As part of the clinic (run by Scott Bennefield of PARA ENDURANCE), David and I had a chance to get the bike set up and swim. The former was key, as we had to work out several issues (including an unexpected seat post issue). While we did have a chance to swim, I guess the area we were in didn’t have the “false flat” (more about that later).
After setting up the transition, we made the long walk to the swim start. The swim went well for the most part — the two main issues were when I unknowingly started swimming at a 90 degree angle to David; the other when I though the “false flat” was the finish.
This was only my second race with the thigh tether (instead of waist and thigh). St. Anthony’s had a more traditional open water swim (OWS), so I may not have noticed it there. But in the pool, there’s only so far you can correct… After fixing that, we continued on to a point where my hands were hitting bottom while we were in shallow water. I naturally thought we were at the swim exit. However, we were only at the 500m mark. Thus, the “false flat”.
After a decent run from swim out to T1, and a normal T1, we were out on the bike. The adjustments that we had made the prior day helped, and it was a relatively smooth bike.
After a decent T2, we headed out onto the run. As I’ve talked about in the past, I sometimes go out too fast. This was one of those cases, where I burned far too much in the first mile. Between that and humidity kicking in by mile two, the last mile was a painful, ragged mess. But we finished, and I earned my second Podium of the series.
Thanks to everyone who made the weekend possible — especially to Scott for leading the clinic, Catapult for ALL of their help and support, and to to David for guiding me.
