Pre Race

This was going to be a pretty laid back race.  Both because I have done it before and because it wasn’t an “A” race.  I packed up everything Friday night.  They had posted the water temperature online Friday and there was virtually no chance of wetsuits being allowed, so I didn’t even pack it.  Without a wetsuit, it makes packing much more manageable – everything fit in my backpack.

I did packet pickup on race morning and quickly got my number and chip.  Unfortunately the shirts got held up in customs and had not arrived.  So, they will be mailing them out to each racer in the next week or so.  I wonder who is picking up the fee for shipping 400+ shirts??

I found a pretty good spot on my rack.  We didn’t get there early enough to get an end rack, but the rack I was on only had 5 other bikes so it wasn’t very crowded compared to the end racks with 8 bikes each.  After getting marked, it was time to head down to the swim start.

The Swim

It was a long wait between when transition closed and my wave started.  I had a good hour wait before my wave would go out.  The reason for the delay was that the My Team Triumph Angels started first and were given a 30 minute head start so that they can finish the swim before anyone else starts.

As the My Team Triumph racers were finishing, they started a group of seeded athletes.  This was a new “feature” of the race.  Anyone could request to start in the first heat if they thought that they would be competing for an overall or age group placing.  There was about 60 or so athletes that chose to start first.

After the seeded athletes, there were two waves of women and then my wave.  While waiting to start, I heard familiar voice in the crowd and found two guys that I ran cross country with back in high school. 

The water temperature at the start was 83*F so wetsuits were technically allowed, but without being included in the placing.  I chose to go without a wetsuit and am I glad I did. 

This was by far the most contact I have ever had in a swim.  Most of the contact seemed to happen after our wave caught up to the previous two waves and began passing people.  I took a swift kick to in the chest by someone doing the breast stroke that really took the wind out of me.  Other than that, it was relegated to the standard bumping that goes with an open water swim – just a lot of it.

Compared to last year, my swim time was about a minute and a half longer. However, my ranking in the swim dropped from 175 to 70, so I did better against the field.  I attribute this to three things.  First, I heard some swimmers saying that the course last year was short.  And second, swimming with a wetsuit is generally going to be faster.  My extra open water swim training really helped me swim straight as an arrow.  I accidentally took the final turn a little wide, but that ended up helping me in the long run because it wasn’t as crowded on the outside.

I finished the swim in 14:49 and charged up to the transition area.  As I ran to transition, I really felt like I pushed myself in the swim and was sort of worried I pushed too hard.  My transition time in T1 improved by about 30 seconds which is probably time I saved by not putting on socks.

The Bike

Wow!  What can I say.  The bike rocked!  The course is an out and back course with rolling hills.  As soon as I started out on bike I was flying.  I was seeing speeds of 23mph and 24mph on my bike computer as I flew by other cyclists.  I could have a used a pre-recorded, “On your left” message I was doing so much passing.  As a side note, there were a lot of newbies who didn’t seem to know the “Stay to the right” rule.  They would move to the right as I passed, but them scoot right back to the middle of the road.  I pushed the pace as much as I could, charging up the hills, and riding down the hills at full speed.  I stayed aero for most of the ride after the first couple of miles.  However, it was so crowded during the first 3 miles, that I was constantly popping up onto the hoods to brake or change gears while passing.

Who has two thumbs and just rocked the bike?  This guy!

I only got passed by a couple of people on the bike.  All of which were on tri bikes and had aero helmets.  Never fun getting passed, but it is easier to swallow when the passer still has a bike number on his bike from CdA.

I backed off the last mile and shifted into an easier gear to prep my legs for the run. 

There was a bit of snafu with the bike dismount.  When turning back into the transition area, the road was divided into two paths by a rope.  The two riders in front of me and myself took the path closest to our turn and ended up on the wrong side.  We all had to dismount a few yards earlier and had to climb under the rope.  Inconvenient, but not a huge deal.

I ended up finishing the bike in 50:56, about 3 minutes faster than last year, for a 21.2mph average pace.  I also brought my bike rank down from 130 to 47.

The Run

Like the bike, the run went awesome.  I had a little bit of a brick feeling in my legs for the first half mile or so, but it went away quickly.  I started to pick off runners one by one as my legs felt better and better.  I had one guy pass with a 27 on his calf and I knew that I would have to catch him as to not drop a place in my age group.  He went flying passed me, but pulled up about 50 yards down the road.  As I passed him, I told him to keep it up and was given a grunt as a reply.  I think he must have cramped up or something and did not seem very happy.

In no time, I hit the final stretch.  I somehow missed the 4 mile mark, so I was surprised to see the finish line so soon.  I felt great as I finished. 

