Cool Breeze Triathlon Race Report-long read

Cool Breeze Triathlon, 3-27-2011

Huntersville, NC

Sunday morning, March 27^th 2011, and what a day it is.  I look out the window of the hotel and it’s dark.  As to be expected, it’s 5:30 in the morning.  But what I also saw and sadly expected was the nice pretty shine of rain water on asphalt.  Unfortunately, the meteorologists got this one right.  They also got the temperature right…a solid 38 degrees.  And I’m thinking to myself, “yep, I’m going to get out of a pool, in nothing but shorts and a tank top and run into this weather, get on my bike, and then ride 20 mph. “  Nothing like a 20 mph breeze up against wet skin to wake you up in the morning.  Fortunately I did bring one of my long sleeve cycling jerseys to the race with me. I didn’t know if I’d use it or not, I mean…who would want to give up valuable seconds in order to be somewhat comfortable for the next 40 minutes.  This is serious stuff we’re talking about here!   So, we both finally get up and get dressed and head to the lobby for the gourmet continental breakfast provided by the lovely Days Inn. Just the walk to the car gave me a brief idea of what this morning had in store for me.  I was dressed in long pants, long sleeve shirt and a jacket and the cold breeze hit me and made me shiver, it also made me think of how that was going to feel in almost no clothes soaking wet.  I couldn’t wait! So, let me get back to the outstanding breakfast. It consisted of stale white bagels, pretty nasty danishes (so I was told by Rachel), cereal, OJ, coffee and milk.  Oh well, we knew we weren’t paying for luxury, and the bagel did the job for me. 

            So after finishing breakfast we headed out to the race.  Wow…crowded…fortunately I already grabbed my packet the night before, so I just had to set up my bike before 7:30.  Fortunately the traffic line wasn’t nearly as long as I thought.  We waited about 5 minutes then proceeded to the parking lot.  After parking and unloading my gear, we had the long walk to the transition area.  My hand holding the bike went numb.  Awesome!  I’m moving 3 miles an hour, dry, and my hands numb.  Nope, didn’t plan to wear gloves on the bike…too much time to put them on.  It had been about 7 months since my last race, so my preparation wasn’t quite as in tune as it is mid season.  First I put my bike up on the rack…yep, on the correct side.  Then I unloaded all my gear.  Put the towel on the ground and then started laying everything out.  First I set up my helmet on my aero bar along with my sunglasses.  Clipped my bike shoes into the pedal (I’ve really got to practice this maneuver, more to come on that later) then laid out my running stuff.  Seemed like so little gear. So I just sat and stared at everything, feeling absolutely positive that I was in fact forgetting something.  And in a tri, forgetting something can be a minor inconvenience all the way through forcing a disqualification.  So after about 5 minutes of staring at my gear, I felt satisfied and headed into the pool area. 

            Holy crap it’s crowded in here!   Finally after weaving my way through everyone I get into the actual pool area and spot my wife in the bleachers.  Finally I get to sit and relax for a bit before warming up.  Oh yea, it’s still freezing outside, the warmth of the building was so nice!  So about 15 minutes till start time I go for my quick warm up.  I swam 300 meters, nice and easy.  Well, I actually pushed a bit harder and warmed up at nearly my race pace.  Didn’t feel like it though, it actually felt good.  Back out of the pool now I’m waiting for my 8:27:20 start time. 

            So the race started…though no one seemed to realize it.  Most years they’ve gotten on the bull horn, and I swear they played the national anthem, but I might just be making that part up.  But yea, all of a sudden people were in the pool again and it was actually the start of the race. Very anticlimactic.  Oh well.  Now the time’s ticking down to my start, and it came pretty quickly.  Around 8:20 I get up and get in line.  Fortunately, I’m one guy away from the 2 minute break, an old guy who wasn’t going to be catching me. Unfortunately, there was also an older woman in front of me; she was actually 20 seconds ahead of me because the person between us was a no show. So I figured that was good, at least if I caught her it would take a while.  For those who don’t know…in a pool race, you submit an estimated 100 yard time. This is the pace you expect to hold for 250 yards (the length of the swim), not the fastest you can do.  More on that later.  So, time to go….I got off to a very good solid start. The first lap I felt I had solid, powerful strokes and I was gliding effortlessly.  I had been working on my flip turns all winter, and again during warm-ups.  Well, as I approach the wall, my mind goes blank and I completely forgot what to do.  DAMMIT!!! Once again, there will be no flip turns for me in this race.  That probably costs me about 15 seconds over the course of the race.  So, length number two, I catch the old woman.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME!  You should never catch someone that quickly with a 20 second head start.  She clearly either lied or had no idea what she was doing when she submitted her swim time.  I submitted a time of 1:35, and I paced around 1:32...so slightly faster. I looked her up, and based on her swim time she paced 2:20.  I really think that should count as a penalty.  But anyway, I passed one more person on the swim on my way.  Oh yea, the old guy who was not going to be an issue….he was on my toes the entire race!  But never was able to pass me.  We get to the end and climb out as we exit the doors, a racer from the other pool and I leave together and hit the cold air and both let out a, “HOLY CRAP”  it was like a punch in the face. 40 degree air and a wet body is a bad combination.   I guess when you’re in race mode you get over it quick because it didn’t faze me as much as I expected.  I just hustled to my bike to get ready for the next leg.

