1st race of the season

Here's my report from yesterday's PossAbilities Sprint Distance Triathlon.
The race started the night before with packing up 2 cars for th race. Since I had to leave early enough to arrive at the race both as a participant and advertising rep for my advertisers that had sponsored the race, Yvette decided she would bring the kids and my mom later in a separate car. So I packed my stuff for the race and Isabella's stuff for her race (which she decided not to do on race morning).
I woke up race morning at 4:15 ate my chicken noodle soup which has become my race day and large workout day breakfast because of the huge amount of sodium in it. I got this tip from an Ironman friend of mine who said it keeps you from cramping, and I agree, it does.
Left my house at 5 am and headed over to pick up Doug and his daughter Natalie. Doug did the bike portion of a triathlon relay and Natalie ran a 10k in just over an hour.
Everything went well in race prep. Special thanks to Dan and Ron at Foothill Cyclery (www.foothill-cyclery.com) for the loan of an awesome wheelset. Some day I may break down and invest the $1500 for that wheelset, but until I do, the race day loan form these guys is much appreciated.
I got in a good warm up run and waited for the horn to sound.
Horn blast and we're off. Within the first couple hundred meters of the run a friend of mine who owns King Leo Candy (www.kingleocandy.com) named Pierre (47 yes old) says, "Hey Chris is that you?" We chatted for a few seconds while we both still had the ability to talk before we got too winded. I had a great 5k run. I knew Pierre was right behind me the whole time and there was some 10 year old kid right in front of me that should be on the TV show That's Incredible, because he was half my height and had almost an identical length stride. Who over he is, he has a future in sports if he decides to stick with it because I came in top 30 on the run and he was right in front of me.
Quickly through transition and out onto the bike. I picked up a couple of spots in transition ( I saw the 10 year old out on the course much later) and almost immediately picked up a couple of spots out on the course. Pierre was still behind me but since the course looped and I could see him, I knew he was close. Each loop included a 1/4 mile climb of a pretty good hill. On the second loop we started passing through lapped traffic. I got slowed up a couple of times because the slower folks didn't know to stay right. On the second climb of the hill, I feel Pierre grab the back of my seat to help me up the hill a bit. His kind way of saying "I'll be going by you now" without saying a word. I raced the rest of the bike trying to keep him in sight and not get passed by anyone else. I had success in both of those. I'd love to know the bike split so I can figure out my average MPH, but I know we were moving pretty fast.
Dismount the bike and almost dump it going into transition when my legs turn to jelly on me. Rack the bike and start the long run to the pool. I jump into the pool and my arms won't work right. The swim is only 5 laps of the pool. My average workouts are 60-100 laps non-stop, so this should be a breeze. But the effects of redlinning my body for the last 50 or so minutes catch up and the swim is awful. I've got a guy breast stroking next to me that I can't seem to pass. I lost at least 2 places in the pool. Up out of the pool and sprint to the timing mat for a time of 1.01:39. That puts me 5th in my age group (30-34) and 30th overall amongst a pretty tough field that included about 10 pros. I felt really good about the race and my placing. Chatted with Pierre afterwards and if I had swam better, I might have caught him. He finished in 1:01:17. Good times.

Thanks to all of my friends and family who came out to race and cheer. In the middle of a race, I hear people shout my name but I rarely see anyone. This race I did manage to see a lot of you out there and it helps a lot. Thanks.

Next Race, May 20th- World's toughest Half Iron-man distance race. This will be a whole different type of racing. No redline heart rate hear, just a long day.