Redhawk Rampage Sprint Triathlon
This past Saturday I raced the sprint triathlon at Eastern Illinois University called the Redhawk Rampage. Nice short tune up race for Ironman Muncie 70.3 this coming weekend. It was fairly small with 70 finishers, but well organized and a lot of fun. Saw a friend and teammate Andreas Mayer there and always fun to race with him. We are close on the swim and bike, but he has out run me for 20 + years, so we know one another rather well.
Started off with a 300 yard pool swim going 1 at a time with 15 to 20 seconds between swimmers. We sort of seeded ourselves among the 5 -6 minute swim times. We started in lane 1, and going under the lane lines after each 50 so you end up in the last lane when you are finished. Didn't focus well at all and had a slow swim. Out of the water you run down the long hall way on carpet then out the door to the transition area. Got through T1 in a decent time and hit the bike course feeling good.
The first few miles on the bike course is through some residential areas then you hit the country roads. Nice pavement so the speed was decent. About 2/3's of the way out you go down a monster hill, and back up the other side. Stayed in the saddle the whole way and just spun up it using a easy gear. A ways before the turn around I saw a guy who was in my age group going pretty fast. Good fuel for the fire so I really tried to focus on catching him before the run. Never did catch him, or even see him tell after the transition from bike to run. He was probably a minute ahead as I started running. Surprised me since I was ridding pretty fast.
Not very many people in front of me at this point on the run so I just ran a nice steady effort. Finally caught my fellow 50 year old at mile two. Cruised in for what turned out to be a 6th place overall for the day. Decent effort, fun course and felt pretty good at the finish. Looking at the results my run was a bit slow at 22:14, but I didn't push it too hard either. Finishing time was 1 hour 4 minutes for the 300 yard swim, 12.4 mile ride and 3.1 mile run.
The 50 year old turned out to be Oskar Vuskalns and we had a nice conversation afterwards. Nice race and really fun so I hope to be back next year.
Started off with a 300 yard pool swim going 1 at a time with 15 to 20 seconds between swimmers. We sort of seeded ourselves among the 5 -6 minute swim times. We started in lane 1, and going under the lane lines after each 50 so you end up in the last lane when you are finished. Didn't focus well at all and had a slow swim. Out of the water you run down the long hall way on carpet then out the door to the transition area. Got through T1 in a decent time and hit the bike course feeling good.
The first few miles on the bike course is through some residential areas then you hit the country roads. Nice pavement so the speed was decent. About 2/3's of the way out you go down a monster hill, and back up the other side. Stayed in the saddle the whole way and just spun up it using a easy gear. A ways before the turn around I saw a guy who was in my age group going pretty fast. Good fuel for the fire so I really tried to focus on catching him before the run. Never did catch him, or even see him tell after the transition from bike to run. He was probably a minute ahead as I started running. Surprised me since I was ridding pretty fast.
Not very many people in front of me at this point on the run so I just ran a nice steady effort. Finally caught my fellow 50 year old at mile two. Cruised in for what turned out to be a 6th place overall for the day. Decent effort, fun course and felt pretty good at the finish. Looking at the results my run was a bit slow at 22:14, but I didn't push it too hard either. Finishing time was 1 hour 4 minutes for the 300 yard swim, 12.4 mile ride and 3.1 mile run.
The 50 year old turned out to be Oskar Vuskalns and we had a nice conversation afterwards. Nice race and really fun so I hope to be back next year.
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