Copyright . Eric Limkemann Triathlon. All rights reserved.
LATEST RACE:
7/12/10
This weekend, I was down south for the Chattanooga
Waterfront Triathlon. It was my first race after dealing with a bit of
overtraining and I was looking forward to putting my health to the test. The
race was a great success ending with my first win of the year! As an
added bonus, I started the weekend by meeting up with my sister, who I do not
get to see enough. It was great hanging out with her as I went through
the pre-race registration and meetings. We ate lunch at the Mellow
Mushroom (if you’ve never had their pizza, I recommend it!) and tried to hide
from the oppressive heat and humidity. I felt relaxed and ready heading
into race day.
I arrived early to the race and went through the pre-race
routine. Even though we were set to go off at 7:30am, it was still going
to be hot and humid so I made sure to take in a lot of First Endurance EFS to
prepare. I slipped into my new BlueSeventy swim skin, slipped into the 87
degree water (You read correctly: 87!), and got ready for the time trial swim
start. I was the 5th person to start but was in the lead by
the half-way point of the swim. I came out of the water first (later
found out that someone had out-split me! Darn) and made my way through transition
and onto the bike. The course was a relatively hilly 26 mile ride, which
is slightly longer than a normal Olympic distance race. Since my power on
the bike has suffered in the past month due to limited training, I was happy to
find that I could push the pedals well enough to come into transition in second
position only 30 seconds back of the lead cyclist!
On the run, I took off feeling good and pretty happy that
the run would only be a 10k since it was getting hotter by the second! I
was able to reel in the only racer ahead of my by the first mile and went to
work extending my lead to ensure that no one behind me in the time trial start
would better my time. I felt smooth and relatively fast in my
The race was a great experience with a tough course, great
volunteers and a neat city. During the awards, I learned that one of the
co-founders of the race had passed away from ALS. I was honored to win a
race that he helped to start and was able to put the race organization in touch
with Team Blazeman. It was a helpful reminder that there are always
bigger things than just racing! Thank you to Team Magic, who put on the
race and to all of my sponsors. I’m looking forward to continuing on the
road to health and preparing for my first ironman distance race at Rev3 Cedar
Point. After that, I’ll be racing at the Westchester Triathlon where I
earned my first pro victory back in 2007.
Make sure to check out my website (I’ll get pictures, etc up
in a few days) and please support my great sponsors! Also, you can click
on a link to support the Blazeman Foundation.
Here is a link to the story in the Local Chattanooga Paper:
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2010/jul/12/ohioan-fastest-of-1259/
