Gavin Anderson's Triathlon Page: 7/11 - Rodney T Miller Decatur Triathlon

Sunday, July 25, 2010

7/11 - Rodney T Miller Decatur Triathlon

This would be the second year competing at the Rodney T Miller Triathlon in Decatur IL. It is a longer sprint distance race, but attracts many of the top midwest pros since there is prize money. The race is one of the best run races I do all year, there are almost more volunteers helping with the race then athletes. This year they even had live video feeds on the bike and run course for the spectators, this is great for a small race in the middle of IL. Four days prior to this race I had a pretty good bike crash going around a turn and into gravel at about 28mph. I had a sore hip and elbow along with some nice road rash. I had been nursing some shin splits from running as well. Not the best shape to do a race but not excuses either, I was going for it. I talked my sister Christine into coming down from Chicago for this race, I think she was glad she made it for sure. I brought the whole family as we were planning to drop our two daughters off with my dad for a week who was there to pick them up and watch the race. The girls were excited to visit Grandpa for a week.
The morning of the race was warm already, the water was hot like 85 degrees, so no wetsuits. My sister and I got our gear setup in transition and went to the stretch and start. We found my Dad, my wife, and the kids all ready to watch us start.

We were the first wave and got to start together. The start was uneventful though I did find a few men right with me on the way out to the first buoy. Soon I was passed by John Kenny, I tried for a second to keep up by there was no way he was fast! My hip was feeling a little sore in the swim, but that was not the real reason I was behind. He was fast and I am feeling a little down on swim shape. Anyway Andy Starykowicz passed me soon after that, I was in third now and the 3/4 mile swim was only half over. I pushed on to the finish the swim right behind Andy, but John had put in over an minute already. T1 was fast as I was one of the only top men without a speed suit. Once on the 19 mile bike course I could see John and Andy in front of me, Andy was doing the usual and hammering. Soon John was passed, they were gapping on me but not as bad as I had thought. Towards mile 14 or so Eric Bean passed me, I stayed close to him all the way to T2. I was happy with my bike here though, averaging 25.9mph, and 331 normalized average watts (my coach says to start looking at normalized power not average). Upon starting the run I thought the shin splints were really doing to hinder my running. They did hurt pretty bad for the 1/2 mile or so, but soon I either forgot or they felt better. They would go on to be very painful the next day. I found myself within sight of Eric the whole run, at first I thought there was no way I was going to catch him. But at mile 3 of the 4.5 mile run I decided that I needed to give it a shot. I ran hard to overtake him and kept pushing, to my surprise I came within 15 seconds of catching 2nd place as well. 3rd place was still in the prize money for this race so that was a nice bonus as well. Christine came over the line soon after in 2nd place for the woman's race, she had just ran down third place in the final 200 meters to take 2nd place. Overall a great race with stiff competition and very well organized. Oh yea and Jimmy John's subs at the finish, I think I ate 5. But the best part? The "big" checks a la Happy Gilmore of course!