The Iron Abe Triathlon in Springfield. Yes, this city has some historical ties to a very famous president in our nation's past, but what made this day special was that from the onset of this race, I turned a corner in my training and it paid off during this race.
It was just an Olympic distance race: .9 mile swim, 24.8 mile bike and a 10k run (6.2 miles) so it was going to fast and furious race unlike my previous two triathlons, however, it turned out to be a very significant race in my short triathlon career. Quick note: I did the Stoneman race two years earlier so I was already familiar with the course.
The swim was in lake Springfield, a bigger than average lake with a normal water temperature around 80 degrees. Not this time, some how the organizers were able to take water temperature tests and average it a few tenths of degree below the wet suit legal 78 degrees, thereby allowing participants to wear wetsuits and still be able to place in their perspective age groups. Due to my incident in the Kansas Half triathlon, I had no wet suit to use. There was no use in crying about it, the race would go on (just like Kansas) and since this was a short swim course I would only lose 3-5 minutes on the swim, not good but certainly not critical as the swim does not make the race.
The transitions for both Stoneman and Iron Abe were very convenient and only seconds away from the swim end. This was a nice perk as it's not normally the case for a lot of triathlons. This enabled me to have a much faster transition which is always a good thing regardless of the race.
The bike portion was flat with a few short rollers and a turn around at the half way mark. This is where I could really push to gain time and I did. I was able to average a 21.8 on the ride and gain time that I had lost on the swim without the wetsuit. I maintained a fast cadence throughout the ride and made sure to drink the Infinite the latter half of the ride to carb up for the upcoming 10k run.
I was able to average the pace on the bike that I wanted, was I able to keep my goal and run a sub 9 min/mile on the run? I felt good, it wasn't too hot (like Effingham) and it was only a short 10k that I had practiced many time while in training. I quickly transitioned to the run and off I went, just like I had two years ago, except I was doing another 3.2 miles this time.
I paid close attention to my watch (Suunto T6C) to verify my pace: 8:30 min /mile. I raced onward and then a few minutes a fellow Godzilla team member quickly strides by me after the first mile, I wasn't going to match that pace and watch her go on her way. I was moving at a nice pace and I had another 5 miles to go. At mile 3 I caught up to Christian as we did the turn around at the half way mark, as I was still maintaining my average pace of a sub 9 min/mile. In fact at the bridge toward the end I increased the speed down to a sub 7 pace and finished with an impressive 2:29:55 which was 3rd place in my age group! Boo Yahh! My final pace on the run was a 8:20 min /mile way faster than my goal. My training had paid off! Fantastic!
till next time.....
Brett
