I traveled to Fort Lauderdale this weekend to participate at the Las Olas Triathlon, competing in the Duathlon Sprint event. Here I’ll share my experience.
I made it to Fort Lauderdale mid-afternoon Saturday to pick up my race packet and begin my fueling for the race by going to one of my favorite places, Raw Juce, where I had a fantastic salad in the afternoon followed by my pre-race dinner of choice, an acai bowl, and they both did not disappoint (pictured below)!
At dinner I thought I was beginning to get sick. I felt tired, my chest felt congested a bit, and my head was off. Eating clean and getting to bed early was my hope in feeling better by morning and that’s what happened. I awoke at 4AM and felt normal…whew…
I got to the race site hugging the Atlantic Ocean, set up my bike, and completed my warm up. I met up with friends including, Bob Brown and Sergio Myers, and we were ready to roll in this short and fast sprint consisting of a .6 mile run – 9 mile bike – and 3.1 (5k) run. By sprint standards, this was short meaning every second could count.
I felt pretty good going into the race with overall fitness up and had a pretty good taper week to get feeling a bit fresh. The first run was out and back with the wind hitting us as on the return. I had a fast first run exceeding my target pace by a good margin coming in behind a fellow Team USA mate. He is 37 years old so I knew I would have my work cut out for me as he looked extremely easy going on the first run and he was gone.
I hopped on the bike and started out fast heading into a decent wind for the 4.5 mile route north on the A1A. I passed the leader at 3.25 miles and thought to myself I better create a gap if I have any chance to hold him off on the final run. That did not happen as he stuck with me throughout and it was a testament to us both pushing each other. In the end including all triathletes, duathletes, and aqua bikers, I had the 2nd best bike of the day and he had the 4th of 362 racers. With that said I was pleased with the power I pushed on the bike.
We came in and I vaulted out on the final run feeling pretty good. It was overcast and warm but not hot so this had the makings for a good final run if I showed up. Heading out for the first mile we went into the head wind. He caught me about 1/3 mile in and he was gone. Nearing the end of mile one I was pushing hard and my pace was slightly higher than my target pace and that got me down just a bit. Knowing we were going into the wind, still shaking the bike leg fatigue, and the wind would be at my back soon, I fought…
Between mile one and 1.55 before the turnaround I was actually cutting into my pace and that built confidence. When I made the u-turn I continued to run faster and that continued as I hit my target pace in mile 2 and blew by my target pace for the final mile cruising through the finish line feeling really pumped about my final run. I fought and felt fast…yay!
I finished 2nd Overall and more importantly, I hit my target splits. With that said and how strong my bike was, I still have opportunity to get faster on the bike with training and I need to before June 7 Nationals.
It was great hanging with the boys after the race shooting the shit, talking about the pain, elation, and gratitude for being healthy to do what we love. That’s what it’s all about…
I recorded my 2nd post race VLOG if you would like to watch/listen to my raw post race recap…just remember I was tired, dehydrated, and needing sleep when recording…ha!
– Add Health to Your Life
The Healthy Giraffe 
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