Vermilion Olympic Triathlon - 3rd place overall

This was just supposed to be for fun and a last pre-Ironman race-day rehersal...  Vermilion is a "home course" for us West-siders and SnakeBite Racing Team was planning to have a good turn-out.  I'd been training like mad for long distance, with no speedwork and dead legs from all of the long rides and runs.  My goal for the day was to bike pretty hard, and then run on tired legs to simulate Ironman racing.

 

I had my typical mid-pack swim (30th out of the water) and then went after everyone on the bike.  I posted the 3rd fastest split on the bike for the day... I was fine that I wasn't the fastest since my focus for the past month had been all endurance rides of 5-7 hours.

 

When I hopped off the bike, I expected my legs to be shot from all of the training miles and the effort of the day, and figured after a couple of quick miles (6:20/mi pace) that I'd start to feel the pain.  I ran those fast miles, and realized there were only a couple of guys in front of me...  Was I in 3rd place?  Maybe 2nd (since one of the two ahead of me was in regular running clothes = relay team member)...

Wow - I've been as high as 5th overall in the HFP races, but never top 3.  That gave some real motivation to push the run the whole way through and see where I could finish.  I gritted my teeth and ran my 3rd mile at about 6:20/mi again...  A little faster than I normally run Olympic Distance 10ks... (usually 6:45ish average)... at the 3.1 mile turnaround, I could see that I was defnitely the 3rd runner and while there were some coming behind me, nothing that looked a serious threat (at least in my wave).

The next two miles just sucked.  My pace slipped to about 6:30/mi and my legs were SCREAMING!  But knowing my position and the fact that another wave could have a faster person, I kept pushing the pace and gutting out the pain.

The last mile was easier mentally - knowing I had made it this far on my tired legs, held pace, and wasn't letting anyone get any closer (that I could see anyhow).  The last mile was about 6:25/mi pace and I put together my best 10k pace!

I burst across the finish line and finally let off the pressure...   The Chronicle-Telegram was there and got a nice photo (which was later used in their story about the race...).  At the time, it was beleived I was the 2nd overall (not counting the relay team)... but there was one guy in a later wave that managed to beat me too, which moved me to 3rd overall.  Still - I was VERY happy with my performance that day personally (Course Record for me by a big margin) and my highest overall finish in an Olympic Triathlon.

The Chronicle-Telegram did a nice story on the race in the paper the next day, and gave a nice portion of the story to my interview:  http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2012/08/20/vermilion-triathlon-avons-hagan-leads-local-pack/ 

SnakeBite Racing Team had a great showing on the day  -  lots of team members won or got a top 3 in thier age groups and everyone had a good time!!  It is always great to race and see so many of your teammates out there giving it their all!

 

All-in-all, it was a pleasant surprise to have done so well, given the lack of specific training / preparation for the race.  Sometimes the best races come when you least expect them!!