TriAmerica Clermont Oly

This morning was the TriAmerica Clermont International Distance race - the kick-off of the tri season for me. I was a little tired from helping move and the one hour shift because of daylight savings time, but I was still excited standing on the beach awaiting my wave start. It felt odd racing so early in the year, because the season in Seattle starts in early June with Blue Lake.

This race was JAMMED with college teams. Of course Florida and Miama showed up with teams of at least 25 students each, but also very well represented were Penn State, Virginia Tech, and the Naval Academy. I thought about this on the bike ride and decided that maybe it was spring break for these schools, and they were kicking off their vacation with a season opening tri before moving on to the traditional Florida spring break locales.

Unfortunately, my times don't appear in the results. This also happened at the Florida Challenge, but I hung around and talked to the race director who was happy to sift through the results to locate me. The problem back then, which is likely the issue now, was that I have my own Champion Chip. For whatever reason, I wasn't scored along with others, although my times were recorded. I think that happened here as well so I filled out a support request and I'm sure my times will be recovered. I supplied my chip serial number when I registered for the series, so I think somewhere along they way somebody forgot to enter that into their event database.

In the meantime, there is my memory of my times. I finished around 3:03, which is OK considering I've been slacking on the swim and bike. My swim was about 0:35, what I was expecting, and I'm sure T1 was about 4 minutes because we had to run a long way and enter the far end of the transition zone. The bike course was rolling hills and uneventful except for a brief moment I thought I was going to collide with three other athletes. The sprint course had a turnaround at one spot just on the other side of the crest of a hill. Three people that missed their turnaround decided to do a U-turn from the right of the lane, right when I was picking up speed on the descent. I yelled out and swerved through them all... but it was a scary experience. Bike time was around 1:30. T2 was probably around 4 minutes as well, what can I say, I just move methodically through so I don't forget something. My run should be around 0:50, which is good for me at a 10K in a tri. I felt strong and passed a ton of people on the course. I didn't push to the edge because I just wanted to finish feeling good.

I saw several race photographers out there so I'll buy any shots that turned out well. ;)