Sunday, July 26, 2009

Chisago Long Course 2009, Tacky style.

Hey folks! I finally got my Tri groove on again. As we were waiting for the gun to go off this morning I remember telling Iron Jenny that the last Triathlon I had competed in was this one....a year ago!

The Kona qualifier, if you will. Ironman requires at least a 70.3 or greater distance tri to be completed prior to Kona. So basically here's how that worked. I finish...I get to race in Kona. That is clearly the easiest way I'll ever get to IM World Championships. LOL

I guess the fact that I headed to this triathlon alone was really the first part of a strange, but overall good day. Trimama has regularly accompanied me to races and if not her, some other tri buddy like Tri Thunder Kraught. I made it pretty early (5:30am) got my race number, chip ect and unpacked all my transition gear. Then chatted with friends throughout the rest of the morning until race time.

Gun goes off. I was in wave 7, about 50 of us or so. My swim went really well, I've been working on a new technique. I used to enter my stroke near my head, but was taught recently (Steve Gunther) that it is better to reach my arm over a pretend barrel and land in the water and then pull through. Yeah, that worked pretty good. Took 8 minutes off my time from last year. 32 minutes.

Caught my breath in transition and got off on the bike. LOVE this course. Really flat and fast with slight rollers, but overall you are going to make good time. I ended up in transition by 3:25, which for me is very good time.

The run. Ugh. I can not tell what exactly happened, but the run just plain sucked. I just never felt strong throughout. I ended up with a 2:20 run where I was expecting closer to 2 hrs flat. Life has thrown old Tacky a few curves this week between weighty family issues and difficult work conditions. I literally could feel the wait of that during the run portion of this race. Needless to say running into the entire Tribe and Trimama at mile 8 was VERY encouraging!!!

Finished in 5:49. For Tacky that was a PR and I was just glad to be officially 'qualified' for Kona.

More crazy work stuff this week as well, but we will persevere. I guess my career in Triathlon has really prepared me for this time in life. One of perseverance despite current feelings, thoughts and doubts. :) Yea God.

Talk soon,

Tacky

11 comments:

Jumper 2.0 said...

Where's the like button? Oh, wrong place! Anyhow it's great that you start the year off with a pr before Kona! Are you racing anything else this year?

Unknown said...

well good for you. Now how's about a Bigun and TacBoy podcast.

Unknown said...

PR!!! Well done Tac!

SWTrigal said...

Great job!!

Fe-lady said...

Great time! Congrats on your PR!

Keep plugging away at life and tri and things will settle down-(been there!)

Working is a privilege-and triathlon is the celebration of a day off once in awhile.
Thinking of all of you! :-)

Pharmie said...

Glad you had a great race. You looked strong out there when I saw you. That run got hot really quickly and became brutal!

Kevin said...

Great job on the PR!!

richvans said...

Best wishes with the work stuff. Saw you in T2 but you were pretty focused and didn't want to distract you as we sprinters slinked out with our gear. Great job on the PR! (I'd kill for a 2:20 run in a HIM.) The 1/2 is on my calendar for next year. Got home to see Tivo had snagged 2008 Kona. Sweet!

Brent Buckner said...

Nice PR!

dorothy said...

Go TacBoy! You got our gang of 12 behind you now...linking you out to the mamma blog to help raise support!

Mollyxuwe said...

PR!!! Well done Tac!