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Race Result
| Racer: |
Jeroen van Ek |
| Race: |
Reston Triathlon |
| Date: |
Sunday, September 11, 2005 |
| Location: |
Reston, VA |
| Race Type: |
Triathlon - International Distance |
| Age Group: |
Male 40 - 44 |
| Time: |
2:52:24 |
| Overall Place: |
304 / 647 |
| Comment: |
Don't worry, be happy |
Race Report:
Short version: Just plain happy to be there, sometimes life puts things into wonderful perspective.
Long drawn out MOP RR of little to no literary value:
Preface: Reston was going to be my “A” race this year. To me that means a personal best time. I’ll never win one of these things, no matter since I’m not in it for that. But with a season of Columbia, Eagleman, and Diamond to prep for Reston, I was looking to take some serious time out of my 2004 finish. Things do not always go as planned, life gets in the way. Feb saw me diagnosed with 4 ruptured discs in my neck (result from a snowboard jump/spill 2 seasons prior…go figure). This meant no running, and no aero bars. Treatments also revealed more ugly stuff which eventually led to thyroid surgery/removal 3 weeks prior to Reston. All that left no room for much training. I was cleared to run literally the week before the race, I had swam a total of 2 miles all year (at Columbia and Diamond in which I skipped the run leg) and had done some rides but about half the mileage of last year. Yet I was very happy to be there. Once you walk the halls of Hopkins’s cancer center (or any cancer center) you realize how trivial worrying over a 5 sec transition improvement really is and you just feel plain privileged to be able to do what we do, no matter at what level.
Swim:
Ok so the plan was to take it easy and stay on course and not drink large quantities of Chateau Audubon. With all that practice (not) I just focused on technique and actually beat last year’s swim time. Not hard since last year someone had to beat me on the head with a paddle to tell me to get out of the cove at the turnaround and back on course. Felt pretty decent coming out of the lake, middle of my wave. If only I would have started my watch…
Bike:
Never try anything new on race day right? Well lets see you resist that brand new Kalibur that showed up on Friday before the race…not happening right? Yes I bit the bullet and after asking many RATS had purchased a full carbon Kalibur. It arrived from Cali on Friday afternoon, a bit of assembly and wow! I had Norman’s bike! Got on and…hey…the stand over seems a bit off and …sure enough..they had built up the wrong frame size. Boy were they sorry over the phone but could not get me my frame on time for Reston. Go ahead and ride this one they said, nice enough but I had to tweak it a bit to get it to fit. Made for an aggressive ride position but the bike sure ran smooth. So there I was on the bike leg, first time on a real tri bike and I have to say…it almost felt like I was cheating. Got some remarks out there as well “cool bike” and all I could think was “yeah if only I knew how to ride it as it deserves”. Passed about 40 people or so and was able to track some big dogs down on the screaming downhill on South Lakes. Very fun ride in about 1:02 and change which is great for me considering the amount of saddle time I had. 3 mins better than last year. Saw lots of RATS out there, all riding with determination (stv, cascio, giorgis and Jamie)
RUN
Ok so I arrived with a big grin on my face at T2 with a sharp bike split. Cool. Oh yeah now to run. Total mileage to date: 0. Hmm no reason to kill myself so I took it easy. The run was a parade of people passing me (somehow Keith snuck by unnoticed) but I was taking it easy and enjoying it. Turns out my total time was within 50 secs of last year. If only I had started my watch…I could have easily beaten it..but no matter I was just happy to be out there!
This is going to be even more fun next year. Maybe its home town bias but those volunteers rank with the best I have seen at any race as does the organization. Well done.
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