For the International distance triathlon the men start in one wave and the women start in another wave 5 minutes later. It was crowded at the start of the swim but cleared out some by the time I reached the second buoy and made the turn. The long swim parallel to the beach was more of a zig zag swim for me. I tend to pull more on the right side but I kept moving left. I spoke to other athletes after the race and they said the current was also pushing them to the left. To exit the bay we had to climb up aluminum stairs to the dock and I got to the stairs just behind two other swimmers. We were very careful getting onto the stairs and also when running on the pressure treated wood. Even when I started running on dry land I was careful not to run to fast as I didn't want to aggravate my calf injury.
My transition was good and getting on the bike went well too. The road out of the park was narrow and tree covered so I didn't notice how hot it was already. We started off with a long flat road for a couple of miles before we encountered the first hill. I did well climbing the hills and passed quite a few riders on tri bikes. Around nine miles into the twenty-seven mile bike ride the roads flattened out and the riders on the tri bikes started passing me. I tried to stay aero but there is only so much you can do on a road bike. I made it through the big down hill that had a ninety degree turn at the bottom. I heard bad things about that turn from people that raced here previously. The road flattened out along the river before the next big climb at mile twenty. That was one of those hills that just seemed to go on forever. It was only a half to a three quarter mile climb but it took it's toll on all of the riders. I was trying to eat a gel when I realized I was on another big downhill ride. With a gel clenched in my teeth I hit forty miles an hour which was scary and impressive. The ride back into the park was uneventful and I had a good bike dismount and transition to the run.
It was one hundred degrees when I started the run and I wasn't feeling great. I grabbed a water and an ice cold towel as I left transition. I can usually run a race without drinking but not today. I was pouring water over my head to try and cool down but the heat was brutal. I had to walk through two of the water stations so I could drink and cool down. Unfortunately I finished in fourth place in my age group because of my poor run. The guy who finished in third place was two minutes behind me when he left transition and he finished two minutes ahead of me. That was a real eye opener for me and I need to work with my coach to keep it from happening in my next triathlon.
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