Ah, August 8, 2021 in Webster, Mass. was a long time ago, but failing to take time to grieve prevents one from letting go. Among the good, bad and the ugly, this was bad and ugly. So it will be short!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Great to travel with Kevin Carlsten. Highlight of the weekend was dinner (outdoors on a beach) and my sitting in with a guitar player (since I had my sax with me, having gotten it repaired on the way to the race site). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 1.2 mile swim was solid. Seeded myself for 40 minutes, finished faster. Legs cramped on the way out of the water, but didn\u2019t fall. Improvement!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bike started strong, but a cop directed me to take a wrong turn, so I rode 2 miles extra including a thrilling downhill until turning around only when I got to a 5-way intersection with no signs and no volunteers \u2014 and there was my downfall: I thought if I pushed hard, i could make up for that 6 minute difference (no, dummy, it\u2019s 12 minutes). I should have given up on \u201cTHE PODIUM\u201d and just stuck with Coach Steve\u2019s plan of averaging 190 watts. So tried to go fast and ultimately tanked on the bike; Kevin (doing the Olympic distance and starting 20 minutes after me) passes before I finish the first loop; I get off the bike and I\u2019m toast before starting the run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the run! The course consists of out and back, but ducking into three or four neighborhoods off the side, in and out EACH TIME you pass the entrance. I am starting okay, but by mile 4 have slowed down, and towards the end a volunteer says \u201conly 1 mile to go!\u201d And my Garmin says I\u2019ve only run 9.5 on a 13.1 mile run. I am about to give up, but I\u2019ve sacrificed a week of vacation with Rachel for this race, I am not going to get a DNF (did not finish). So I turn around, go in and out of the nearest loop, and finish (and because I didn\u2019t pass all the timing mats, the race director asked me to confirm that my Garmin said \u201c13 miles\u201d for the run). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Swim: 38:40 (2:00 min\/100m); T1: 2:43; Bike: 3:21 (16.7 mph); T2: 2:10; Run: 2:18:02 (10:33 min\/mile), final time: 6:22:35. Oy, vey. 5 out of 8 for AG, 63\/ __ male, 84\/138 OA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, this was just a terrible experience all around, with terrible results and painful, as well. But the weather was wonderful! What\u2019s not to like? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ah, August 8, 2021 in Webster, Mass. was a long time ago, but failing to take time to grieve prevents one from letting go. Among the good, bad and the ugly, this was bad and ugly. So it will be short! Great to travel with Kevin Carlsten. Highlight of the weekend was dinner (outdoors on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-races"],"yoast_head":"\n