Race Report #6 2006- Timex Olympic Triathlon

What a weird race. Before I get to the weirdness I must say that the race event was extremely well organized. There was lots of aid stations on the race course, the finish line had lots of food and big crowds.

Here are some highlights before I get to my report. This all happened to someone I knew there:
- A front tooth was broken in T2 pulling off a glove. He put the tooth in his bento box and finished the 10k.

-Training partner John, jumped in the water and lost his goggles. He swam 1500 meters without them.

-Training partner Andy, went to grab a gel at a bike station and crashed his bike. Several rolls later with considerable road rash and cuts to himself his bike was deemed ridable and he finished the race.

Here we go with the report.

I had a Personal Best which I am happy about, not surprized considering my level of training right now, but I think it should have been better. I fretted so much about if I should let it rip or stay comfortable, I did a bit of both.

As expected there was a lot of first time triathletes doing both the sprint and olympic distances. I think this is great and a sign of good things to come for our sport. I personally fielded dozens of questions from people asking about this or that. It was announced that wet suits were not allowed, USAT measured the water at 79*. I was not concerned about doing the distance but was concerned for quite a few that looked like they may pass out on that decision. A last wave was created for them to complete the distance but be timed if they wore a suit which many did.

We all watched the first few waves go off, pro's and the sprints, and saw dozens breast and side stroking within a hundred meters. Lots of resting on kayaks. I decided to stay to the far outside and swim away from the crowds. Little good that did. So many people lost their tracking and slammed into me sideways, crossways, upways, downways that it was the worst first 500 meters in my triathlon life.

I am a left breather. I was taking a breath and I got punched in the nose as hard as could possibly be. Blood on my goggles, blood in the water, the swimmer didn't stop at all. It took a bit to get myself together and not have a broken nose and kept going. Another swimmer swam across my back, yes he swam left to right over my back. Another one tried to treat me like a farm animal, I thought he might actually swim completely over me before rolling off.

I felt like only one swimmer was spitefull. After several times grabbing my ankles in my draft he moved to swim around me. I hit him with my left hand during my recovery stroke. He got in front of me and starting kicking at my face, landing one toe on my head.

So my swim time was pathetic.

The bike was better. I can only say that I felt like I had an extra gear in my legs that I did not use. After so much training for long distance rides, I felt it was hard to switch over to really fast short course work. I mean an hour ride is like a warm up. I averaged just 21 mph, my IM pace is scheduled for 18 and felt like I could have pushed closer to 23 or 24 mph for this olympic distance race.

I felt like I past dozens on the bike, especially on the short hils and only got past by the pereninal high placers. Which was not all that bad considering I know most of them by face and we exchanged remarks. I did one six mile loop with a familiar face who has done both Arizona Ironmans and we talked about Florida and other races. I kept my cadence in the high 90's, low 100's and the speed gauge at around 21 mph. It felt good having that fast a turnover, normally I stay around high 80's. Coming down the backside of the lone 'hill' a cyclist could stroke out 32 mph which I did each time to make up for the sharp right turns every 1.5 miles.

I personally did not witness any accidents, Andy's was the worst that I saw at the finish, so that is a good thing. I did see lots of riders who had not done much riding in groups or races and that presented challenges attempting to pass them. All in all I think this was a very good course for riders.

I opened it up on the run. I still had life in my legs and had heard that three of my team mates were just minutes ahead of me. I saw Andy leaving T2 as I racked my bike. I know I am a faster runner and ran out of T2 so fast I ran right by him and didn't even see him! I was getting pissed off in the first mile because I knew I should have seen him by then. That kept me very motivated.

I cranked out my first mile sub 8 and dialed it back a bit. My IM pace is 11 minutes, my training pace is mid 9's. Races are always a different beast and realizing that I did not want to give my subconscious any pattern for sub-11 for IM. I also did not want to blow up out there and still wanted to reel in Mike, Andy and John. As predicted and become our little ritual I passed John at 1.5 miles in the run. The last three Olympics have been just like this. He knew Mike was ahead of me but not hadn't seen Andy. I figured Andy has stopped to use a porta-let so I just focused on Mike.

I knew that Mike averaged mid 9's in training and my mid 8 pace would help me catch up, especially if he stopped to walk at all. However it was not to be, Mike had a great run beat me by 4 minutes.

In hindsight, its not "All About the bike". Its all about the swim. if I can't get this swim business under control and exit the water mid pack or at least compartive to my team mates then I am screwed. I know most of them had similiar swim experiences out there. Hell John beat me outta the water by ten minutes without goggles.

But congratulations to Mike beating me straight up. Congrates to John for finishing the swim without goggles. Congrates to Andy for finishing with really ugly battle scars. Big shout out to a newer aztriclub team mate Eric who in his first triathlon, the sprint, took fifth overall and first in the 25-29 AG.