A quick race report I tapped out on my phone for my friends last weekend (July 10). With apologies to Remy
Charlip.
Unfortunately, when I walked out of my hotel this morning for the Diamond in the Rough triathlon in Perryville, Maryland along the beautiful Susquehanna river, it was quite wet out.
Fortunately, the AM forecast was just for scattered showers, with no thunderstorms until the afternoon. We got to the race site with no problems.
Unfortunately, it was raining steadily by then. And Meg had forgotten the umbrellas & we didn't pack rain gear. Someone in line with me said he had seen lightning. When Meg was walking back from the car park she saw cars exiting the park, with bicycles. People were bailing. First race I bring my family to in like four years and it's first one that's got terrible weather. Told my family I wouldn't mind bailing but they said I should go ahead.
Fortunately (for me) they announced that the water temperature was 79 degrees so wetsuits were NOT allowed. Yay! Finally a fair swim!
Unfortunately, they then announced that the swim would actually be canceled and the event turned into a duathlon. We would start with a run of 2.7 miles to replace the swim, and then as planned do a 27-mile bike & a 5-mile run. Just great - my weakest event & I gotta do it twice. Reiterated to my family that I wouldn't mind going home but the boys were too excited to see the event, rain or not.
Fortunately, once the race started, it actually was nice to be running in a triathlon and feel pretty fresh & good doing so. It was also strange to finish the run in a triathlon at a steady pace instead of pushing to the finish.
Unfortunately, I was now going to have to bike with somewhat used legs instead of just used arms.
Fortunately, after a pretty quick transition (hoping one of, if not the, fastest), I spun up and my legs felt pretty good. Much better than last year (see brief summary of last year's race, below).
Unfortunately, the hills on the first half of the course were worse than I remembered them. I kept sipping gatorade steadily throughout the bike - last year at this race I ran up a deficit and drank too much at the very end and really felt it sloshing around when I started the run. But I was going hard enough that I really did not want to drink. But I forced myself.
Fortunately, I continued to feel strong and powered up the inclines pretty well (for me). I experimented with going a little more anaerobic than I usually do. After all, this was no Ironman, plus I've recently noticed on group rides than when I spike my HR in order not to get dropped, I recover pretty well and it's better than falling back on the hills, which causes me to lose a surprising amount of time from my friends, which takes me a surprising amount of time hammering the flats to make up. So on each hill, I pretended that Rodolfo or Ron or Bill or whoever was in front of me and channeled the feeling of that situation and worked hard. I also made it a practice to stand up and gun it one last time as I hit the crest of each hill - that way, once I had the mo, I could recover at 20-24 MPH instead of at 16-19 MPH. Seemed to work pretty well & I felt like I really hammered the bike. Also, because I was in the second wave and I started with a weak run instead of a strong swim, I started back further than usual and moved steadily through the field, which was good for my morale. I don't think I got passed by a single rider who I didn't later re-pass -- even on the big hill near the end of this race! I felt very proud about that last bit.
Unfortunately, my bike time was around 1:16. I was hoping with how good I felt it would be even faster. Maybe the rain, which never once let up, and became quite a downpour during much of the bike, was a factor. I had to really squint to see in the rain and had to be super careful on all the turns - there were sheets of water on the road in many places, sometimes several inches deep.
Fortunately, it was still over 4 minutes faster than my bike last year. And I knew I had a good shot at reaching my goal of #1 fastest T2 time, because I was running barefoot I didn't need to put on shoes. All I had to do was 2 things: rack the bike, and take off my helmet.
Unfortunately, I still managed to forget one of those two things and started to run out of the transition with my helmet on and had to turn around. I thought, "I bet that just cost me my #1 spot!"
Fortunately, I was still pretty quick. And it was so great to see my family at each of the transitions, cheering me on!
Unfortunately, I was very tired from the bike and people began to blow by me as I chugged along the first mile at what felt like a pathetic pace.