            The transition went smooth. Getting my shirt on was a bit difficult, for one I’ve never put more clothes on in the TA, but getting that thing over wet skin was a little difficult.  But I got it on, put on the helmet and sunglasses and took off.  Again, the shoes were already clipped to the pedals, so it was just a simple matter of hopping on the bike and putting my feet in on the fly.  Simple.  HA.  For some reason it wasn’t so simple this time.  First off, I haven’t done that move in 7 months.  Probably should’ve practiced.  Second, my feet were wet, which made it a lot harder to slip in.  It took me probably a quarter mile to finally get my feet in the shoes and get them tightened up properly.  But it was a good lesson that that’s something I really need to work on, aside from race day.  Once I got going though I felt pretty strong on the bike.  I was hitting the hills strong, passing a lot of racers and moving pretty fast.  What I remember most about the bike though was the one long hill where the wind was pretty strong at our face.  Even on the steeper hills I was pushing about 14-15 mph, yet this one, which wasn’t all that steep I was struggling to go 12.  The wind was defeating, and the hill seemed to extend forever.  Fortunately I only remember being passed by a handful of riders, which I guess means I was just that much faster of a swimmer that I had such a huge head start, cause overall, I still didn’t do all that well on the bike.  We finally came around to the final stretch; I lowered my gears, increasing my cadence to get my legs ready for the 5k.  My dismount was flawless; it went a lot smoother than the mount. As I approached about 500 feet out, I undid my shoes and get my feet out of them, pedaling from the top of them.  As I approached the line, I slowed a bit, and hit the line, popped off the bike and took off running perfectly in stride, didn’t even waste a second on the dismount.  For some reason I have that part down, it’s the first part that still eludes me, anyway, I digress. 

            Entering the second transition I wasn’t really sure if I still had feet. I looked down and did still see 10 toes which made me happy, because the sense of feeling had vacated me long ago.  Having no feeling in my feet made it surprisingly difficult to get my shoes on.  I guess I use my toes a bit to pull the shoe on, and that was not possible on this morning.  But I did manage to get my shoes on pretty quickly, grabbed my number and took off.  I attached my belt as I ran to the TA exit area and proceeded on to the run. 

            Due to the rain the night before they had to change the run course, much to my chagrin.  Instead of it being an out and back, with just a short mild hill to start off with then flat changing to downhill for the final push.  But not on this day.  Part of the original course is on the side of the road on a dirt path.  We were told that due to the rain that stretch would be unrunnable, so the course was changed to go up and down the same road twice then over to the finish.  This changed the terrain to starting with a steep downhill, then back up the steep uphill, then a long less steep uphill, another turn around, then a long LOVELY downhill, turn around again, to the long steep uphill, followed by the long less steep uphill, but then, we still got to finish with the long downhill to the finish.  So, I did ok.  Close to my goal, probably could’ve hit my goal if I had just pushed a bit harder.  So I started out easing myself into the race, letting gravity do its thing on the first descent, saving myself for the climb.  I took it easy on the climb and felt fine, then pushed a bit harder for the remainder of the first mile which was mostly uphill.   I remembered passing Rachel at what was about the half way point of the road.  This really helped break the run into shorter sections.   Get to the turn around, get to Rachel and say hi, get to the next turn around, repeat.  The second mile we started out on the downhill, so I again let gravity work said hi to Rachel and Bandit, but kept my speed up all the way to the bottom of the steep hill, the second time up the steep hill was a bit tougher…and I was breathing pretty heavily on the way up it.  Again thinking, just another minute to Rachel.  I got to her and said hi again, mentioned the fact that despite all the work, it didn’t get me warm, then proceeded to hit the next turn around. Also knowing the next time I saw her would be after the race.  It was also about this point that a girl, whose name I’ll never know, passed me.  I’m used to getting passed on the run, but I found myself still just a few feet behind her after a while, then I made myself catch her.  I made a comment about her pushing me, so we agreed to push each other for the rest.  We both started picking up our pace, with the other following suit.  When we got to the 3 mile mark she started slipping back…I loudly, but playfully, told her to catch up, which she did…we both then got to the final chute and turned into an all out sprint to the finish line.  It was the first time I finished a race with a smile on my face!   It was an awesome race, and thank you to the unknown racer who helped push me along!  That was a really fun finish. 

            The final results were a 3:58 swim, 2^nd in my division, which was about what I was hoping to do, 42:14 on the bike, 7^th in my division, much slower than I wanted, and 25:26 on the run, also 7^th in my division, which was an 8 min 12 second per mile pace.  Not bad, but I want to improve. My goal is to get to the 7:30 mark for a sprint. 

            I finished 4^th in the Clydesdale division out of 20.  I was very pleased with this time, it should be mentioned that I beat the 5^th place guy by 2 seconds. Clearly if it were not for the unknown racer, I would not have beaten him. She probably helped me finish a good 30 seconds faster than I would have.  I finished 169^th out of 565 total racers.  All in all I was very happy with my performance, but it would’ve been nice to snag that 3^rd place spot.  Oh well, there are more races to be had.

            So, what did I take home from this race?  Well, first, my swimming is excellent.  Out of 565 racers I had the 77^th fastest swim, and I wasn’t pushing as hard as I could.  Swimming continues to be my strongest sport.  Which I really don’t understand. I’ve been swimming for 3 years now off and on, but have ran and cycled for a LOT longer.  Biking and even more so, running, continue to be weak points for me and I will continue to work on them.  My run to bike transition needs improvement, specifically when mounting the bike. It’s nothing I can’t accomplish, but just something that needs to be practiced more often.  I don’t feel like I made any mistakes on the run, aside from the fact that I probably could’ve pushed a little bit harder on the down hills than I did, instead of only letting gravity do the work.  I will improve my running, as I know I can do better.  I may try a couple 5k and 10k’s around here to work on my race running.  I’ve always run better in practice than the real deal, so that could be another avenue to try.  Well if you made it this far I really appreciate you taking the time. This was my first race report so I probably wrote way too much and way more than you really care about! But I did try to make it somewhat interesting and I hope you enjoyed!