Team Member: Louie Kirchner

Race Name: Tri the Mountains Sprint

Race Date: 7/25/2010

Race Placement/Time/Qualification: 1st Overall, 1:15:24

Tell us about your race (limit 500 words)…: This turned out to be a pretty scenic little race. With a field of about 400 I felt like I had a shot for my first over-all top 3 or even maybe a win. I decided that coming off Ironman that there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to go as hard as I could for this short race, just keep it under my threshold for the most part. I went out hard on the swim to try and take advantage of being in the first wave – I was first out of the water by a fairly large margin. The out and back bike course was 18 miles of up and down, a lot of hills! I hit the turn around with a bout a 2:30 advantage on 2nd place, but I could see a guy from the wave behind me moving up quickly. I knew there would be someone from those 40+ age groups that would be fast, I just had to keep the 3 minutes between us that our waves were separated by. Finished the bike off in just under 45 minutes with a 24mph avg. I was happy to be that fast with the hills! My average HR on the bike was 9 beats under threshold too. In the excitement of being in the lead, I left my Garmin on my bike at T2 – so no HR or distance for the run. No big deal, just 3.1 miles of everything I had left. Big uphill out of the finish hurt pretty bad and I could see the other guys coming in behind me off the bike. Running out front is an eerie feeling and I kept looking over my shoulder waiting for someone to catch me. The 2nd half of the run course was one long gradual up hill into the finish in downtown Blue Ridge. I hit the finish line with nobody in sight, then a 40+ showed up about 3 minutes later, so it would come down to the time. Results posted and I won by 24 seconds, with 3rd about 4 minutes back. I was so pumped to get my first over-all podium and win. This was a great race and probably the most scenic sprint I’ve ever done. Rumor has it they are going to offer the full Olympic distance next year.