Robert Swanwick – Nation’s Triathlon – Sunday, September 10, 2017

The weather could not have been nicer. Water was 69 degrees and air was even cooler. Bike was perfect temp the whole way. Run required some water dumping on the head. They allowed for self seeding on the swim so I went with the 30mins and under. Maybe should have gone 25mins corral as many were under seeding themselves. Lots of climbing up ppl and noticed some were breastroking!. As always, I have massive panic until about 300meters when my breathing settles down. After the turn, was impossible to see buoys into the sun so I just tried to stay with the stream of ppl. Missed the 2nd turn and swam straight an extra few dozen meters. Swim was still a PR (29:03) by a small amount, but I was hoping for lower. Really want to get my swim down to 26mins or so. Transition pretty routine. Fumbled with my wetsuit off and shoes on a bit, but only about 15 secs slower than expected. As always, coming out of the swim in the middle of the pack means I get to pass like a madman on the bike. Even more so in this race because there were two loops. Only two passed me during the ride and nobody was going just my speed so I didn't need to worry about avoiding drafts like in Philly (3 out of top 5 got penalties in my AG there). Felt strong, though I probably could have picked up the pace a bit in the middle. Averaged just under 23mph for a 1:05:19 Came out of the bike-run transition a little hot. I always seem to feel slow at first even when I'm not. Was starting to find it hard to breath so I looked down at my watch and saw I was doing 6:10 pace! Ratcheted back a bit and ran 6:25's for a while. Dipped just above 6:30 in the middle and then finished last few miles strong for a 39:54. Course was very flat so able to get the legs into a rhythm and just keep it going. Luckily, the overall effort was enough to take 1st in the AG by 20 seconds at 2:17:33! Win a free entry to Escape from Alcatraz Tri which is pretty cool. Awards ceremony was a disaster so everyone ended up just going up and getting in a line to collect their medal individually (bummer, no podium photo).