July 13

First I want to encourage you to go near the bottom of this blog and click on Tony Dungy's video I posted. It is brief but speaks volumes. Tony is a major role model.


Wow - lots of things happening. First my 40th, then 4th of July, my family went on vacation and I completed another triathlon.

July 12 was my last race thus far. After getting up at 3:30AM I headed to Clearwater. It turned out to be a majestic and blessed day. Temp was in the low to mid 80s, water about 85.

There were 1,100 triathletes at this race. That's the biggest race I've done so far. My swimming went really well, and so was the bike, except for climbing hill/bridge #1. It was the run that set me back after I thought I had this race "in the bag". Nonetheless I made great time even on the run with a 9 min per mile pace.

The calm waters of Clearwater bch were a great setting. Now, there were over 100 people in my wave, meaning that everyone is trying to get to the same point so, there is a lot of kicking, and hitting going on. I got out of the water feeling fresh and later on I learned that I even cought up with some of the folks from the previous wave. I basically focused on being relaxed and getting from one buoy to the next without stressing too much.

Once out of the water we had to run over sand and gravel quite a long distance and this only got me tired but as soon as I changed into my bike gear, I was out of there and passing people. The route was rather technical with many turns and those "hills" I mean, bridges. But there were people guarding at every one of them. In the last straightaway, while I tried to get my garmin on my wrist I dropped it and had to stop and U-turn. This cost me some time, but I learned my lesson. T2 was really fast.

I took off running and though I felt I was going at a good speed, my legs would not move faster, my knees would not come up higher and lots of people were passing me. I realize that I must now work on gaining speed on my run.

At the end I finished with a time of 1:20:25. This was basically 6 minutes off from my mark. 38th in my group of 79 athletes and 336 overall, out of 1,100. I have to admit that this is not bad at all.

Analyzing the standings I realize that if my running pace would have been 8:00 I would have completed the race within the 175 best times. So, that's my new goal. I have to set my bike aside and work on running speed.

Regarding my weight I was up 4 lbs but mainly because this week I rested for the race, my body was craving more times. As soon as I resume my regular exercise routine, this goes away.

Let's see what I log for my next race.