Dave's Day at the Naperville Tri

Dave had a super day at the recent Naperville Triathlon. All his hard work and dedication came together. Dave's a great guy and we're sure glad he's part of the ET team. He has one more triathlon this season: the very difficult Devil's Challenge at Devil's Lake, Wisconsin.

Here's Dave's Naperville race report. Enjoy!!

Exceeding My Goals by Dave I.

My first triathlon of the year. In fact my first full sprint triathlon in two years. The last full sprint I completed, I had to hang onto the side of a rescue boat to catch my breath. Needless to say, I was nervous about the swim.

At the beginning of the Naperville Sprint, there was a long line of competitors waiting to enter the water. A friend of mine was trying to convince me to enter with the 8 minute pace group, however, based on my past experience and pre determined strategy, I was hanging back with the 15 minute group. Ultimately, I ended up with the late 12 minute group because I am impatient and wanted to get in the water. I found myself standing next to a young buck who was doing his first sprint. I gave him some sound advice and continued to reassure him until we hit the water. That was the last I saw of him.

I entered the water calm and started to swim at my pace. I found the rope and followed it so I did not have to worry about spotting. I ran into a few people who were hanging onto the rope and ran over a couple more people that seemed to be out for the 9 - 11 adult float. This thought made me smile and reassured me that I had sufficiently conditioned myself for the race.

I came out of the water strong. The crowd motivated me to run quickly through the transition zone. By the time I got to my station there were not many bikes left which gave me plenty of room to put on my gear. I put on my sunglasses, helmet, slipped on my baby powder coated socks, bike shoes and was off.

My warm up period on the bike did not take long. I felt like I was going full tilt 5 minutes into the ride. After the first loop, I thought to myself that the entire course must be downhill. It's not, it's just really flat. The second 6 mile loop went just as smooth as the first. The only drag about taking off that late in the swim was there were no riders left to push me. I felt like a lot of the riders on the course were out for an easy Sunday ride and had no idea that there was a race going on around them.

I came off the bike into the transition area smoothly. I slipped into my running shoes (those easy laces work great), dropped my helmet, took a drink of Gatorade and was off running.

Generally, it takes me a long time to get up to my race pace; my legs take a while to get into the rhythm. Today, on the other hand, I was opened up my running stride within the first mile. I believe that staying near my 88 cadence on the bike really helped transition into the run. I had no problems and I ran fast today. I ended up beating my time from the Oak Brook 5K considerably. I left just enough in the tank to cross the finish line strong. As I crossed the finish line I stopped my stopwatch and was pleased. I beat the goal I set for myself by 00:00:25. Good Enough!

The training plan I followed prior to this race really put me in a position to Kick Butt. I was exhausted coming across the finish line, but 20 minutes later I felt like I could do it again. I'd like to thank Coach Joe for utilizing his training and knowledge to get me to where I am. I can't wait for the next race.