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04-09-06, 09:39 AM
This race happened April 8 in Puyallup, WA, but I don't think results have been posted yet - it was a small race, and I think at least some of the time recording may have been done manually which would reasonably take a bit longer.
The 400 yard swim was indoors, 2 people per lane in a 6 lane pool. Waves went off every 15 minutes starting at 7:30, and it would turn out that being in an early wave meant that you had a better chance of escaping more of the rain, which started somewhere around 8:30 or so. A very civilized swim, I thought, and I'm curious to see what my time was.
The 9 mile bike leg was outdoors so running out to get on the bike in damp 40-degree weather meant putting on some clothes first; for me that was a windblock jacket, a thin skullcap, and some gloves. There wasn't a lot of real straight or flat ground, but since the roads were dry for most of my bike leg negotiating the rolling hills and turns wasn't a problem. I thought the course had plenty of signs and flaggers to direct riders, although I did go off course near the end, which probably added 10 minutes or so to my time; I haven't downloaded the ride from my GPS/bike computer yet to see.
A bit past the top of the biggest hill on the course was an intersection and the proper thing to do was go straight, making it a short remaining ride to T2. I don't recall being explicitly directed to go right but that's what I did anyway, which had me go down a hill to a stoplight on Meridian Ave. This was a very long and steep hill, leading to several congested intersections and roads. I knew I was off course, but I knew only this one way back to the start from there so I took it.
Despite the extra distance and hills I felt unusually good on the almost completely flat 4K run, actually passing a few people along the way and finished strongly. By this time it was raining hard, but a few later wave folks were still going out on either the bike or the run.
The 400 yard swim was indoors, 2 people per lane in a 6 lane pool. Waves went off every 15 minutes starting at 7:30, and it would turn out that being in an early wave meant that you had a better chance of escaping more of the rain, which started somewhere around 8:30 or so. A very civilized swim, I thought, and I'm curious to see what my time was.
The 9 mile bike leg was outdoors so running out to get on the bike in damp 40-degree weather meant putting on some clothes first; for me that was a windblock jacket, a thin skullcap, and some gloves. There wasn't a lot of real straight or flat ground, but since the roads were dry for most of my bike leg negotiating the rolling hills and turns wasn't a problem. I thought the course had plenty of signs and flaggers to direct riders, although I did go off course near the end, which probably added 10 minutes or so to my time; I haven't downloaded the ride from my GPS/bike computer yet to see.
A bit past the top of the biggest hill on the course was an intersection and the proper thing to do was go straight, making it a short remaining ride to T2. I don't recall being explicitly directed to go right but that's what I did anyway, which had me go down a hill to a stoplight on Meridian Ave. This was a very long and steep hill, leading to several congested intersections and roads. I knew I was off course, but I knew only this one way back to the start from there so I took it.
Despite the extra distance and hills I felt unusually good on the almost completely flat 4K run, actually passing a few people along the way and finished strongly. By this time it was raining hard, but a few later wave folks were still going out on either the bike or the run.