This past weekend I was fortunate enough to compete in the Motor City Tri at Bell Isle in Downtown Detroit.
I have to start by saying, what a great race! Overall, the course was flat, well marked, well stocked and the post race amenities were great. In additon to the wonderful things that were in therace directors control I must thank mother nature for waiting till we were home before opening up 
This was my first Olympic distance Triathlon since my very first triathlon back in 2010 when I did Chicago. Having been unprepared for the Chicago tri, I did poorly and have always wanted to get my redemption on that distance. Thankfully, Sunday I did!
Having gone straight from the Olympic distance to the Ironman my perspective changed on each discipline as did my training. Coming into this race I knew I would have the juice to finish, but knew my speed would be an issue. Thankfully, the course was fast and I improved dramatically in every area. I had a pretty good swim and was out of the water in 24 minutes and change. After T1 I made my way onto my weakest event (the bike) where I met my goals, but lost ground. I averaged slightly over 20mph which was great for me, but slow in the field as a whole. I came into T2 around 1:09 which was about 7 minutes slower than I had hoped. Finally, I made my way onto the run which I always consider my favorite event where I managed to log about a 7:43 mile which helped me gain some ground. The 7 minutes I lost on the bike, however, continued to haunt me towards the finish line!!
I finished in 2:23 and was 43rd overall. I placed 5th in my age group and of course the 7 minutes from that bike would have made the difference to nab me 3rd. Fortunately, I know where I need to improve and had what most would consider a pretty flawless race day. I had no flats, no rain, no nutrition problems and as always the best support in the world. It was a great wake up call as to where I can improve, but more importantly where I exceeded my expectations.
Armed with the tools I learned from Sunday and another piece of hardware, I will go back to the drawing board and get ready for Olympic distance #2 in late July. Before I know it it’ll be August and time for another Ironman!
4 Comments
Great job! I guess we are all looking for that perfect tri when all of the pieces come together flawlessly. But then we would want to improve on that
Lorri, it really is never ending isn’t it?! Once you FINALLY start to feel good about one event, you wonder why you can’t be just a littttle bit better. Part of the reason why we keep coming back, right?
It was great to see you at the race. I have just figured out, flat is not always fast on the bike. It gives you no break. You did great and even left feeling good and with a smile! Hope to see you there at the Championships later this year!
Thank you for the kind words and introducing yourself! It was a pleasure seeing a fellow champion doing something so inspirational. You truly epitomize what is so special about the sport. Keep training hard and I will plan on seeing you at races in the future. Keep up the good work!