It was a morning on the east coast of Florida known as the Space Coast where it felt like the blast of winds were coming off a rocket. This was in Cocoa Beach at the 2024 Space Coast Triathlon Sunday where I was competing in the Sprint Duathlon (1 mile run – 12 mile bike – 5k run). Here I’ll share my experience of the day.
I chose to make to 2+ hour drive race morning for various reasons so wake up time was 2:00 AM. I arrived, set up the bike in transition and completed my pre-race warm-up. I felt pretty decent after having heavy legs when I awoke Saturday morning. I decided to get a massage later Saturday afternoon which I don’t like to do the day before a race but it was worth the gamble to get a relief in my quads. My quads did feel better Sunday morning while my calves woke up sore from the massage. They would be good though knowing once the race started it would go away.
This race presented great challenges from the competition including fellow Team USA teammate and in my age group, Mark Witmer, along with 36 year old bad-ass and Brazilian National Champion, Alvaro Coutinllo, and a few others. Also racing and getting back into training was great friend and Team USA teammate, Ed Vasquez.
The race started with a one mile run, out and back 1/2 mile, with significant winds blowing us around. I heard and felt Mark the entire way with me just getting into transition before him. I was under my target pace by four seconds so that felt good. Alvaro was long gone…so fast. I darted out of transition and put together a strong effort. It was a 12 mile course, out and back six miles. At the u-turn I looked at my bike computer to see how far Mark was behind me. I had built a couple minute lead up to that point. I pressed hard going back into the fierce wind and heading into transition with what I thought was a good margin but needed to keep pressing. I was just under my target power output but it was a bigger stretch goal…so I was pleased with that.
Heading out on the final 5k run, I struggled to hit my target finishing 10 seconds off the pace…not happy with that… I came through the finish line fighting placing 2nd Overall and won Masters (fastest over 40 years-old.) Hats off to Alvaro (winner) and Mark who batted for a 4th Overall finish. We ran a cooldown together after the race chatting about our experiences, met up with Ed, took some photos, and chatted more about what was next.
Overall
- 1st Run – Felt good about the pace and effort
- Bike – Good progression from last race and including the triathletes, had the 5th best bike of the day of 250~ athletes; still need to make leaps here for Nationals
- 2nd Run – Fail; the wind and hard bike effort had some impact but my time was unacceptable…just like fails in life…I learn and try to get better for next time…it’s about getting better…
- Overall – Good progression from last race; I felt fit losing nine pounds in the last six weeks
With inspiration and influence from Elia Luti, I recorded my first VLOG race recap on the way home to capture my summary in that format. He’s doing amazing things in that space and always offers his help and nudges me to try. I appreciate that about him. Let me know what you think of the VLOG via YouTube and you can also subscribe to the channel to not miss future editions and other content from The Healthy Giraffe.
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