RACE REPORT
The Highlands Ranch Spring Tune-Up Triathlon took place on Saturday June 2nd. The Race consisted of a 500 yard pool swim, a 12 mile bike and a 5K run. There were 318 athletes participating this year. The weather was perfect, temperature was around 70 and there was no wind.
The Canon Triathlon Club sent up 6 members to the race. 2 of the newbie triathletes did well enough to place in their age division. It was an awesome race, the support was great, the course well laid out.
I was in the pool at 7:02:00. Although the water was pretty warm I felt great. After my last triathlon swim I looked forward to pushing hard and getting out in under 10 minutes. I was first in my lane and started out strong. I was passed by the second swimmer on lap 5 and was not passed again. I did catch up to the other swimmers in the lane and overtook them. I was out of the water in 9:30 with a 10 second run to the timing mat.
T1 went OK until I got past the mats. I planned on getting into my shoes while on the fly but one of my shoes came off the pedal. I needed to stop and go back for it. This added about 1 minute to my bike time. My T1 time was only 1:30 minute.
The bike course was challenging with the beginning mile slightly rolling followed by a 8/10th of a mile hill climb. I found that I could gear down a little and push it out in my seat. After the top it leveled for about .25 mile then it had a 2% grade for the next 3/4 mile. There was another smaller hill at about the 3 mile mark that I found I could stand up and power over. After that it flattened out and then went downhill for the next 2.5 miles. I reached speeds of 35-38 mph. I lost one water bottle around the end of the ride, but otherwise the bike portion was totally awesome.
T2 went a whole lot better than T1 with no problems encountered. I was only in the transition area for 1:00 min. Then off to run.
The 5K run was on a concrete path through the park area. Although not crazy about running on concrete, I liked it better than if it would have been dirt. The course was pretty flat to slightly downhill for the first 1/2 mile then it was uphill to the turn around. Back the way we came and it finished slightly uphill to flat. The course was flat with me posting my fastest triathlon run yet at an average 8:12 mile.
All in all the race was a must do for next year. I finished 13/31 in my age division. As usual the 40-44 year old group seems to be real competitive. The overall winner was from the 40-44 year old age group with a finish of 59:00. Otherwise I finished 37/147 males and 46/318 athletes. I really felt great at this race and hope to build on my success. It is time to ramp up the training to see how far I can go. There is no stopping now.......... Rock On!
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