North Country Triathlon - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic


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Hague, New York
United States
67F / 19C
Precipitation
Total Time = 3h 06m 48s
Overall Rank = 80/139
Age Group = 45-49
Age Group Rank = 16/22
Pre-race routine:

Woke up at 4:00 AM and had breakfast consisting of a bowl of oatmeal with fresh blueberries and honey. My beloved dog Barley also woke up and wanted his breakfast too! He went back to bed after his and I got in my truck to make the 1 hr 15 min drive to the race site. I arrived on site around 6:00 AM which was plenty of time to go through packet pick-up and body marking. I spent the rest of the morning setting up my transition area, chatting with other athletes and walking through the transition area to mentally prepare. This was my first ever Olympic distance and I had the jitters.

Event warmup:

The only thing that I personally try to warm up with is the swim. I always want to make it a point to get in the water and begin acclimating to the temperature. Here I had the chance to swim out and back without any problems. Warm up for about 50 yards and simply waded out in the water.

Swim
  • 33m 9s
  • 1640 yards
  • 02m 01s / 100 yards
Comments:

The swim course changed from how it had been set up in years past. Since this was my first time doing this event I didn’t know any different. The swim started in a boat ramp area that had to long points on each side. The points extended out about 150 yards before you hit open water which created a chute. This packed the swimmers in at the start until it opened up. Strategically I thought I would start on the right hand side since the first buoy was to be kept on swimmers right. What ending up happening is that the pack seemed to veer right cutting that buoy off. Since I was already way over to the right I had no choice to go with the flow. The buoy was placed there for a reason as we soon found out. The point of land extended out into the water which made it shallow enough to stand. Remarkably, many people did just that. The problem was that I was now stuck behind the “water walkers” There was no way I was standing up so I had no choice but to fight my way through them. Once I got past this debacle I was able to get into my slow steady breathing rhythm and help that pace right along with many others. OWS is still fairly new to me so it was kind of an odd feeling to turn my head on a breathing stroke and see another guys face close enough to spit water on. No big deal though. I felt good that I seemed to be doing pretty well and kept on going. I made the turn to head back on the inbound swim leg without much issue. I found myself veering off course quite a bit but I corrected quickly enough to get back on track. As I neared the swim exit it started to shallow up way outside of the beach. Foolishly, many people started to stand up 100 yards out and tried to run in. I knew it was shallow there from my previous knowledge of that particular area of the lake and already had it in my mind that I was going to swim in until my knuckles were dragging on the sand. Again, I got caught out behind some of the“water walkers” and probably used more energy then I needed to trying to get around them.

What would you do differently?:

Think more carefully about where I line up to start.
Transition 1
  • 01m 36s
Comments:

in spite of the fact that I tried to swim in as far as I could the water was so shallow that I ended up standing and walking/jogging out too soon. I started to unzip my wetsuit as I was walking and had the thing at my waist by the time I saw my bike. I had used cooking spray on the front of my legs which really helped get my wetsuit off much faster. My Garmin was on ready to go and my prep work made everything else go smoothly. I was very pleased with my transition.

What would you do differently?:

Swim in just a little closer.
Bike
  • 1h 38m 24s
  • 24.85 miles
  • 15.15 mile/hr
Comments:

I felt that this is a pretty difficult bike course. I heard it described as “Adirondack Flat” which means that it isn’t really flat at all. It was full of rolling hills the entire way so you had to work pretty hard throughout. The major bummer of the day was that it was absolutely pouring rain during the entire bike leg. I never let that get to me though even though I really dislike riding in the rain. I just went the best I could at my pace and hoped for the best. I consider the bike my strength because this is where most of my experience lies. That said, I am not really that fast but I can go along at a pretty good clip. I have a new custom geometry road bike this year which I absolutely love. It may not be the most aero machine but I feel really comfortable on it which is half the battle. The guys on the tri bikes past me early on or where already out in front of me. The slower people were behind me so I was feeling like I was pretty much in the middle where I wanted to be. The bike course features a beast of a climb. The distance is 3 miles with gradients of up to 13% (according to my GPS) I had done a recon of the climb a week before so I knew where the steep sections were and where the climb finally ended. This turned out to be very valuable information as I knew where to go hard and where to just spin up. I passed a few people about a mile in to the climb but stayed near a few guys the rest of the way up. I had passed a guy on a tri bike on the final steep section which I felt really good about until he blew by me later on the descent! The descent was insane!! Straight down in the pouring rain reaching speeds of 38 MPH. Probably not the smartest thing to do but there was no way I wasn’t going to take advantage of the downhill after that brutal climb up.

