2007 Rookie Triathlon Race Report May 13, 2007
Posted by riverbrady in : Race Reports , trackbackThe day, as usual, started too early. Up at 4:45. Ready and in the truck with Josh by 5:20 and on the road down to San Marcos. We got there about 25 minutes after transition was open and were amazed at the number of cars already there…at the time we didn’t know that last years cap of 500 people had been raised to 800, and later on were thankful that we were in the nearer parking lot rather than the one down the road.
We went through the usual race morning routing: body marking, racking the bikes, laying the gear out, picking up chips. It was a tad on the cool side when we arrived, so it looked to be good for the race start. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, nice considering the weather forcast was calling for possible thunderstorms the night before.
7:30 rolled around and we spent 10 minutes jogging around, exploring the new run exit and warming up a bit…in the water by 7:40 for a quick lap around the course for warmup and to check sighting landmarks.
I decided this race that I was going to go sans timing: no watch, no turning on the bike computer, just going. It’s a sprint, I should be pushing it the entire way.
With the increase in people there were a lot more waves this year, rather than the 2-4 we were used to. Guys 29 and under were the second wave, after the open wave (basically any pros and elite age groupers who were going for a top 10 placing, separate from the age group placing). At 8am sharp they were off and we lined up in the water. I decided to start on the right side…I’d be able to stand to start and get a slight dive in rather than treading water. Right before the sounded us off a few guys nudged over as well, and I found myself starting the swim with guys on both sides and one in front of me. As usual, the first 50 meters was a bit rough, being in the pack rather than on the side. After 15 strokes or so I thought, “enough of this,” and pushed my way past the guys on my sides that kept clipping me and around the guy in front of me. It meant I was swimming out front with no draft, but it also meant I wasn’t being caught by other’s arms. A couple times on the way out someone would try to swim over my legs which just led to me kicking a bit harder…better propulsion and an incentive for them to not try to swim over me.
By the turnaround I realized that I was in the very front of the pack along with one other guy. We were holding steady next to each other and a quick glance told me that I’d just get thrown in back into the mix if I tried to drop behind to draft (and it’s a 300M sprint, not too much drafting is going to do versus the alternative). With 100 left another guy swam past on the right and I was able to latch onto his feet for the last bit on. Came out of the water 2nd in my group…a bit surprised and happy. It’s the first time I’ve been anywhere close to leading out of the water.
The guy in front and I exchanged “good jobs” and plesantries on the jog to transition. I managed to lead in and lead out again on to the 11 mile bike course. Looking at the results I’m actually ranked “1″ on the swim portion for my age group as we had a couple hundred feet run to the transition entrance (where the timing mats were), due to me passing the guy who actually led out of the water.
The beginning of the bike starts with a hill that while it’s not too steep, is just mean as you’re trying to get your legs under you from the swim. I’d had a slight hitch on the running bike start with my shoes, but had things settled by then. There was one guy I could see in front of me that I caught just over the hill top and after that it was solo sailing for the first 5 miles.
The road wasn’t too rough, but I definately noticed it a bit more. This is the first race I’ve done on my new wheels…running tubulars and I had them pumped up to 125 lbs rather than my customary 110. Felt faster though, and just more responsive. I’m going to like them in the future 
Turning the first 90 degree turn I finally got a chance to glance back. There were three guys coming up on me and all three managed to pass me as we started up the hills (until this point it had been basically flat). The first guy went by…age is 29, grrrr. Picked it up a little to keep the gap close for as long as I can. The second guy…33, I’m safe, don’t have to worry about him too much. The third guy, heya Eric :p (who’s also 28). This means I’ve gone from 1st to 3rd in the space of 30 seconds. It also made me realize how hard it can be to keep a gap in front when you have no idea how far people are behind you and you’re just pushing yourself along.
The second half of the bike (with the hills and rollers), my entire focus was on not letting those two guys in my age group gain much of a gap on me. I’m actually very happy with it in retrospect, as I managed to keep about the same distance behind them the entire way while catching a few of the people from the open wave that started 3 minutes ahead of us. I also figured out that I need to simply pack a bottle of water for these sprints. I decided to go with some Gatoraid endurance for the salt/electrolytes…nope, the tummy definately did not like that at the start of the bike. Ah well, you live, you learn.
Came into transition with a flying run off the bike, hoping my shoes didn’t hit the ground too hard and pop off. Managed a quick change into my shoes, tossed on my race belt as I was running out, and managed to put myself back in 2nd, passing Erik in transition. I grabbed a cup of water to dump over my head on the way out and quickly settled into a pace I felt I could keep up, keeping in mind to keep my feet with a quick turnover and hearing Jamie (my coach) yelling at me during practice to get those feet moving.
