Fit To Fight Triathlon Race Report- July 12, 2009

Finish time: 1:22.02

Age group place:  7 out of 30

Overall place: 31 out of 190 (yay!)

I’m not quite sure what to call this distance I completed today.  It’s not quite a Sprint due to only including a 400 meter swim.  The bike was still 12.4 miles and the run was still a 5K.  So, it was sort of a Sprint with a mini-swim.  Here’s how it went down:

I arrived at the race site at an early 6:00 a.m.  Because we went out for a late dinner last night at the Melting Pot, I was running on 4 hours of sleep.  I was tired and it was early.  After checking in and getting my race packet, I set up my transition area.

When it was time for the race to start, I headed to the pool area for what the race directors were calling a “Serpentine Swim” for 400 meters.  Basically this meant that you go down on the right side of the lane line, turn around at the wall and go back down the other side of that lane, then move on to the next lane and do the same until the end.  They had us line up by our estimated swim time (which I had estimated myself to be at 7 minutes and 30 seconds, which I thought was very generous) and sent us off individually with 3 seconds in between each person. 

All the women lined up before the start.

Here I am jumping in to the pool.  You can barely see my head just to the left of the guy in the white shirt.  I have a silver swim cap on.

Let me just say, the swim was a hot mess.  It appears quite a few people ahead of me underestimated their time.  It was rather difficult to pass people, but luckily the person who went after me was slow, so that left a big gap of time to pass people every lap.  I passed quite a few people on the swim, and was not passed by anyone else.

Swim split: 7:33 (Ranked 11 overall, 1st in my age group)

After the swim, I ran out of the pool area to the transition area.  There were a lot of first-timers doing this triathlon, and that became apparent in the transition area where people were taking their sweet time getting their bike stuff ready.  I threw on my bike shoes and bike gear and hit the road.

T1 Split: 1:34

The bike was hard!  It had nothing to do with the course because there really weren’t that many hills compared to what I typically ride, but my legs fell apart at about mile 5.5.  I started off at a good clip, passing lots of people, but by mile 5 I was struggling at 12 mph.  Luckily, it didn’t last long and I picked the pace back up again.  Towards the end of the ride I was passed by about 4-5 people, but compared to triathlons from the past, that’s nothing!

Running in after the bike.

Bike Split:  43:14 – 17.2 mph rate (4th in age group, 25th overall)

Transition 2 was uneventful.  Threw off the bike stuff, threw on the running shoes.  No Gu this time, so I was able to get out faster.  I was tired at this point though.  And I was not looking forward to the run.

Heading out of transition.

T2 Split: 1:01

Ugh…the run was rough.  I was tired, my legs were tired, and I really didn’t feel that great.  All the food I ate over the extended weekend caught up to me.  I was passed by a few people, and I passed no one.  Oh well.  I did my run/walk intervals again, and I think people that were passing me just thought I was tired because they kept trying to cheer me on and encourage me to keep going.  That’s always kind of annoying.

At this point I had about .75 miles left.  And I was in pain.

Finally, I rounded the corner and headed for home…or the finish line. 

Run Split: 28:40 – 9:15 miles…WOW!  (18th in age group, 88th overall)

Overall impressions- I dislike shorter distance triathlons.  I never had a chance to catch my breath throughout the race.  I’m just not good at doing things quickly (especially running).  I like to not have to push so hard the entire time, which is what I experienced at last weekend’s triathlon.  I’m thinking that longer distance triathlons are the way to go for me.  I’m an endurance athlete.  Not a sprinter.  Overall though, I did great.  I was tired.  At least I finished!  Obviously, the run killed me when it came to competing with other people.  I was doing so well on the swim and bike (1st and 4th in my age group, respectively)….stupid run!  I think a 33rd place finish overall is pretty awesome though. 

As always, the dogs did not disappoint on the car ride home.  Keifer found himself a butt pillow: