Mizzou Tri, 2009
My 2009 triathlon season kicked off the first of May with the Mizzou triathlon in Columbia Missouri, on May 3rd. This would be my second year racing in this sprint triathlon.
Our group travels down on Saturday before the race and registers, takes a practice swim in the amazing Olympic pool, drives the bike route and then out for a carb-loading pasta dinner. After taking this all in we headed back to the Stony Creek Inn, our home for the night. My roommate had to back out at the last minute. So I invited two of our tri club members to crash in my room. They were scheduled to stay in Mexico MO with family. Other members of the Quincy Multi Sports Club were staying in the same hotel. So the evening was spent with tri talk and strategies for tomorrow’s race.
A couple of the members are die hard and wanted to get to the race early for a good spot in the transition area. Our alarms went off a little before 5:00am and we loaded up the vehicles and head to the race site.
The weather was cool and I was already thinking about the cold run from the indoor pool to the outdoor transition area during the T1 (Transition One). The distance between the two is about a ¼ mile so it’s a small race in itself! The weather was to get warmer as the day went on so I knew by the time I crossed the finish line I would be hot and sweating.
The Mizzou triathlon starts the race in stages so you have to wait in line until your time. Once it was my turn, I jumped in the pool, and took off. I started out way to fast and my breathing was very rapid. This is common but I knew I had to relax. I never felt great during the swim and my time reflected it. I only improved by 20 seconds over last year’s time. (Last year was my first year at this tri and I was not in good shape going into the season.) When I opened the door from the warm pool area, the cold air hit me. WOW!! It hits you hard when you first get outside. But it doesn’t take long to warm up.
The bike ride was a two loop ride around the streets of Columbia and Mizzou’s campus. You ride by the football and basketball stadiums. I felt good coming off the bike going into T2. By my estimates I was about 4 minutes faster than last year. I will take it! Exiting the transition area I punched my Garmin watch. My watch has GPS built in, so it can tell you your speed and distance. You can also set the watch to have a little guy running the pace you want and another guy on the screen shows you if you are ahead or behind…pretty cool! I was way ahead!! My legs felt great and I had plenty of gas left. So I kicked it up a notch and ended up having a very strong run. I shaved 3 minutes off last years time!!
I ended up having a great race. I cut over 7 minutes off last years time! A great way to start the tri season!! Hopefully it’s a good sign for the upcoming season. Next week would be the Bridge The Gap run in my home town of Quincy IL.
Gary
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