OBX Triathlon Weekend

What a way to wrap up the season!  This race well exceeded my expectations.  Great shirts, good course, all three distances got medals, and good post race food.  Registration was about half of what an Ironman 70.3 event costs and, in my opinion, was just as good.  We were also lucky to have great weather.  There was an athlete cap for the half distance of 150 so it was small compared to the 2,000+ that is in an official Ironman 70.3 but this was kind of nice.  I believe there were 32 female finishers and 65 male finishers.

I want to give a big thank you to all the volunteers, event coordinators, OBSE, FS Series and sponsors for putting this event on and making it so enjoyable.  We couldn't have these awesome events without the time and effort everyone puts into them.  THANK YOU!!!

They did the half and Olympic distance on Saturday morning.  My buddy and I got there around 5:45.  He did the sprint distance, his first tri, on Sunday so a big congrats to him!  Water was 78 degrees, wetsuit legal!  This was my first race wearing my wetsuit so I was excited to see the amazing benefits I hear people raving about with wetsuits.  But when I got about 200 yards off the shore the excited was gone.  We swam in the sound and the water was a bit rough, at least more than anything I had ever experienced.  The swim was a triangle configuration and heading out to the first buoy was tough.  Heading to the second one got better and coming back in felt good.  The only issue on the way back to shore was the sun was right in your face which makes sighting a bit challenging.  My swim time was 36:03, over 3 minutes faster than my Orlando half race.

Trying to find my zipper cord but it's over my right shoulder

The bike was a 2x out and back course that was almost completely flat.  The only elevation was the bridge we had to cross.  This was my first race with the Louis Garneau aero helmet and Adamo saddle.  The saddle was amazingly comfortable.  One of the best investments I've made so far.  I felt good on the bike finishing in 2:44:53, averaging a little over 20 mph.  On my first lap before coming back over the bridge there was a section of the course where you could see the turn around from the end of another street.  Not looking over the map in detail like a good athlete should I started down that road until the volunteers were yelling and waving me to go back, loosing about a minute to this mistake.  There was some headwind heading out on the bridge but was nice coming back.  I had two Roctane  gels, two Accel gels, Gu mix in one water bottle and a Nuun tab in the other.  I try to space out the gels around 40 - 50 minutes apart and one about 10 minutes before I get back to transition.

The run was an out and back course that was flat as well.  The first two miles were the most challenge but that's to be expected.  I was contemplating on going sockless or not with the new Nike Free 3.0 V3.  I had actually set socks out in transition if I decided I wanted them but ended up going sockless.  I can honestly understand why people buy the same pair of running shoe over and over when they find one they like.  This is definitely one I will continue to buy.  I had one Roctane gel and one Accel gel on the run.  I've discovered that I cannot eat a lot on the run.  They had several aid stations with water, Heed, Hammer gels and cold towels.  I always try to stick with whatever sports drink they have to keep my sodium and electrolytes up.  Knock on wood, I have never had issues with cramps.  I finished my run in 2:03:32.  I really wanted to do a sub 2 hour half marathon but it didn't happen.  This was almost the exact same run time I had when I did the half in Orlando, only 5 seconds off.

My favorite, the post race ice bath

Overall I was happy with my performance, finish time was 5:28:01.  I won my age group and place 14th overall out of 65 males.  I beat my Orlando half time by 5 minutes.  Majority of that time was in the transitions.  Since the Orlando half I have learned to do the fly mount and dismount, go sockless, and a few other things that shave off a few seconds.  This made race #5, and I'm thinking the last one, for me this year with two half iron distances, one Olympic and two Xterras.  All in all it's been a good season.