Race Coverage

"I Tried to Make Things Exciting"...

Friday, 24 August 2018 23:10

By Ryan Collison

Young Life Triathlon Race Report - Well MTN Guys, your 1-2 predictions were right for Young Life!  I tried to make things exciting, but Dave just had an awesome run in him this weekend. 

Going in, I really respected Dave’s run speed and I knew that I would have to get off the bike 3 min ahead of him and have a solid run to win.  

The swim and bike went well.  I spend most of the bike ride appreciating the traffic control car staying far enough ahead of me to not provide a draft, but close enough to keep an eye on me and keep traffic under control.  How often do we hear about the traffic control interfering at Ironman races or the Tour?  These guys got it right!  A very nice detail highlighting just how well run this local race is!

Coming into T2, I knew I had a gap and felt good....there was a chance!  After the first mile I just couldn’t get the turn over I needed to have a fast run, but how much gap did I have?  Could I just hang on? ...

Well, just after the turn around I saw Dave, and he was looking smooth.  After leading for the last 20 or so miles he caught me with under 3 to go.  Bummer.  

After seeing the splits at the end, I learned I came out of T2 2:36 ahead of him.  Hard to say if I could have held him off with even a strong run, but I sure hope to get another shot to find out!

All in all, Young Life was a great race.  It was both spectator and athlete friendly.  Hopefully we put on a good show for all the people who came out to support us!  And next year I’ll do my best to make sure it’s more of a nail biter :). It’s hard to complain about a race with 2 course records (congrats Becky and Branden) and it’s  awesome to see such good turn out and talent of all ages rocking this great LOCAL event!