Jackson Country Triathlon - Results

This may have been the largest event yet that I have participated in. There were a total of 378 participants in the Sprint Triathlon (.3mi swim, 11.75mi bike, and 3mi run) alone. The Midwest Meltdown last year may have had a larger turn out but by far this was the largest event for me this year.

(Speaking of the Midwest Meltdown that is my next and last Tri event for this season coming up on Sept 9th, and that is also a very popular event.)

The beach was very nice. We had a nice cool front come in the night before and so that felt good to have a cool breeze during the bike and run. I noticed the sun is not coming up so early so Fall must be getting near. The bike course didn’t have any steep inclines but they did have some long medium grade climbs. I don’t know which I'd prefer more, a short steep incline and just get the hill over with or a long medium grade incline. Either way they both make your quads feel like they are on fire. And as far as the run goes it was pretty flat. It was an out and back but on a narrow paved trail. It seemed more like a cross country run because I spent most of my time passing other runners on the grass.

Overall finished 39th out of 378 with a time of 1:13:24 and 14th out of 49 for my age group (Male 30-34).

Swim time was 11:16 

Goal #1 as always, don’t drown! I managed to make it shore though I became barricaded behind a group of slow swimmers about halfway through the swim. They took off too fast at the start and then slowed way down. I struggled to get around them; I could doggy paddle faster than they were freestyle'n. They cost me some time but I did finally manage to get around them. I think next time I will try to start more on the outside of the group so that I do have room to get around.

Bike time was 37:55 and average 18.6mph.

Yeah, my avg speed was quite slow compared to prior races, and there is a perfectly darn good reason for it, I got a flat!!!!!!

Let me just first say that I have found that what they say is true in that no two events are the same, every experience is unique. You never know what obstacle your gonna face. This being only my 8th Tri I finally experienced what it feels like to get a flat during a race. I knew this would happen to me eventually but when it finally did I couldn’t decide what to do. I do not carry any gear with me to change a flat. Its a Sprint Tri, I figured that if I got a flat, well that would just be the end of the race for me and I'd have a potential long trek back to the transition area. But I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t quit. With just over three miles to go, disregarding my safety and risking damage to my bike, I kept going. I figured I could still get back into transition faster riding slowly on the bike than running with it in. The thickness of the tire and tube was enough it seemed to keep the rim off the ground but I didn’t dare try to lean on the bike or make any hard turns that’s for sure, it was very loosey goosey. Luckily it was just the front tire that went flat and not the back. At the time I noticed the flat I was heading down hill with another biker and he asked how fast we were going. I replied, "28.8mph!!". And just like that he was gone and I was slowing down to a snails pace.

Run time was 21:19 a 7:07 avg per mile.

My goal on the run has always been to get down to a 7min mile pace and I'm getting close. I was really happy with the run but I think that was only because I had too much recovery time at the end of the bike seeing how I had a flat and could not finish the bike leg as hard as I usually do.

When all said and done I was surprised to see how well I placed overall even with having the flat tire.

Just one more event to go, the big one, The Midwest Meltdown.

The new tri shorts and race number belt worked out great. Think I'll use the same for the Meltdown.