Beaver Freezer Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Although I placed fairly low in the rankings on the swim, it is by far the part of my race I was most satisfied with. A month in a half ago when I started swimming and my 500 yard time was about 15 minutes I set a goal of swimming under 10 minutes. Two weeks before the race started when I finally had to give my estimated swim time I was nearing the 10 minute mark and gave a very aggresive estimate of 9:30. So on the day of the race when I swam it right at 9 minutes I was super stoked!

As for the race, I was in the super slow peoples heat/lane. My lane mates were hoping to race between 12 and 15 minutes, and I let them know that I was aiming at 9:30..... but I could be crawling in at a beastly 20 minutes, who knew? When the race started and I took my first stroke it felt incredible. I was finally doing what I had trained so hard for these past few months. As the laps flew by I found myself lapping my lane mates a lot. I was super blessed though, not only was I in the furthest lane which was roughly 1.5x the size of the other lanes which allowed ample room for lapping, but whenever my hand hit my lane mates feet they'd just stand up in the water, move aside and let me pass. Thanks guys, it was more then I deserved. As I was nearing the final laps I actually lost count of how many I'd completed which is something I never do (the nerves were definitely getting to me). Fortunately the volunteer at the end of the lane was kind enough to repeatedly tell me how many laps I had left.

When I was swimming that 20th length I couldn't help but notice how fresh I felt. It was a very liberating feeling to know that the pace I was taking didn't tire me out at all.

Success!

Not forget my lap count. Other then that I really can't fault myself for doing anything incorrectly. I do need better swimming technique, but that's not something I can suddenly expect from myself on race day ;p

Bad bad bad bad bad. When I got out of the pool my nerves were firing on all cylinders and then some. I'd set out some flip flops and a small micro fiber towel to help get me from the warm pool room to the insanely chilly transition area, but I just picked them up and ran barefoot out to my bike. When I got there I learned that my carefully thought out transition area wasn't quite so good. My backpack and fluffy down coat were scattered over the tops of my running shoes, shirt, and helmet and it took a bit to untangle them all. I was smart enough to place my sunglasses inside my helmet so I wouldn't forget to put them on (my one t1 success). When I finally got to my helmet, I couldn't get the damn thing buckled. Whether it was the freezing weather or my chittery nerves I don't know but the combination is probably what did it. When I was finally ready to get going I was met with a ton of participants in transition area who weren't even aware that the race had started (my heat was at 7:30 and some heats didn't start until as late as 10:00). I did pass the one person who beat me in the swim during my heat as I approached the bike exit and I was told that I was the first to exit.

That would be the last time I had somebody to pace myself off of for the rest of the race.

Oh so much! I was so focused on getting my swim/bike/run times respectable to give a spare thought to transitions. For future races this will be different.

Ugh I hate you mountain bike!!!! Let me describe for you the wonderful machine I was racing on. Plastic pedals, shocks that might as well be made of fluffy pillows, and a frame that would best be described as "military grade construction". Did I forget to mention that the tires seem to be a touch underinflated no matter how much you pump them up? Well there's that too.

Ahem, back to the race.

Coming out of transition I was feeling cocky. I was the first person out of transition all day, hell yeah! So I quickly mounted my bike, took a couple pedals, and flew straight into the nearest curb. @!#%. The subdued chuckles from the crowd signified the end of my pride and dignity, so I sucked it up and bolted out of there as fast as I could on my glorious steed.

It was on the bike course the the sheer number of volunteers became apparent. At every single side street at tiny intersection there would be 1 if not 3 rotc cadets cheering you on and point you in the correct direction. And remember, I was the first person out on the course, these people hadn't even warmed up their cheering muscles yet. The first out and back flew by without an incident. I finally saw people when I made the turn around. I would say that by this time I had increased my lead on the person behind me to about a minute.

My second bike whoopsie occured right before the turn around on the second bike section. I came to a street where I learned I was supposed to make a right, but the volunteers there didn't even know anybody was there yet. As I passed that side street, a ball of mountain bike lightning, I noticed someone run out of a car flailing their hands. "Hmm, that's interesting" went the inner monologue in my head, so I decided to turn around and see what's up. The volunteer let me know that I was going the wrong way and to take the side street. Balls.

After the turn around on the second out and back I finally started to feel the fatigue in my legs like I was running a race. My adrenaline was running out and a numb sensation started creeping into my feet (which were drenched with water), my face finally started feeling the sting of the gravel my hellion of a steed was throwing up at me, and *gasp* I felt a little bit tired. NOOOOO, I AM INVINCIBLE!!!!! The last few miles were a chore but as I approached transition I finally saw my brother and my parents on the sidelines cheering for me. Thanks guys, you rock!

Steal my kid neighbors tricycle and ride that. Seriously though, my lack of a good bike affected my will to train and I needed to put more miles in the saddle before the race. Swimming was such an issue that biking/running took a sideline.

Considering my rack position and a couple other factors, I had a smoking fast t2. As I came into the transition area they actually had it fenced up still (remember, still the first person to pass all the check points etc.). I had to yell at a couple volunteers to let them know that I was racing and would prefer to not do any hurdles with my bike in tow so they quickly tore the fencing down.

The bike entrance was actually just about 10 feet from the run exit, but it was mandatory to run about 25 meters before you could enter the bike rack part of transition. To make matters worse, after the 25 meter enforced run my rack was actually at the far end of transition away from run exit (we had predetermined spots). Which meant a lot of people to dodge who were still setting up transition. When I got to the area where I was supposed to rack my bike I actually put it a couple spaces over from where I'd originally set it (doh! Sorry whomever I messed up!), ripped my helmet off my head and immediately set off running.

Rack my bike in the correct position.

Ugh, I really blew it on the run. At this point I was so far ahead of the other people in my heat that I had nobody to gauge my speed off of. I should have taken the hint when I was rounding the bend for my 3rd lap and I felt like I was "cooling off" after the bike ride. I know I shouldn't be too hard on myself since this was my first triathlon, but I've been running for a long time and my run time was a couple minutes below my realistic goal I'd set for myself. Oh well, there's always next race!

Push it despite the lack of competition in my heat. Get a watch or heart rate moniter or something so I know my pace/effort.

I talked with my family for a few minutes. I then went and got my things so I could get inside and have a nice hot shower.

I would like to take this time to appoligize to OSU for your water heating bill. Really, I'm sorry.

After what must have been 20 minutes of thawing in the shower I got dressed in my warm and fuzzies and took a leasurely 2 mile walk.


The frigid weather, being in a very non-competitive heat so the race felt more like a glorified practice session.


There were a ton of volunteers at virtually every key point of the race, and everybody was very friendly and gave words of encouragement. What's even more impressive is the race director looked like he was in his 20s, although I can't say for certain if he was or wasn't.