Sunday I participated in the St. Anthony’s Triathlon, racing in the Olympic Distance Relay with Diamond Fitness teammate, Kevin Manning. Here, I’ll share my experience from a great day in St. Petersburg, FL.
When I was creating my schedule leading to the Duathlon National Championships in June, I needed a race on this particular weekend and there wasn’t a duathlon in the state of Florida. It was fortunate I chose to participate in this race with so many friends and teammates there as the race was so close to home. I still needed the experience to replicate a duathlon so I determined I would do both the bike and run portions of the relay, meaning, I would need to find a swimmer.
I asked Kevin if he was interested and after he checked his calendar, he committed. I’ve known Kevin for years and love his discipline regarding his exercise routines and being a great support to his teammates. Kevin loves to swim so I thought it was a great match and it was.
Our race consisted of Kevin swimming 750 meters (was shortened from 1,500 due to conditions), I would bike 24.5 miles, and close with a 10k run. We were participating with 86 relay teams and close to 4,000 total participants…huge race!
It was a time trial start meaning they were allowing two athletes in the water every few seconds so I didn’t have a good idea when Kevin was going to come to the transition corral. I stayed close to the corral while warming up. When his wave started to come up the path towards the corral, I went inside, spotted him sprinting towards me, yelled to grab the timing chip off his ankle, and took off to my bike. Kevin had a great split!
From there I headed out for the 24.5 mile ride. I got fired up early on as I had a rider drafting on me for over seven miles. I stuck to my plan but that certainly sparked the chip on the shoulder for the remainder of the race. I came in feeling good about my effort and when I dismounted off the bike, my cleat popped off the pedal. When I skidded to stop my momentum so I could go back to pick it up, I slid and went right down on my butt. I got up quick, grabbed the cleat, and ran into transition.
After throwing my running shoes on, I was off on the final 10k run. For the first mile, my quads felt rough as they should, but my pace was pretty good. At mile one, I was under my target pace. My legs eased in mile two and I kept the pace going. This led to me resetting my goal pace as I felt fully in control of my endurance knowing what I had to do to get to the end. Miles 3-5 continued keeping around that target pace…within a five second window. At mile 5.53, I slid to 20 seconds over my pace. That lit my final fire as I re-engaged my head and legs taking 22 seconds off the pace for the final .47 of the mile. I sped through the finish line pumped feeling I drove through the finish.
Kevin and teammate Gail greeted me, sharing we came in 2nd overall amongst the 86 teams and won the Grand Master Division. Overall, I was pleased with the bike power output, but I still need to improve my power and refine my technical riding. This course had a lot of turns and I was not razor sharp from that aspect. That said, I had the 2nd best bike in the relay.
My run was two seconds per mile slower than a straight 10k on the same course 2 1/2 months ago. That pumped me up considering I abused my legs for an hour on the bike to kick out that run. My run is getting better to be Nationals ready but the bike still needs work.
Mentally I was in the game and although the drafting fueled me, it never changed my game plan. I continued to execute what I had within me for the day and made an adjustment on the run when I knew I had the gas to amp it up a notch. It’s such a mental game and I’ve learned to have the game plan in place, execute it as a guide, and flex to the countless variables that happen on game day. Every game day throws something at you good and bad. Expect it, flex when you need to, and race your ass off!
Six weeks to go to Nationals and a final tune up in three weeks. Back to training to get better…
I recorded a Vlog recapping the race post event and I’m pretty rough again…blame it on the dehydration…
– Add Health to Your Life
The Healthy Giraffe 
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