Race Report - Ashworth Backyard Triathlon

The second race of the weekend brought us to Steve and Korrie's home in Allendale. An annual tradition on Memorial Day, we swim, bike, and run an unofficial and fun, yet competitive, triathlon. This is the first race in the WMPTWCPS (West Michigan Premier Triathlon World Championship Point Series). In past years, it has been very warm and great weather. I guess we were due for a change. At race start, the air temp was in the 50s. Thankfully I packed a full-zip long sleeve jersey, cap, and gloves for the ride. Turned out to be completely worth it.

Pre-race I tried out one of the new PowerBar products called Performance Energy Blends. Made with real fruit, they are more like an applesauce consistency than gel like. They go down very easy and taste pretty good. These ended up given a decent energy load during the short race.

The swim was the first time I had been in the water since playing water polo in January. Needless to say, it is time to get back at it! The water was cold, my sighting poor, but still managed to have a decent swim. 250ish yards in about 4 minutes.

Out of the water and into T1, the cold air had some bite. I put on all the layers I could, fiddled with my garmin to try to get it to change from swim to bike, and hopped on to try to not fall behind. As we made our way out of the neighborhood, I cold feel every mile of the 3 hour ride I put in on Sunday. But, we managed to form a group (draft legal house rules) and I tried to stay comfortable. When we hit the turnaround, we had averaged over 23mph. We had to do some work to fight back against the wind on the way back, and needed up averaging 22+ for the 14.5mi. Very satisfied with this given the training load and that I left the race wheels at home.

My legs were frozen, tight, and seemingly not ready to run a 5k at the speed necessary to win. Tim was in the group with us and has been running very impressively this year. I wisely conceded to him after the first 1/4 mile and started to cruise. I took too much off the gas though and Phil came flying by. Damage control. My legs felt okay, so I kept my cadence up and stayed on my toes. Once Phil passed, I tried to speed up and keep the gap manageable. I started to count the gap, and kept it under 10 seconds. We hit the turn around and went straight into a headwind. I managed to even things up in the next half mile, and Phil tucked in behind me. Not sure how much advantage it really was to draft, but mentally it was threatening to have him right there. Thankfully, I could also hear his breathing, which helped reassure me that I was feeling a little better. Beware though, guys like Phil are smart racers. We hit the last little rise in the road with .1mi to go and I put in a little kick to gap him, successfully. But then, as we turned to the finish in Steve's yard, he started to sprint and challenged my second place. Another push and I held him off in the closing steps, securing 9 precious points in the WMPTWCPS standings.

Overall, a fun race with a little serious edge. I was hurting most of the race and it felt good to still have a great effort despite the soreness. Thanks again to Steve and Korrie for hosting us!

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