my Garmin time (the garmin was is set to auto-pause so it stops recording when the bike isn't moving). The rest of the ride was uneventful except for pain from road rash on aerobar pads. Ride time was 57:12, official time was 59:56. Ranked 11th on bike which I'm okay with given the circumstances.
Bike data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/91884931
Onto the run the calf/knee was bothersome but I wanted to at least try to get back the spot I lost and put up a respectable run.
I started out fairly conservatively and then picked it up in the last few miles. I almost took back 5th place but came up 12 seconds short. I felt very controlled and probably should have pushed harder out of the gate. The result was 39:04. Looking at the Garmin file it is a dead accurate 10k (when does that ever happen in triathlon!?). Ranked 6th on the run.
Run data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/91884941
In the end I'm pleased with the 6th place result and 2:03:14 finish time given the difficulties of the crash. I'm proud of the fact that I pushed-on despite the pain and I look forward to getting back out there. Gotta take care of these injuries first ...
**** Follow-up ****
After trying to swim unsuccessfully I had this x-ray taken showing the broken rib. There's not much you can do for it, it just takes time to heal (6 weeks +-)
3 comments:
What a great effort. Way to keep fighting. Maybe in my late 40s I'll be as fast as you... Heal up.
I added Rev3 SC to my race cal. maybe we'll see you out there.
Hey Richard, I read you blog ... sounds like you are well on your way, keep working on getting that swim down. It's hard to believe you're racing at 180 from the picture in your latest post, you must be really tall. But as you lean out you'll find your run speeds up as well your cycling on hilly courses. Keep it up! Nick
June 14th! Here is your friendly 3-month reminder. You have fans practically foaming at the mouth, reloading your blog like 5 times a day just to see when the next update is happening!
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