2007 Columbia Tri
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Columbia Triathlon
The Columbia Triathlon was on Sunday,
May 20th and I finished! I participated in this event in 2005 and I took 11
minutes 26 seconds off my finish time. It is possible that my super-hard
sprint at the run finish helped. I was happy with that but I did not break 3
hours...my final time was 3:04:00. I was 38th out of 84 in my age group:
18th in the swim; 37th in the bike; 54th in the run. I really need to work
on my running. The hilly run course was hard for me - especially after the
bike hills... But, my run time DID improve from last time by 1 minute 15
seconds. The rest of my improvements were 4 minutes 23 seconds in the swim
and 5 minutes 12 seconds on the bike. My T1 improved by 37 seconds and this
time it included stripping my wetsuit off; my T2 was 1 second slower. But
all in all I am very happy!
There was a bit of rain in the morning and it was cool out. I was in the 12th of 13 waves and started at 8:15 - 1.5 hours after the professionals started at 6:45. As the final swim waves went into the water the sideline cheering got a bit louder. While we were waiting for our cue to start swimming the starter commented that we had been the best behaved wave of the day! The horn went off and we were finally off! I felt like I had a really good swim. I started passing some of the people in the wave before mine, and even some of those before them. On to the bike. But first I had to get my wetsuit off. I did fine until the suit got hung up on the band holding my timing chip. My bike was racked right near the bike exit, too. That made up for having to run to the farthest rack from the swim exit! The sun came out for the bike ride. The bike hills were pretty tough, just like I remembered. My maximum speed was 35.9 while my slowest speed was about 7. It was really tough climbing up those hills! The run, as I said, was tough after the bike. Unfortunately the darned sun came that came out during the bike ride was there for the entire run and it was quite warm out. I walked at every water stop and at a couple of the steepest hills. It must not have been too bad, though since I ended up improving my time. The walks really helped me, I think. It got a little annoying though to have the relay runners pass me! All fresh after not having to swim AND bike! But I eventually passed people, too, so I guess that made up for it a bit. If I do this race next year, which is my current plan, my goal will be to break 3 hours. Even though the hills are really hard it was a great event and I hope I get in next year. Having the wetsuit for the swim was a great move and I'm glad I invested in my own. I was very comfortable in the water. Other notes about the event:
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