Kari, Matt and myself started off the day loading up the car, completed the first pre-game dump, ate breakfast and left to pick up Sarah on our to the triathlon. It was a fairly uneventful car ride. Sarah complained a little for being awoken from her slumber at dawn. That's ok. We had several missions to accomplish: Matt's first triathlon ever along with Kari and my ambitions.
When we got there, we checked in with registration and I asked for a brief run-down of the bike course. I wanted to try to get out on the course for a bit of a warm-up. After we were set up in the rack, we got changed and I headed out for my warm-up. It was a little more brisk than I was anticipating, so I made the decision to go with arm-warmers after all. I got inside just a little before my wave started for the triathlon to eat my last few calories and hand some to Kari before I jumped in the water. I also was able to discuss swim speeds and how we'd handle passing in the lane if the need arose. Then my wave was summoned behind lane 1 to begin our swim.
I felt a little more sluggish in the water than I was hoping for. I still knocked out a 6:52 for my 500. While that is not bad, it was not what I felt capable of doing. I climbed out of the pool and raced to my bike. Then I began my frustrating struggle with my arm warmers. It took me a while, but I finally got them on (Chris passed me in transition to only piss me off further). He started in wave 3 and I am a faster swimmer, so I had about a minute lead vanish because of my arm-warmers (really pissed me off). I took off on my bike chasing him and trying not to lose sight of him. Unfortunately, the course is winding enough that I lost track of him fairly early on in the bike course and tried to settle into a rhythm.
As I made the turn for the turn-around, I saw Chris (only about .25-.5 miles up the road). This motivated me to keep powering on, now that I had him in my sights again. Prior to the race, I asked Andy to give me time updates on any potential time gaps between myself and Chris, since I knew he would not start before we finished. As I entered into transition for the run, Andy told me that Chris had about 3 minutes on me. Basically, when Chris and I saw each other, it motivated both of us and he took a little more time out of me.
Off on the run course I go. Thankfully, the first water volunteer at the top of the first hill gave me a cup of water and directed me along to the off-road run course. It was not as challenging as I had prepared for, but it was definitely a difficult course. On the section of the run course that was next to the road, I saw Kari trucking into transition (she also started a wave behind me and I figured she was about 10 minutes behind me). She was doing awesome and looking strong! It was also really weird to never see another competer throughout the run. The volunteers were also a little shocked to see me show up, since I was only the third person on the course. I knew Chris was in front of me, but I had no idea where I was (no mile markers like on the bike course). As a result, I was really struggling with determining how much I should try to pour into the run without blowing up early. When I finally saw the finish line, I had a load of gas left and tried to finish as strong as possible.
At the end of the day, I ended up having a lot of energy in my reserves. While finishing close to my goals (swim=7 min, actual=6:52 min; bike=37 min, actual=38:38 min; run=21:30 min, actual 23:00; top 10 overall, actual 9th; win age group, actual 3rd), I was really pissed/motivated/frustrated that I had a load of energy still in the tank when I finished and only had 1 minute separate myself from 6th position overall. It definitely inspired myself and Kari to set goals for the EarlyBird and plan to race come May 1st.
On a happier note, all of the Emery's squad kept their IT bands in check to be able to bring in quite a haul of medals. Matt finished his first ever triathlon after only 3 weeks of training! Kari placed 5th overall for women and won her age group in only her second triathlon ever! Chris won his age group and took 4th overall for men! Julie took 3rd in her age group! Andy won his age group and took 2nd overall for men! Brent won his age group! Finally, I got 3rd in my age group and took 9th overall for the men. There are more details about the results on the Race Results page and photos on the Race Photos page.
Last but not least, following the triathlon, Chris, Julie, Kari, Matt, Sarah and myself headed over to Sobelman's for a delicious meal. Chris was peer-pressured into eating a quad. I believe that he enjoyed it! It is definitely a wonderful place to go for a post-race meal!
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