The Three Amigos! Jason, Matt (my brother) and I headed down
to St. Petersburg, FL on Saturday morning for The St. Anthony's Triathlon on
Sunday. Matt and I were going as competitors, while Jason was coming for
emotional support (plus he really likes road trips). Spirits were high, and we knew tomorrow was
going to be a great day.
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| Matt and I before our swim start |
We arrived in St. Pete
around 4:00 pm, and headed to the registration area. Registration was incredibly smooth and we
picked up our packets and goodies and moved on the bike check in. We setup our bikes in their assigned spots and
met back up with Jason to check into the hotel and get some dinner. On a
side note, my favorite part of the bike check-in was observing all the bikes
and noticing how many of them are really high end. It’s like I can put together a mental wish
list for my next bike purchase.
Sunday morning we woke up before dawn, around 4:40 am, and
proceeded to get ready. Jason dropped us
off at the race site at around 5:50 am, we got our body marking done, and then we
finished setting up our transition area.
The race started at 6:50 am with the Male Pro’s, but Matt and I’s wave
didn’t go off until 7:35 am, so we had some time to get warmed up.
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| 150 swimmers (including Me and Matt) start our race! |
At 7:35 the horn for our wave goes off and we all start
swimming. There were about 140-150 in
our starting wave and that makes for a tight pack at the start of the
swim. For about the first 200-300 yards
I’m pretty sure I swam on top of a couple guys, had a couple guys swim on top
of me, and I think at least one time, I had a swimmer on top and underneath
me. I was kicked a half dozen time, and
had my legs grabbed at least one. Matt
still has a scratch mark on his neck.
After about 300 yds the pack thinned out, and I was able to settle into
my stroke. Overall my swim ended up
being slow, but that was mostly due to my inability to site. When you are swimming in open water, there is
no line on the bottom to guide you, so you need to look up and site the buoys
from time-to-time. I was continually
swimming wide and had to constantly readjust my course. The swim course is 1.5 km but I bet I swam
more like 1.8-1.9 km. Anyway, my goal
was to complete it in 31 minutes and it actually took me 36 minutes. Even though the time wasn’t great, I still
felt great getting out of the water, and had plenty of energy for the rest of
the race.
I climbed out the water, hurried over into the transition
area, located my bike, quickly put on my bike gear then headed out to the bike
course. Starting on the bike, I felt
great. I was passing a number of people
and was easily holding a speed between 23 and 24 mph. At this point I was feeling good about my
race and really felt like I was going to beat my goal time. Then, at about mile 4, I heard a “POP!” and
then a “SWOOSH!” and I knew instantly what it was, and that it was me. FLAT TIRE!!
I hit something with my front tire and it had gone flat. At this point there is not much you can do,
and my race was over. I had never gotten
a flat during a race before, and I can tell you it is a very frustrating
feeling!
So, my race over, I walked back to the transition area, and
watched for Matt so I could at least offer him some support. Matt had a terrific race, finishing with a
time of 2:21:16 placing him 35th out of 290 in our age group. But probably the most impressive thing about
his race, was his 10k time. After
swimming for 30 minutes, then biking
hard for just over an hour, he still went out an ran a 39 minute 10k. That was the 3rd fastest run in
his age group!
All in all, despite my disappointment, it was a fun day and
we definitely plan on going back again next year!
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