[SW.BK.RN]: 5430 Sprint

Yesterday was the 5430 Sprint Triathlon, the first of the three-race series in Boulder. The race was a "dress-rehearsal" for Age Group Nationals in 2 weeks, and just about everything went according to plan. My goals for the race were to place in the top 15 overall, break my previous stand alone bike TT time on the bike course (see my previous post on March 8th), and run faster than 6min/mile pace. I almost achieved every one of those goals, and I am very satisfied with the performance.

I finished 10th overall, my bike split was more than 3 minutes faster than what I did in March, and I ran 5 seconds off of a 6min/mile pace. I finished 3:28 behind the overall winner, but was 1:40 back from 2nd place. I blew up in the last kilometer of the run, but I still pulled off a solid run split (for my standards, at least).

10:37 800m swim + 150m run to transition
40:02 27.7km bike
18:41 5km run
_____________________
1:10:59

The only things that went wrong during this race;
-I really fumbled around getting into my bike shoes, and my shoe strap came completely undone so I had to wait until a downhill before I could "re-lace" the velcro.
-I started getting asthma on the run...I bet I sounded like a dying animal to the people around me.
-I blew up on the last bit of the run, and I had no kick whatsoever at the finish.
...otherwise I couldn't have asked for a better race.

The kid who won it this year raced a 1:10:50 in 2006. Does that mean there is a chance in hell that I, too, can take over 3 minutes off my time in one year? I sure as hell will try...