Portland results

Back from Portland on Monday. The family time was great, and the race was fun. Here's a quick rundown:

9 of 30 in age group
49 of 168 in men's olympic

2hrs 33minutes overall versus goal of 2:27 (90% of the difference is from the bike, and I missed my goal of 23 minutes on the swim by 34 seconds).

Pre-race: went as expected. Up early and got a good transition spot. It's so nice to have both T1 and T2 in the same spot! No swim warm-up, but I didn't see anyone else get one either, so it was all equal.

Swim: went well. 23:34 on the swim. I started too far to the right and think I added about 17m (according to Google Earth!) by the angle alone, and my 25 yard race pace time is about 22 seconds. I swam the second half of the out-n-back faster than the first half, more than likely because of the start position. First half went really well, and I swam a straight line with very little siting. Second half, I had a head-on collision with another swimmer way off course. Between 1100 and 1300meters, I was all alone and not swimming straight or with good form. Then I spotted the finish area and did well for the last 200m. I pushed the entire swim like I wanted to (first time to do that!) and pleased with the time. I really think the 22 seconds from from the bad starting point and the 10 seconds from the collision add up close enough to the 34 seconds, so I can rationalize away that missed goal(!).

T1: went well. Ran hard to the bike like I wanted to do. Changes went quickly. Position in the racks was great, only had to push the bike about 30 yards to the mount area.

Bike: Started out very rough. Crashed with another cyclist in the first 50m. I am not sure who's fault it was, but onlookers near my wife said it was the other guys'. I think we were both looking down to clip in. A mile later in the tunnel, a guy dropped his water bottle and it came right into my line, and I ran right over it without crashing (yikes!). The uphill is what I had trained for and I did ok on that, but the downhill portion was very tight turns and I had to slow down alot. The last mile or two was on very rough pavement. And it was incredibly crowded; I'm used to rarely seeing anyonoe next to me on the bike! Clearly, my bike handling skills need alot of work; I bike mostly straight roads with little traffic here at home. Overall, I did 26 minute laps instead of 23 minutes as I wanted. My goal times did not account for slowing in the downhill curves, so that's why I missed that goal time.

T2: Good and fast. Again, bike position paid off really well.

Run: My "perfect race" goal was 45:13 to match the Rexburg run. I did it in 45:12! At this point, I was wondering how I'd crash on the run, since I had crashed already on the swim and bike. On the downhill to the river edge after the first bridge, the concrete was a bit uneven and I tripped a few times but remained upright. The east espanade was a cool area to run on, and the uphill to the steel bridge was cool because it had steps, and I imagined myself as Rocky as I went up the steps. Downhill of the steel bridge was nice, too. Then cruising through the crowd to the start of the second loop / finish area. The second lap was 20 seconds faster than the first lap! Second go was the same as the first. I felt good the entire way, which was really surprising. I finished strong, which is always nice.

General Comments:
- bike course was really crowded.
- swim in the Willamette was ok. I certainly wouldn't drink the water, but I wouldn't hesitate to swim in it again.
- nice cool morning.
- put duct tape on feet "sore spots" so I didn't have to put on socks. Worked well.
- Had a 12oz FRS after the race (It's the stuff that you always see Lance Armstrong in the ad with "Tired of being tired?"). That stuff is really awesome and brought me back around very quickly in about five minutes. I didn't get a massage because it was a 40 minute wait.
- I'm happy with the results. I know where I lost time versus my goal times, so that is an important learning point.
- A fun race!