May Race reports part 2

My next race was two weeks later at Cascade Lake. This was a sprint race I did last year that I enjoyed, so I wanted to do it again. Race morning arrived and it was again raining. There was construction on the road leading to the race site and I almost did not make the race. I only had 10 minutes to set up transition and get down to the swim. I was a very stressful morning.

Once I got everything set up and down to the lake I had few minutes to relax before my swim start. This is a pretty short easy swim of 1/3rd of a mile. After the problems with my swim start in Columbia I decided to hold back a bit at the start. Well that didn't work. I did not get hit this time, but I started out way to fast and had that tight chest feeling and had to again slow down and take a moment to get my breathing under control. Once I collected myself I started swimming faster but I was swimming blind. My goggles had fogged up and I had a problem seeing. It was a pretty short swim so I made it out ok. Once you exit the water there is about a 300 yard run uphill to get to the transition area.

When I got to transition I ran to where I thought my bike should be but did not see it. So I stood there for a moment and thought someone had taken my bike. Then I realized someone had knocked my bike off the rack and it was laying on the ground.

The bike course is pretty short (about 15 miles) but it has a few tough hills. I had a better bike than last year since I didn't get stung by a bee on my face this time. The bike was uneventful and I felt good coming off the bike.

Coming out of T2 you have a steep downhill to the main run course. The run is two loops of a fairly flat road. Last year I had pulled my hamstring a week before the race so I did not have a good race (plus i had been stung by a bee during the bike). My goal this year was to finish the run in under 30 minutes and the race in under 1:45. As I started the 2nd loop of the run I knew I would have to push it to make my time goals. When you approach the finish of this race the last 100 yds are almost straight up hill to the finish line. I simply ran out of gas on the last hill. I finished the run in 30:05 and my race time was 1:46:12. Not the results I wanted but still much better than the year before.