At Buckroe Beach in Hampton, Va I completed my second triathlon of 2015. It was another 'Sprint' distance triathlon covering 500 meters of open water swimming, 10.5 miles on the bike, and a 5k at the end.
Traveling from home to Hampton for a 7:00 AM start required an even earlier wakeup of 4:00 AM, but it is all worth it. Finishing a sprint at 8:30 ish in the morning allows you to continue being productive, I love the early starts.
The venue was in a great section of Hampton, the Bukroe Beach park had lots of wide open grassy areas and clean, sandy beaches. I experienced a mouthful of pollution during the swim (maybe not pollution, but it tasted awful and felt worse). 120 swimmers started at the same time and it was crowded for a 500 meter swim. My sighting on the yellow, floating pyramids was not great. As a result I did not swim in a strait line. Fitness wise I felt good. In the 35-39 age group I was 4th out of 18 athletes.
The transition from swim to bike was smooth and uneventful.
The bike portion was two laps on a five mile loop. I felt that there was a significant wind going in one direction, and the resultant boost from the wind coming back the opposite direction. When glancing at my speed, it varied from 17-20 going into the wind and 19-22 returning with the wind. I was unable to record my average from the ride but my time leads me to believe I averaged around 19 miles an hour. My overal bike performance was less good than it has been in the past. Normally I'm around the 50th percentile in my age group. This event I finished 11 out of 18 athletes.
The transition from bike to run was uneventful.
I had my watch on during the run and my goal was to run the 5k faster than 30 minutes. If I could keep my pace faster than 10 minutes miles I would have a shot. Runner after runner passed me, but I was not deterred. This was not a race against them, but a race against myself. As the finish line eventually appeared, I had in my sights a portly fellow who had passed me earlier in the run. My goal quickly changed to beating him, and this had nothing to do about fitness or challenging my body. My one goal in like was to beat this guy in front of me. I did. I'm a winner.
Granted, there was only one guy in the 35-39 age group that I ran faster than, and the guy I finished ahead of actually had a faster run time than me. But, I still won.
Within my age group I finished 11 of 18, kinda normal for where I finish amongst the age groupers.
Running. Keep running.
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