The pics are in

Is it just me, or does it seem Rand never gets in a hurry for anything? I mean, I see at least two other guys in the photo that are taking this race thingy kinda seriously.

There are a couple of things here I would note...

One: I seem awfully happy. Looking at the photo, my form is good, I look fit, and there's no stress on my face. I remember this guy being out there in a couple of places, and this was the first photo, probably around 5 miles or so in. The road is still damp from the rain that only stopped right before the race began.

Two: notice no blur on the spokes. This was a high-end digital SLR camera, and you can see how well the shutter speed worked despite low-light conditions. It looks as though I am posing there in perfect balance, when in fact I was cruising by him at over 26 mph. Pretty remarkable pictures, I must say.

Observation here: Rand looks perturbed. No "Happy Warrior" here, Ol' Charlie Brown of Biking seems consigned to fate.

Seriously, I don't know if it's the ride or the photographer making him scowl. Maybe both. The ride wasn't too tough at this point, so maybe the paparazzi cheesed him off.

Okay, by now the wind was starting to pick up, and was in our faces. It wasn't so easy now, and you can see by my grimace I was starting to work. You can call this a smile if you like, but it wasn't.

Observation: This photo was relatively late in the race. Can you see anything wrong in this photo? Look closely at the drink system. See how much Gatorade is still in the bottle? Had the sun come out, I would have been in big trouble. This is something I'll have to watch in the future.

This is Rand at the finish, and behind him, the guy who would outsprint him in the gate. I was yelling, "He's coming, go!"

That's a lie.

I was actually yelling, "And now, from the city of SPRINGVILLE, IN-dee-ANAH, RAND (and and) HAMMEL (ammel ammel)!"

THEN I yelled the guy was coming. Rand let the guy get right on him before he cut loose. I thought at first he wasn't going to try to fight back, but eventually he did. It was too little/too late, because the guy outleaned him in the end.

Observation: The run through the pasture was tough, at least at first, because the terrain wasn't very even. It did eventually get better though, although the last little rise at the end was most unwelcome. In spite of that, I was able to clear it and finish smoothly, if not strongly.

If I'm being honest, I could see the clock, and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw 2:11:00. That would have been fantastic all by itself, but the realization that I was actually 6 minutes faster blew my mind. Sure, later on I would realize the distances were a bit off, but at that moment, it didn't matter at all. It was a keeper, and still a great way to end the triathlon season.





Upon reflection, here are some final observations:

• Jumping into races last-minute generally isn't a great idea, but this sure worked out.
• Sometimes a confluence of events can bring you unexpectedly into a great performance. What am I talking about? Strava. Chasing Troy and KOMs the last few weeks actually acted as sharpening activities for a taper. I hadn't really thought of it that way until Miller commented on it. I said I'd backed into the whole thing and wondered aloud how that worked out. Miller said, "You were tapered." Spot on. In taper, you go fewer miles and less quality, but you still do sharpening activities - exactly what the KOM search did. I'm going to have to study this, because I may have stumbled onto something here.
• It may simply be that I didn't have time to set any unrealistic expectations for myself. With no goals comes no disappointment. How could a guy expect to do well this late into the season?

That's enough of that. Onto the next goal... can I get a marathon by the end of the year?