Buckner Mission Man Triathlon - TriathlonSprint


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Burlington, North Carolina
United States
Set-up Inc
90F / 32C
Sunny
Total Time = 1h 21m 41s
Overall Rank = 27/248
Age Group = 35-39
Age Group Rank = 2/35
Pre-race routine:

Up at 5:45 after waking up a million times last night. What's new I guess? :-) Ate a piece of PB&J toast and drank 20 Oz accelerade on the way. And once I got there I had a packet of GU Shots. Yummmm. Visited the porta potty, chatted with people, etc. It took me 10 mins to pack up and get out this morning and it is an hour drive, so I have plenty of time.
Event warmup:

Swam to the first bouy and back. It was warm!
Swim
  • 14m 46s
  • 820 yards
  • 01m 48s / 100 yards
Comments:

I had a very nice swim: swam straight and sighted well. One guy from the previous wave was floating on his back and as I passed him he kicked me in the eye! Sheesh. He said sorry so that's nice. Didn't really bother me though and I carried on. I passed a lot of people from the previous wave and went out pretty fast in my wave. I got water in my right goggle from the very beginning but it is what it is. I wasnt about to stop and drain it...things to do ya know. I felt really winded when I got out of the lake, despite not pushing it on the swim. I guess I was going harder than I thought and the water was so warm that it kinda puts you in a different place to nice, cool training swims.
What would you do differently?:

Not much other than swimming more in training. It was a good swim. Just checked my results from 2 years ago and this swim is about the same speed as that. Hmmm, not sure what to make of that.
Transition 1
  • 00m 48s
Comments:

Solid but not that fast- was tired from the swim.
What would you do differently?:

Not much- went very well.
Bike
  • 41m 36s
  • 15 miles
  • 21.63 mile/hr
Comments:

I couldn't get my HR down for a long time on this ride. I came out of the swim hot and winded and never felt good on the bike. My pace was OK but I was struggling. I only got passed by a couple of guys, played leapfrog with one and passed many. It was fun starting in a later wave so I could actually catch some people on the bike. It was very hot and humid already by the time the bike started so I think the heat played into this a little.
What would you do differently?:

Train more? Not sure I did anything "wrong" on the day- pretty decent ride all things considered. This is the first race ever where my ranking overall on the bike was better than the swim! Run was atrocious though :-)
Transition 2
  • 00m 34s
Comments:

Methodical transition. No problems. Didn't come flying off the bike but came off pretty fast anyway.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing really. Good, solid T2. Fastest T2 looks to be 25 seconds..this one is not far from that, given that those guys were just flying.
Run
  • 23m 58s
  • 3.11 miles
  • 07m 43s  min/mile
Comments:

Whew, this was awfully hard in the heat and humidity. I was fighting the urge to stop the entire run and finally got my legs a little on the start of the second loop. We were all suffering a little I think...well, all except that 15 year old who flew by. My ranking overall on this was 64th which is really slow for me. But then again, I had a bad run here last time. I think I just need to work harder on the run. Or harder on the bike so that I can transition better.
What would you do differently?:

Run more in training. Turn on the air conditioning. I don't know really. I ran 23:59 two years ago at this race and was slower this time. It was not a good day for running though, especially since the same time 2 years ago placed me 100+, rather than 64 this time.
Post race
Warm down:

Milled about. Took a cool shower in this magic shower tent they had. Drank 3 Diet Cokes and 3 bottles of water and still didn't need to pee. Saw that I had come third in my AG so stuck around for the awards. Then it turns out I came second because the guy who won the AG came in second overall. Fun times. Anyway, got a generic little medal for sticking around. I'm not sure why they bother with that kind of thing. They had me at "you came second in your AG". Overall I came in 27th out of 248 men, so pretty happy with that. As usual though, there are so many things to work on.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Fitness level and heat. And then the heat.

Event comments:

This is one of my favorite races. They put 4 water stations on a 1.5 mile run loop because of the heat! Talk about good planning. Also, it is not even 7pm on Sat and the results are up. My FSSEries sprint race results were posted at noon on the Monday after the race. I am sooo much more impressed with Setup Events than FSSeries. But that is an aside.

The lake is pretty, its not too far from home, the bike is on good roads and challenging enough and the run is, well, it is what it is. I strongly recommend this race. Very well organized and the ladies from the church who help out are awesome- so sweet and chatty and appreciative of us coming out. I had a great time talking to several of them...such nice people. And the guy who did the national anthem on the sax was SO good. It was very moving.

Overall I improved my time, despite the conditions, from 2 years ago by about 2.5 or 3 mins. That's not fantastic but not terrible either. My placing in my age group went from 14 out of 52 to 3 (2) out of 35. From that perspective there has been a solid improvement and I have placed in my AG in my last two races. Its not why I am doing this but fun anyway.

Turns out, the guy who finished ahead of me in my AG beat me by 2 seconds last year at Triangle and by about 3 minutes at Buckner 2 years ago. So his overall position this year stayed the same but mine improved from 2 years ago by about 30 places (from 61 to 27). That's kinda nice.




Last updated: 2010-07-01 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:14:46 | 820 yards | 01m 48s / 100yards
Age Group: 3/35
Overall: 30/248
Performance: Good
Suit:
Course: Rectangle-ish course.
Start type: Wade Plus: Waves
Water temp: 85F / 29C Current: Low
200M Perf. Good Remainder: Good
Breathing: Average Drafting: Below average
Waves: Navigation: Good
Rounding: Average
T1
Time: 00:48
Performance: Good
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
Wetsuit stuck? Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed:
Biking
00:41:36 | 15 miles | 21.63 mile/hr
Age Group: 4/35
Overall: 25/248
Performance: Average
Wind: Some
Course: Big figure 8 with rollers- nothing steep but pretty constant.
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence:
Turns: Average Cornering: Average
Gear changes: Average Hills: Average
Race pace: Hard Drinks:
T2
Time: 00:34
Overall: Good
Riding w/ feet on shoes Good
Jumping off bike Good
Running with bike Good
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal Good
Running
00:23:58 | 03.11 miles | 07m 43s  min/mile
Age Group: 8/35
Overall: 64/248
Performance: Below average
Course: Trail run with some short, steep hills. And then you do it again.
Keeping cool Below average Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 3
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5