Final Tri

This race is the last triathlon for the season around these parts. Since it’s the last one, I figured I would go ahead and sign up for it. My Half Iron Man training partner, Becky, also signed up for it, as well as my sister Kristin and her friend Vera.

The race is a sprint tri and the sprint distance is the shortest distance of the triathlons. For this race it’s a 400 meter swim, 20k (12.48 mile) ride ending with a 5k (3.12 mile) run. With the shorter distances, Sprints are a perfect place to try your first tri.

In order to increase the drama of the event, Becky and I each put up $1 for each segment of the race. There are six segments, swim, transition 1, bike, transition 2, run and finally, the overall time. So there was a whopping $6.00 up for grabs. I took out a loan to cover my end.

The first time I ever swam a lap in my life was in March. Since then, I have taken swimming lessons and hit the pool fairly often. My first race I did a 300m swim in 10:14, good for 352/360. Not knowing how fast I would be, I put down an estimatd finish time of 12:30. This meant I would start 1:09 (as in 1 hour and 9 minutes) after the first swimmers.

Swimming Fool

While I waited to swim, I cheered on my sister, since she was in the water first. The first time I saw her I thought she was going to die. She looked miserable. On her second lap she said she thought she was going to die. I guess I read her expression correctly. Swimming for fun and swimming in a race are different, it’s a difference Kristin now knows. Kris and I did a test swim two weeks ago and I came in at 11:24 in a 25m pool. After all of the trash she has been talking in our family newsletter about how she was going to beat me, I ended up lapping her twice. We both tried to adjust our time, but weren’t able to. We were stuck, hers too fast and mine too slow.

There is a difference in swim times with different lengths pools. The rule of thumb is your 50m pool lap (it was 50m for this race) is 7 seconds slower than your 25m lap times for 2 laps. I figured I was still faster than the 11:24 time and I bet my buddy John, $1 (I’m a rich guy) that I could beat that time.

My first length was the fastest I ever remember swimming in my life. I felt like I had on flippers. It was insane! I did slow down later, but the early momentum from that first length carried me to a 10:47 time. I was very pleased with my time. I also look forward to getting faster. In the pool I actually passed 3 people. I was passed by one person twice.

One of the people I passed was walking in the pool as I came along side him/her. Just as I started to pass, the person started to swim. This really annoyed me. Couldn’t they keep walking for another second for me to complete my pass? The guy that passed me annoyed me too. He didn’t want to pass at the wall. He let me get in front of him at the wall and then passed me while we swam. Idiot.

As I was passing one person, several others came at me from the other direction. One of those people managed to kick me hard enough to leave a bruise on my leg. Yeah, thanks for that one, Bud.

T1

Getting out of the pool was really hard. My body was worn out and I had to jump out of the pool. It was slow, but I got out eventually. I saw Carrie cheering me on as I got out and grabbed my biking shirt I had placed in front of her. Putting on a shirt as you are wet and running is tough, but I finished in plenty of time before I got to my bike.

I ran barefoot to my bike and it didn’t bother me. I didn’t want to lose time to Becky, so I decided to go sockless for the race. I passed a couple people while running, including the idiot that passed me in the water. I ended up beating him by 30 minutes.

I need to get faster getting my gear ready for the ride. I should have put my shoes on my bike. Doing that would have saved time, I just never got around to it. My feet were wet so putting on my shoes was difficult. One nice thing about having the shoes on my feet was being able to sprint to the mounting line. When I got there I was able to do a running mount onto the bike and take off.

On the Road

The bike ride was uneventful. One cool thing John had told me about was the fast right hand turn into James River High School. He said he took it at 20 mph, yeah, I did it at 28 mph, while passing someone! It was sweet.

The ‘hill’ on this course is Winterfield Rd., the whole road. I was on the hill and almost to the top before I realized where I was. Apparently, they changed the road at some point because of the number of accidents at the old intersection. The hill difficulty was the same, I just didn’t recognize the road at first. I climbed the road ok, but towards the end started slowing down. After reaching the top of the hill and turning off of Winderfield, I saw my sister’s relay partner Vera. I passed her and said hello and kept cruising.

For the ride, I ended up passing over 30 people. I lost count, but I think the number was around there. At the finish of the ride, at the dismount area, I got confused and turned where I wasn’t supposed to turn. I had to do a power 180 degree slide to turn around and finish the ride. I’m glad there were a lot volunteers, but if they can’t help you figure out where to go, then they are worthless. To me, it looked like where I was supposed to go was blocked off.

My ride time was 38:16, average speed, 19.57.

T2

Having already taken my feet out of my shoes, I was able to quickly dismount and run to the transition. There were so many rows of bike and stuff, and most of rows not marked, that I had no clue where I was going. This is really bad on my part and something that won’t happen again. I saw my sister waiting for her biker to finish and she was able to point me to my gear.

After a quickly getting my running shoes, number and hat I was out on the road again. Normally, when I run after I ride my legs are loosey goosey and this was no different. I knew I just needed to moving and they would come back to me. After a very rough first ½ mile, they finally came back to me. I felt really strong and I picked up my pace to reflect that.

Running on Clouds

This was my first ever run with my orthotics and no socks. I was worried about getting blisters and having issues, but I was ok. I felt great out there, I felt like I hadn’t swam or biked and that I was running on a week’s rest. It was crazy. Just as I passed a bunch of people on the bike, here I was passing a bunch on the run. I wasn’t barely passing people either, I was sprinting past them. It was awesome!

I’ve only done 4 other multi-sport races in my life and I have never felt as good as I did this day. When I left on the run I heard Cass, Becky’s boyfriend yell something that sounded like she was still on the course. This gave me even extra energy as I ran. She started 34 minutes before me in the pool and should have been done before I even got off the bike, yet as I ran, I looked for her. Just thinking she was out there sped me up. She was already done when I started the run, I completely misheard Cass. He was actually trying to discourage me.

The route for the run is actually really nice and easy. You don’t double back on the route until late so that, along with no markers, made it hard to know where you were. I liked that though. I just ran what my body wanted to run.

As I came around the finish I heard a bunch of cheers for me. I put on the speed and sprinted for the finish. My run time was 24:42, 7:55 pace.

I finished and felt great! It was a good effort all around and I liked how I did in each event. My finish time was 1:17:12. Now all that was left was finding out how my sister did on the run, and how Becky placed.

Kris did the swim and run for the race and her friend did the bike. Yesterday Kris ran 18 miles for her marathon training - and people say I’m nuts. Kris kicked butt on the run with sub 10 min/miles. She is getting fast so quick I have to start watching out. She and Vera had a really good race. This was their first tri and they had a top 10 finish. I think next time they will do the race solo.

I ran into Becky and we discussed our race. I knew I had her in the run and we knew she had me in the swim, the rest was up in the air.

Mighty Casey has Struck Out… Again

It turns out that Becky did beat me overall, 1:14:43 to 1:17:12 a difference of 2:29. Here is the breakdown:

Notes on Becky

Do I pick them or what? She was second in her age group and the 9th overall woman. She was in first place in her age group after her ride. She has been chosen to race in an elite women’s racing team. She beat Teresa Stadler, a perennial favorite at these races.

She got me this time. But I will be faster next time… Will she?

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