Clays Park Triathlon

Went into this race not really knowing what to expect since I haven't been running all that much due to a tender knee and it's also the first tri of the year for me. I've honed my swim alot over the winter doing alot of intervals and technique work and have been on the bike quite a bit, so I felt confident there. My plan was to take the swim out hard, transition quick, get in a strong bike and then let the run be what it was. The swim was good, I was in the group of three that exited first, quite a bit ahead of the pack. Transitioned fast and was off on the windy bike course. My legs were feeling pretty decent all week so I was hoping they would feel good today as well. I got a few climbs under me in the early part of the bike and was feeling good, I could tell my legs were going to respond well to the climbing on the out part of the course and then it was a fast back section since it was mostly downhill. I used my road bike for this race with the 404's since it climbs way better than the P2C and I figured it would benefit me more on the climb out and I could get fairly aero on the way back, which was the case. I had a strong bike and my position stayed the way it was out of the water, 3rd in the 40+ group.

T-2 went fast once again then I was out on the run. I didn't feel any discomfort in my knee (which I was concerned about)  and I was catching and passing quite a few of the 39 and under group. I was running about 25-30 yards behind the 2nd. place 40+ guy the whole run but could not close the gap on him. I got close one time but went anerobic, I was having a good race so far and didn't want to kill it so I backed it down just a hair under anerobic and ran steady to the end to finish 1st in my age group, 9th overall and 3rd in the 40+ group, not a bad race and I felt good.

Tony raced well to finish 1st in his age group and 5th overall after some pretty intense cramping in his calves. He hasn't been putting as much training time in as he did last year due to school but the training he is doing is paying off.

Hats off to my BAFF tri team mates for racing strong and all getting top age group results.