Mainiac Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

The swim was cancelled due to rough surf. Z was bummed, but it was the right choice. The kayakers said they didn't feel comfortable, and when they placed the buoys the anchors were getting pulled around.

Instead, the changed this to a 1 mile beach rnu. Z did great, and was #4 in our wave in 7:22 including the run up the beach to transition. Very nice for no run training! Ah, youth.

Just a chip handoff and I got it on and was out very fast.

This was designed to be a fun relay event with my two oldest boys swimming and running. I had changed from a full participant to a relay entry because they had so much fun volunteering at Timberman they wanted to participate in an event. Since neither had bike at all, and T doesn’t swim, a relay made sense.

I do a 15 mile TT almost weekly, so I have the effort dialed in pretty well. The only wildcard was that I hadn’t done ANY training in the 2 weeks since the Rev3 Half, but I figured how much fitness do you lose in 2 weeks? I assumed the actual speed would be just ok since I didn’t have the TT bike I had used for Timberman and Rev3, but was riding old Betsy instead. And after putting my Pro3 Race tires on last night I saw several cuts which scared me so I put the training Continental tires back on.

The ride started great. Z did a wonderful job on the 1 mile beach run and there were only four people ahead of us besides the college racers, who went out in wave one 4 minutes before him. I picked off the first three from our wave within the first mile, but the wave leader was over a minute ahead so I figured it would be a while to catch him, if at all. I was riding in the bars, hard and steady. I spent the next 5 miles or so just hammering away mostly alone, though occasionally I’d pass on of the college racers who didn’t look very strong on the bike leg.

There were no real hills on this course, but just a few gradual ascents. I hadn’t checked my Garmin at all until about 6 miles in, and was shocked to see a 23.1 staring back at me as the ave speed. Holy crap, it didn’t feel that fast. We then hit a really, really bad section of road. It was literally like cobblestone, completely across the entire road, and really rough. I was caught shifting when I hit it, and the chain bounced right off the front ring. Damn. Quick stop and it was back on and I was up to speed pretty fast. The rough road only lasted about ½ mile or so, and it was welcome to get back on real pavement.

At this point I was well into the college pack, and was still passing a fair amount of them. I was working hard to keep the effort up, but I could feel fatigue creeping in more so than pain. I tried to tell my lungs to forget it and push through, but I could feel the effort dropping a little. I used people in front of me as targets, and I figured I should be catching them since obviously I’d made of ~4 minutes on them to this point, but it got harder and harder to pass. I had closed to gap on the last guy from out wave to about 25 yards when we started up a long gentle incline, and he smoked me to pull way out front. I knew that was a bad sign, but quickly forgot it and refocused to pass him once we hit the flats.

I knew I was down to the last few miles and the wind was picking up in our face as we went onto the exposed ocean part of the course. I just lowered my head and did my best to get as aero as possible, and really wished I had the TT bike! I was able to pass the guy with just under two miles to go, and I hammered hard all way into transition. I had a little trouble unclipping, but got off the bike and handed the chip to T for his run.

I took in nothing during this ride, not even a sip of water.

Train before the race.

Another chip handoff, but T and I had some trouble getting it on his leg. I was also kinda slow getting unclipped and then getting my bike wheeled around and racked. I have to learn the out of shoe dismount for next year.

T did the run, and we were all little leery since he'd had cramping issues in the few training runs he had tried. He never had gone this distance before. The worst part was that there were no good places for us to go see him, so we just watched him disappear and then had to wait. Well, 30 minutes later (30:13 officially) we see him sprinting through the chute with a huge smile on his face! Good job T!

I did no training at all in the two weeks between Rev3 half and this race. Though I think my fitness was still pretty high, I know that my ability to maintain effort was diminished a bit. And this was a course totally designed for a TT bike!


What an awesome race to do with my boys! And to win the relay on top was just great. Proud papa. It was so fun to hear "Bayek and sons" announced at the awards ceremony and then get on the podium with them. They were both so pumped they claim they want to train and maybe do one on their own next year. T already has two 15 and under events on his calendar and is wearing his medal to school today, and Z was figuring our ways he should have pushed harder to go a little faster, so we'll see. I can't wait for the day they can beat me!