This was a fun race. I was very impressed with the race venu and how well the race was run. Especially for the number of participants entered. For me, this race was like asking a marathoner to do a 5k. I had a lot of fun, but had trouble accessing the top end of my speed zones.
I started near the front of the swim pack. I wanted to have a good swim race and work on my speed/drafting/swimming in the pack. I had a side stitch a couple times during the swim and had to back off on the speed a bit. I also drank a good gulp of water 1-2 times, but managed to come out of the water ok.
Transition was slow for an olympic race, but fairly good for me. I got on my bike and started do so some work. The bike course was fast and mostly flat, so I was done before I knew it and running back into transition. T2 was also not fast for an olympic distance race, but I got it done and ran onto the run course.
I ran to the best of my abilities, but it was clear that I had not done a lot of speed work. I huffed and puffed my way through the run (and yet another side stitch) to the finish line. Boy, was I happy to be done!
Those shorter distances are shorter in time, but man are they hard when you try to push the pace! All in all, it was a great race and I look forward to doing it again in the future.
