What a great weekend!\u00a0 With Fernando, his brother-in-law, and two of his friends, as well as familiar faces from the triathlon scene, we enjoyed a very fun day on the course.\u00a0 Some notes:<\/p>\n
– Fern and I arrived on Friday night, met up with his bro-in-law Marty and his buddy Brad, had a burger, then decided to check out the local social scene.\u00a0 We stumbled upon this dive-ish bar with a crowd that might as well have been in Daytona during Spring Break, minus the enjoyable part of debauchery.\u00a0 We had a couple of beers, but as usual, that extended to a few shots and a few more beers.\u00a0 Eventually, we made it home, slept well (obviously), and began our Saturday with all the pre-race day activities.<\/p>\n
– On Saturday, we decided to get a quick bite, then head down to the water for a pre-race swim.\u00a0 The conditions were said to be glassy on Friday but they were a\u00a0 little choppy Saturday.\u00a0 No matter for us; we put on the wetsuits and headed out for just a quick swim of about 20 minutes or less.\u00a0 Sure, the waves were a little challenging on the way away from shore, and only slightly easier on the way back despite the\u00a0advantages of body-surfing… but we both found the experience worthwhile both in terms of practice with those conditions but also with sighting\/navigation.<\/p>\n
– We went through final registration and checked in our bikes, then walked through the expo area.\u00a0 I bought a new race jersey to complete the new GG uniform for 2009:\u00a0 black and white.\u00a0 I’ve still got my affinity for all things blue, but I’m mixing it up this year with a little superstition that the color change will produce faster results.\u00a0 Later, with what wound up to be a bad recommendation from our hotel desk, we descended upon what looked like an abandoned italian restaurant called Basta’s.\u00a0 It was a few miles outside of the beach area\u00a0and seemed a little sketchy… and the sign on the restaurant property advertising that it was for sale or lease wasn’t promising.\u00a0 The food fortunately was decent and worked well for me; the others weren’t terribly enamored but it seemed to do the trick and if nothing else, we shared a good laugh.<\/p>\n
– Race morning:\u00a0 Not surprisingly, Fern and I were running late and though the transition area was set to close at 6:45 a.m., we didn’t leave the hotel till nearly 6:30.\u00a0 We rushed to the transition area and noticed that none of the athletes walking out of transition had their wetsuits.\u00a0 I then heard pieces of announcements over the loudspeakers that the swim was cancelled due to the choppy conditions.\u00a0 Sure enough, we verified that and were very surprised given our experiences on Saturday.\u00a0 The pros were still set to do the swim, but the rest of us were destined to do a bike-run race with a staged time-trial start.\u00a0 That is, athletes were lined up in a single file and sent over the timing mat one by one about 2-3 seconds apart.\u00a0 I’ve never begun a race this way before and while it was interesting, it made it hard to gauge the performance and time of other athletes in my age group… as well as Fern and our gang.<\/p>\n
– When it was my turn to start, I let out a long exhale, got myself focused on exactly what I would do in transition, and stepped up.\u00a0 The timer said go, and I burst out in a near sprint to my bike.\u00a0 I had my sneakers on but since I have elastic laces (they are “stretchy”), they came off quickly and I put on my cycling shoes.\u00a0 Normally, I would do the “flying mount” where I keep the shoes attached to the bike and put them on while I’m making forward progress, but given the short amount of time we had to set up our transition areas thanks to being late, I never arranged things the best way.\u00a0 I then put on the helmet and tore off running with the bike to the “mount” line.\u00a0 I got clicked in quickly, got into a good gear, rode through the cobble-stone (or brick equivalent) surface, and made the first 90 degree turn into the first straightaway of the bike course.\u00a0 I immediately saw my first tri coach, Jose Lopez, cheering from the road and after calling his name, he screamed out, “Go GG!!”\u00a0 That felt soooo good!\u00a0 See, cheering has a huge effect on athletes!<\/p>\n
– I put forth a serious effort when the wind was at my back and had speeds that averaged in the 26-27 range.\u00a0 Into the wind, I was happy to maintain 20.\u00a0 There were a few out-and-back sections and a few sharp turns, but they were manageable and the road surface was generally pretty good.\u00a0 At about mile 15, I felt more fatigue than was expected… but after eating one of my gel packets, the energy level literally came right back.\u00a0 That stuff is amazing!\u00a0 At around mile 20, a group of 5 riders in top-of-the-line bikes and aero helmets went by me quickly but for some reason, I had it in\u00a0me to counter-attack.\u00a0 One by one, I reeled them all back in and took that lead to the end of the bike leg.\u00a0 I wound up finishing the 24.8 miles at an average pace of 21.9 mph.\u00a0 I\u00a0wanted 22.0 but\u00a0was still happy.\u00a0 I successfully completed the “flying dismount” where you take your feet out of the shoes while the shoes are still attached to the pedals, and ran to my transition area as best I could, albeit with shaky tired legs.<\/p>\n
– It took me about 15 seconds longer in the second transition than I had hoped because I couldn’t get the tongue in my right shoe to sit just right.\u00a0 I could have persevered but since I had previously planned on doing this event without socks, getting the right fit was crucial to avoiding blisters.\u00a0 Had I brought socks, I would have worn them given that the swim leg was cancelled.<\/p>\n
– I got out onto the run and tried to immediately replicate what I’ve done in training; put out a strong effort in the first mile and try to sustain it within a 20-30 second margin in the second mile.\u00a0 My first mile in so many of my races last season were horrible; this time, I got it to 7:24 at the one mile mark, and 7:44 at the second mile mark.\u00a0 I was tired and the legs were absolutely fatigued, but I was buoyed by the potential of maintaining that kind of pace for 4.2 more miles.\u00a0 It wasn’t meant to be.<\/p>\n
