2007 Goal #2 - Done!

As I wrote about yesterday, my remaining goal for 2007 after finishing the Ironman, was to break 1 hour at the Winding Trails sprint race. Well... I did it, I broke an hour, in fact I crushed my old P.R. (Personal Record) by over 2 minutes, coming in at 58:41.

The splits are not yet posted, so I don't know the exact times but I'll post what I recall and then update it when I get the exact numbers.
Updated!

The swim went pretty well, we did two waves as this was a very large group again; in fact Sharon the race director mentioned this was the biggest ever. I had forgotten my goggles, so I needed to borrow my uncle's extra seal mask. I don't like it as well as conventional goggles, but it worked well enough although it got foggy and I wasn't able to sight all that well. The swim finished in 7:3x and I ran up the beach reminding myself to push!

I had decided I was going to spend the whole race going as fast as I could. I tried that on the run last week and did pretty well, but couldn't make up enough time from the bike. Over and over I asked myself if I could be going harder and didn't worry about whether I would blow up or not.

Transition was quick and I started riding well. Right away I could tell that my legs were strong and I was going to have a good ride. The only hiccup was the spot where the tree was down across the trail and I had to slow a bit for the rider ahead of me. I just hopped over it, once again glad for the extra riding I do on harder trails. I find in this race a lot that riders around me will catch me on hills or flats and then I go back up on the downhills and corners. I take this to mean my riding is generally good or better since they have the fitness or speed to out pedal me, but not the technical riding skills to take advantage of the course. This makes me smile generally :)

Coming into transition off the bike, I had a great change. Out of the shoes almost before my feet hit the ground and I was off, having caught a glimpse of the clock showing 32:50 something. I knew I had a chance if I could run strong. I stopped for a real quick slug of Gatorade at the end of transition and then started running. I walked 5 steps up the real steep hill at the start, took a big breath and took off. The whole time I just kept pushing with no regard for later. Every time a racer would come by I would try to follow and just go as hard as I could. I really started to hurt about halfway through, but I could tell that I was making the time and really racing. It was pretty cool. Coming into the final long downhill I could see people ahead of me and decided I was catching at least two. Running all out I caught one but couldn't reel in the other. Then I heard footsteps behind me and started running scared. I was going so fast that I caught a tree root about 15 feet from the finish and did a flying roll! Mad now that the guy behind was going to catch me I scramble to my knees and then my feet trying desperately to keep my momentum. Back up and across the line before I got passed and I saw 58 something on the clock. I was thrilled!

I watched the rest come in... my brother, uncle, cousin and two friends, it's become quite a party. Then off to Whole Foods to gorge on their buffet!

Final Splits were:
Swim - 7:39, Bike - 25:18, Run - 25:44, Total 58:41

Bike, Run, and Total were all records!