Timberman Sprint 8/19/06
I don’t think I have ever felt more relaxed before a race.
I had done the 1/2 Iron race last year but after doing IM Lake Placid about four weeks prior I wasn’t sure I’d be ready for a 1/2 Iron and signed up for the Sprint. I’m glad I did. I treated the day as a fun race that I didn’t put any pressure on myself.
The short version of the race report is 8:08 swim, 45:04 bike and 19:29 run for a total of 1:16:13 including transitions. 7th of 100 for my age group and 56th of 945 overall.
I had a blast at this race. Doing well competitively certainly helped, but the whole experience was awesome.
The Granite State Tri Club had a great turnout which was one of the best parts of the weekend. Triathlon is seemingly an individual sport but I would not get as much out of it without the camaraderie and shared experience with the club.
This was the shortest race I had done so the pressure I felt was very low and made me feel very comfortable on race day. For all of this year the focus was getting as many miles and hours of training as I could in every week so I could “survive” Ironman. Now that it was over (this time ;) ), I could actually race.
I’ve gotten very comfortable on the swim and had done several high intensity sessions that were as long or longer than the Timberman swim so I decided I was going to really push it right from the start. Also, the first turn was about 50 yards from the start and I thought if I didn’t get there close to the front that I would probably get caught in the mayhem of 200 people trying to take the corner at the same time.
At the start I did an all out sprint to the first turn and actually made it there with only a couple of people around me so it was a relatively uneventful corner. After the turn I had some traffic around me but it was very manageable and I was right on someone’s feet that seemed to be moving along pretty good so I stayed right behind him to try and get some draft. I was feeling strong and steady when WHAM, I got clocked on the right side of my head and my right goggle filled up with water. I’m still not sure how I did it but during one of my strokes I was able to somewhat empty the goggle and create another seal. I didn’t get all the water out so I was forced so finish the the 100 yards with water sloshing around in my right goggle. After that little incident I was able to keep a good rythym going and finished the swim at 8:08. I would realize later that whoever hit me put a nice little gash in the side of my temple. It didn’t hurt at the time but it has been a little tender ever since.
T-1 went OK. I ran to my area right behind the athlete who was racked next to me He took off about 15 seconds before I did which I was a little disappointed in. I think it was because I decided to wear socks and even though I had them rolled to make them easier to put on (thanks for the tip Suzan!) it still took longer than I wanted.
As I left T-1 I saw a couple of GSTCers at the mount line cheering which was nice boost as I headed out. I had never ridden the entire sprint bike route so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I was on some of it for the 1/2 iron last year but between my fitness level this year and not knowing the exact course, I set a random goal of 45 minutes, or 20 MPH for the bike. The bike turned out to be some early rollers, a short straight away before a lengthy up hill and short down hill before the turn around. Right out of transition was a mid grade climb which put me at a 160 HR right out of the gate.
This was a pretty new experience. Everything I had been doing, racing or training, put me at a max HR of maybe the low 150’s. Even though it was high after the hill I still felt comfortable. I had done a few hard interval workouts that lasted an hour and the bike/run combo wouldn’t take too much longer than that so I knew I could go pretty hard. I decided I would just go as hard as I could for as long as I could and see what happened.
I started in the first wave so as I got close to the turnaround I began counting how many athletes were in front of me. This was a completely new experience and it was kind of nice. What surprised me was that I only counted 11 riders in front of me before I got to the turnaround. Now I started to wonder…..
I found myself actually trying to figure out if I could place in the top 10. This is from someone who is used to finishing in the top 50% and if I really felt good, in the top 1/3. I knew that there were two age groups in my wave, 30 - 34 and mine, 35 - 39. I’m now glad that race directors require that the athlete’s age is put onto the back of the calf. Even though I had a few athletes pass me on the 2nd half of the bike, only one of them was in my age group so I knew that even if the other 11 riders were in my age group I would be 13th coming off the bike. I wasn’t used to strategizing like this during the race. Usually my mind wandered to what I needed to do when I got back to work or where I wanted to do my next tri.
My T-2 transition was great. I took my feet out of my bike shoes on the final straight, flipped a leg over and rode in with my foot on the other pedal allowing me to hop off at the dismount line and run into T-2. I racked my bike, got on my shoes, hat and grabbed my race number to put on as I was running out. It was nice not having to worry about nutrition on the run. I didn’t need a fuel belt or even a gel flask as I knew even if I had a bad run that it shouldn’t take me more than 25 minutes or so. On the bike I had a 1/2 bottle of HEED which was about 150 calories and with about 15 minutes left on the bike I had a packet of Apple Cinnamon Hammer Gel. Before the race I had my usually Hammer Sustained Energy breakfast drink 3 hours before race time, then an hour before the race I had 2 Race Caps Supreme, 2 Anti-Fatigue Caps and 2 Mito-R Caps. About 15 minutes before the start I had a packet of Apple Cinnamon Hammer Gel, .
As I started the run I felt some cramping in my left calf, which has been normal for me as my muscles transition from bike to run. They loosened up in the first 1/2 mile or so and I got into a nice rythym. At the 1 mile mark I was about a 7:45 mile. It was right about then that a runner passed me with a 36 on his calf. I tried to stay with him but couldn’t So now I knew that if all 12 in front of me on the bike were in my age group that I was now in 14th place after being passed. I was hopeful that I was placed better that that because I knew the chances of everyone being in my age group was slim.
Soon after, another athlete passed me, and another, and another. Thankfully they were all in their early 30’s and there was no way I was going to keep up with them. I felt great and was moving along well but I don’t think the laws of physics would allow my 195 lb. frame keep up with the 150 lb athletes flying by.
Next another athlete passed me who had a 32 on his calf, but he was moving just a little bit faster than me so I decided to ramp it up a little bit to try and keep up. As we got to the turnaround I was right on his shoulder. The way back was a false downhill flat for much of it and this is where my size and good leg turnover were helping me out. I passed him but could still hear his breath over my shoulder and could tell he was laboring. My HR was up there was up there as well. Each time I checked it was somewhere in the 160’s for pretty much the entire run.
Just after the 2 mile mark is a slight uphill and this athlete passed me but I was able to stay on his shoulder. I was so focused on staying with him I didn’t even look to see what my mile 2 split was. This is how we stayed for the duration of the race. As we made the turn onto final stretch he picked it up and got about 10 yards on me. At about the same time I heard someone say there was no one behind us. That’s when I evened out my pace and focused on the finish line. I knew that if he finished ahead of me it was OK for my age group finish so I stopped pursuing so hard.
I remember the finishing chute looking very long, longer than I remember in the past. Crossing the line was exhilerating. I had told my wife I wanted to finish in 1:20 to 1:30 because I just didn’t know how I would feel or had any reference as to what kind of pace I could keep up in a sprint race. I had been so focused on long course races. The clock said 1:16 when I crossed and I could hardly believe it. I caught up at the finish line with the athlete who paced me for the last couple of miles and we thanked each other for the push we gave each other.
The post race environment was great. There lots of GSTC club mates there as well as my family and it was a gorgeous day. I saw a couple of people who I raced with in Lake Placid, had some great post race food and waited for the results to be posted. Nutritionally post race, except for the slice of pizza and 1/2 dozen of Sandy’s chocolate chip cookies:) I had a bottle with 2 scoops of Recoverite, 2 Super AO, 1 Race Caps Supreme and 1 Xoabline.
Today was a perfect example of what I love about triathlon. Between the competition, environment, people, the whole experience. Unfortunately, I have to wait three weeks before the next race!