Notes
Got off the bike with legs smoking. Took a little extra time to get about 6 oz of water/gatorade mix down then out the gate. Legs wobbly and know I may have screwed my run biking too hard.
First mile felt BAD. Hit my garmin at .07 miles into the race after crossing over the timing mat and moving at 6:42 pace. First full mile on garmin after technical difficulties indicate 6:49 pace and just trying to survive but starting to get things under control a little better and legs coming back a little bit at the end of this mile. Next mile at 6:34 pace and feeling much better as I move toward the turn around area. Passing alot of people on this out-and-back course. Now starting to pick up the pace and third mile in 6:25. Moving toward last turn prior to coming into finish chute so know I have about .40 miles to go. Finish final .39 miles in 2:17 for 5:52 pace and this part of the race actually felt the best of all of the distance. Garmin distance of 3.46 miles.
Looking at race results: Interesting that only 5 of 14 in the 50-54 age group ran under 30 min on the 3.4 mile course and only two of us ( me and the 3rd place guy Holman) ran under 25 min for the distance.
My total time for the race --- 56:17.
Fleet Feet timing the race. Rolling screen showing people who had finished and initially I was in 3rd OA but I knew there were 3-4 more heats behind me. I told Toni I thought there was a pretty good chance 1 or 2 guys might slip under my time as I knew past top 3 results. Two more guys did.
Mike Barro, a very good distance runner from StL was OA winner. He is 47. The rest of the top 4 were 36 years or younger.
I was able to remove the guy who had been winning our age-group for the last 4-5 years and drop him into 2nd place in our age group. Don't know if he is a sore loser but do know he didn't show up for the award ceremony to pick up his runner-up medal....... Chatted with the 3rd place guy in the 50-54 age group for a while; name was Daryl Holman. His first triathlon also and he was happy with his finish as was I. Looks like a pretty serious runner; at least had that gaunt, distance runner look.