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

Power Sprint Tri

It was an experience.  One that I enjoyed far more than I thought I would.

The night before races I normally can’t sleep, I’ve always been that way.  Fortunately, Alex has taken care of that.  My need for sleep whenever I can get it overrode my nerves and I had a good sleep the night before.

I had all kinds of problems registering for the race.  I think it’s because fate knew I was a slow swimmer.  I registered 4 times and only the last time worked.  The first time I registered I put in 6:30 as my swim time, with each attempt to register I extended my estimation until I put in 9:15 and it was accepted.  Does the computer know something I don’t?  Apparently, it does.

With my estimation of 9:15, my start time was around 8:35.  The first person in the water was in at 7:05.  My race number was 368, the swimmers started in order of their race number with 15 second breaks between every racer, hence the huge difference in start times.  A bunch of people finished the race before I even got into the water.  As I approached the water my nerves got jittery.  Talking to the swimmers around me settled me down a lot though.  None were fast swimmers and I wasn’t likely to piss anyone off with my slow swimming.  Once in the water I swam my butt off and strove for the finish.  The water was very nasty tasting, it wasn’t a cesspool (what does cess taste like?), but it was a sweat pool.  It pays to be fast I guess.  The 2 racers behind me were not present which meant I had 45 seconds in the water before the next person, yet I was still passed by several folks.  As my sister and wife later told me, my first 3 laps were slow and then with my 4^th lap, I just started speeding up.  I felt myself getting faster in the water as well, like I finally ‘got’ part of the stroke.  It felt great.

There were 360 folks who did the swim; my time of 10:14 was good for 352^nd.  In case you are wondering, that’s pretty slow.  There is a but though, I did make it out of the pool!

After I got out of the pool I did something Rebecca said not to do, I put on socks.  It wouldn’t have been so bad had I put my socks on correctly initially, but I didn’t.  Putting them on wrong initially and me being tired made putting on socks a very slow process.  After I finally got them on, I ran to the transition area.  I passed one of the people who passed me in the pool along the path.  The Friday before the race Rebecca taught me how to transition with my shoes already in my bike.  It took some time, but I learned it.  Saturday morning I practiced getting on and off the bike over and over.  Rebecca also told me not to ride with a shirt, but I did and putting that on took a few extra seconds as well.  My time of 2:13 in the transition was good for 113 overall. 

I ran the bike to the mounting area and jumped on and got my feet in and clipped and was riding very quickly.  I immediately noticed that my magnet for my computer was hitting my sensor.  Thwack-thwack-thwack.  I thought about stopping the bike to fix it, I thought about ignoring it and finally settled on fixing it as I rode.  It was a little hairy leaning over to fix it, but I had no traffic on my back and a clear road ahead. Once that was done I kicked it up a notch.  My goal was to average 20mph and to pass as many people as possible.  For most of the ride, I didn’t go more that 1 minute without passing someone.  I always checked numbers as I rode to see how far ahead these people were from me in the swim and love seeing all the low numbers I was passing.  I was not passed during the ride at all and passed at least 25 people.  Once the ride was over, I was in 137^th place, having gained 215 places in the first transition and the ride.  I average 21.1 mph for the ride

Coming up to the second transition I had to take my feet out of my shoes while still on the bike.  The tricky part with my shoes was the locking mechanism for the top strap.  I had to press the release and pull out the strap with one hand.  While taking off my right shoe my calf tightened up and almost cramped.  I was able to quickly pull out my left foot and was ready for the dismount with time to spare.  I passed three riders at the dismount line and dismounted into a run to my bike rack.  Since my shoes were already off, I was able to get in and out quickly, my time of 0:36 was the 18^th fastest overall.

The cool thing about the transitions was hearing my cheering section.  Carrie and Kristin were loud and encouraging.  Gonyo was even able to cheer me on during my second transition since he was already finished by then.  You can never say too much about cheering sections.

With the cheers in my head I took off on the run.  I settled into a decent pace and then heard someone catching up behind me.  It was a young lady and I didn’t want her to pass me, so I upped my speed to a faster pace.  I wasn’t sure how fast I was running, I just knew I wanted to walk.  The run was a simple out and back with one turn in the middle.  The whole time I was running out I was thinking the turnaround had to be around the next corner.  It seemed like it took forever to get to that darn turnaround.  I really wanted to walk, but told myself the effort would be over soon.  The way back was much faster than the way out (in my mind at least).  I passed a bunch of people on the run, some with numbers in the 200’s, it was a good feeling.  I passed more people running that biking and that helped to keep me moving.

As I came to the last turn into the finish I saw an old guy in front of me and I figured I had enough to pass one more person.  I sprinted the finish to the sound of my cheering fans.  My run time of 23:08 was my second fastest 5K and was good for 83^rd place overall.

My total time for the race was 1:11:25 and I came in 106 out of 360.  I wanted to be in the top 50% and I did that.  I passed 246 people (in person and on the clock) after my slow swim.

I am so glad I did this.  Everyone in this email knows how I am with water and everyone has pushed me to keep trying and striving.  I thank you all for helping me do this race.  Without your help and support, I would never have tried the race.