Presque Isle 11

This actually turned out to be a pretty decent race after all the pre-race confusion was over. It started out at registration that apparently Active.com hadn't turned in all the online registrations to the race people and when we tried to pick up our race packets they had no idea of who we were or if we even registered. Long story short here, we had to do same day registrations etc. since we did have confirmations that we did in fact register online.

Second, since we were considered same days, which there were actually none since it was all online, we had terrible rack placements because it was all rack by numbers. I got to my rack spot and there wasn't any room so I looked around and saw a tree all by itself and I thought that would be a good spot, so I set up there, not the best of spots but it made due. 

After I set up, we went out and rode for a few miles and grabbed a quick run to get the blood flowing and then suited up for a warm up swim. We headed for the water entry area and the race people said there would be no pre-race swimming since they had to announce the swim orders in detail and everyone had to listen, come on, everyone swims before a race...they said we could have a few minutes between waves to get in a quick warm up....well,, better than nothing I guess.

Since I was considered same day I got to go off in the very last wave too, that was nice, so, since there were eight minutes between waves and there were four waves I started 23 or so minutes after the first wave, the one that I should have been in and the wave that my competition was in, again, oh well it is what it is. I ended up mixing in with the group ahead of me and exited the water and felt good.

Transitioned fairly fast and rode the Presque Isle TT course averaging 25 mph and stayed under anerobic capacity, that was good. T-2'd fast and was soon picking off runners since there were so many of them on the course at this time. I hit the 1/2 point of the 3.8 mile run averaging about a 7 minute per mile pace, at least that's what the runner that I was running side by side with said we were running. I upped the pace a little on the home stretch and finished strong, again staying under anerobic capacity finishing 16th overall out of 379 racers and second in my age group. If I would have been racing with the guys that were in my group I might have been able to better my times, maybe........

Overall I'm pleased with my performance since I was kind of taken out of the game a little at the beginning of the day.  Hat's off to Tony for finishing 7th overall and 1st in his age group on minimal training. With some good training I'm sure he would have been a bit better. Doug was 1st in his age group and 13th overall, another good race for him even though he wasn't happy with his run split, as always if he isn't running 6 flats he  contemplates suicide.....

HFP Portage Lakes in a few weeks and this weekend starts cross season with the 331 racing weekend at Manatoc with our cross race on Saturday and the mountain bike race on Sunday. Lots going on from now until the end of December.

Good training and racing to everyone.