By now most if not all of you have seen the tragedies that occurred Monday at the Boston Marathon. What a truly tragic scene on what was to be a joyous and for many a monumental achievement. In an instant this was all erased. For me, this has been very real and impactful and maybe a bit more so than for some. First of all, I had good friends and a fellow Ironman participant/training buddy running in the race and near the blast when it went off. I was stricken with concern when the live timing for the race ceased and I knew he had yet to cross the line and his projected finish time was around the time of the incident. Also, I was communicating via text with his girlfriend that was unable to locate him nor had he made it to their rendezvous point. Thankfully, he and all are safe. Next, is the impact of the nature of the terror at that location. As I have described in the past the finish line is a euphoric place. Google Ironman finish video and you will see a plethora of videos that are very moving. Many describe it as a near religious experience. Many will describe the ironman finish line as something of a level of inspiration and awe that they have rarely seen else where. To feel that there is a threat to diminish or destroy that puts a pit in my stomach. In the face of terrorism we must be resilient, but I can only hope that when I make that finish line in Louisville that there is no diminishing feeling as these participants have experienced.
Last week was my first week of training in leading up to a race. The schedule was lighter than usual so as to be fresh but since this was a sprint triathlon it was not drastically changed as this was really just an appetizer and a way to gauge to my progress. The Carmel Tri is a sprint triathlon with a pool swim that you then transition outside for the bike and the run. Its 400 meters of swimming, 10 miles of biking and ending with a 5k (3.1 mile) run. I did the race in 2012 but was fighting a cold at that time and had done a 65 mile charity bike ride the day before. Either way it was a pretty good result for me with a finishing time of 58:29. This placed me 58th over all, 8th out of 47 in my age group, and I came in the 12th fastest bike time overall. Versus 2012 I had improved my finish by over 150 spots. As with any race critique you come back with some areas where I lost time. For me, the swim was a real disappointment given all my recent effort in this area. 10 meters into the swim I felt something around my feet. My heart rate monitor strap had come loose. The upside was I did not loose a $60 heart rate monitor. However, with stopping to get it, then fiddling with it as swam, and eventually stuffing it my pants to finish, I cost myself a good 30 seconds to a minute. This was the difference between a top 5 in my age group and top 50 overall. My transitions were also a bit slow. I spent too much time at my mat and was to slow in to my shoes on my flying bike mounts. These were more of a function of being the first race of the year than anything else. These also decrease in importance as the length of the events increase. So my take-away was the training is working, to focus a bit more on the details of the race to reduce the glitches, and to keep up the hard work. Lastly, my daughter participated in the swim as part of a relay team with her friends. They did an awesome job finishing 1st in the age grouping even with a slight hiccup on the run that went a little longer in distance than it needed to be. It was great to kick the season off in a more official manner with good results and it was also great to see so many others that I have come to know in this crazy community of triathletes. I am now back to focusing on increasing my distances. My next race will be the Indy Mini marathon on 5/4. Boston will no doubt be on all our minds.
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