Saturday, July 18, 2009

Philly Tri, San Francisco, and a little Lifeguard Competition

So as you may have noticed, I have been slacking on my updates lately. It's been a very chaotic last three weeks. After two tri's and a lifeguard competition later, and I am finally getting back to neutral.

It all started with the Philadelphia Triathlon back on June 27th. This would be my first race back since my accident, and would give me an idea of where my fitness was going into the later half of the season. I was mainly just concerned about how I would feel on the swim, considering the separated shoulder was one of the more severe injuries I sustained. Ironically though, my swim felt great. I was able stay right on the heels on the lead pack of swimmers with relative ease. I had a decent T1, and was quickly out on the bike. The bike course in Philly is quite interesting. It had plenty of dead flat sections along the river, but four decent climbs equally separated throughout the two loop course. I struggled to find my rhythm on the first lap, and not to far in, lost contact with the leaders. I was a little disappointed, but thought it would be better to ride my own race rather than blow up towards the end of the bike. Coming into T2, I had a bit more company. A few guys had caught me towards the end of the bike. Heading out on the run, I felt strong, but was a bit demoralized to see that I had lost two minutes on the group I came out of the water with. I just tried to keep plugging away, and eventually came within striking distance of a few guys, but ran out of room. I ended up 11th place overall, which for getting hit by a car, did not seem all that bad. Nothing to really celebrate about, but still a decent result all things considered. Plus, there was no time to celebrate. After how good I felt on the swim, I figured I should definitely do the San Francisco ITU Pan Am Cup in two weeks.

Upon arriving home, I immediately started laying out plans for San Francisco. It was very short notice, but I was able to get some deals on a flight out of Charlotte and a place to stay. One thing I did not plan on was having my car act up on me again. The damn thing has been giving me issues for several months now. Sometimes it starts fine and then other times I stuck trying to crank it for 20 minutes. I had a switch replaced 2 months ago that was supposed to fix the problem, but it just cam right back. I took the car back in a week before San Francisco only to have them tell me that I need another switch replaced. At this point I'm about to go insane, but I had no other choice but to get this thing replaced. The only hitch was that they did not have the part in stock, so they would have to overnight the damn thing so that it arrived before I had to drive to Charlotte. I was planning on leaving at about 1:30 am on Thursday to make my 8:00 am flight out of Charlotte. The part finally came in on Wednesday morning. I dropped my car off and planned on picking it up after work. So I swung by around 6:00 paid the ridicules bill and hoped in my car. Click! NOTHING. The damn thing still would not start!. I was ready to murder everyone at the shop. Just as I'm going to tell them what happened, a guy walks over and says he thinks its the starter that causing all my problems. So he finds a new starter, installs it in about 30 minutes, and damned if you know it, the car started with no hesitation.

Ok, so in the interest of time, I'm going to cut to the chase. The race went well. Had a good swim, but ran past my bike, so I missed the lead pack on the bike leg. Came into t2 30 seconds down on the main pack, but was only able to muster a 38 min 10k. A little disappointing, but overall a decent race.

The lifeguard comp was awesome, as usual. I think I have more fun at these things than any other athletic competition. The events are so unique, and the atmosphere is incredible. I managed some top 3 performances in a few events. Most notably, I was second in the run-swim-run event with my two other teammates finishing 1st and 3rd. We crushed everyone, and were basically able to jog the last 100 meters.

The party that ensued Thursday night did not disappoint either. It doesn't get much better than 250+ lifeguards all getting rowdy. And we aint talking regular drunk, we're talking Myrtle Beach drunk!

Ok, I'm almost done with this damn post. I really need to post more often. So, yesterday I raced the innaugural Amica Triathlon at Lake Wylie. I basically needed to do this race in order to get 5 races in for the NCTS by the end of the season. I managed to pull off the victory by about 3o seconds. I'm basically just trying to race myself back into shape right now, so yesterday was really just a good workout.

Alright, I'm done. If you made it this far, I commend you. Next up on the calendar is Bandits Challenge followed two weeks later by Elite Nationals down in 'bama. August is going to be a painful month.