Tri for your Cause race report

Today i raced in the Tri for your Cause triathlon in Boulder. the race director is a guy named Brent Herron, who is currently applying to med school and will hopefully be a R4WH'er next year. He definitely put on a sweet race, and i'm glad i stuck around town to race. Yesterday i had to pick up my race packet and got a chance to jump in the water. i promply jumped right out, because it was 55 degrees and i had no wetsuit.....this wasn't looking good for the race... while on the ride or camping by bike, i often complain about being cold...this doesn't compare to what i felt in that water. it was like a new years polar bear plunge. i used to think it was BS when people said the water was so cold it took their breath away, but now i've experienced it and it absolutely is for real. yeah i just cited wikipedia.
Anyway i knew i was going to have to get used the water for a good 5 min before even taking a single stroke. So after a good warm up on the bike i literally sat in water for as long as i could stand. i only got about 3 minutes of swimming in before the race, but it was enough to make sure i wasn't going to pass out or hyperventilate....i'm not even overexagerating, it was cold! The swim itself was uneventful luckily, but i was pretty slow without a wetsuit and suffering in the cold.




After the turn i was definitely a little shaky and not holding a straight line, but i think i was delirious so thats OK. The bike route was actually pretty tame considering the terrain boulder has to offer. the first 20 minutes on the bike i was still battling the cold from the swim. I was moving pretty quickly, passing a ton of people. i was riding more aggressively than normal, just to warm up. i actually was seeing double for the first 20 minutes....thats how cold i was. by the end of the bike though i felt pretty good, and in the end i only got passed by one guy, Steve Pyle formerly from connecticut....small world again. i had pretty solid bike time, averaging 23 mph.

The run went just as expected. i knew i wasn't going to be able to run my normal pace at altitude and going off of 3 weeks solely on the bike, sans running. The funny thing about the run was that my feet were still freezing, and the feeling of running was really quite odd. it actually felt like i had super springs in my shoes, and although my feet were numb, it felt quite comfortable and efficient. Overall the run went pretty well and i held 6'30"s the whole way. i think thats a pretty good sign for the summer, considering i did a total of 20 miles for april.

I ended up 13th overall out of probably 250-300 people so i was pretty happy with that. Time to rationalized....being at sea level and with a wetsuit i could have taken about 3 min off my time and been well within the top ten....but whatevs. It was a fun day and afterwards Megan and i checked out Pearl street and got to see a "Boulder Freeze" in action (or inaction.)



Oh yeah, this is for Jen. it happens to all of us.