Second Olympic distance triathon in the books

This past weekend I participated in my second olympic distance triathlon. It was the Old Colony YMCA Triathlon in Middleboro, MA organized by Firm Racing with a race participant number of 230. I had a goal of 2:30 hours coming into the race.

First, it needs to quit raining here. I feel like we live in Seattle, WA. My last race there was a steady rain during the swim and first lap on the bike. This race didn't have rain during it, but it almost monsooned the night before. The whole transition area had 2" of water in it. It made racing and spectating a bit of a mess and a little dangerous as I'll explain.

Course:

The course was broken into a 2 lap mile swim, a lap of 6 miles, 4 times made the 24 mile bike, and a single loop for the run. Besides the loops, the bike also had a short run up a slight hill that was covered with large chunked mulch and then a 1/4 mile entrance road with 3 speed bumps. The run had a soft dirt exit path and then a winding trail run after the bike entrance/exit. Overall it was a fairly flat course.

Prerace:

The morning didn't start off so well as my alarm didn't go off. So wake up went a little behind schedule which meant no warmup on the bike. Grabbed a bagel/egg sandwich, water, coffee, and a sports drink then packed up the car and headed out for the hour drive to the site.

Arrived at the site about an hour before race time. There was no parking at the site itself so packed my bag and walked 1/2 mile. Registration went without hassle. I got to my assigned rack and was lucky to get an outside spot. In my last race I made a mistake in not walking through the transitions before the race. A mistake I wouldn't make this time. I walked through and asked questions to volunteers making sure I knew entry and exit directions.

Race:

Swim went as expected. I felt good but not quite as good as I had two weeks prior in the pool. It was my first race with a 2 lap swim and I didn't like it. Just the brief time out of the water tightened me up just enough where it probably knocked my pace down on the second lap by 30 seconds. Finished the approximate mile swim in 19:05 for 2nd in age group, 8th overall. Here is a nice shot of me passing some of the faster people in the first wave re-entering the water:



Bike started ok.. The transition went great as I had the 4th fastest time overall. The bike time included the run up the slight mulched hill. The first loop went ok. I tried to focus on spinning. I didnt really feel warmed up and since it was 4 laps I would use the first as a survey loop and try to descend each one. Here I am coming around on one of the loops:



The approximate times at the end of each of the first three laps were:

1. 16:10
2. 31:50 (15:40)
   
3. 47:10 (15:20)
4. 1:04:43 (17:33) Recorded as bike split

The first lap I started the clock as I started the loop. The last lap included the last 1/4 mile of speed bumps plus the small hill. As I exited the last loop, my Garmin said I averaged 22.6 mph. It also included my unfortunate attempts at a dismount. When I went to dismount, I unclipped one foot and when I did, my front wheel went off the pavement into the mud. Road tires and mud don't mix well. I went directly over onto my side. My shoulder bore most of the fall into the mud but my hip and ankle landed on the pavement. Luckily I only came away with a brused ego. So I picked up my bike and walked down the hill. Here is a great shot I like that my wife took:


Not much I can say about the run. It was the run. My goal as I headed out was to not walk. I got a cramp in my side about 1.5 miles in and just tried to run through it. I was determined not to walk. The cramp went away about 3/4 of a mile later. I actually started to feel good between miles 3.5 to 5. I fell out of the grove in the last mile and struggled a bit coming home.

As I was running I had no idea of my swim time, no idea about my bike time, and no idea about my run... so I began to question my 2:30 goal. As I hit the finishing shoot, imaging my surprise when I look up and see 2:24! Subtract the 3 minutes off of the clock due to the second wave and I'm at 2:21. NO WAY! I was so happy. Final Results (Age Group Rank/Overall Rank):

• Swim: 19:05 (2/8)
• T1: 1:06
• Bike: 1:04:43 (9/43)
• Tw: 1:12
• Run: 55:26 (21/140)
• Total: 2:21.34 (9/53)

My first top 33% age group, top 25% overall finish. I'll never really finish much better than that due to my lack of running skills... but I'll keep having fun and keep working at it.

One thing is that the support at this event was great. Not only did my wife come with me again at 6am but I got a surprise cheering section from Sarah and her husband Jeff. Its nice to have some riding friends there. I keep trying to talk them into a Cyclocross race or something.