Half a mile out I realized that unless the guy ahead of me faltered that there was no way I’d catch him. My right ab was killing me (need to work on your running core here Jeremy). At the same time my pace felt decent and I kept trucking along, waiting for the turnaround that would signal being halfway done…even through it’s only a two mile run for some reason it always feels like forever, a straight out and back on flat paved road.
I hit the turnaround and saw that I had a bit of distance on Erik. Figured as long as I didn’t falter and he didn’t have a huge surge I’d be good, as I figured he probably wasn’t too far behind me coming out of transition and I probably had a good 300 meters or so on him. Chugging along back towards the turn to finish, towards the cars on the interstate I can see that keep getting a bit closer and closer. Up the small hill before the turn to dirt and I can hear someone coming up behind me pretty quickly as I get passed. A quick look down and I see 29, “damn.”
I took a quick mental stock of myself: I’m running ragged at the end of the run, feeling like I’ve been on the edge of throwing up the last mile, he’s past me but not gaining a lot of ground. For about 50 feet I gave up and resigned myself to 3rd. Then I realized I was only 30 feet back or so. It’s about 100 feet to the finish…I can sprint it in, I’ve always been a middle-distance sprinter at the core of my running, and off I go. The only thing that’s going through my head, “pump those arms” and “crowd, please stay quiet….crowd, please stay quiet.” They actually did for a bit, not yelling until I was 10 feet behind him at which point he looked back and saw me charging up, wheras he took off.
Uh, uh, no way…you’re not getting me, not when you were so sure you had it in the bag. We sprint it in, a quick lean at the finish, and I’ve got him…by an inch or two. Only later did I remember that this is the tri arena, not track…it’s not when you chest crosses but when you chip crosses. It’s a good thing I had my right foot forward rather than my left :p
…and then a bit of a damper on things. The guy comes over and rather than a nice race or nice sprint, it a “next time you might want to be more careful, you could hurt someone doing that.” Yeah…nice. Granted, the volunteers helped stop me at the end, but it was just the two of us coming in, and they saw us sprinting, they knew what was going on. I simply said, “nice race,” and walked away. What was really going through my head was, “dude, it’s a race….a sprint…I was sprinting”. The evil part of me simply thought, “yeah, I’m not going to ease off so I can keep from hurting your feelings by catching you at the last moment.” *shrug* There will always be those people…just the first time I’ve been a target of one, a bit of a surprise.
Funny thing, I didn’t even have a clue what I ran at the time. I was too buy focusing on catching the guy. Final time ended up being 53:40, a personal best for the course and good enough for 2nd place in my age group…those new race wheels did actually make a difference on my placing 
(edited to add - though the current results are still showing 3rd, despite the photo that shows otherwise. Eh well, no biggie :p)
The rest of the day consisted of the usual: too much good food (burgers and fruit creamsicles), winning another swim bag from the cornhole toss that Desiree was overseeing (sorry, no pics), and generally enjoying the first race of the season, and one of the more fun races I’ve run across. I’m continually amazed how great a race the guys and gals and Jack and Adam’s manage to put on, and everything they have there, with a reasonable race fee.
Final Results:
- 53:40 overall
- 4:49.9 swim - ranked 1/54 in M25-29 (1:39/100M pace w/20s run to transition mat)
1:00.7 T1 (4th fastest/701)
32:46 bike - ranked 5/54 in M25-29 (20.3 mph avg)
47.2 T2 (top 10 by the looks, but impossible to tell due to timing errors)
14:25.1 run - ranked 12/54 in M25-29 (7:13 pace) - 32/701 overall, 3/54 M25-29, 14th overall male
Comments»
Good Job Riv! Racing without a watch and just going by gut feel is awesome…you should try it in a longer race sometime. Just shrug of the finish line jerk…he was probably angry with himself and took it out on you.
Thanks Anton
Yeah, no real worries about the finish line guy, just surprised. Now I just have someone who I can’t ever let beat me in shorter races :p
Congrats! Now I want to see you hold that pace in CDA
Hey so my friend Jocelyn did that race.. .was first overall female amateur in 56:20… I wanna know if you met her (taller — than me — Asian chick)! She is the first triathlete I ever knew
And almost had me try on about 2 or 3 years before I did.
Ummm…eeek! :p
Hmmm, remember passing by on the run as we were both going different directions. Don’t think I’ve actually met her though. I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled at the upcoming races and pass along a hi
Wow - Congratulations! That was exciting to read - I can’t wait to have the time to train for my next sprint. I’m so very, very, very humbled. :-p
Thanks Alicia
Was definately a different experience than I’ve been used to with all the longer stuff lately. Hope you’ve been doing well!