Pirate Tri Race Recap

This was my first Sunday Race. Crystal's parents had taken the kids Saturday afternoon and they were spending the night. This worked out great. Crystal and I went into packet picket, stopped by Amatos for some spagetti and then hit the grocery store on the way home. We were able to leisurely get our gear ready without having to worry about who was going to give baths, who was going to change diapers, who was tucking who in.. It was nice.. This was my 6th tri in the past three years. My First was the Wild Bear with my sister Rhonda. As I went to bed that night and thought about the race, I realized this was the first time I truely felt confident in my training. I knew I was going to finish. I knew a lot of the competition was in NH for the weekend. My only concern was the funeral home.. I will explain in a bit...

The alarm went off at 5:30. I think we both were awake around 5:00 though. We were on the road by 6:30. Things were just going really smooth. Everything just felt right.

We arrived at Point Sebago around 7:15. There were no lines. We got right to the parking lot and unloaded. There were no porta potties. There were actual bathrooms. This was a welcome change! We got to transition and I was on the first rack. No one else was there so I grabbed the outside spot. Crystal was on the next rack. We took our time in setting up, getting marked and then getting our wetsuits on. Around 8:40, Crystal's Mom and Dad showed up with the kids. The kids were excited to see us. That is always cool.

Fast forward to 9:00 AM. Crystal and I are both red caps for the swim. Red caps are wave 1. Men red caps start at 9:00 AM. Female red caps start 30 seconds later. At 9:00AM, the canon fires. Yes an actual canon. It is the Pirate Tri...

The swim was crowded. of the 225 or so, there was only 4 waves. The water was brisk, but not too bad. I never really got into a comfortable rythem due to either swimming up onto someone or being swum?? up onto.. Chalk it up to first open water of the year.. I was out of the water in a little over 9 minutes. I was extremely happy with that, A PR for me for 1/3 mile..

T1 was rough. I was extremely winded. I struggled getting my wetsuit off and my Jack and Adams race shirt on . Thanks TX cuz for the shirt.. a disappointing 3 minutes...

Off I go on my bike. I am passing people left and right.. OK, settle down.. I do after about 2 miles.. We take our first right off 302. We start to climb. We continue gradually climbing for the next 6 miles or so. These climbs are seperated with short downhills or at least gradual uphills. We then take the right onto Quaker Ridge road. The sign says Hall Funeral Home 3/4 mile. There is a reason there is a funeral home at the top. By the time I get to the top, I am thinking about going in to the funeral home to check their prices... It was tough. A lot of people passed me. I need to definately spend some time doing some hill work. The view was great though. Clear views of Mount Washington. You could also see Sebago Lake. As the decent started, I realized just how long we had been climbing. I looked down at one point and was cruising at 40MPH. I pulled off the aero bars and slowed a bit. 40 is pretty fast. There were a few bumps...

As I approach T2, I felt good. The crowd was great. I passed a few people right before dismount. My confidence was high.. Bike time was 49:21. Since I do not have clip ins, T2 was fast. Dropped of bike and grabbed race bib. 36 seconds..

I took off fast out of transition. As I approached the 1/2 mile mark, I realized I was starting to cramp in the calfs. I ran through it and was fine by mile 1 marker. It is a lollipop course. I saw Kyle, a guy I work with heading back from his loop. He was cruising along. I realized that I was too.. I was passing people left and right. I then saw Crystal heading her her way out on the run. She was looking great. She hates running. She looked like a runner!. We did a quick high five as we passed. It was a nice boost.. At mile marker 2, I passed a girl who was my age and was in much better shape than I. I do not think she was impressed. She stayed on my ass all the way to the finish. I was not going to let her get by. She propbably took close to a minute off my run time. (She did get by, right at the finish... My run was 23:45, hers 23:44.)

I ended up 49th out of 105 men. 75th of 226 overall and 8th of 25 in my age group. I was extremely happy with that even though a lot of the competion was in NH. It was a great event and hope that it is held again next year..

On the weightloss front, I lost 8 pounds since the Polar Bear. Hopefully another 8 - 10 by Urban Epic...