– Yes, it felt hot and I had my tri jersey zipped down all the way… and I took as many water cups as I could at each aid station so that I’d be able to pour water on my head to cool off… but the sun and the pavement made things a little tough.\u00a0 I aimed for the shade wherever possible and enjoyed being sprayed by a hose that some neighbors brought out for athletes.\u00a0 At the third mile, my pace slowed to 7:54.\u00a0 I decided to walk for 20 seconds to re-group and put out a new effort.\u00a0 It wound up being 26 seconds but I felt pretty good right away.\u00a0 My fourth mile wound up being 8:14 which would have been sub-8 had I not walked a bit… and ultimately, this may have served to be my ultimate demise.<\/p>\n
– Just before the mile 4 mark, I saw Fernando running in the opposite direction (I had already turned around) and he yelled out, “I’m coming to get you G!”\u00a0 I responded, “Bring it baby.”\u00a0 That exchange electrified us both.\u00a0 He told me that he picked up his pace and tried hard to catch me.\u00a0 I had the fear of God and picked up my pace as well as I could too!\u00a0 Mile 5 was back to 7:51 which seemed right (but still just too slow by my standards) and mile 6 was down to 7:42.\u00a0 Every time I heard footsteps behind me, I had this wave of paranoia that it would be Fern catching me.\u00a0 Then, I had a sigh of relief when it wasn’t Fern.\u00a0 But, the paranoia\/relief cycle was absolute torture.\u00a0 Who likes being the prey of the predator?\u00a0 It fueled me to run harder and harder, and crossed the finish line with little left in my tank.\u00a0 I quickly looked at the clock above and waited for Fern.\u00a0 Sure enough, 30 seconds later, he crossed the finish line.\u00a0 I couldn’t tell right away if I had beaten him since he started after me and I didn’t know how much after me he had.\u00a0 Turns out that he started 50 seconds after me, so his net victory over me was a whopping 20 seconds.\u00a0 Look, I’m always happy for the success of my friends and while I’m glad that neither one of us beat the other by a huge margin, it doesn’t make the tiny margins any easier.\u00a0 How can I not ask myself why I didn’t do this faster, or that faster, or maybe not walked for so long at mile 3, etc.<\/p>\n
– The end result is that I finished in the top 19.34% out of something like 4,000 people.\u00a0 It’s just a statistic but if anyone knows me within the context of this sport, I’m all about crunching numbers.<\/p>\n
– We were both ecstatic over our respective efforts and got post-race photos, shared hugs, and recounted our experiences.\u00a0 Soon after, we took advantage of free 20 minutes massages, then chowed down on a very nice array within the food tent.\u00a0 We got a few beers as well, then met up with the rest of the gang before heading back to the hotel to shower up.\u00a0 Then, the real<\/span> fun started!<\/p>\n – Before leaving the race area, I did run into Jose Lopez again as well as good friends Kerry and Kevin Simmons.\u00a0 Both are absolutely tremendous triathletes and I found out that they’ve created their own triathlon team called First Wave Tri.\u00a0 I’d like to join, but with their base on Long Island, and with my schedule, it may not work.\u00a0 We’ll see though.\u00a0 In any event, it was good to be so relaxed and to see great people in a beautiful environment.<\/p>\n – That afternoon, we began our long afternoon of post-race celebrations.\u00a0 We believe that we hit most of the bar areas of town, as evidenced by the trail of empty beer bottles, and eventually wound up at an oyster bar where we must have consumed 60 or more of them!\u00a0 Add to that the beers, shots, whiskey, etc., and it was a mind-numbing party.\u00a0 Fern executed what we call “The Great Escape” and my efforts to track him down in this strange city left me lost as well, but I eventually found him sprawled on his bed on our hotel.\u00a0 He may have beaten me in the race, but I beat him in party endurance and according to my measurement scale, I win!!<\/p>\n – We decided as a group that next year, we’ll do the Miami International Triathlon which we believe is in late March 2010.\u00a0 Next up this year however is the Columbia Triathlon in Maryland on May 17th.\u00a0 There is a lot at stake here for a variety of reasons.\u00a0 1)\u00a0 Brad beat Fern on the bike leg and neither Marty nor I can stop teasing Fern about it. 2) I’ve stated that I’ll beat Brad by 3:36 on the bike in Columbia.\u00a0 Why I chose that time is a mystery, but clearly estimated on being able to extend my winning time margin on the flat St. Anthony’s course to the hilly one in Columbia. 3) “Ox” (Marty’s friend) held back in the run on Sunday because of a hampered hamstring; he’ll likely be healthy in Columbia and he is clearly the fastest among us in all aspects… but he’ll have to prove it\u00a0 4) They likely won’t cancel the swim this time, which changes the game for all of us since the variety in our swim abilities is likely rather large.<\/p>\n Before Columbia, I’m running in a 10 mile race in Philadelphia on Sunday morning, then doing the Spring Couples Relay the following Saturday.\u00a0 Don’t know what to expect in the 10 miler, but my goal is to average 7:45.\u00a0 My “secret” goal is 7:30 which would equate to a finish time of 1:15:00, but the stars will have to be in alignment!<\/p>\n In the end, this St. Anthony’s Triathlon event was a great time with great people in a fun venue.\u00a0 St. Petersburg doesn’t offer a ton of activity, but we made the best of it.\u00a0 I remain grateful, as always, that I have the tremendous gift of living in a free society in this great nation, that I have the ability to afford participating in these events, and that I have the incredible gift of good health.\u00a0 These three elements are never forgotten by me and I make sure to call attention to them after every race.<\/p>\n