Race 19: 2010 Scott Tinley's Adventures

Date: October 2nd, 2010
Distance: .25 Mile Swim, 12.4 Mile Bike, 3 Mile Run
 

After allowing my hip to heal from it's tendinitis injury took some time, and I wasn't training as much near the end of the season, so I thought it would be best to run a sprint race for my last race of the year. Still, I wanted to push myself and make this last race a good one.

Every year at Scott Tinley's, I play with the idea of not wearing my wetsuit for the swim. The water is usually not as cold as other race, and many other racers will go without as well. Generally being afraid of cold water will get the best of me every time though, and I'll zip up my blue seventy wetsuit. This race I wish I hadn't. It's not because the water was to warm (which it was) but more because a quarter of the way into the swim, my zipper would up zip, creating a large pocket of drag starting from the back of my neck, all the way down to the crack of my butt. This did not make for optimal swimming performance. I came out of the water slower than I could have, at 9 minutes 40 seconds, but still faster than my goal, which was 10 minutes. Getting out of the wet suit was a little easier than normal in transition, seeing as how it was half off, and before you knew it, I was out on the bike course.

I was able to catch some racers pretty quickly with my harder than normal pace before settling in with some racers going about the same speed. With the size of Scott Tinley's having fewer participants than normal, this race gave me a rare opportunity to count the riders who have already reached the turn around point on the out and back bike course, and when I finally reached the half way point, I would know that I was currently sitting in 20th place among all the men. I pushed even harder on the back half as I knew that a strong run could give me a great final standing.

On the run, I caught a two racers quickly out of transition and would have a third in my sights. Unfortunately, he would stay there for the entire 3 mile run and finish before me, but I think having that racer in front of me the whole time helped me push my pace a little more than I would have other wise. I would find out later that day, that out of 9 racers in my age group I would finish 3rd! This would give me the rare chance to stand on a podium and accept a medal bigger than my closed fist!

Bling Bling!

2010 was a great year for racing, and I couldn't wait to see what 2011 would bring me.

Links:

Original Blog Post: http://ironmikecanada.blogspot.com/2010/10/day-326-last-race-of-2010.html
Website: http://www.tricalifornia.com/index.cfm/Tinley2012-main.htm
Official Results: http://raceresults.eternaltiming.com/index.cfm/20101002_Scott_Tinleys_Adventures_Triathlon.htm?Fuseaction=Results&Class=On+Road+Sprint+Distance+Individual~M25-29