The beauty of racing is that you never know what will happen on the day.  On some days, everything will go well and you will have one of your best results.  On other days, things don’t always go as planned.

My race today didn’t go as planned.  I will be writing a full race report, but overall my race can be summarized as follows

• Challenging swim in windy conditions and choppy water
• Fast bike split interrupted by a flat tire
• Great run where I was able to chase and pass a lot of runners.
• Finished 3rd in my age group

It was that flat tire, that was the most interesting part of my day.  I struggled a bit on the swim, so was further back in the race than I would have liked, as I started the bike leg.  I quickly realized however, that I had my bike legs today and was flying past people, soon after leaving transition.

Not only was I biking great, but I was having fun.  There is nothing like the feeling of going fast on the bike. Seeing other cyclists in the distance and then catching and passing them, is exhilarating.  I was about one third into the bike leg, when I reached the first significant downhill part of the course.  It was a fast section, but requires braking at the bottom to navigate a sharp turn.

I was flying down the hill and when I was almost at the bottom, I suddenly heard a loud hissing sound.  I instantly knew it was air escaping from my front tube.  Luckily, that sound of escaping air, made me aware of the flat, in time to really slow down for the curve at the bottom of the hill.  I successfully made it around the corner and then pulled over to fix the flat.

My race report will include full details of the flat and what happened next, but after the race, I noticed that I was going 43mph when the puncture happened.  I guess things could have been much worse, than just losing some time in the race…..