Fortunately, as slow as I was running, I still did an 8:09 mile for the first mile. That put me in contention to meet my goal time of 40:00, which was my time from last year. You always gotta remind yourself, all the people behind you who are NOT running faster than you, you don't see (until the turnaround).
Unfortunately, though I felt better after the first mile, for some reason my times slowed down instead of sped up. One possibility: inaccurate mile markers. (The other possibility: I was running slower.)
Fortunately, while all the other runners were dodging the puddles on the running path, some of them several inches deep and many yards long - I just ran right through them in my bare feet.
Unfortunately, while other runners ran right through the gravel portions of the run, I had to do a little dodging on THOSE portions.
Fortunately, there were only two gravel stretches, and the ground was so wet that it made the gravel parts feel much easier on my feet. Also, my feet happen to be very tough right now since I've been upping my running mileage, and overall the gravel portions were pretty easy compared to what I remember from this race last year.
Unfortunately, I did not have my friend Will Colston running ahead of me to spur me on to run hard in the second half of the run after the turnaround, like last year.
Fortunately, I fell in behind a guy who was just a little bit faster than me and determined to stick with him. He was going just the perfect pace for me - faster than I felt like going, but any faster and I think I would have had to let him go. At the finish of the 5-mile run, I felt good enough to sprint, hard to the finish. Felt great -- and if my watch is accurate I met my goal with a run time of 39:55.
Unfortunately, by this time my family was pretty soggy and cold. Rested for a bit, and then got back on my bike and got the car which was parked 2 miles away, picked up the family, and we headed home.
Overall, a fun time despite the unfortunate weather. Sucked not to have the swim, esp. since it would have been non-wetsuit, but was nice not to be competing in 105-degree heat and the rain felt great on the run. Despite rumblings of thunder there was never any lightning. Piranha Sports did a good job with the race and adapting to the circumstances, gave out a very nice technical shirt and hat (and a volunteer let my kids each have a hat too which really made the day for them).
And now, for the first time -- I am a duathlete! Even if the distances were a bit non-standard. Never would have thought.
- Jay
p.s. This just in: they've already posted the times (so fast -- Kudos to Piranha for that!)
Split Time Rank (out of 377 finishers overall)
2.7 mile run 0:18:27 (pace 6:50/mile) 177
T1 0:00:29 1
Bike 27 miles 1:15:44 (pace 21.6 MPH) 19
T2 0:00:33 3
5-mile Run 0:39:25 (pace 7:53/mile) 150
Overall 2:16:40 54
Looks like I was 8th out of 42 finishers in my 40-44 age group and 54 out of 377 finishers overall. Pretty happy with the #19 rank on the bike. Funny to me that I ranked higher on the second, longer run than the first one. Either I paced myself better or it's a reflection of my good long-course conditioning staying power. But of course, most crucially: I finished #1 overall in my T1 time -- thank you, thank you, yes it's good to be on top -- but due no doubt to my helmet supidity I slipped to third for T2 (the #1 guy
Here's note I sent to my friends before this race:
Looking forward to Saturday's race - hoping no thunderstorms. Going to
be tough to run as fast as I did last year when the prospect of catching Colston at the finish line spurred me on to run through a lot more pain
than I may be motivated to do this year. On the other hand, I've been
running more recently. I didn't feel great on the bike last year so I'm hoping
to improve on my bike time however. I was surprised by how fast my swim
time was last year -- the equivalent of 3 straight 6:56 500-yard swims in the pool. Either the course was short, or my new wetsuit provided more of a boost than I expected. If the former, then my swim may be slower this
year -- either way, I don't expect much of an improvement esp. as I haven't been
in the water much since IMSG. This year I was thinking I'd try something
new that I've never done before at a triathlon: warm up. I'm also going to
be more conscientious about taking gels as I've been noticing recently that doing so really helps me on the run.
Most of all, I'm gunning for the #1 fastest T2 time!
Comments