Race Report - Wendy's Triathlon

I really debated this one. Just ask my wife. A couple weeks before, I was out. Then I watched Meredith race, and I was in. Then I thought about how little swimming and biking I had done and how busy our weekend would be, and wondered whether the cost of the race was worth it. I was definitely out. But then I thought about how I wanted to enjoy racing short this summer, and how there are only so many chances to do so. I was in.

Good thing, you're thinking. This would be a really boring race report otherwise.

After the aforementioned busy weekend of travel, photo boothing, and about four hours of sleep Saturday night, we were up bright and early to drive to the race site, about half an hour away. My stomach wasn't feeling great, and I was feeling a little dehydrated. Tough to keep up on water when you can't concentrate on it the day before. We were a little later than usual, but still had plenty of time to get set up, forget the aero bottle in the car, think I got the wrong chip, no, it's okay that it's a different number, get lubed up, one last bathroom break, seriously, stall doors would be nice, and down the beach to get ready for the swim!

Now, my swim training this spring has basically been this:

1. Take wetsuit to Meredith's race.
2. Do practice swim with her.

I didn't have high expectations. This race has an 800m swim, straight down the beach, and it's sort of notorious for being short. I lined up in the second row of my wave, a little to the outside. This race is also notorious for having a lot of beginners, and they tend to be toward the beach since you can stand up. In fact, we saw a lot of that during the relay wave, and were wondering "If that's who you chose for the swim..." :)

With the siren, I took off pretty hard. And actually, I was feeling pretty smooth and fast! I passed the guys I had started next to, and I found and kept open water for nearly the whole swim. I actually would have preferred a LITTLE more contact than I had, so I'd have a draft. Maybe I veered too far out, or maybe it was just spread out more than I'm used to. In any event, that fast start turned into "Ohhh...I don't have the swim endurance I'm used to" around the halfway point. My arms were tired, my legs were dragging...at one point I breaststroked a stroke to get my bearings and my foot actually hit the ground! Somehow I kept it together, and when I came out of the water, I was pleasantly surprised with my time.

800m Swim (plus run to transition): 13:17 (1:39/100m, 9/50 AG)

T1 was smooth, got my wetsuit off without a hitch for once! Pretty long run through transition to the mount line.

T1: 1:46

The bike course is pretty easy - just some little roll, a bunch of turns, and one hill at the end. And it went how it usually does: get passed by a bunch of not-so-good-swimmers-but-really-good-bikers in the first couple miles, then start catching the earlier waves and feeling a little better about myself. I tried to stay down in aero as much as I could, though I had to come up a few times to settle my stomach and catch my breath a bit. Overall, I was pretty happy with the averages I was seeing. At some point, I also realized that I didn't know exactly how long the bike course was! At mile ten, I figured I must be over halfway, but that was about it. Finally, I saw the model airplane field that I knew was in the park, and knew I was almost back. And frankly, the big hill was not so big anymore. I chased a couple fast guys up it, passing a bunch of people along the way, and it was back to transition, feeling pretty good.

Bike: 52:42 (19.4 mph, 29/50 AG)

As I coasted down into T2, I mentally went through my checklist. I think this really helped, as I was able to blaze through it in under a minute. Yeah, it's only a few seconds difference, but it was 4th fastest in the age group for what it's worth. :)

T2: 0:53

Finally, it was time for the one sport I actually have been working on hard. And wouldn't you know it, I came out of T2 with a nasty stitch in my left side. "Not again!" was all I could think, as I had flashbacks to the indoor tri this winter. I wanted so badly to walk, but I didn't want to ruin what had so far been a good day. I just shortened my stride and tried to keep my cadence up, in hopes that the stitch would go away.

The course was pretty muddy this year! The first little stretch is on a trail up through the woods, and there was one big puddle where you had the choice of running through it or around it...muddy water or just mud. I tried to go between and got a bit of each. Not that I was thinking too much about passing people, but this was a tough course on which to do so: lots of trail and cross country style grass. By the time I hit the turnaround, I realized this just wasn't going to be my day on the run. Finally, by about mile 2, my stitch started to ease a bit and I was able to run a little more normally. Unfortunately, my legs were just about out of gas at this point, which I'd probably attribute to not enough bike fitness for the pace I rode. I got passed by three guys in my age group in the last half mile, two of them in the parking lot right by the finish. :(

I crossed the finish line thinking it was a really bad run. Turns out it was only bad in comparison to this year's inflated running expectations; it was actually my third best pace in a tri run. I was hoping to go closer to a 7:00 pace, but it was what it was.

Run: 24:03 (7:46/mi, 25/50 AG)

Total Time: 1:32:38
23/50 Age Group
105/500 Overall

Sheesh, fast age group much? Almost a quarter of the people who beat me were in my age group. I really expected to do better; my secret goal was top ten AG, but hey, you can't control the field. My time would have been 13th last year, I believe.

In the end, I'm happy I raced. I definitely have some work cut out for me in two sports, but we'll just see how they fit into the running goals, which are first priority right now. Speaking of which, I've got some track repeats to write down for this afternoon...