Colby Tri Race Report

I love this race. I think I have blogged about it before, but it's the one race I hate to ever miss. I have raced it 4 out of the past 5 years (2006 I was injured) and have always done well. This is the reason I signed up even though I thought I wouldn't race this year. Just couldn't help myself. Which also led to racing last weekend too, but ....

Anyway ... I woke up this morning and proceeded as usual. Shower, coffee, breakfast, etc. I started to load up my car and when I walked outside I walked out to a temp of 66 degrees at 6:20 in the morning! Wow! Every year it is usually very chilly at Colby. Last year when I arrived at the race venue it was 39 ... no joke! I arrived at the race a little behind schedule. I pulled in at 8:10 and the race started at 9. Not much time to mess around. I grabbed all my stuff and headed down to pick up my bib. I get there and had left my USAT card in the car. Luckily they let me get my bib, get body marked, and set up transition before heading back up to get it. By the time I did all that is was almost 8:30. Pre-race meeting was at 8:45. I went for a quick run that included stopping at my car for the card. Then I quickly put on my wetsuit and headed down to the water. I managed to at least get in and get a feel for the water before they pulled us out.

This race is short and fast. The swim is only 400M so you can pretty much just go all out because you're not in the water long at all. There are only two waves, men and women. The men went off 3 minutes ahead of us. We started and I just swam as hard as I could. I hit the beach and then ran up the big hill to T1. I headed out on my bike and settled in fast. The bike is 14 miles. I passed quite a few men right off the bat. That's always fun. I passed one girl within the first few miles. I keep pedaling away, pushing hard. I passed a couple more girls and then it seems like I'm out on the bike all alone. This isn't a big race but I didn't see anyone for miles. I start thinking, am I that far behind that I can't catch the other women? (I'm used to coming out of the water pretty far back and usually pass more women). OR, did I come out of the water better than I realized - after all it was a short swim - and there was just no one to pass. I liked that thought better.

The run is an out and back and you see the runners as you come in off the bike. As I approach I see the turn around cone but no runners. I like it! I keep riding and soon I see the first male, which tells me I was in good position. Soon I see Erin, she was leading, but then Nicole was a close second and just flying! She quickly ran Erin down and ended up first female. I see another girl and then I knew I was in 4th. I came in off the bike and quickly headed out on the run. I still felt really good. As I approached the turn around cone, I saw the 3rd place girl but I knew she was too far ahead to catch. After I made the turn I saw the girl in 5th and realized she was too far back to be a threat. Relief. I ran it in hard finishing 4th female and 20th overall. Another solid performance at the Colby Tri.