As it is, you'll just have to settle for a few pictures of me from behind. That's right folks, I was so fast all day that they couldn't get the pictures of me from the front.
I know, I know, the suspense is killing you (or not). Yes, I did win THE Turtle. That makes me the first multiple Turtle winner. Yes Rob, I'm counting 2006 - it's not my fault Jim fainted prior to the start and couldn't go. I still beat Rob that year.
Rob won last year and added a plaque to THE Turtle. He put his name on it, but failed to add mine for 2006. In putting my name on it for this year I added the 2006 victory too.
I'm getting a bit ahead of myself though.
We all met at Rob's house before heading over to the race. Instead of pulling his gold Bianchi road bike with clip on aero bars from his truck, Jim gets out the SECRET WEAPON. A racing red fully tricked out tri bike complete with Zipp racing wheels and tubular tires. It was a pretty bike! How the heck did he talk Mindy into that? Oh . . . it was borrowed. I'm sure the look on my face was priceless. Worrisome? Slightly. The new bike looked fast, but was not without some risk. Jim would be in a completely new body position. I wondered how his back would hold up and how the bike to run would go.
This year Turtleman was again a time trial start (one person every 3-5 seconds). This year they went oldest to youngest. This meant both Rob and Jim were starting before me. Rob about 5 minutes and Jim about 2. This meant psychologically I would start out as the hunter instead of the prey. A pleasant change.
I was somewhat secretly hoping to be the first out of the water despite starting so far back. Jim swam in high school and our times are usually pretty similar. Rob dreads the swim. As I came out of the water I heard the Doc yell "Rob's waaaay in front of you." What she actually said was "Rob's right in front of you." He was just about getting ready to head out when I got to our rack. Jim's bike was still there too. Apparently he saw me pass him "before the first buoy." How he saw me go by I don't know. I think a small nuclear submarine could go past me and I wouldn't notice.
I stripped off my wetsuit and got my shoes on as quick as I could. I headed off chasing Rob on the bike. I should note that I was operating on very limited information. When we got to the rack that morning I discovered I had neglected to charge my Garmin. Fortunately, I had decided to use my Polar heart rate monitor since the Garmin has been acting up (something to do with the 2 inch crack in the face). On the ride I didn't have any information about cadence, speed, distance. I've ridden the course about 50 times so I know it pretty well. It actually was kind of nice to just focus on keeping my heart rate in the zone and not worry about whether I was going fast enough or what my cadence was.
I caught Rob about halfway through the bike. He tried to stay with me for a while. Cha, like that's going to happen. It'd be like me trying to hang with him on the run. The thought never crossed my mind when he passed me a mile and a half into the run. I was too busy trying to figure out if he could make up 5 minutes in the remaining 3.5 miles.
I saw Jim for the first time since the start about 3 1/2 minutes into the run. He was coming in on the bike. This put him about 6 minutes back. I thought I might see him at around mile 4, but he struggled on the run and I didn't see him until after the finish.
The whole last couple of miles I kept telling myself. "You don't want to lose to Rob by 3 seconds - keep moving." And I did. My mile splits were - 8:41, 8:49, 9:08, 9:11, and 8:47. That last mile is mostly uphill (not steep, but still up) so I'm especially pleased that I was able to drop the pace back under 9. I was really concentrating. I didn't react to the Doc or Mindy and the kids until the Doc yelled at me to "RUN FASTER." That's a joke between us and isn't something people usually yell. I did manage to smile and give a little wave after that. As I came to the finish there was a women a little ahead of me. I think she thought I was kicking to try and get by her. I didn't care about her, I just didn't want to lose to Rob by 3 seconds. She sped up to stay in front. At the line I eased up as if to say - it's all yours.
The day was beautiful. Great to hang out in the park eating free hotdogs and hoping to win some awesome prizes. No one in our group won anything this year.
Here are the numbers. I don't think they could have been much better. I would have liked to have broken one hour on the bike, but overall I'm pleased:
Time
2:13:34
Overall Place
269 / 795
Gender Place
214 / 494
Swimtime
25:51
Swimpace
1:35
Swimplace
160
Tran1
1:46
Biketime
1:00:47
Bikemph
21.1
Bikeplace
276
Tran2
0:38
Runtime
44:34
Runpace
8:45
Runplace
449
Penalty
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