Welcome to 2007! I can't think of a better - or more painful - way to kick off the new racing season than by competing at the great Dooby Du race in Sylvania, Ohio. This year's weather was just about perfect (to make up for last year's frigid temps), with starting temps around 50 and not a cloud in sight. Because of my schedule for this year, I have not been doing any planned speedwork yet, so I knew going into today's race that it would be difficult and painful. I was, of course, correct. With such short distances for each leg of the race, it's guaranteed to be pretty much all-out from the gun.

I went out hard, settling into fifth place as the pack sorted itself out. By the time I got to the first transition, I was about 30 seconds down from the leader, and I had a couple guys close to me. I tend to pride myself on fast, efficient transitions, but clearly resting on my laurels was not enough today. I lost a shoe trying to perform my usual flying mount, and had to backtrack to put it on. Not only embarassing, this mistake cost me about fifteen seconds.

Once I was clipped in and going, I put the hammer down to try to catch the guys in front of me. I had a feeling that my cycling would go better than my running, and this proved to be good intuition. I moved myself into third place about three-fourths of the way through the 6.5 mile ride, and had a clean dismount and T2. The second run, however, was pretty ugly. I was passed by the guy I had passed minutes before, who had stronger running legs than I did today. I suffered through the two-mile loop, looking forward to a chance at redemption. I was back in fourth place, but only about ten seconds out of third by the time we got to T3.

Naturally, right when you need something good to happen, it is least likely to happen. So went my second attempt at a flying mount. I nearly fell, and had to reposition my pedal and stop the bike in order to get on; even then, I only barely made it. Frustrated, I turned my negative energy into fuel and really unleashed on the second bike loop. I quickly moved into fourth place again, this time about a quarter of the way through the loop, and I pushed hard to put as much time between myself and fourth place as possible. Right as we re-entered the park, I moved up into second place... and then lost a shoe on my flying dismount. I watched in dismay as the guy I had just passed sailed through T4 in front of me, and I knew I didn't have enough speed today to catch him.

Rolling into the last two-mile run, I did my best to hold good form and push to the finish. I was struggling, but I knew (as in the past) that I could hold on to my position if fourth place was far enough behind me at the turn-around. With a lead of about 40-45 seconds going around the cones, I was able to breathe a little bit easier, but not much because I knew the guy behind me was going to push hard to catch me. Determined, I gritted my teeth and turned on the gas as much as possible, and was able to relax a bit at the end when I risked a glance behind me.

I was a minute slower than last year, but that was clearly from the lack of fast running so far this year. I can walk away pretty satisfied with my effort, though, and I'm happy that I still made the top three.

Next up on the radar is short course Nationals, at the end of July. I've got a lot of work to do before then (transitions, running speed...), but with a little bit of luck and a lot of hard work, I should be in good shape to perform well there.