Race Coverage

"I LOVED the venue & the Course"...

Saturday, 07 August 2021 00:10

By Jake Keehan

GEAR WEST HALF RACE REPORT - Hey MTN, you had mentioned that you wanted to get my GPS splits before I left: Swim, I'd trust the official results. GPS watches can be off with OWS pretty frequently but mine had me at 1:30/100 and 1,760 yds for a 26:29. The 1:22 from the results sounds more like what I was expecting, but I caught myself pulling to the left every time I was breathing right and came off line/went wide more than a few times, so who knows?

Bike course was long, 58.5 miles and I trust the GPS data on that. I believe the official results calculated the pace based on 56 miles, but I had 23.5 MPH for a 2:29:14. 23.5 MPH for 56 miles comes out to 2:22:48 (6:26 faster).

GPS had my run just a tad short, 12.93 miles and 6:20 pace for a 1:22:00 but I'd think the course was accurate and 6:16 pace sounds better. If my math is right the 6:26 from the bike off the total time of 4:20:58 would put me at 4:14:32 for 70.3 (spot on what was predicted in the event preview!). ...

I felt great and was very happy with the effort and time. Knowing there wouldn't be a lot of traffic up front, I wanted to just make sure it was a solid effort, regardless of where the competition was and kept everything pretty measured. I stayed pretty well within myself for the bike and the first half of the run with a plan to stay smooth for lap 2.

Towards the end of the first lap I was passing an olympic distance athlete who you could tell was giving it everything he had, pushing his limits. While I didn't want to empty the tank quite to that extent I decided if he was going to give that much to the race that I could do more than "stay smooth" for lap 2. I decided put the pedal down a little more, test the legs a bit and go for a negative split and ended up coming home around 2:00 faster than lap 1.

I LOVED the venue and course, especially the run through the park, and sincerely hope GW is able to offer the long course again next year. For the inaugural event small numbers are to be expected, but this race should be on everyone's short list for future seasons.