A good day for a race...

Today was the day. It was the first race that I have ever ran that was sunny. Out of the 6 or so races I've done it's been overcast at the very least and raining at a few. It was the I Love The Tavern race, sponsored by a local restaurant named (you guessed it) The Tavern. It was a 750 meter swim, 18.8 mile bike and 5k run. Nothing out of the ordinary. As you can see from the picture, it was beautiful out.

The water was a wonderful 84 degrees, warmer than some showers I've taken. It was an in water start, so we treaded water for no more than a minute before the loud cannon went off. It honestly felt like we were swimming against the current the entire time. I managed to come out of the water in a decent time. Nothing special, but fast enough.

Once on the bike everything felt great. I was in the saddle and was right at home. There were some pretty beastly hills on the course. For the first time ever... I had to use my small chain ring. Sure sure, I've used it before just to make sure it works, but this time I actually needed it. All I could think to myself was you better get up this hill. I felt better on the way back when I saw a group of 20 people struggling their way up the hill just like I had. I ended up averaging 21.5 mph which was pretty decent considering the hills. The winner averaged 22.4 so I was sort of close behind.

After a good transition off the bike my legs felt surprisingly good, much better than usual. Maybe it's because of the added distance I've been doing lately. Either way I'll take it. The run was on trails and was probably the most fun run I've done in quite some time. I ended up averaging just over 7 minutes per mile which I'm very happy with considering my usual struggle with the run.

So... here's the exciting part. My total time of 1:33:25 was good for 1st in my age group and 31st overall (out of some 500 people). I was so blown away that I had done so well. Happiness couldn't describe my feelings. All the hard work had paid off, and the illness hadn't ruined too much.

Now that I have a sweet mug to prove that I won my age group it's time to get back on the distance training. I'll probably do some long medium intensity workouts this week just to get back into it.

Next race: 3sports Sprint

Game plan: Race as hard and as fast as possible.

Thanks for reading. I'm going to have some coffee and something unhealthy.

Listening to: Circa Survive

Feeling: Awesome