Saturday May 14th was the Clemson Triathlon. I finished 7th of 19 in the Clydesdale Division and 119th out of 289 overall.
It was a lake swim with a fairly large wave. However, despite the size it was a relatively easy swim as far as the punch/kick factor. I started out in front and probably started out a little too fast. But that may have been what kept from getting knocked around. It was also the first race in my new wetsuit, and I experienced an interesting sensation. I had some trouble breathing in the first 300 yards of the swim because it felt like the wetsuit was keeping me from being able to fully expand my lungs. It was a big scary feeling at first, but it was a good learning experience. By the second half of the swim it wasn't bothering me too much anymore. The questions remains...do I keep my pace down early on and deal with the mass of swimmers, or do I get out to a fast start, scale back a bit, struggle a bit with my breathing, but avoid the pounding of the mass? This coming weekend is my big race that I've really been focusing on and a much longer swim that the Clemson race so it remains to be seen how I'll go about it. In the end I finished 6th in my group in the swim. Which wasn't too bad, but certainly room for improvement. I finished the 750 meter swim in 14:27.
The bike portion was very good for me. It started out with a long downhill then finally hit a couple uphills. There was much talk about the "big" climb at mile 8, which had me worried because there were several long climbs already, none of which were written of in the description. However, the mile 8 climb was almost nothing because a long hill led to it, that allowed to you make it to nearly the top without much work. I averaged 18.7 mph for the ride, which is pretty good for me and the climbs didn't push me too hard. The transition to the bike I went the simple route and did not pre attach my shoes to the pedals, which probably cost me a few seconds, but since I hadn't been practicing it, I didn't want to screw up and cost myself more time. I did my standard dismount by removing my shoes before the end and popped off easily. I finished the bike 8th in my group with a time of 34:47.
The run was a pretty difficult one, but I enjoyed it. It started out flat, if not a very slight uphill, which then turned downhill and then substantially downhill for a while. After flattening out at about .8 miles, it remained flat for a half mile. Around 1.3 was a monster hill. It wasn't long, but man was it steep. I just focused on the ground and pushed through it. After that it was flat for about a mile and then you got back to the hill, but it was a steep descent this time, which I flew through and tried to recover a bit knowing the long, but not steep ascent was coming. I made it through that climb pretty well, and was able to really push hard through the final half mile and finish very strong. I finished the run 7th in my group with a time of 25:38, which was a pace of 8:15 per mile. Not too bad, but I want to improve upon that next time.
Next up, Over the Mountain Olympic Triathlon.
*Side note, interesting training ride yesterday. This was the first time I chose not to bring a wallet or my phone. So this happened to be the first time since I've owned the bike that I got a flat tire on a ride. And of course it happened literally at the turn around of an out and back. The furthest point away from home. Fortunately I remembered Youngblood Bicycles was about 2 miles away. So I walked there and they were kind of enough to not only fill my tires, but lend me a couple CO2 cartridges in case I had another problem. The other lesson learned, learn to use your equipment before you need it. I had CO2 and another tube but didn't know how to use the CO2 and blew it out without filling the tube.
Good to learn the lesson a short ride in town though. Could've been much worse.
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