Border War Triathlon

The Border War tri was the last tri of the season for us and we went out on a pretty decent note. This race is a competition between P.A. N.Y. and Ohio. The scoring was just like a cross country meet so the state with the least points overall was the winner, (example) 1st place would get one point and so on. In our group we had pretty decent results. Kevin Park was 2nd, Tony 3rd, Doug 4th, me 7th. Doug and I each won our age groups as well and Kevin and Tony were on the overall podium. We got the overall trophy given to us too which Tony graciously gave to KP's daughter's Mikaylie and Madison who both raced and did extremely well.

The temperature at race time was about 50 degrees, but the water was in the mid 60's which felt prettycold too once it got into the wetsuit. The swim was fast and the water was calm since the wind was out of the South. I exited the water and started the uphill beach run to T-1 and couldn't get my wetsuit unzipped.....Oh no. I'm fumbling around running into transition and see Tony just getting his bike shoes on and since we were racked near each other I yelled to him to unzip me, he did and then he was off on the bike. I got my shoes and helmet on and being the cold weather wuus that I am, put my rain over jacket on so I wouldn't be cold on the bike............I was trying to velcro-up my jacket after I mounted the bike and was off out of T-1 and was having a hard time with that too...man, this transition is costing me ALOT of time, probably the worst transition I have ever had, I know now I should have just sucked it up and froze for the first lap on the bike. Doug passed me about 1/2 mile into the bike and said "what the hell are you doing" since I was sitting up still trying to get my jacket done up, I said "what's your hurry, wait for me" and he kindly replied "negative". Once onto the main road I kicked up the speed and was feeling like crap. The swim was good but I could tell my bike wasn't going to be. About six miles into the very windy bike I had to shed my jacket that cost me so much time putting on. I took it off and threw it next to the police officer that was monitoring an intersection and told him I would be back for it after the race. It seemed once the jacket was off I immediately felt better. I completed the second loop of the bike hovering around 24-25 mph and feeling much better than the first loop. Once back into the Park I was hoping for some good running legs as I dis-mouted the bike and ran the bike to the rack. I threw the shoes and visor on, picked up my number belt and was off, much faster and much better than T-1. Once out onto the road I was feeling good and my legs were in running form. The run was very spectator friendly, almost like a 5k circuit race and was pretty fast with a few inclines in it. I finished the run averaging a 6:25 mile which was good for 7th overall and first in my 45-49 age group. I missed out on 6th overall by just 5 seconds! The PA guy that chased me down on the run ran a 17 and change and was pretty young. He passed me in the last 200 yards too and I was really trying to hold him off since I looked back a few times and knew he was gaining on me, that was good racing for sure. After awards Tony, Doug and I rode home from Geneva, time trialing all the way back. I think the ride home was harder than the race!

Well that completes our 2010 multi sport season and what a fun season it was. I did 10 races with one DNF, 9 age group wins and 9 top 5-15. We concentrated on multi sport more this year because that's where our strengths lie. I think the same is going to be for next year as well, doing some early season bike races with the Raccoon Rally in the summer, multi sport during the main season and cyclo cross in the Fall.

Now it's cyclocross and trail running season, oh yea!