Moses Lake Sprint Tri (.5 swim, 12.4 bike, 3.1 run)
Location: Moses Lake Washington
Date: 6/7/08
Temp: 70 degrees very windy

Pre Race: I left my house the day of the race with my wife, my one year old son, and my dad. It was a two hour drive to the race, but it was a 10am start so we left at 6am so it was not so bad. I ate my pre-race homemade wheat pancakes and we were on are way. We got there around 8:30am and I picked up my packet and started to set-up my transition. I took my bike out just to clip my shoes in and I heard someone yell at me to put a helmet on. I yelled back I wasn't going anywhere (I only was on the bike for about 10 seconds). Come to find out it was the Race Director and he told me one more violation and I would be disqualified. Way to start out the morning I thought. I decided to put the wetsuit on early and go down to the swim start to burn off some adrenaline from the confrontation and to ease my nerves. The water felt great and I focused on the race ahead.

Swim: I started out in the front pack and at the first buoy I was right on the feet of 1st place. I kept up behind him for about 100 yards and then lost him in the murky water. I kept swimming my race focusing on lengthening my stroke and by the halfway point he was already about 30 seconds ahead. As far as I could tell I was in 2nd place, but it is always hard to judge in the water. Getting out of the water I realized one other guy had passed me and was about ten seconds ahead. My wife and dad told me I was in third about 1:30 behind the leader. Swim time: 12:00 even

T1: Everything went smooth and I passed the 2nd place guy and didn't see him until late in the run.

Bike: I felt a little nervous being 1:30 back already, considering my last race I was only 45 seconds back out of the water and ended up losing by 12 seconds.
My bike is my strength, but I didn't know if the guy in first was a strong biker or not. I got my answer quickly. By mile 3 I caught him and passed him going probably 4mph faster than he was going. I was excited to be in 1st for a split second and then realized that I really needed to focus on extending my lead. I told myself not to look back and to get to the turnaround and mark the time until I saw #2. The wind was gusting about 35mph in our faces and it was a rough ride on my 808's until I hit the turnaround. As soon as I turned around it was dead silent and I knew that meant I now had a huge tailwind. Right away effortlessly I was going 31mph and I couldn't have felt better. It took 50 seconds before I saw 2nd place and I continued to focus on extending my lead. One of the volunteers steered me in the wrong direction coming into transition and I ended up in a parallel parking lot. I weaved through some cars maybe losing 10 seconds and came into T2 with my hair on fire. Bike time: 34:00

T2: It was only 23 seconds so I can barely remember anything. The one thing I do remember is something my friend told me last year (who makes a habit of winning triathlons) he said it is always a great feeling to come into transition when there are no bikes there yet.

Run: I quickly got my cadence where I wanted it and knew I had a solid lead, but considering I have never won a race I was still paranoid that someone was going to run a 14 minute 5k and catch me at the last moment. I got to the turnaround and once again looked at my watch to figure out what my lead was. 1 minute.... nobody 1:30.... still nobody 2:05 finally 2nd place goes by. I doubled it in my head and realized that I just needed to make sure I didn't do anything stupid and I would get my first win. When I had the finish in sight I couldn't help but look back and to my relief didn't see anyone. I sprinted out the last 100 yards and my finish line picture looks like I was going to explode. Run time: 20:11, not my best considering just last week I ran an 18:55 5k, but I think I was a little bit of a head case with no rabbit in front to keep me going.

Finish: 1:07:11

Come to find out I won by over 7 minutes! It was icing on the cake to a great day. I had so much fun. I want to say thanks to you trifuelers for all the advice and support. I was so excited on the way home thinking about posting my race report. See you at the races!

-derek