No Boston Marathon for me

With the new registration process I still qualified, but slots were filled by fastest in age group. Given my qualifying time of 3:30:24 (which was 35 seconds from the qualifying cutoff), the registration cutoff ended up at 3:28:46. I missed getting in by 0:1:38. Under the new standards, for me to qualify again, I have to get 3:25:00 max, but it looks more like 3:20, to be on the bubble, and 3:14:59 for a sure thing. Then again, will everyone who qualified this time be able to reduce their times by 5-10 minutes? I don't think so. I might still have a chance at 3:24, the theory being the last two minutes of qualifiers got cut from registration, and the more stringent times will reduce the pool.

Yea, whatever. If I actually trained for these things I might actually get in. Maybe 2013, if I can get my act together in the next month. Powerman is this weekend, and then I have a month to work on speed. We shall see.

And just to clarify, I am not upset with being squeezed out by faster runners. It's only fair; they earned it.

Is it wrong that I find this funny?

Eagle Creek Sprint Triathlon (Duathlon)

I chose to do the duathlon at the last minute for two reasons: 1) I have not been swimming much, and 2) I figured I could do well in the duathlon.  The race was a 2 mile/10 mile/3 mile format, with legs two and three identical with the triathlon.

Run #1 (2 mi) 13:58 1st

Though I was 1st, my speed was slower from where I should be at this time of year.  The first 1/3 mile is uphill, and I nearly stopped at one point trying to understand where the course went, but with 6:47 and 7:11 miles, I was a minute slower than what I'd like.

T1 1:56 8th

What the heck happened here?  I did stumble a bit by taking the long way out of transition, but that couldn't have cost me more than 15 seconds. 1st was 1:06.

The Bike (10 mi) 29:31 20.3mph avg 1st

The course is hilly, but there are some fast sections.  Last year I was 29:12.  I need to practice hammering.  I am simply not riding enough.  It really helped when I was able to ride to work.

T2 1:28 4th

I just tried to be quick...

Run #2 (3 mi) 23:35 7:52 avg 2nd

Last year I ran this in 22:48.  I am just not as fit as I was.  I was running in zone 4 HR, but I have yet to find the drive to enter a pain cave of redlining.  Splits were 8:08/8:02/7:28.  I either need to be chasing, or being chased.  Something to work on.

Result 1:10:28 1st overall

It's an overall win, but honestly, the field was not very deep, and I should have done better.  Powerman Muncie duathlon (10k/60k/10k) is on 1 October, and I have much to do to be prepared for this sufferfest.  My goal is to beat last year's time of 3:38ish, though it seems a bit unrealistic at this point.