Jersey State Sprint Tri -- July 26, 2009
Swim – 500 m
Bike – 11.5 km
Run – 5 km
PRERACE:
Although I've been racing for several years and competed in many different sports all my life, triathlon mornings are always nerve racking for me. I generally do not worry about the running or biking, but I'm not a strong swimmer and I still have trepidation about getting in the water. Still, I had raced the Jersey State Sprint a few years ago and the Olympic length last year so I was very familiar with this venue. In my head I knew the lake would be warm and calm, but somehow I also knew I'd be nervous. As such, I woke at 4 a.m. to give myself plenty of time to calm myself down in the morning.
After taking care of what I needed to at home, I left for the race. I typically like to get to events early – painfully early as my wife puts it. But that's the way I am. So I arrived about about 1 1/2 hours before the start. That gave me time to get my race numbers, set up my transition, take a short warm up run, and generally get ready at a leisurely pace.
Also racing in the sprint were my friends Ed and John. Here's a picture of the three of us before the start. From left to right it's Ed, John, and myself.
I was in wave 3. After the pre-race festivities, which included a moment of silence to remember a racer that drown during last year's swim (just what I needed to hear), my wave was almost on deck. I do not remember the color of the caps in the first wave, but the second wave was blue caps, I think age group 30-34. I'm 38, so was in the 35-39 group.
To digress and talk about my swimming for a minute, you should know that I've raced triathlons where out of 400 people I was literally 398th out of the water. I think there have been races where the only people I beat were collected by kayaks. Indeed, in my first triathlon this year I panicked in the cold water and had a horrible swim – if you can even call it that. I think I took only 3 or 4 consecutive swim strokes the entire time and ended up 202 out of 271 racers (I recovered and was 17th on the bike and 6th in the run). Despite the cold water I did not wear a wetsuit that day. After thinking about it, I decided that I would never skip the wetsuit again if the race was wetsuit legal.
My last race leading into this event was very confidence inspiring as I swam a sub 38:00 1.2 miles at Eagleman. That comes out to 1:47 per 100 yds and is as fast as I could have hoped to swim. I intended to draw on that “success” at this race.
Interestingly, I found myself to be one of only a few wearing a wetsuit even though it was a wetsuit legal race. Getting into the water for the first time I was glad I did. The water was definitely not cold, but also not warm. We had 5 minutes between waves so I took the first few to warm up and then positioned myself toward the outside of the front row and waited for the gun. I typically stay on the outside to avoid the mass confusion of the swim start, and find that it works well for me.
SWIM: 9:44, 134 out of 1121
At the gun I took off at a conservative pace. As my swims typically go, I can tell whether it's going to be a good day after only a few strokes. If my heart rate is elevated, I know it's going to be bad as I still haven't figured out a way to calm myself down in the water. I knew quickly that today was going to be a very good day.
From the outside I took a line for the first buoy and was very surprised that I wasn't being passed at the normal rate. In fact, I wasn't being passed very much at all. I actually swam straight at the buoy instead of zig zagging and even stayed with some feet to get a good draft. After a few minutes, I started passing the slower blue caps. I can't tell you how that felt as it's almost unheard of for me!
I then continued to settle in and swam a near perfect swim, hitting all the buoys in a straight line and just swimming with a comfortable stroke.
Here's a shot of me in the swim. I'm the one in the middle with the wetsuit.
Here's me just starting to get out of the water. First time in my life that I wouldn't have minded a longer swim!
In this event bikes were racked by age group. I confirmed that my swim was good when I got to transition and found a bunch of bikes around mine. Normally, it's very easy to fine my bike because it's the only one there! Today was much more difficult.
After the race I learned that I was 134th in the swim. That is BY FAR the best I've ever done and I was completely stoked. Makes the last few years of hard work in the water really worth it.
T1: 2:02
I figured that I would lose time during T1 to the other competitors because of the wetsuit and probably was correct as my time was a solid 30 seconds slower than some of the fastest. Still, I didn't lose much time and I'm glad I wore the suit.
Here's me getting out of the water and already starting to strip the suit. I like to take the top off as I run, and can usually have it completely removed within the first few yards out of the water.
Running through transition with the suit already off the top.
Finally, here's me getting ready to mount the bike.
Just a quick note on my attire. I race to help raise awareness for Autism. My good friend, John Hughes, started The JT Foundation in honor of his son, JT, who is autistic (see http://www.thejtfoundation.org). I don't want to preach too much, but if you can race for some purpose other than yourself it is extremely fulfilling. I've now raced with The JT Jersey for three years and it's constantly makes me continue to work hard during those times where you just think you can't go any further. It's also great when people you don't know are obviously touched and cheer you on from the sidelines. Anyway, I'll get back to the report...
BIKE: 31:08, 23 out of 1121, 22.2 mph
The bike was pretty much uneventful. John and Ed are both excellent cyclists and kill me during our training rides. They pretty much conceded the overall win to me, but we had a mini competition going to see who could have the fastest bike split. I went hard but kept thinking about the run as well. Nobody passed me the entire time so I thought I was doing pretty well. Indeed, I'm pleased with my 23rd place but a bit dismayed that John was 16th with a 22.7 mph average and Ed was 10th with a 23.2 mph average. I guess next year I'll have to ride harder (and certainly train harder to get to Ed's level, if not John's too).
T2: 1:20
I dismounted the bike and sprinted to transition. This time there were only 3 or 4 bikes on the rack. I knew I was in the hunt for a metal in my age group, but didn't know where those other competitors were.
I don't wear socks during triathlons and had a bit of trouble getting my sneakers on. Probably cost me a few seconds, but overall the transition wasn't horrible. The best competitors were in the 0:45 range, so I again lost some time to them.
RUN: 19:59, 17 out of 1121, 6:27 pace
Coming out of T2 I felt pretty good. In training, I had a slight tweak in my hamstring that I thought would flare up early in the run, but thankfully it didn't. Here's a few shots of me just after T2.
In the last photo I'm waiving to my wife, the most lovely photographer ever! :-)
Here's me heading out toward the course.
Running is typically my strong suit so I'm a little dismayed with my 19:59 time. I thought I had saved some on the bike and could have gotten down to the 19:15 range, but it wasn't so. Not real sure why, but I've been racing some longer running events including 2 marathons, a 1/2 marathon, and a 10 mile race in the last year. On some level that may hurt my shorter races because I don't go out hard enough. Not sure because I recently ran an 18:27 on a very hilly 5 km race. In any event, I'm not horribly upset with the run because like the bike, I didn't get passed by anyone.
Here's me (with the hat) crossing the line.
Note that the time says 1:13:56. Starting in wave 3, I was 10 minutes delayed and thought my time was just over 1:04. Turns out it was 1:04:11 which was good for 21st overall and 5th in my age group. I'm pleased with that result and am glad I did well in last race of the season.
Here are all the results if anyone is interested.
https://www.lin-mark.us/results_files/njsprint09.txt
Hope you enjoyed the report.
