Sunday, July 29, 2007

Sponsored by "TEAM RICO!!!


The Spudman 07 story.

First off I have to thank my sponsor "Team Rico" for providing the hospitality of the "Lil Pop-up Pearl" tent trailer and the "Black Rocket" time machine. It made an already awesome trip a top ten.
Grab a seat cause here we go.
We lumbered into Burley about 4 pm. I had our campspot already picked out in my mind but was worried it would be taken. We pulled into the entrance to the race and not one person had set up camp yet. Having first dibs we rolled little "Pop-upPearl" into the perfect corner under some shade and set up shop. Within two hours the fence was lined with campers and cars. We registered and ate the free pasta dinner and hung out with friends and family for the rest of the night.

I accomplished my 2 goals by Crushing last years bike time of 1:05:18 by 4 min. 14 sec. at 1:01:02, and dropping my overall time of 2:16:36 to 2:15:23. That was DRAFT FREE AND DRUG FREE!!
Here is how it unfolded:
I felt pretty good going into the swim. I tried to judge the current of the river to the imaginary start line with the starting gun but was a little behind on my timing. I was trying to get in front to have a clear take off. I found myself in the washing machine for the first 30 seconds until it opened up. I remember my shoulders feeling heavy at the beginning but it soon passed as I warmed up.

T1 was ok but I could of done a few things faster, like get the wetsuit in the bag faster and dont wear socks!!

Bike was awesome!! Right out of the gate I knew I was going to beat my time from last year. Being in heat 2 behind the elites I thought would be good since there would be less traffic. It was good as I remember only two passing me on the bike the whole way. That was until 1 mile to go when a freakin peleton of twenty comes ridin up my seatpack. The rules say no drafting but obviously it was not enforced. All my exerted solo effort hammering for 23 miles fizzled away as the look in my competitors eyes were saying "drafting? me? no I'm not drafting". I just shook my head as they went by and then swung wide left and threw it down with all I had left passing them to the finish. 24 mph on your own is different than 25-27mph in a pack. Oh well, I was just there to beat my old time anyways.
t2 was fairly quick with just finding my bag on a hook and moving to an open spot out of foot traffic to put my shoes on. The first 400 yards of the run gradually goes up this hill to the upper road which is very painful just starting out. I could'nt get a good pace going until just after mile 4. By then I knew my time to beat was closing in. Running into the finish the last 100 yards probably is one of the best finish lines I have seen. Over 1000 people line the shoot and cheer you on as they announce your name just before you cross the line. Its amazing how much energy your body can muster up to sprint into the finish when 2 minutes earlier your body is saying "why"? It was fun to see all the friends and family members finish from the different age divisions. 1 person in our group actually won a spud trophy.
This tri is definitely a top 5 on my list (despite the drafting glitch). I plan to register first thing 12:01 midight on Jan 1st. Ohh and run faster next year.

2 comments:

britt said...

Hey Great job! I wish I could have come and watched you! Why don't you try an extreme sport next time and cliff jump with us! See Ya!

Team Rico said...

hey man we had our kid on wednesday. I texted but who knows if you got it. Check the blog