Eagleman Re-cap

Thanks for everyone's good wishes for Eagleman. The race went well. The key was the weather. As Leah said, the weather was not as hot as last year. The run did get a little warm at times but overall it was ok. There was some cloud cover that shielded the sun but the rays were strong and still produced plenty of sun burn.

The swim was a different course this year as the area where you usually finish, the boat launch, was being repaired. They had us going in the opposite direction. I had a decent swim with a time of 35:40. I had a tough time sighting some of the buoys and at times found myself drifting off. But overall I was pleased with the swim.

I was intent on getting fast transition times this year. I came into T1 in a blaze. But the wet, muddy conditions slowed me down and I took 4:08 in getting ready for the bike. Not all that bad but I was hoping to be a minute faster.

The bike started out great as I was producing averages between 21 and 22 miles per hour. Where were the winds?!! I was hammering along and feeling great when I realized that I spoke to soon. Around mile 40, the infamous Eagleman winds kicked in and stayed with us most of the whole way home. I ended up with a 19+ average and a time of 2:55:00. I'll take it.

T2 went fairly smooth but again I was 1 minute slower than I wanted to be at 4:15. The legs felt fresh going out on the run and I was intent on hitting the turn around in under 1 hour. The hope was to couple that with a 1:05 or 1:10 run back in for 2:05, 2:10 finish. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. I tired in the middle miles and struggled after mile 11. I finished with a time of 2:18:14. Not bad but certainly not great. My overall time of 5:57:15 was a personal PR at Eagleman by 20 seconds. But the best thing I am taking away from this race is how good I felt after the race. In years past, I have felt very beat up from Eagleman but this year was different.

Now, it's on to Lake Placid with 5 weeks to go. This past week was the first week of 3 hard ones. The end is near!