Ok, so I will start this post by saying it's probably not a good idea to have many adult beverages on a Friday before a Sunday race.  I've learned my lesson.  'Nuff said.

Sunday's Vistancia Triathlon kicked off at 8am.  It was a pretty perfect day, other than wind. 

Swim
The swim was in a 4 lane pool.  Everyone lined up according to their approximate finish time for the swim.  You swam 4 lengths of the pool.  Each time you hit the wall, you would swim under the lane markers into the next lane.  When you finished 4 lengths, you had to climb out of the pool and start all over again in the first lane.  This repeated 4 times to get the full 400 meters out of the swim.

As if you can't picture it from what I just described to you, it was a complete cluster.  No less than 3 times, I hit the wall with at least 5 other swimmers there.  I had to push off under water and dolphin kick to get ahead of them and start swimming again.  It was a mess, but I handled it really well and was actually really pleased with my swim.  It was about as close to open water as you can get without actually being there.  Tons of kicking and punching in the water.  Glad it was over!

T1
I had a great transition.  I was really fast putting my bike shoes on and getting my helmet and glasses on too.  I ran to the line and hopped on the bike and sped off.  I'm not sure of my exact transition time, but it was quick.

Bike
This was a 3 loop course.  12.4 miles total for the sprint.  My first loop was pretty good.  The first half of each loop was uphill.  The highest point in the course had some serious wind and it was blowing me all over the place.  I felt sorry for the guy that I saw in transition with full disc wheels on his bike, he was probably being blown off the road.  Ok, I really didn't feel that sorry for him.  Why do you need a disc wheel for a 12.4 mile bike segment?  I felt like I never caught my breath on the bike.  My last loop was not good.  I knew I was slowing down, but still thought I was headed for a decent time.  Jeffrey Ryan passed me on my second loop and was hauling.  Way to go Jeff!

T2
On my way into T2 I had a super smooth time getting my feet out of the shoes and on top before I hit the dismount line.  I had another fast transition.  Slipped my bike helmet off and put my Zoot shoes on quick.  Off for the run.

Run
I went out on the run and was cruising for the first half mile.  Once again, I just never felt like I could get my stride on this race.  I wasn't sure exactly how fast I was going at the time, but I knew I was slower than usual.  I decided to just try and get into my stride on the run, even if it wasn't my usual pace for this distance.  After I did that, I felt much better.  I never could push it much further, but I got into a rythm and crossed the finish line after passing several people on the run.  I ended up running around a 7:45 min/mile pace, which is terrible for me at that distance.  I was really hoping to run sub 7:00 min/miles for this race, but oh well.  Life happens.  My Zoot shoes were also killing me.  I could feel hot spots on the outside balls of both feet.  Also, something was seriously rubbing on the inside of my left ankle.  Sure enough, more blood on the inside of the shoes after the race from blisters.  I need to figure this out for my next race.

The Kicker
So, get this!  As I'm at around mile 2.9 or so, I'm coming up to this guy in front of me.  He's 21 years old, based on the age written on his calf.  He doesn't know I'm behind him.  He's about 30 feet away from a turnaround sign on the course.  He stops early and starts to turn around to come back.  He sees me and rests his hands on his knees to try and play it off, like he wasn't going to turn early.  I pass him and run to the turn around.  I make the turn and he's already headed back to the finish line!  I can't believe it.  I pass him on my way to the finish and tell Amanda as soon as I cross the finish line, since she's collecting the timing chips.  She can't believe it either.  Then, I see him coming and I wait for him at the finish line.  He crosses and I quickly remind him that he cut a turn early.  He completely ignores me and walks away. 

I talk to one of the race organizers and they encourage me to report it to the USAT timer.  I agree, since this guy needs to know that he can't get away with cheating at an event like this.  I tell the timer, he writes the incident down and thanks me.  An hour later, the guys is getting a trophy for being second in his age group.  I'm pissed.  First of all, I want to point out that he was second in his age group out of 4 people total.  Secondly, he should have been disqualified just to learn a lesson.  I mean, these races, these triathlons, these marathons...they are all about proving something to yourself, not anyone else.  This guy needs to learn that lesson.  It torked me off for the rest of the day.  I hope I don't see him at another race again.  Amanda will probably try and stop me, but I would say something to him.  Have some integrity for God's sake.  If you can't finish a 5k run in a sprint triathlon without cheating, then you've got some issues.  Grow up.  Plus, he let an old 35 year old man (me) beat him by 5 minutes. 

Ok, enough of my rant.  But, I hate cheaters!!

As usual, 4 Peaks Racing did a great job putting on this race.  It was organized and had plenty of happy, helpful volunteers (including Amanda!).  The finish line food was water, bananas, oranges and cookies.  The awards were really cool and so were the shirts w/ a big "V" in the Superman symbol style.  Very cool.  The bike and run were both very scenic and enjoyable.  The run was along a nice paved trail that made it very nice.

The downsides of this race were only two things:
  • The pool swim was an absolute fiasco.  Doing a serpentine swim and having people get out of the pool and start over 4 times to get the meters out of it was a huge pain.  There were a lot of newbies at this race and, although given directions, they don't stay to the right or get out of the way when you are trying to pass and you get clubbed by fists and kicked by legs.  My suggestion would be to start in waves.  Have two people assigned to each lane and have a volunteer count off their laps until they're done, then start with the next wave.  I know this makes for a longer total race day, but it makes it more fair.  The first 10-20 swimmers had a definite advantage being able to swim in the pool unobstructed for the first 100 meters.
  • The end of the run was confusing.  It was like a figure 8. For the most part, the run was an out and back.  However, when you got back, you had to pass the path that led you to the finish line (which you could see only 25 yards from you) and go on another short loop before coming back and crossing the finish line.  It was very confusing.  I saw tons of runners get completely confused by it and plenty more were talking about it after the finish.

Overall, this was a super fun race and well organized.  I'm disappointed that I didn't rest up Friday to be fresh for this race and have a better shot at placing.  I came in 6/19 in my age group and 31st overall out of about 108 men.  Not my best showing.  I'm especially disappointed with my run.  On the bright side, Mike Sanchez from Tribe did an awesome job volunteering.  He did all the body marking before the race and directed people in and out of transition.  Jeffrey Ryan from Tribe had a great race and finished 2nd in his age group.  Angie Axman, also from Tribe, was the overall female winner and was only seconds behind the overall male winner!!  Amazing!  Fantastic job from the Tribe triathletes.  I'm still amazed when I do races in my Tribe kit and random people racing and spectating are always givine me the "Go Tribe" yell.

Thanks to Jeremy and Dan from 4 Peaks Racing.  Another successful event!  See you at the Splash and Dash Series!