Burnet Tri-HARD Challenge Race Report, 2007 September 17, 2007
Posted by riverbrady in : Race Reports , trackbackOverall I’m very happy with the race. I came in just under 6 minutes faster than last year, though a lot of that can be most likely attributed to one of my pedals coming apart partway through the bike last year. The weather was nice: a bit overcast in the morning and partly cloudy during the race. Highs during the race stayed in the 70s, though it felt a lot hotter on the run.
The morning started out with creeping around the house while trying not to wake Luisa, and meeting Fred, MJ, and Kevin to carpool up. An uneventful trip, quick transition check-in, a bit of warm-up, and we were all standing at the lake edge ready to go.
I did my last sprint without a watch or bike computer and liked the experience. I always felt I was holding back a bit on the bike and run, rather than just going at what felt a good, hard pace. I decided to do the same thing this race, though still planned to hit my bike computer for checking out splits post race.
The swim was a washing machine the first 200 meters or so, but eventually evened out. My sighting and drafting on the way out was decent, but I kept pulling a bit to my left. Coming around the far buoy we turned to swim directly into the sun, making it a bit difficult to tell who was who. I saw a better line of people and headed over to break in, only to find that I was trying to swim over Fred! (thank goodness for easily recognizable orange/white jerseys in murky water)…so a quick easing up and I hopped on his feet, only to keep nicking his feet, swinging wide and heading back to find myself unintentionally again trying to swim over his feet. After the second or third time I decided to see if I could swim away (I was pretty sure Fred was following Louie at this point), but found that going solo was just taking a bit too much, with no appreciable gain, so I dropped back down and stayed in line until about 200M to go. At that point I veered slightly off, and directly to the exit mat, exiting just before the group I had been in.
The run to transition was easy…threw on the helmet and glasses and ran out with my bike. I happened to also be one of the lucky recipients of a thorn while traversing the grass, but thankfully it was big and pulled out quite easily. A quick run and flying mount from there, and I was off on the bike.
The course is fun, but hilly. There are some larger hills at the beginning and end (out and back), and the rest seems to be false flats. I hit my bike computer…and found I forgot to swap out my wheel magnet. Ah well, purely by feel this time.
As I got into a groove first Fred, and then Andrea found me. While I knew trying to keep up with Andrea would cause me to blow up my legs I figured I could see how well I could keep up with Fred. 18 miles later, and after passing and re-passing each other a few times, I found it was a good decision. We both came into T2 after averaging 22.3mph for the ride, spent the same amount of time in T2, and headed out onto the run together…where he started to gradually pull away :p
The run, as the bike, feels like there are no actual flat areas. You’re either on hills or false flats the entire race. At the beginning I just kept focusing on turnover (which coach Jamie was happy to loudly remind me about as well, as I went trotting past). Settling in after the first few minutes the run became a series of simple steps: focus on turnover and lifting the thighs, grab water at every aid station to pour on me, and keep my running speed just below the line where I felt like I’d take a major downturn (read cramping and sick feeling). At this point I also had no idea where I stood in relation to my age group competition. I figured either a few guys were way ahead of me, or I was actually in contention to place. I finally got a glimpse of placing as I was coming back from the second (and last) out and back when I saw two guys from my age group heading my way, a few minutes down. At that point I knew I just had to hold my pace and I would beat them in.
As I came around the last turn I saw the clock reading 1:29:14, and gave a final put to get in before 1:29:30…making it in at 1:29:29. Good enough for 2nd place in my age group!
Overall results ended up as (taken from overall, rather than age group splits, as there are some discrepancies):
Swim (including T1) - 17:00.7 (2:08/100M)
- 1/9 M25-29, 15/246 overall
Bike - 48:26.9 (22.3mph average)
- 2/9 M25-29, 22/246 overall
T2 - 29.8
Run - 23:31.3 (7:32/mi)
- 5/9 M25-29, 46/246 overall
Finishing Time - 1:29:29
- 2/9 M25-29!, 24/246 overall
Looking back at the race, I’m happy with the building I’ve been doing on the bike. Hills have felt easier and I’m looking forward to how things look after a winter of actually biking and lifting (something I’ve always been bad about). The slowest part was the run. Part of me cringes at seeing a 23:31, knowing I used to run open sub 18s, but at the same time the rest of me is ecstatic that the run was pain free. Combine that with the fact that I’m running 5x/week and every so slowly rebuilding my mileage and remembering what it’s like to be a runner, I’m simply looking forward to seeing where things go over the months.
Comments»
wow, Jeremy- that was a great read! thanks! and congratulations for finishing 2nd in your age group.
nice work Jer, and congrats
Way to go!! Sounds like you really focused in and got the job done
2nd place with no pain is pretty astounding, especially if you’re improving over last year’s time. I’m glad to hear it went so well.