Short Course of Pain

I never have all that much time to train. I typically go out the door with a specific plan, pacing & effort in mind for that workout. I like to think that i train pretty smart - no junk miles, no wasted effort, i never completely smash myself.

That's why short course racing is my absolute favorite. It is an escape. No time to think, no time to judge effort level, to feel hungry, to worry about missing time with my wife & kids or about being late for work. Its an all-out effort. Go as fast as you can without exloding (puking & falling apart.)

I raced a super-sprint race in Westport yesterday, 1/2-mile swim, 5.5 mile bike and 2.2 mile run. The three legs of the race take about equal time to finish, which is atypical of triathlon where the bike segment usually takes about half the racing time. So Westport favors the well-balanced athletes. I've been working on my swim and had high hopes - and I felt like I delivered while i was racing. It was only a 35-second improvement over last year, but swim times all around seemed slower by 30-45 seconds for other people. I smashed the bike by 30 secs over last year and was the fastest split (they botched the winning guy's splits & gave him a slower swim by 4 minutes and a faster bike by 4 mins) - and i ran through a side stitch for a 30 sec improvement over last year. But when it came down to it, Dave Yockelson (a fast 40-yo out of Westchester) came by me at mile 1.5 and i couldnt respond. He's a fast runner, but I know that if i didnt have the friggin side stitch i could have run with him and taken it to a sprint finish, where I'm mighty confident. Serves me right for not being quite up to that high-end effort, and good for him for having the legs to smoke me and come in 2nd place overall.

Oh, and a relay actually crossed the line second place and they actually counted it as second overall... weird. And then when they got to the M35-39 age group, they didnt list me as winner because i was the actual 3rd overall individual... i didnt want the trophy or anything but my kids were dissapointed... it seems like all too often that race directors are like the keystone cops with getting results right.