Playtri Festival

First of all, I didn’t register for the race until Wednesday of last week, but I was lacking motivation for training and in need of a confidence boost after Wildflower.  Not to mention that I got dropped by a girl on a group ride a couple weeks ago.  She’s won top amateur at every race so far this year and is about to turn pro so I don’t feel so bad I guess (that’s how I rationalize it)!

The OWS went good and I set a new PR for 1500 meters and that was pretty much the highlight of my day. 

From there, I raced over to my bike, threw my helmet on and took off out of T1.  I had (or thought I had) pre-clipped both of my shoes on my bike only to realize that as I was mounting my bike that my right shoe was gone (MISTAKE #1)!  I shouted a couple expletives, threw my bike down and ran back into transition to find my shoe lying on the ground a couple of feet away from my rack position.  I grabbed it, ran back out, hopped on my bike and took off.  Not only did it cost me probably 30 seconds in transition, but it took nearly 15 minutes for my HR to come down out of Z4 from a combination of fury and trying to make up for lost time.

Here's where it gets better....I forgot to wash my aero bottle from the previous weekends ride, so I soaked it overnight in the kitchen sink full of sudsy dish soap.  Race morning, the sink had drained and I forgot to rinse out my bottle before filling it (MISTAKE #2).  So my hydration plan on the bike consisted of sipping Dawn flavored water every 15 minutes!

And finally, I miscalculated the run course which was a series of out-and-backs and I thought I was approaching the finish line when it was actually the turn around to begin the second lap (MISTAKE #3)!  I definitely didn’t negative split the run as I was demoralized...how I mistaked 3 miles for 6 I have no idea!

I screwed up my GPS in the water before the start so I raced blind, other than HR (MISTAKE #4).

Not that these mistakes would’ve put me on the podium, as the competition was ridiculous for some reason.

All in all it was a great race...OWS, bike course was flat & fast and the run was mostly shaded. It was very spectator friendly as well. I'd definitely do it again.

I finished 7^th in my AG out of 36 and 26^th OA out of 250 men (including those in the Open).  1st, 2nd & 3rd in my AG all finished in the Top 7 overall. I was in 3rd in my AG and 8th OA off the bike but got smoked on the run.

For comparison sake, my friend won the 30-34 AG but was 10th OA...yeah, 35-39 was stacked!

RESULTS:http://mychiptime.com/searchevent.php?id=7589
*The bike and run distances were short so the paces are misleading.

Next up is the Disco X50 which is a repeat of last year and will serve as a good race to meas progress.