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XTERRA Cameron Park - Championship Course - Triathlon


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Waco, Texas
United States
Race Revolutions
88F / 31C
Total Time = 3h 45m 43s
Overall Rank = 8/37
Age Group = M 30-34
Age Group Rank = 2/3
Swim
  • 38m 50s
  • 1500 meters
  • 02m 35s / 100 meters
Comments:

Seeing the swim course layed out as one giant up and back loop on the river was a little intimidating. I'd done the training and knew I could do the distance, but man did it look like a long way to swim. I just needed to swim with good effort, think about form, and eventually I'd make it to the end.

When the gun went off I managed to stick to my plan. I could mostly sight by seeing the shoreline as I breathed, so I kept my head down and tried to swim strong. After about 300m I realized that while I had started about 20m from the shore I was now out in the middle of the river and perhaps I should sight a bit more often. As I rounded the first buoy which should have been around 400m I realized that while my watch was configured to notify me every 200m I hadn't felt the 400m notification yet. I figued I should feel it soon and kept my head down swimming away. At the 800m mark still hadn't felt any more notifications from my watch, but there wasn't much I could do about it except keep swimming so I did.

The group had thinned considerably but there were still a few swimmers beside and in front of me so I figured I wasn't dead last yet. As I rounded the final buoy with 400m to go there was barely anyone in sight except for the kayaks and some swimmers in front of me in the distance. Again I tried to use my technique of watching the shoreline as I took a breath which seemed to be working until I ran into a dead tree in the water about 20m off of the shore. Oops, better sight in front of me.

Finally I reached the finish and looked at my watch which said "GPS signal lost". That explained the lack of distance notifications. I hit the lap button to transition to T1 and took off running to the transition. I never looked back so I had no idea how many people were still behind me.
What would you do differently?:

I probably need to work on my sighting and swimming straight. I also need to work on simply swimming since it is by far my worst sport.
Transition 1
  • 01m 22s
Comments:

First transition just really didn't feel all that fast. The only thing that I had a bit of difficulty with was getting my gloves on which seemed to stick to my wet hands as I tried to pull them on.
What would you do differently?:

I think I lacked a sense of urgency in my transitions and thus wasn't as fast as I could be.
Bike
  • 2h 03m 40s
  • 24 kms
  • 11.64 km/hr
Comments:

The plan for the bike was to start off with a comfortable fun but still hard pace. At the last race I worked way to hard in the beginning and never recovered.

The beginning of the bike course was a steep climb with switchbacks, and just like I expected there were a number of riders struggling up this first climb including myself as I bobbled the switchbacks. I was still doing alright and not pushing too hard until somehow I found myself loosing my balance and falling off the steep drop off to my left. Luckily there were some sharp branches and shrubbery about 7 feet down the mountain to break my fall. With a few cuts on my arm and chest and my wounded pride I climbed back up to the trail as a few riders rode past and continued on my journey up the hill.

The remainder of the ride went well as I stuck to my plan to keep it at a pace that I was still having fun. I took the downhills fast, and refused to walk up the hills as long as I could manage to pedal up them in my granny gear. I passed riders along the way, and passed quite a few riding up the hills as they were walking.

By the time I hit the second lap it felt like I was basically riding by myself. I rarely encountered any other riders so I figured they were either long behind me or perhaps way in front of me and I was never going to catch them.
What would you do differently?:

Besides not falling off the trail I'm not sure I could have improved much. I should work on tight climbing switchbacks, and keep my climbing skills strong. It is possible I could have ridden a little faster in general but if I did I'm guessing my run would have suffered.
Transition 2
  • 01m 8s
Comments:

Transition 2 seemed to go smoothly but again didn't really feel fast.
What would you do differently?:

Again I think I lacked a sense of urgency which simply would have made me move faster.
Run
  • 1h 00m 42s
  • 10 kms
  • 06m 04s  min/km
Comments:

I started the run and made it about 75% up Jacob's Ladder before I decided I needed to walk the remaining steps. Once I reached the top and tried to run some more I quickly felt my stomach knotting up and had to resort to mixture of walking and running.

As I entered the single track the photographer announced that if you were doing the Championship distance you were in the top 15. I asked first lap or second lap as I ran by and he said "Oh, second lap". Oh dear I thought seems I'm pretty far back and my run is off to a bad start. Finally after about .6 miles in my stomach had settled down a little and I was able to keep a steady run all the way back to the start of the second loop.

Second time up Jacob's Ladder was much tougher. At this point the steps were so large I had to walk almost the entire thing and it was still quite difficult. However once I reached the top I was off to running again. I felt pretty good and was passing a number of people along the way. Once I hit the paved downhill road I thought it was time to push hard all the way to the finish when all of a sudden my left hamstring crampped up and I was forced to stop for a moment to stretch it out while I watched a few of the guys I just passed run by. Once my hamstring loosened up I eased back into running and quickly caught and passed those guys a second time. By the time I hit the river I was cruising at around a 7:30/mile pace all the way to the finish line.
What would you do differently?:

I'm not really sure what caused my stomach cramping at the start of the run but once I worked past it I was good for the rest of the run. Additionally having my hamstring cramp up slowed me down a little while I stopped and stretched. If I can get past both of these things I would have had a faster run.
Post race
Event comments:

This was a really fun race, and I love the course. This was the longest race I've done and while I still did poorly on the swim I had lots of time to make up for it on the bike and run. I made sure my attitude was to have fun and enjoy myself and run the best race I could. I probably would have freaked out at several places along the way if I was mentally trying to make it into the top 10, like when the photographer said I was in the top 15 if it was my second running lap and I was only on my first.

The timing company was the usual timing company however they weren't set up on time causing the race to start about 30 minutes late. Later after the race it took them a long time to get results ready which delayed the things a bit. The only other negative was that since there was a sport and a championship distance race they had run out of bottled Gatoraid by the time I finished.




Last updated: 2014-07-27 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:38:50 | 1500 meters | 02m 35s / 100meters
Age Group: 3/3
Overall: 26/37
Performance: Average
GPS watch lost signal so don't have GPS distance. Time from watch out of the water was 37:51.
Suit:
Course: Course was one loop up and down the river.
Start type: Wade Plus:
Water temp: 0F / 0C Current:
200M Perf. Remainder:
Breathing: Drafting:
Waves: Navigation: Average
Rounding:
T1
Time: 01:22
Performance: Average
Cap removal: Helmet on/
Suit off:
Wetsuit stuck? Run with bike:
Jump on bike:
Getting up to speed:
Biking
02:03:40 | 24 kms | 11.64 km/hr
Age Group: 2/3
Overall: 10/37
Performance: Good
Wind:
Course: The course was a two lap course of mostly tree covered single track. The course isn't terribly technical, but has a lot of climbing and I some of it is very steep. The most technical parts for me were tight switchbacks while climbing.
Road:   Cadence:
Turns: Average Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Good Hills: Good
Race pace: Comfortable Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 01:08
Overall: Average
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike Good
Running with bike
Racking bike
Shoe and helmet removal
Running
01:00:42 | 10 kms | 06m 04s  min/km
Age Group: 1/3
Overall: 4/37
Performance: Good
Course: This was a two lap course that started with a steep climb up Jacob's Ladder. These stairs are about twice the size of normal stairs which really works the legs. Next you enter the woods for some tree covered single track with a number of hills. At around the 1.8 mile mark you hit a downhill paved road which takes you down to the river. Finally the the last strech along the river is flat dirt path all the way back to transition where you do the loop again.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? No
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 4

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2014-08-29 1:44 PM

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Austin, Texas
Subject: XTERRA Cameron Park - Championship Course
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