ironguides athlete Neal Dunn wins St. Kitts & Nevis National Triathlon Championship
In his own words:
Sunday was the race. But unlike in the US where races are bright and early, here the race did not start until 2:30 in the afternoon. It was very hard to get myself pumped up so late in the day! And as luck would have it the wind was really howling, in fact Rene and I almost got blown off our bikes on the ride over to the race.
The course was 5 loops around an approximate 300 meter course in the water (seemed quite long), two 20K loops on the bike (my computer said this was accurate) and then two 5K loops on the run. The first thing I will say is that I don’t believe the distances because my splits were crappy! I went into the race knowing beforehand that there would be one main competitor who is the local best racer and that this would not be a walk in the park, that's for sure! Reggie has won all the past races here and I got to meet him earlier in the week.
So Sunday afternoon the gun went off and I hit the water. The course was really wavy with a big current but I knew that I was the best swimmer there so I just stretched it out and tried to get a lead. Seems that worked as I ended up lapping the entire field and exited the water in first!
The bike course was basically all uphill into the wind one way and then downhill with the wind the other way, then repeat. I can tell you that my legs felt horrible, very tired and tight, completely flat, no pep. I am not sure if it was the swim effort or the time of day but I just didn’t feel good. I pushed anyway, waiting to the turnaround where I could but it in a big gear and hopefully break some of this stuff up. At the end of the second loop Reggie (the local) passed me and I ended the bike and T2 around 20 seconds down, with legs still feeling crappy.
I expected Reggie to run away from me as the Caribbean athletes are usually good runners and would definitely do better with the heat than I. But the gap never opened and we stayed even all the way through until the last turn around. With 1.5 K to go I dropped it into another gear and started to make up ground. With 1/3 of a mile left I passed Reggie and pushed hard up the hill to break his spirit. He didn’t respond but I wouldn’t look back either. I came flying down the other side and finished 1st. I won overall and now I am officially the St. Kitts & Nevis National Champion! (Not really, I won their national championship but I don’t live there so you know how that goes...) :-)
Congrats Neal - nicely done!/1244