Notes
2013 Steamboat Triathlon. Teaming up with Jason Banderman as he does the first 2 legs and I finish the day off with the run. Not sure whether to name the team Banderhammer or HammerBand. Either one works for me.
Jason does very, very well as a Clydesdale competitor...Hell, he does great against the entire field of competitors.
He swims 7:35, beating several of the local elite triathletes then proceeds to lay down a 43:39 Bike portion. I transfer the world-class timing chip to my L ankle in the transition area and head down the road. Going to be much different from last year as there are not many people on the course to chase. 3-4 of the leaders are already 5-6 min ahead of me but there are a couple of guys within 2.5 minutes when I take off. Catch the first one at the 1.5 mile mark and catch the second guy right at the 3 mile mark. Once passing him, dont see another soul on the course except volunteers.
This is just about the point when my legs pull a Roberto Duran and begin yelling "No Mas". I had a premonition that I may still be recovering from back-to-back 10K/5K efforts in the previous three weeks. I pretty much hit the wall at this point and tried to pull myself up the hill on Independence Street. Agony and getting pissed off at myself when not motoring back up to speed as I turn back onto Themis. Legs are shot. Horrible 4th mile split = 6:22. Finally get going again I turn right off of Independence onto the final 1/3 of a mile. End up finishing only 2 ticks past my 2012 effort so really nothing to complain about. Our team finishes with an elapsed time of 1:21:06. I think we finished as the 5th fastest finishers but will have to check that.
Team Hoops with Shannon A, K Bram and a female swimmer smoke the Master's Division for another OA victory as Bram goes 30:42 on the run portion of the contest. Solid time on what have to be tired legs.
Mile splits today: 5:45/5:46/5:50/6:22/4:49 for last .82 miles. 18 turns and many tangents later and our 5 mile course is 4.82 on my garmin. I have ran this course many times and know every possible tangent to cut. I am also told by a veteran of the tri scene that most tri road courses, excluding the certified ones (of course) are typically slightly short.
Regardless, CBEM once again continues to roll.... I cannot state complete domination, however, it is another good day for the old men.
Since I like to use the age-grade calculator to level the playing field, here are KH and KB age-graded numbers for a 4.82 mile road course so we can be completely honest about results.
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KH = 47y/o: 28:32 elapsed time = 25:43 age-grade result; 80.28 age-performance %
KB = 51y/o: 30:42 elapsed time = 26:38 age-grade result; 77.04 age-performance %