On Saturday was the 6th annual Gary Kirby Triathlon. What a perfect weather day God blessed us with for this event. Earlier in the week temps were in the mid 90's with high humidity. Saturday started out with a little coolness in the air an low humidity. Perfect conditions for the race.
Arrived to the race site early in order to get the transition area setup. Pretty cool to see all of the different bikes that every has. From one extreme to the other with all types of colors.
I setup my transition sporting an NC State University towel and my Running of the Ears (ROTE) visor. After getting transition setup it was time to get our timing chip and body marking. I was # 49 and the person who wrote the numbers apparently wanted to make sure everyone knew my number....they were huge. No one would have any problem seeing what number I was on the course.
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| Transition are setup. |
At this point the excitement was building. A pre-race meeting was held poolside for last minute announcements. The meeting ended with a word of prayer and it was time to line up for the start. While standing in line you could see the nervousness, excitement and anxiousness of the athletes (including me). This was at an outdoor pool and the sun was shinning down on the pool in glorious fashion. At 8:00 am the first swimmer started. My start time was 8:12 am.
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| 3...2...1...Go! |
I was feeling a little sluggish in the swim after the first 100. Not sure why, but just battled through it to the finish. Overall swim time was 6:08. That included probably 20-25 seconds from exiting the pool until crossing the timing mat.
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| Great photo my wife took of me. |
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| Heading to T1 |
In T1 I got my sunglasses, helmet, socks and shoes on and it was time to attack the bike course. The bike course was 4- laps consisting of 3 miles each lap. I was wondering as more and more athletes got on the course if it might get congested, but that was not a problem. The course was all throughout a subdivision with several traffic circles to navigate. I used the first lap to get a feel for the course since it was new to me and get an idea for shifting. There was a stretch in the last mile of the loop that was downhill and that was a blast to ride. Throughout the course there was great crowd support cheering every athlete on.
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| On the bike course. |
As I came back to transition for T2 and dismounted the bike, I about dropped my bike running with it. I let go with one hand and the bike drifted out from me. One of the pedals cut the back of my right calf in that process. Overall time on the bike was 41:29 for the 12 miles. Average of 17.5 mph which is about 2 mph faster than my training rides. I was really pleased with the ride.
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| Cut on the back of my leg from pedal at T2 |
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| Read for the run! |
Once back at the rack in T2, I just needed to grab my race number and visor and I was off for the run. Felt pretty good in the first part of the run. I was at a 8:30 pace, which was too quick for me. I slowed the pace some in order to make it to the finish. Part of the course was sharing the bike course. Plenty of room and actually pretty cool to see the other bikes while running.
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| On the run course |
As I made my way towards the finish, with about 0.6 miles left in the run I got my second wind. Great feeling when you get that second wind as this carried me to the finish and as the organizer of the event (FS Series), says in their name....I was able to Finish Strong. My run time was 29:58 for the 5K.
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| Finished |
Overall time for the triathlon was 1:19:11. I was 75th overall for males and in the Clydesdale category I finished 6th out of 14.
