O.k.. So I'm too cheap to actually purchase the event photo...
One short night of sleep after attending the ANZA Ball, I was toeing the start line of the final event in the TriBob Sprint Series. BANG! Off I swam.... Without pulling punches - let's just say that I'm a TERRIBLE swimmer... Simply awful.. Over the 750 meters, I lost about 2 1/2 minutes on the leaders -
By the time I got on my trusty bike (with a new set of ZIPP 808's courtesy of my best friend Al, owner of Headsweats), I had a lot of ground to make up so without too much of a delay off I went.. I made up 40 or 50 spots by the end of the two-loop bike, and then found myself in about 25th place overall by the start of the run.
I passed about 6 people by the time I got to a point where the people in front of me were no longer getting (much) closer. There was this one guy about 10 meters ahead that I had pretty much written off - I was OK where I was... Then, it started.. He looked back - then surged... then I reeled in the surge.. He looked back again - then surged.. again.. OK - now you're testing me.. again, he looked back - another surge.. OK - now you're toast!! Judging by his physique, I could tell he was (much) younger, so I only had (at most) one bullet at my disposal. With no more than 100 meters to go, I took off. He kept looking back on his right side, so I bridged up to him with a quick burst of 39-year-old speed and pulled up next to his left side, just as he looked back. He started his sprint - matched my speed - then I shifted in to my next (and final) gear.. I beat him by 7 seconds.
When he crossed the line, his first question was:
"what age group are you in??"
You gotta love Singapore... I ended up placing third in my age group in the entire series - Look out next year!
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