Second week in a row..... QuakerMan/ATITB race reports

Well, it's been a good few weeks here at "Keep moving forward" with the last two races that I entered in resulting in the big W....check the sidebar, it's legit :o)

Last week was a rest week and I was feeling pretty spry. There was word of this new sprint distance triathlon in Orchard Park, NY that was called the QuakerMan. There was pretty good competition there (Joe Meyers, Kevin Patterson, most of my old Handlebars teammates) I wasn't really nervous about the race at all, just ready to get out there and "play". The swim started with a 600m jaunt in seaweedy, but clear waters. The gun went off and I had pretty much immediately gapped the field. I exited and made it to the transition mats in about 8 minutes or so. I hopped on THE BEAST and was off. For some reason or another, I was cycling like a man possessed and ready to win. I knew that I had some good legs and wanted to test the out. I split at 25.2mph for the entire 22 mile course.

The run came and I didn't know if I could hold the pace. I began the run and was chasing down Daryl Clarke (who is a good runner) and I knew he would bring me a good time. I hit the finish line and was the first one to cross it. (I actually started in the 3rd wave - ten minutes back) and they barely had the finish line arch set up when I crossed. I was really stoked to hit my first triathlon win of the year, and equally exited to win the inaugural edition of a race! :o) Good times.

Today however was a real shock. I'm still kind of reeling from it. Today was A Tri in the Buff (no not a naked triathlon, but a triathlon in Buffalo, NY) I had recently on the 4th of July done a solo session around Canandaigua Lake on my bike and for the first time ever I split above 20mph busting thru in 20.7mph average for the 56 mile route. So I was nervous that I didn't have a lot left in my legs today. Turns out I was wrong..

The swim was calm and I gapped the field again pretty quickly in the water. I hit the bike and was hoping that I packed my bike legs in my transition bag. Well, I amazingly somehow was able to split the fastest average speed for the bike of both the Olympic and the Sprint races. Crazyness.... I ended up looking at my pointer finger which I had written something on in Sharpie marker (as a friend advised me to do once....you know who you are...thanks!) I was doing well and feeling good too, next came the run which I knew would hurt. I like to think of this as the "no fun zone" because I usually dip into that zone on the run.

My second of the two loops was a little bit slower than expected, but I held on to best the 2nd place person by about 7 minutes. I was shocked and even PR'ed by about 2 minutes. I'm just hoping that I saved enough in my legs for next week at musselman. I'm completely excited to have won 2 races in a row and I'm just hoping to take this momentum into the half iron next weekend.

I actually have to run, but take care folks, I wanted to get a few race reports to you all before I forgot the details. A huge thanks to Berts Bikes for the sponsorship and taking care of some of the race fees for me. I'll be writing later on, but take care and I'll see you out on the roads. Cheers folks :o)