Finished my second Triathlon on Sunday

kagoscuba · September 30, 2008

A little disappointing (from a run perspecetive), but here are my race results

Jerseyman Triathlon

Place: 135/195 Swim Place: 78 23:13; T1: 4:08; Bike Place:104 1:14:56 MPH 15.6; T2: 1:19 Run Place: 178 35:17 Pace: 11:23 Total Time: 2:18:51 Age Group Place: 19/22 M35-39 Male Racers Place: 95/122.

Race Day – Got up at 5:00 and onsite by 6:00. I had a Cereal bar, sugar free red-bull, clif bar, and Gatorade by 7:00. Lots of room in transition, and it was not crowded at all. “Pool” opened at 7 for pre-race warm-up. Water temp was 74, but it was still a shock at first. I could not breathe at all for my first few strokes. Finally got my face into the water more and got a decent rhythm going. This was, by far, the best decision I made all day - to do the practice swim. I got out of the water at 7:15, as the race was supposed to be at 7:30, and there was supposed to be a pre-race briefing. Neither happened. At 7:30, I got back in the water, as it was apparent we were not swimming for awhile, and I wanted to get reacclimated. Out again at 7:45 (not a lot of swimming…just bobbing and getting used to the water). Around 8 we did a wade in start and somehow I ended up front and center. This did not bother me at all, other than thinking, “how did I get here, when I intentionally went to the right of everyone?” The moment was lightened, when a little girl yelled out, “Don’t stop swimming daddy!!” Great advice, huh? Swimming went pretty well, other than the occasional stop for those who swam in front of me and cut me off. One additional nag point was I guess the volunteers drove a boat close to us, and our glass flat lake had sudden rollers in it. I thought a storm (it was raining) had suddenly hit us or something. It was a bit disconcerting, but it went away quickly. I did get a good feeling once, when I realized I was swimming fast enough for someone to draft off me. This one guy stayed glued to me for at least ½ the race, but I lost him after the final buoy, when I turned it up a little. I was shocked, as I exited the water and my watch said 22 minutes and change. I thought for sure I had swam faster than that. I’d say the course distance was off, but a 22 YO woman from Philadelphia finished in 15:57…that’s just unbelievably fast to me. I guess my extra minute or so on the official time was running to the timing mat.

I had a good 75-100 yard sandy run to the sidewalk, then decided to walk a little to transition, as it was still a ways away. The crowd was pretty supportive with us too. I did pretty well in the “changing” part of transition, and most of my time was running/walking into and out of transition. I did run my bike to the mount point though, even in my bike shoes, as I realized before the race it was all grass, and the cleats would not be so unwieldy on grass. Oh, and the weather was 65 and humid, when it wasn’t raining. I had planned on putting on another shirt (was wearing sleeveless compression shirt under wetsuit on swim) in T1, but left it there, as I was plenty warm enough. Wetsuit came off easy enough too.

Onto the bike. Oh, those first few miles were hell. I had a splitting headache (back of head), and I did not feel like riding hard at all. In fact, I felt woozy and lightheaded for the rest of the day after the race. I got some Gu into me (powdered mix in water), and I started to feel a bit better. Steady rain started falling, and taking turns and downhills fast was a bit freaky. Some downhills, which I knew were straight I hammered at full speed, and others I braked quite a bit. About halfway into the ride I started to feel good, and I steadily increased the pace. I stopped to help another athlete who had a flat (gave him my spare), but that only cost me 20-30 seconds, and I knew I wasn’t winning any medals anyway. I was hammering the last few miles, as I felt strong, and I knew the end was near. I got into an easier gear about a mile out and started spinning, to get the legs ready for the run. I got to the dismount area, jumped off really nice, and ran my bike to T2 – the run to T2 felt great.

Got into T2, and thought I made awesome time. I had already put my race belt on in T1, so T2 consisted of: run in, rack bike, change shoes, run out. Nothing too special. About 50 feet into my 5k run, my mind told me, “This is going to suck.” Now remember, my run off the bike into T2, felt great, legs were not beat up or anything, or so I thought. I jogged/shuffled for the first 1.5 miles, then started to walk/run for a minute each at a time. My hips were killing me, which is not a pain I have experienced before in training. I felt like I had nothing left, and my run time definitely suffered. If it hadn’t been a race or if I did not keep on getting support from other runners, I may have bagged it, had it just been training. Wrong thing to do, I know, but I was not doing well physically or mentally on the run.

Summary:

Swim Goal: 20 minutes; Actual 23:13 – not too worried about this, as distance could have been off (that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. J ), and I was firmly MOP for this – expected result.

Transition Times: < 6 minutes total; Actual 5:27 – I could have made T1 a little faster, but I could not have done much better on T2

Bike Goal: 75 Minutes; Actual 1:14:56. Hmm...I think I knew how fast I was going to go, huh? J Considering the weather and how I felt in the beginning, I’m pretty satisfied with this.

Run Goal: Sub 30 minute; actual 35:17 – What can be said? This time sucks, and I know it. Time for lots of running this winter.

Goals for next year – keep on training, keep on having fun, keep on getting better at running.

Mal · September 30, 2008

WOW! Thanks for sharing. Congratulations what a great accomplishment. I will be running my very first 5k this weekend.

kagoscuba · October 1, 2008

Thanks!! :thumbup: 5k's are a lot of fun, and the atmosphere is typically pretty cool. Don't be nervous and run your own race. In triathlons we have a saying, Don't not Finish, Don't finish last, Don't not start; if you start your 5k, even if somehow you do not finish, you are already ahead of 95-99% of the people you know overweight or not. Careful though...it gets addictive. I started with 5k's, just to finish, and now I am doing 5k's for PRACTICE. :drool:

Mal · October 1, 2008

5k's for practice, I love it! WTG! I am writing down the "Dont's", that should be on a t-shirt. Actually your entire post should be a t-shirt or poster! Thanks for the boost, I am pretty nervous about this weekend but excited too, I have been doing the Couch to 5k for four months. Thanks again and congratulations on your amazing progress!