On Saturday, I competed in the 28th annual E. P. “Tom” Sawyer Triathlon (sprint-distance). I also ran in last year’s Tom Sawyer triathlon – my first ever! This year, I just wanted to do better.
…and I did!
Last Year: 1 hour 47 minutes 12 seconds
This Year: 1 hour 36 minutes 44 seconds
Woot! A great race, and I really felt the difference that my training made this year – I was much, much stronger than last year, and it showed. I cut nearly 6 minutes off the bike and almost 3 off the run, and my transitions were much faster. Awesome!
Kelly had the rare opportunity to watch me run a race while she spectated, and she took all the photos you’ll see here, including this one – a real gem:
During the last 50 yards of the run, I saw a guy coming up on my right side and when I looked back he was just behind me, so I took off on a sprint. He responded with “OK, boss!” and took off after me. He wasn’t in my age group and thanks to the seeded swim start, it’s impossible to know what time the other guy is at – but it was great fun and we had a good laugh over it. (Update: that guy is Kevin Maynard, and he finished in 1:32:44)
I’m also turning 30 this year – so I moved into the Men’s 30-34 age group, which helps my age group ranking a bit – 9th out of 22. Last year I was 2nd to last in the Men’s 25-29 age group. Though, had I stayed in the Men’s 25-29, I would have been 10th out of 13th. Age groups are a funny thing though – the race and your locality all play into it making it all a bit of a crapshoot. Though I do prefer to be in a crapshoot of which I finish squarely in the middle.
Being the stat nerd that I am, I took the results that you can find on HeadFirstPerformance.com (2008, 2007) and put them into a readable, sortable Google Spreadsheet you can view online:
2008 E. P. “Tom” Sawyer Triathlon Results (view in browser)
2008 E. P. “Tom” Sawyer Triathlon Results (Excel)
More photos in the 2008.08.02 – E. P. “Tom” Sawyer Triathlon gallery.
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Hey, great race!
I’m the guy who came up on you at the end of the run, in the photo. :) Hilarious, I can’t believe I’m on your blog! Another triathlete here in the office came across the pics a few minutes ago. What is also funny is that I had been reading your blog a week or so ago, I just happened across it looking for triathlon info (this past Saturday was my first triathlon). Anyway, it was too funny seeing the pics and reading the description (which was accurate). Glad you took it in good humor, it was all in good fun. We gave them something to look at there at the finish line, eh? Plus you helped bring down my pace a couple seconds, I’m sure.
Thanks for putting the results in Excel format, by the way.
Congrats on the race, good luck in the future.
(PS – You had me for sure, I didn’t have as much gas left in me.)
Oh my goodness, I am just as big of a nerd. I spend hours (well, maybe minutes) importing all the results to excel and then sorting the crap out of them. It is a great fun way to over-analyze every minor detail of the race! I’ll put mine on my blog soon.
Great job!
Kevin – I can’t stand races like that where people don’t clap for ya at the end. Gotta give ‘em a show, you know? Glad you found my blog!
Jen – Ha! Yeah, all those delicious data points. I could have shaved like 5 seconds off if I didn’t wear my cycling gloves. I ate a PowerBar on the bike, too – but I opened it before the race. I coulda been a contender! Congrats on your race, too – I’ve been keeping tabs on ya.