May 8 Kinetic Triathlong Festival 70.3 at Lake Anna.
Starting Temp was 42-44F with water temp at 69. Start time at 7AM
I think I finally nailed down a pre race food strategy. Got a foot long with no cheese for dinner with fries. For breakfast I ate ramen and sipped UCAN. NO COFFEE. Felt pretty good the whole race… Only a little bit of issues late in the run almost shitting myself. I am also paying attention that I do not swallow air due to being nervous.
Swim - Dove in and swam 1-200 yards to WU. Panic attach inducing. Once I acclimated to the water I got out and lined up for the start. The course is a long rectangle so I had some trouble finding the buoys on the way out. Also it was dawn and on the way back the sun was finally in the sky. I got colder as I approached the shore to finish. 36min swim. Felt slow. I’m capable of better, and cant seem to get my OW swim legs back.
T1 - COLD AF. The only extra gear I brought with me was arm warmers. I should have had gloves and something more substantial than socks on my feet. At this point I am not in a good head space. I’m considering just pulling out of the race. Took a whole 5min!
Bike - Nearly turning around a few times due to cold. I can barely modulate by brake levers or squeeze a bottle. Got further down into the bike and still not happy, Told myself I could just do 1 lap. If I DONT do 1 lap then I do have to finish the whole race. Around 20 mile mark. I;m pushing 180-200 watts. I have no energy. Finally at around mile 30 the sun was higher in the sky and I was warming up a bit. Finally able to start pushing some power. Drank 400 calories, and ate another 100… Fingers so cold I could not manage to get more gummies out of the package. A little worried about how little I’ve taken in. Time was 2:18
T2: Frozen feet and hands. Didn;t even bother getting my feet out of the shoes. Just dismounted the old fashioned way. threw my shoes on, scooped up my bib/hat/glasses and ran out of t2 in 1:32
Run - 3 lap course, with 6 hills to climb total. Considering the up and down of the course it is still pretty fast. I spotted my nemesis (local pro Todd Burns) and marked where he was on course, hoping to match his pace. Lap 1 taking it pretty conservatively. I’m starting to feel good, and really feeling the “I got this”
Another local DC tri guy flew by me(Matt Sarge); hes a strong runner and after today I got him in my crosshairs to rival. Come lap2 I upped the tempo a bit, I saw Todd again and he was about another 30s up the the road from the last time I saw him. Lets see If I can hold that off. 3rd lap he made even more time on me!
Started feeling like I had to use the bathroom; scoping out bushes and porto-johns. Really didnt want to stop. Urge was coming and going almost lot it there 
Final hill before the downhill to finish. OMG I thought…this hill hurt. Look at my total run time for the first time, Hey I might make <1:25 I thought. Finished strong and did in fact finish with 1:24:44 in 5th overall with total time 4:25:34
Found Todd after the race, He got a 4:13. Totally crushing us. I’ll get him someday. Matt Sarge ran a 1:17:03 which blows my freaking mind. Todd was also penalized 2x 12min total without notice for rule 10f which is…
" f. Position . Except for reasons of safety and when no advantage is gained, all cyclists shall keep to the right of the prescribed course unless passing."
Compete bullshit rule, as its completely open to interpretation. Now I would understand a blocking penalty but just simply not being on the right side ALL the time is just bullshit. I feel like the refs were being extra nitpickey to him since he lead the whole race. He crushed us and I think deserves this win. So with that penalty Todd moved down from 1st to 5th, giving me fourth overall. Hindsight it was a pretty good performance for me even though it felt terrible during. I lost a whole position from my slow T1, and really need to get my swim form back
Well done
