Gavin Anderson's Triathlon Page: Memphis in May

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Memphis in May

Thunder, lightning, rain, snakes, and it turned out to be a great super fact race. Heading to the Memphis in May race for the 2nd year I was excited, it would also be my first Olympic distance race in the pro division. I flew in from Boulder via Nashville and drove over to Memphis as the airfare direct to Memphis was much more expensive. The race director had arranged a home stay for Peter Clode and myself with a family in Memphis. They were more than accommodating, opening up their home, cooking meals, and providing anything we needed, thank you Abbay very much!
I just met Peter that Saturday before the race, but we hung out together the entire weekend and seemed to have much in common, aside from making a new friend I learned a ton about New Zealand. Just preparing myself for when I travel to this great country. Saturday before the race we rode some of the bike course, got checked in, and attended the pro meeting. What a surprise to see such a huge pro field when I entered the room, everyone was there for HyVee points for sure not the 25k prize purse. So after the race meeting my top ten aspirations were kind of out the window, but I would race my own race and with a time trial format how could you not?
Abbay made Peter and I a great pasta dinner that night and we were ready for the race on Sunday. The pro start was to be at 10:30, but as we drove past the race site and it was pouring rain and lighting we figured it was postponed. We soon realized that the race was still on in the very heavy rains. I got all my gear setup in transition in the rain, tried to keep my running shoes dry and got ready to race. The start was postponed about 45 minutes, but we were still able to swim in the brief moment that storms subsided. Which was a great call by the race directors as it worked out perfect and we got a whole triathlon in. There was talk of canceling the race and making it into a duathlon.
The time trial start for which this race is famous for was to be 10 seconds apart alternating male/female, alphabetical order by sir name. So this meant that I was #1 starting first, I thought that this was going to be a good thing, but I ended up pretty far off on my swim time.

I hit the water first starting the pro race and tried to keep a decent pace and a dead straight line through the swim. It was a non-wetsuit swim and I found it hard to keep a hard pace swimming out in front by myself. I exited the water still in the lead, but could tell it was not a great effort as I was not very tired at all. The transition was muddy, but I got through without falling and was out on the bike course. The bike was very flat and straight, which was to be fast if it was not wet and full of puddles. But I made the best of it and managed to hold off getting passed until mile 10 of so by Dye and another. The rest of the bike went well; 2 stray dogs, one snake, and rain towards the end. I ended it in 54.27, 324 watts, at 27.3 mph, this was a pretty good time for me, but still well off the leaders of the day. I will get there soon I hope. I found my Zoot Ultra Tempos bone dry under the plastic bag, got them on quickly and headed out of transition only to step in a huge 4-5" deep puddle about 2 steps out of transition. These shoes drain so well it was not an issue and continued on through the run. The rain subsided a little for the run around the Tunica MS casinos, but there was a little lighting in the area. I was passed by Kris Gemmell like I was running backwards, and I passed one other during the run. I dug deep to run the last mile quite hard and came through the line 4th, which ended up 12th overall. Only 8 seconds behind my home stay partner Peter Clode finishing 11th.
So I finished just outside the top 10 yet again, but I was happy with where I landed in this race considering the tough competition. I have to commend the race staff at the Memphis in May this year, they had a new venue, totally different course, and mother nature gave them a huge storm to deal with. They more than made then the best of it, got the pros out on course without incident, and in hindsight made the best decision they could have, thanks again guys for a great race!
After the race Abbay made Peter and I a fantastic dinner and on Monday we went over to Beale street in downtown Memphis and enjoyed some great BBQ ribs at Blues City Cafe before heading back to Nashville to fly out.

In Nashville apparently this is the year for the cicadas to come out of their 13 year hiding, because these little guys were everywhere, my rental car wind sheild was covered in nasty bug goo.