The run was a 2 minute improvement over last year at 32:45 (7:17 pace).  I also jumped from 128th to 46th in the run ranking over last year.

Overall it was a great race.  I finished 43 out of 440 overall and 7 out of 28 in my age group so I am very happy with the results. 

I sort of wonder if I should have started in the seeded group?  In the end, I ended up finishing ahead of a dozen or so of the seeded group, so I probably would have fit it.  Though, it may have been mentally defeating though to be be in the back of the seeded group rather than being able to pass the waves that started before me.  I think that if it were an “A” race, putting myself in the seeded group would have made me more competitive.  But as this was just a training session, I am glad I started where I did.

Post Race

As we were leaving, I pointed out a Cervelo P2.  Jennie took a picture of it in case Santa needs something for my Christmas list.

Finally, a big thanks to my support crew and photographer! Aren’t the pictures great???

Official Results

Carrying my bike across the gravel to avoid getting a flat.
I caught hell for this because apparently I should have
been carrying Jennie instead of the bike.

Athletic Supporter (not that kind) and Athlete

Exiting the swim after my best race swim ever.

Striking a pose for the photographer.

 
Cleanup and pack up.

5:00 AM Saturday morning came much faster than I anticipated.  I even gave myself an extra 15 minutes sleep after the alarm first went off – it still wasn’t enough.  Thankfully I had packed most of my gear the night before, so all I had to load up was my bike.  We headed out to Middleville and I got all situated in the the transition area.  The bike racks were very poorly labeled with the end of the racks having one set of numbers, and then the middle of the racks having a second set of numbers.  My number, 331, was in the middle of rack which took a while to find because all you could see from the isle was the end numbers. It made it look like they just skipped a bunch of numbers when in fact you had to walk down each row to see if your number was down there.  It wasn’t just my lack of sleep that made this difficult to comprehend – I helped two other people who were confused by the situation.

Swim

We headed down to the swim start early because I got setup and marked quickly.  Standing around, it was quite chilly for July; probably low to mid 60’s.  There were a few people warming up in water, but I was hesitant to get in for fear of being even colder standing around wet.  When we actually did get it the water, it was pleasantly warm.  Warmer than the air temperature even.

I had one of my best swims ever.  I was out of the water in 13:26.  Compare to 16:43 last year, this is a huge improvement.  While swimming, I knew I was in good shape.  I was staying very close to the buoys and wasn’t having to correct my course at all.  I was even able to draft off of a couple other swimmers during portions.  I have always heard that drafting on the swim is very helpful, but have never been confident or skilled enough in my ability to stay directly behind someone.  The only mishap I had on the swim was that I almost missed the turn.  The last buoy for the turn snuck up on me quickly and didn’t notice it until I saw the other swimmers swimming away from me.   I also did notice that my arms seemed a bit tired at the beginning of the swim.  However, I attribute this to the 2800 yards I did in the pool more than anything.  It is one of the first times I have done swim workouts on back to back days.

T1

The first transition went very smoothly.  No problems getting out of the wetsuit and getting into my bike gear. The only mishap I had was that my race number tore as I was putting it on so I had to deal with a flapping race number the whole time.

Bike

I improved on the bike portion of the race as well this year.  I took a couple minutes off my time and ended up with almost a 1mph pace increase over last year.  There wasn’t much wind on the course which was a plus.  However, I forgot how hilly the course was and they took a lot out of me. 

Nothing much eventful happened on the bike.  It was a fairly basic out and back course.  One of the nice aspects of this race is that the women start before the men, so during the bike, I was able to pace other bikers rather than just get passed by other people.  After the first half of the race I pretty much maintained the same position.  I battled back and forth with a couple different people which get kept things interesting.

T2

The second transition didn’t quite go as smoothly as the first.  Because of the poorly labeled racks, I ran down the wrong row and had to back track to re-rack my bike.  However, after I got to the right rack, it was a quick change to my running shoes and off on the run.

Run

Again, just like last week, my hamstrings/gluts were killing me at the very beginning of the run.  However, this time, I was determined to run through the pain.  Thankfully, the pain subsided much earlier than last week and I was back to full strength after about a half mile.  I meant to hit the split button on my watch during the run, but I missed the first mile, so I gave up on that idea.  In the end, I finished with a sub 8:00 minute mile pace on the run which I was very happy with.

Overall

Overall, I am very happy with my performance.  I ended up with a 7 minute PR over last year which is nothing to complain about.  I am most happy with my swim performance and run performance.  I’m happy that my bike improved over last year, however, I would really like to get my pace up to 21mph consistently. 

Now, I get some time off next weekend before Steelhead in 2 weeks.  I’m really not expecting anything earth shattering at Steelhead; just to finish at this point.

Results