Pyramid Lake Sprint Triathlon - 8/2/08

Today was the Pyramid Lake Sprint Triathlon. Pyramid Lake is approximately 25 miles outside of Reno, NV. I don't particulary care much for the lake as it's kind of spooky to me. The lake sits out on an Indian Reservation, it's a very large lake, and is alkaline (don't care much for the salty taste). The lake also has the ability for the wind to whip up quickly and really make the lake a scary place to be.
However, this race is hosted by my local triathlon club - Reno Area Triathletes (Bullmoose club) and the funds from the event go to benefit the Tahoe-Pyramid bike way - which is a major bikeway planned to connect Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake and everything in between which includes Reno, NV.
This morning the race began at 8:30am, which is nice for sleeping in but the winds were already beginning to start up (although they were light at the time). The race typically hosts about 200 competitors and most are new to the sport of triathlon. However, today there seemed to be considerably more than 200 people out there!
The males were shot off first in a mass start and the females went off in a mass start 5min's behind the men. The swim was only 1/2 mile in length and I actually had a very good swim. I drank a little of the salty water as I approached the first buoy as the waves were bigger by this buoy but it did not affect me too much. The entire swim, I was able to keep my eyes on the lead group and never lost site of them the entire swim. I knew that I was going to come out of the water ahead of most of the competitors.
As I exited the water, there was a small run uphill to the transistion area and I was able to slip out of my wetsuit quickly and get on the bike.
The bike was an out and back route that was 14 miles in length. The bike had a handful of rolling hills and with the longest ones taking just under a minute to get up, however these do affect your average speed. Needless to say, since I exited the water early I was also riding very close to leaders on the bike too. At the turn around I was able to count all those ahead of me, and I was17th overall on the bike. I continued to push the pace as strong as I could but also tried to stay somewhat comfortable to save my legs for a good run.
As I entered the transition area from the bike, I had a fairly quick transistion to get out onto the run. Once exiting the transition the run started with a pretty good hill that was maybe a 1/4 mile in length. This hill kind of stunk and really felt bad on the legs and I felt as though I could have walked up it faster. However, I just kept pushing once the run flattened out and hoped that I would feel comfortable enough to start getting my stride to open up. Unfortunately, that never happened. I was able to pass a couple people on the run (just a couple) but I believe that I was passed by probably close to 10 other runners. My 5k run was just over 23 minutes which is very bad for me. I am capable of putting in very low 20 min. 5k's off the bike but my running has really been lacking this entire year.
Anyways, my ending time was a 1:18:01 and I ended up finishing 5th in age group and 26th overall. So for the most part it was a pretty good day. What made the day even more special to me, was my 5 yr. old son was able to see the race and all the excitment these races bring to even the spectators. He really seemed to have a good time cheering on his daddy and I was happy to have him out there as most of my races are out of town and it's hard to have him come along to view them.
My next race looks to be the Soma 1/2 ironman on October 26th, but due to work may not be able to do this. Should know more soon, and if I can't do the Soma race I will try and find something a little closer to home to finish out the year.
To all reading this, hope your year is going well and that goals are being met or exceeded.