距离比赛开始大约15分钟，我走到自我种子游泳开始的地方。我决定进入三名运动员的第一组，同时我尽最大努力为游泳做准备，但不能下水，这是一个不同寻常的转变。圣乔治的游泳是一个简单的三腿的路线，围绕着中间露出来的小岩石。当我走到第一个救生圈时，已经有三四个游泳者游过来了，我决定坐进去，因为我觉得有点不舒服，想在加快速度前让身体有更多的时间热身。这群人游得很好，当我们绕过第二个弯道，完成游泳课程的最后一段时，我开始觉得自己与水更加融为一体了。我以25分39秒的成绩游完全程，这多少反映了当时的感觉，虽然有点差，但开始时感觉很好，仍然感觉很新鲜。
在另一个有点冷的手，因此草率的过渡，我在自行车和感觉强大的位置，在比赛中。这次自行车分裂被证明是一个不断的即兴发挥和跨栏立即开始。几乎是立刻，然后在整个比赛中，我的右侧踏板下降的动力和显示50%的我可能会看到的。当我只看到一个方面而不是一个真实的数字时，这并不难猜测，所以这并不是一个真正的问题，但它确实使标准化功率等参数变得非常不重要，所以我不得不忽略我在课程的某些部分设定的功率目标，只关注实际的数字。第二个问题出现了，我的主要营养来源认为它已经吃饱了，在听到刮擦声后，我失望地回头看，我的700卡路里的瓶子滑下了路。该死的。我让自己怀疑了大约五秒钟，然后意识到我别无选择，只能修改计划，从援助站尽可能多地获取凝胶。在接受了这个新的现实后，我想我至少应该确保自己有充足的水分，并保持盐的摄入量正常。不幸的是，我的盐药丸也掉了，现在我真的开始怀疑到底发生了什么。好的一面是，这可能是我在铁人三项中使用过的最轻的自行车，因为我把所有重要的东西都扔掉了。 My new plan was to take my time through every aid station, make sure my front reservoir was completely filled at each stop, get a big gulp of Gatorade to fill in for the salt pills and grab as many gels as possible to replace as many of the 600 calories as possible. It took me two more aid stations to successfully locate and then finally actually grab gels but I managed to grab two gels up the final ascent through Snow Canyon which I promptly consumed. Sitting here writing this today I am proud of how I modified but in the moment it was a little crazy. Enough of that, power wise I was feeling strong and confident with the effort I was putting out. Early on in the bike I let the eventual third place finisher go and at one point was passed briefly by the second place finisher as well. I focused solely on my own effort and knew we had a tough run ahead and at best I would be slightly behind on my nutrition going in to the run. The last section of the St. George course features a solid climb up the moonscape of Snow Canyon and then a fast six mile blast back into town. Despite the problems with nutrition along the way, this was undoubtedly the strongest I have ever felt on a bike, it was amazing and I look forward to way more of it. I treated mile 50 as the end of the bike effort wise and used the long descent back into town to finished everything I had on my bike fluid wise and spend as little energy as possible. I finished the bike split in a time of 2:15:46 and in second place age-group, about one minute off of the lead.
圣乔治的跑步路线从来都不是平坦的，它鼓励上坡时的力量和下坡时的腿部速度。在出城三英里的攀登中，我专注于速度和控制心率。我立刻意识到自己很强壮，从后面的直接威胁中我是安全的，我能控制自己的呼吸，在第一名业余选手的视线范围内。在最初的3英里爬坡后，我们从两个地方爬了出来，又回到了俯瞰小镇的一个悬崖顶上。考虑到在自行车上的营养挑战，我在跑步的开始部分吃的比我想要的多，这是我确保控制的另一个原因，不会感到急于提前或一次性通过。在前5个救助站，我交替使用一粒盐药丸和水，或者一种凝胶和水，之后我开始不喝水或只喝一小口水。我想我今年早些时候在新西兰学到了一些关于我吸收营养的速度的重要经验，我觉得我昨天刚刚掌控了这个平衡。当我感到饱了的时候，我就减少喝水的量，或者跳到援助站。第一名在望，我的脑子里充满了心算，试图决定何时采取行动。就像骑自行车一样，跑步以一个很长的下坡结束，所以我决定把10英里当作我的终点线，只是做深，尽我所能把腿转回城镇。 At mile 11 I started to catch 1st place quickly and made a quick decision that it was now or never, finally making the pass at 11.5 at which point I knew I had to bury myself and create a gap he did not want to bridge. In hindsight I am glad did not wait because he was eventually passed for second at the very end so it would have been unnecessarily close. Those last few miles hurt but honestly the whole experience was so much fun I barely felt it. I finished the run in a time of 1:23:22 and an overall time of 4:10:01 (so close), good for the best overall amateur and 20th overall including the pros. This results also qualifies me to race professionally which has been a goal of mine for quite some time. The plan is to race Eagleman 70.3, Lake Placid full and Olympic Nationals and then take my pro card and pick some 70.3’s to get started with in the fall. The St. George course was a true test and pretty close to my idea of a perfect triathlon, I will certainly be back.
