Memphis in May Triathlon

Sunday was the Memphis in May triathlon. After Gulf Coast and the rest of last weeks happenings, I had no aspirations of racing well. I think that is key to a good race.

I went out Saturday to cheer on Nancy, Joy, Alyson, and a few others and hung out at the Terrapin Challenge booth in the expo all day. It was a pretty fun day but I got a mild start on my weekend sunburn.

The next morning, I carpooled with Mason after a good night's sleep and arrived in good shape. Laura came to my rescue with a spare race belt since mine's AWOL at the moment and everything was OK. I've never had a more relaxed race start that I can remember. I had one goal: to hammer on the bike. I've been putting off my lactate threshold test on the bike because it requires a 1-h time trial at max pace, something that really isn't pleasant. Anyway, the swim was about the same as it always is - wet with a little bit of chop and lots of people crashing around. I came out feeling relaxed and almost 2 min faster than last year so that was a booster.
I worked pretty darned hard on the bike and felt like I couldn't have pushed it much harder without someone to catch in front of me. Maybe I need Johan in my ear or something. Anyway, after coming into the bike I was totally excited to see that I had dipped just under an hour - an elusive goal my teammates have talked about a few times. I may have earned the privilege of looking silly in an aero helmet next time... When I set out on the run after a mistake-laden transition including a jog to the bike exit rather than the run exit, I saw a small person in Los Locos colors in the distance. I took me a mile to determine it was Joy and another to get close enough to complain about short races. She just told me to relax my arms in her best coaching voice. The next goal was... someone in green...I couldn't make it out but I recognized the gait. By the turn around I had caught up to (-12 s) Mason! Too bad he got to see me at the turnaround because over the last 3 mi he picked up another ~1:10 on me! I'm sure he'd have killed himself to keep me from catching up. I would have too in his situation but it wouldn't have worked...

Anyway, I feel very fortunate to have had a good race two weekends in a row and am really appreciative of all of the congratulatory and supportive comments. Other people had less stellar days and I think they are the ones who deserve the most support for struggling through it. That's a major part of what it's all about and it makes for a great training day! To that end, I'd just like to point out that any day you finish a race on is better than a day you don't or can't.