Saturday’s race was the paddle triathlon portion of the Flower City Challenge. I finished with an overall time of 2:47:20, which put me in 59th place. As a member of the first wave with events ordered from my strongest to my weakest, most of the morning was spent with other people passing me by. Ten feet into the run, I was solidly in second place, and while I held off the rest of the field for the first half mile, once I started getting passed it literally did not stop until I reached the finish line. Against my pre-race expectations I did great on the run, and poorly on the bike.
The run went very well. I finished the 5K in 23:03, which was almost a minute and a half faster than I did last year, and represents the fact that running is the one part of the triathlon that I am actually good at.
The biking portion was a disappointment. I finished in 1:26:51 which is actually slower than last year. The gears on my bike, mostly don’t work and I desperately need a new one, but that still really doesn’t excuse the fact that I was unable to match last year’s time.
The Kayaking portion of the race was longer than it was last year, which makes a simple comparison a bit more complicated. While the extra distance made my time of 55:33 slower than before, I placed better compared to the rest of the field. The paddling was still the weakest part of my race, but I feel that it has improved since last year.
The secret portion a triathlon is the transitions, which went well for me. I spent a total of 1:51 in transition this race which as 24 seconds less than it took me last year. Overall, I am pretty happy with how I did with the first half of the Flower City Challenge.