Tiger 1/4 iron Triathlon - .6 swim, 28 mile bike, 6.55 mile run
Colville Washington
July 19, 2008
82 degrees, breezy

Background: I went into this race pretty excited. This was my first race 2 years ago and so making this my third attempt at the race. Year one 2:46:00 year two 2:24:00. I was hoping to greatly improve on last years time, but since ironman cda have had a nagging tendonitis problem in my left foot. I went for it anyways only running ten miles in the last 4 weeks. The race is about two hours away from my house so we left the morning of which is always interesting.

Swim: Pretty smooth throughout, felt I stuck to my game plan. The course seemed a little long, but it is hard to say.
time: 15:40 - 17th overall
T1: This was interesting. I always make sure to put my timing chip under my wetsuit which I did, but when I yanked my wetsuit off my timing chip flew a country mile. I chased it down and put it back on. Real fun experience.
time: 1:20
Bike: Never felt completely comfortable on the bike. I moved my way up through the field to 7th at one point but just felt out of rhythm
time: 1:09:08 - 24.3 mph
T2: pretty smooth :29 off to the run
Run: Felt okay to start, but by mile 1.5 was already feeling my foot. I contemplated dropping out, but was passing people so I stayed in. The run is two loops after one loop I was in 5th place and had run 3.25 miles in 20 minutes. The second loop was quite different. 3.25 miles 29 minutes OUCH! I was struggling through the whole second loop.
Time 49:55
Overall Time 2:16:30

I was somewhat happy with my with improving my time, but am still wondering what it would have been like without my aching foot. I hate having excuses and I have never dealt with injury real well. I have a hard time resting. Hopefully I can recover quickly and be disciplined enough to rest. My last two races I have really died over the second half of the run and it kills me. One of my triathlon mentors always has to remind me that training+recovery=results. I need to focus on the recovery right now.