I signed up for the entire season's worth of Aquathons (a 1K swim followed by a 5K run), making the commitment to race before softball and other distractions. The first race was suddenly upon me and I was scared. I was scared because it was going to hurt. It hurts because I can't run. I can't run because I grew up swimming. I shouldn't say I can't run, but rather I don't know how to run. I don't know when to go fast or for how long. I never get it right and it always hurts.
I showed up and noticed how many really fast-looking people were there. I did the last one in 2006, which happened to fall the week after Ironman Wisconsin and kept people away. Now I was even more scared. I saw (Simply) Stu (Awesome!) and talked with Clay. He helped me pick out the other fast swimmers as potential drafting targets. According to the scouting report, Mark Harms was the man to follow. I had done some of my own home work and picked out my personal draft target. I started right next to him at the start and made sure to stay next to him into the water. Sure enough, he took it out nice and strong and I was able to hang on to his bubbles and draft nicely. On the top stretch of the triangular swim course, Mark Harms drives past on our left. I try and jump on his feet, but he must've saw me move over. He quickly accelerated away and I moved back to my man's feet. I stayed there until the last stretched and accelerated by him. A jerk move, but I knew he was a wicked fast runner and I couldn't compete. I ran out of the water in second place overall, just two seconds ahead of third.
Transition went well. I thought my socks would slow me down, but it seems the wet feet on the other two were just as time consuming to stuff into our shoes. I left just after the guy I drafted. Mark Harms leaves about ten seconds before us.
The run starts straight out along the road. Long enough to get some speed and the heart rate up. At the first turn you immediately start up a small hill. My heart rate skyrockets and I start to lose control of my breath. I take it easy going down the hill and get passed. I settle into a nice rhythm for the next mile and half. A few more real runners pass me, putting me about 7th place. At the turn around, Stu is not that far behind. I yell for him to come get me and he promises that he will. I also caught a glance from a woman that I knew made me out to be a marked man. She passed me going up the last hill, right after a really, really fast runner passed us both. (He split a 17:45.) Down the hill I took nice small strides and made the final turn towards the finish. You'd think that because it's the last turn, that the finish line isn't far away. But it is. It's painfully far away. Thankfully, the hill took a bit more out of the woman than me. She wasn't too far ahead. I slowly built up speed, drawing her in, careful not too build up too much. I wanted to clip her at the line and not have the reverse occur. I had just enough finishing kick to earn back my spot and finish 8th overall and 4th in my age group (M3039). Stu finished one minute back. Sweet.
If I had worn a watch, I imagine that I ended up negative splitting my run. At least I hope I did. I'll see about wearing a watch for the next one and take some splits. As much as it did hurt, I had fun. I'm looking forward to getting out for most of the races. This is going to scary fun!