St. Anthony's Triathlon

 After what was the longest period of time I have ever gone without competing I finally had my first race of the season at St. Anthony’s this past weekend.  What better way to get my first race in and dust off the cobwebs than against the best field that I have ever raced against?  When I planned my season, St. Anthony’s was not going to be my first race but the whole injury thing changed my plans a bit.  Nevertheless, I was excited to do this race again for my 3^rd time.  I have a great home stay in St. Petersburg who I was very excited to see and I was of course also excited to start racing again. 

I knew this race was going to be fast.  There were a lot of points on the line for Hy-Vee and the race was fast last year with a stacked field.  However, the level of competition pushed the pace of this race above and beyond anything I expected.  Fortunately, I went about 6:00 faster than I went at this same race in 2010.  Unfortunately, I finished 8 places lower and finished 21^st. 

My overall finish was something that I was a bit disappointed with.  I was a little off on the swim that put me in a tough position on the bike.  I did all that I could to make up the time I lost on the swim during the early part of the bike and I paid for it later in the bike leg when I felt like I was going backwards.  I ended up having a much better run than I thought I would have; especially after what was a poorly paced bike effort and of course the long lay off from running that was due to my glut injury.

This was a tough race to go to for my first race of the year; but, as usual, I learned a lot.   I still feel as if I am pretty new to triathlon, although this is my 3^rd year, and I still think that I learn something valuable every time I race.   I am looking forward to racing again next weekend in Knoxville, TN for my first Rev3 race.  I am fortunate enough to get to spend the week with my homestay and friend Todd Fedyszyn in St. Petersburg for the week.  Maybe do some sailing and paddle boarding while relaxing and recovering from this race and getting ready for the next one.