First day back at "work" after my first "official" (as I call it)
sprint-distance race - 750m, 20k, 5k.
After successfully completing the Rookie Tri in New Braunfels two
months ago, I wanted to find a sprint distance that had the full 750m
swim, since the swim is by far my weakest leg and I wanted as much of a
challenge as I could get before going for my Olympic distance in
September. I knew I wouldn't be ready to swim 750m in time for the Cap
Texas Tri, so the way my schedule worked out I ended up at the
Tri-America in Irving, TX.
I wanted to get to the transition area as early as possible to get a
good spot for my bike, but as it turns out the spaces were all assigned
anyway. When you add to that the fact that the bike out was at one end
and the bike in was at the other, it wouldn't have mattered much
anyway. I actually had as good a spot as any, since I was only two or
three spots from the main aisle.
After sprinting back into the transition area just before it closed so
I could deposit my shoes and shirt, I got plenty of time to relax
before the race, since I was in the 5th of 6 waves, with 20 minutes
between the 3rd and 4th (1-3 were international distance, 4-6 were
sprint), and we got started 15 minutes late anyway (which is actually
on time, right?).
So for the first time in about a week I'm getting really nervous about
the swim (maybe I'm not ready for it ... maybe it's gonna be really
really tough ...), until they told us where the turnaround buoy was,
and then I was like, "Oh, that's it? That can't be 750m."
Finally, it's my turn to climb down into the water, I tread water a
little bit to warm up, and then the foghorn goes off and away we go.
After running into a couple people at the start, I do some breast
stroke, calm myself down, and start to get into my nice, relaxing swim.
About a quarter to a third of the way out I stop for some more breast
stroke, and almost look back behind me before realizing, "Wait a
second. That's what screwed me up last time. Ignore everyone else,
and just focus on getting through this." So I did. I swim for a
while, get 25 yards out from the turnaround buoy, breast stroke towards
it, and then the adrenalin hits. From there on out, the only time I do
any breast stroke is when I'm looking to the shore to see if I can spot
my gf. I didn't spot her - she figured that she was better off waiting
for me coming out of the transition area than trying to pick out which
skinny guy with black shorts and a maroon swim cap happened to be me.
I climb out of the water with a triumphant cry, and get some spectators
riled up. Swim time was just under 20 minutes, which was 108th out of
131, but I accomplished my goal, which was to finish the swim without
struggling.
Grab some gatorade on the way into T1, and head straight to my bike,
which was conveniently very easy to find. Last time I had my gels
already in the shirt, which caused it to twist around, rip the number,
and lose me a minute in the transition while I re-pinned it. I had
hoped that leaving the gels out would prevent the same from happening
this time, but no dice. Looks like I'm going to have to invest in a
number belt. T1 was almost 3 minutes - yuck.
As I unhook my bike I realize that I forgot to check it to make sure
everything was working, and forgot to leave it in a rideable gear.
[censored]. Fortunately, I was lucky on both accounts and neither proved to
be an issue. I realize I got lucky this time, and don't intend to
tempt fate again.
On the first half of the bike ride I was having a whale of time.
Waving to volunteers, thanking them, waving to cops, thanking them,
rooting on the people I passed who looked like they were struggling. I
was also really happy because it looked like we were on a slight
incline, which meant the ride back would be easy.
Then I hit the turnaround and I realize, "Oh. I had the wind at my
back just then." So the ride back, though slightly downhill much of
the time, was a little more challenging than I expected.
But in the end I finish the bike exactly where I expected to - 45
minutes and change, averaging 16.5 mph. Then I jump into T2, drop my
helmet and run. I would later discover the benefit of riding with cage
pedals - my 33-second transition time was the 6th fastest in the race.
Unfortunately, something about my food/liquid intake meant that I
wasn't feeling too well coming off the bike, so that first mile had me
cramping a little bit, forcing me to run real, real slow. I managed to
picked up the pace as I went on, so that last mile was probably sub-7
minutes for a 26:45 5K (8:28/mile), which was a little disappointing,
but still good enough for 53rd in the race.
The race awarded prizes to the top 5 places in each age group, and to
my surprise I managed to take 4th! As it turns out there were only 5
people in my age group, but I claimed my prize anyway, and a small
moral victory.
Best practices: I really need to figure out some way to feed and water
myself that doesn't screw up my run. Back to the drawing board on this
one, but I'll need to do some long bricks before I can finally figure
this one out. I also need to invest in a number belt. Everything else
went very smoothly, though.
Next stop: Vegas! Where I plan to complete my international distance
in 3:15. See you then!