What would you do differently?:

Keep on training harder.
Transition 2
  • 01m
Comments:

This went excellent for me. I threw my bike on the rack, kicked off my cycling shoes, threw on my running shoes w/speed laces grabbed my Garmin and race belt and started running out. I sorted out the rest of my stuff out on the road. Soon I was on my way to the final leg. So this is what an effective transition feels like?
What would you do differently?:

Nothing
Run
  • 52m 37s
  • 6.21 miles
  • 08m 28s  min/mile
Comments:

I was a little disappointed in my run. This was a very hilly course and one that I found difficult. My race plan was to slow it down to about a 9:30 mile for the first 5K and then to pick up the pace to sub 8:00 during the last 5K. Well as it turned out I wasn’t very effective at doing so. Less than a mile in I felt my left quad starting to tighten up. This had me nervous and wasn’t sure what was going to happen. It turned out to be a non-issue so I kept on running. I ended up going faster then I wanted to right out of the gate and found myself trying to slow down. Since I had never run this distance during a tri I wasn’t sure how much I would have left in the tank. I ended up running closer to an 8:30 minute mile and ended up just holding this pace all the way. I didn’t think I would need too much liquid from the aid stations but I ended up grabbing a drink at every stop. I never stopped running though. I took the drinks on the fly and pinched the paper cup so that I could get the fluid down on the run. I just plugged along and was passed by only one guy in my age group. I wasn’t sure if this was good or bad so I kept on going the best I could. The last mile I caught up to a guy much younger than me who was running a relay leg. I ended up running along with him and did a sub 8 mile during mile 6. On one hand I was happy to have the energy at the end but left wondering if I didn’t go hard enough. I came across the line with a smile on my face and a big hug from my wife and son.

What would you do differently?:

Train harder for the run. Become more comfortable with pacing.
Post race
Warm down:

Drank a few cans of the Izze soda they had on site and ate some banana. I also had a post race peanut butter and honey sandwhich that I had packed in my transition bag. Spend the time hanging out with my family and the other athletes enjoying the camaraderie.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Bad luck with the swim. Maybe could have used a few more longer training rides. Didn't have my new bike until three weeks before the race though. Need to train harder on the run.

Event comments:

THis was a great race. Spectacular scenery, pristine waters and outstanding volunteers. Highly recommend and would do it again.




Last updated: 2011-06-30 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:33:09 | 1640 yards | 02m 01s / 100yards
Age Group: 13/22
Overall: 90/139
Performance: Average
Suit: Xterra Vortex 3
Course:
Start type: Wade Plus:
Water temp: 67F / 19C Current: Medium
200M Perf. Below average Remainder: Average
Breathing: Good Drafting: Average
Waves: Average Navigation: Average
Rounding: Good
T1
Time: 01:36
Performance: Average
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
Yes
Wetsuit stuck? No Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed: Average
Biking
01:38:24 | 24.85 miles | 15.15 mile/hr
Age Group: 16/22
Overall: 77/139
Performance: Good
Wind: Some
Course: "Adirondack Flat" Lots of rolling hills and a steep 3 mile climb.
Road: Rough Wet Cadence: 85
Turns: Good Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Good Hills: Average
Race pace: Hard Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 01:00
Overall: Good
Riding w/ feet on shoes Below average
Jumping off bike Average
Running with bike Good
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal Good
Running
00:52:37 | 06.21 miles | 08m 28s  min/mile
Age Group: 17/22
Overall: 88/139
Performance: Below average
Course: Rolling hills. Difficult
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %0
Overall: Average
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 3
Good race? Ok
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