Shady Grove Sprint Tri

Today I competed in the Shady Grove sprint tri.  Sprints are the shortest official tri distance, with a 300 meter swim, 12 mile bike and 5k run.  It's been a while since I last did a triathlon and I didn't do a lot of prep work for the race other than general get in shape stuff.

As you may or may not know, I set a goal when I was 34 to do an Ironman when I turned 40 and that is next year.  I set up this race as a kick off for my year long training.

To start, I didn't know anyone who was doing the race.  At packet pickup, I saw two folks I know, former snagger Isabel H. and former soccer teammate Bill G.  Before the race started I found more folks: a former running partner, a MTB biker, and a snagger spouse (Eddy S. wife) also doing the race.  It's always nice to see friendly faces on the course.

I'm in between houses right now so I wore my jeans and a collared shirt over my tri suit while I waited for my turn to swim and got grief from everyone I saw.  It was funny.

For the swim, I did a practice 300m swim and came in around 55 seconds a lap.  I figured that my 7:30 estimate would be accurate since I would probably go slower.  I went much slower and did an 8:18.  I was told afterwards, by my friend Jeff, that I never really took my left arm out of the water while swimming.  That's not good.  I was passed by 4 people and actually backed off my pace the last 2 laps because my arms were getting worn out.

Before the race I had made a point to myself that I wouldn't rush the transitions since this is simply a warm up race, something to get me into the training groove.  That all went out the window when I was passed in the pool.  I came out of the water and jogged quickly to the transition area to get ready for the bike ride.  Once there, I got ready and moved out for the ride.  Yesterday, to get ready for this race, I swapped out my road pedals for my mountain bike pedals.  The MTB pedals are what work with my MTB tri shoes and they allow me to mount and dismount quickly.  As I ran with the bike to the mounting line, I kept touching the pedals so they would be in the perfect position for a quick mount.  When I got to the line they were slightly off and it took two hops to get on the bike and away I went.  In transition, I passed 3 of the 4 people that had passed me in the water.

The bike ride was somewhat uneventful.  The only issue I had was a slow rider in the middle of the road that prevented a car and myself from passing her.  I was worried about getting a drafting penalty from following the car too closely, but two things prevented that.  1) I'm a really slow swimmer and by the time I'm riding, the refs are all at lunch and 2) The car managed to get around pretty quick.  I managed to pass about 17 people on the bike, including the last person to pass me in the water.  At almost 20 mph, it was one of my slower rides.  I still don't have my stamina to charge up hills, but it's coming.

My favorite part of most every tri is the bike dismount.  By the time I get there, most quick dismounters are already gone and they no longer expect a high speed dismount.  I was out of my shoes and riding on one leg when I made the last turn to the dismount line.  The two guys at the line were yelling for me to dismount before the line and just as I crossed it I hopped off the bike into a dead run and continued to the transition area.  I heard one of the line guys say, "Wow, that was good."  And another person said something about me running right off the bike.  When it's the best part of your race, you take pride in it.

I continued my fast pace off the bike into and out of transition where I heard Rick (as a volunteer) yelling for me to hurry up and I did.  I'm not sure what my pace was, but I think it was sub 8 to start.  Before the race, I was really worried I would have to walk during the run so I focused hard on my breathing and pace.  Towards the turn-around I started slowing down, but kept running.  For a first, no one passed me on the run.  I think I passed about 20 people.

As I came to the finish I had a little extra in the tank and picked up the pace to cross the finish.  As I crossed the finish, I saw the announcer guy talking to Alex.  I walked up to Carrie and Alex and Alex went to give me a hug, until he felt how sweaty I was and went back to Mommy.  It was funny.

When I finished I felt great.  I thought it was perhaps my fastest ever tri, turned out it was my second slowest.

overall 1:13:25

S: 8:18

T1: 2:14

B: 36:30, 19.89 mph

T2: 0:50

R: 25:33, 8:15

12/23 in age group

90/182 gender

117/325 overall