federal escape

This morning I raced in the Federal Escape olympic distance triathlon.  I was going for the Three-Peat after winning the race in 2005 and in 2006.  The Seattlites who've beaten me this year weren't around/available this weekend so I figured it might be just a tempo workout.  But I hadn't realized that this race was designated a USAT Regional Championship, drawing some fast guys from Spokane and other far-away places.

I took second to one such Spokanite - Roger Thompson, an affable fellow who I'd met in Kansas City two years ago.  It was a very interesting race, in fact.  I outsplit Roger by 2 minutes in the swim.  He outsplit me by 5 and a half on the bike, giving him about a 3-minute cushion heading into the run.  I narrowed the gap to 93 seconds in the first lap but came up 20 seconds short in the end.  It's odd to see such a close race between two guys who were nowhere near each other in any of the three legs...  although I suppose Adam Jensen and I have had a few races like that, too.

I was happy with the effort I put forth, especially on the run.  My bike split was comparable to last year's but my run was about 75 seconds faster.  Very encouraging.  My swim split was a bit slower but I'll attribute that to a longer course. :)

Roger really thumped the field on the bike.  He flew by me like I was sitting still.  Until that point I'd thought I was doing some solid tempo but I tried to work a lot harder once he passed me.  His bike split was under 55 minutes on an admittedly short course.  The next best time was 58 and change!