Four States Triathlon - Tiger Phil - TriathlonSprint


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Texarkana, Texas
United States
85F / 29C
Sunny
Total Time = 1h 09m 58s
Overall Rank = 24/121
Age Group = Clydesdale
Age Group Rank = 3/11
Pre-race routine:

Woke up a little early and had a bowl of cereal. Got my bike all racked up on the car and headed out for the short drive to the lake. See, I live in Texarkana now, so this is my "home" race. Once I got there, I picked out a good spot in transition first thing. See, this race has no assigned bike racks in transition, so it's first come, first serve. Moreover, the swim in is in the middle of the transition, and the bike out and in are at the same spot at the end of the transition, so it gives you an advantage to have your bike right next to the bike exit. After that, I just basically hung out, listening to my mix of Eric Peters songs on my wife's iPod as I got my chip, body marking, checked out the water (complete with seven (7) dead fish by the shore. YES!!) and visiting with my friends.
Event warmup:

Did an easy four minute run, just to shake the jitters out. My legs were still a little stiff - more on that later. Then, I spent a good deal of time in the water, because it had been about two weeks since I had swum even a lick.
Swim
  • 10m 57s
  • 650 yards
  • 01m 41s / 100 yards
Comments:

Not a whole lot to say about the swim. The only thing was that there was one guy who continually climbed on my back for the first half of the swim. Dude, move over!

I basically did not sight at all. I just tucked in by some female swimmers and kept the same distance from them. I always figure that the female swimmers that can swim my speed are better-than-average swimmers.

This swim time was a minute better than the first time I did this race, in 2004.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing except swim more in training.
Transition 1
  • 00m 55s
Comments:

Easy. I had to walk about five feet to get to the bike mount line.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing. This went about as good as possible.
Bike
  • 36m 25s
  • 13 miles
  • 21.42 mile/hr
Comments:

Here is where I started to feel my legs a little... See, I had a tough week, but you make your choices and you move on in life. I had played Ultimate Frisbee on Wednesday night from 8:30 until about 10:30. I am a youth minister (for Young Life) and there are a couple of kids that I want to connect with that play Ultimate on those nights, so I go where the kids are. Then, on Thursday, I ran 5 miles in the morning, and rode about 18 in the afternoon. Guess it was too much... I would hold about 19.5 or so into the wind, with occasional step-ups to 20 or so as I passed someone and got a wee bit of a draft. On the way back, I was cruising at 24 or so. This is only slightly less of a wind than we experienced here two years ago. I rode as hard as I could the entire time, and I only shaved one minute off my bike time from two years ago. That was humbling.
What would you do differently?:

If I wanted to race better, I would not have played Ultimate on Wednesday. But I am happy with my choices. The bottom line is that I am, in fact, a minute faster even with deadish legs than two years ago.
Transition 2
  • 00m 50s
Comments:

I took my time a little bit in T2, even walking a few steps through transition.
What would you do differently?:

Given that I missed second place by 7 seconds and the guy in front of me beat me by 6 seconds in T2, maybe I should have hurried things along a bit. Drat.
Run
  • 20m 54s
  • 3 miles
  • 06m 58s  min/mile
Comments:

The run is where I lost time. This time was 18 seconds *slower* than two years ago. That's absurd. I am faster today than I was then. I know this qualitatively, but I guess it's yet to prove out quantitatively. I was hurting the entire run, so I know that this is all I had on this day. My BIL, who I run with occasionally, was a minute faster than me, and I know he is not that much faster than me.

Interesting note from the run: About a half mile into it, I hear a guy coming behind me. He stays behind me. I ask him if he is drafting off me... He says he is just using me for pace. He stays there the entire run. We actually struck up a friendship - his name was Paul. The only positive from the run was that I picked up the pace. My splits were 7:24, 7:00 and 6:30.
What would you do differently?:

Again, my legs were screaming at me from the week's exercise and play. I can run faster, but not after the week I had.
Post race
Warm down:

Just walked around, talked with my Young Life kids and my family. Had a few cookies and a banana, etc.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Ultimate Frisbee and lack of swim training.

Event comments:

Here's the kicker. I am a Clydesdale, and when I registered, the guys told me that all the Clydesdales had numbers in the 20's. The guy that got second passed me at the very end of the bike. He left T2 28 seconds ahead of me, and reached T2 22 seconds ahead of me. The thing is that he was the last guy to register, so they gave him number 150. When he passed me at the end of the bike, I saw him and noted his number was not in the 20's so I let him go - made no effort to keep up. As far as I knew, I was the first place Clydesdale at that point, because I had seen no others. Well, at the finish of the run, I was coming hard and he was looking back repeatedly. I thought he was looking past me, but he was making sure I wasn't catching him. Now, I ran as hard as I could, but I just know if I'd known the guy ahead of me was in my class, I would have chased him down a little more. Stupid race numbers. Oh yeah, the guy who got first place Clydesdales was second place overall. That is just plain flat unfair no matter what you say.




Last updated: 2006-05-31 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:10:57 | 650 yards | 01m 41s / 100yards
Age Group: 3/11
Overall: 26/121
Performance: Good
Suit: Tri-shorts and singlet
Course: Goes from a little peninsula straight for about 500 yards, then makes one turn right to the finish.
Start type: Wade Plus: Waves
Water temp: 80F / 27C Current: Medium
200M Perf. Good Remainder: Good
Breathing: Good Drafting: Average
Waves: Navigation: Good
Rounding: Good
T1
Time: 00:55
Performance: Good
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
Yes
Wetsuit stuck? Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: Yes
Getting up to speed: Good
Biking
00:36:25 | 13 miles | 21.42 mile/hr
Age Group: 4/11
Overall: 33/121
Performance:
Wind: Strong
Course: One loop out and back. The road heads out a semi winding park road to a dam that goes dead into the wind on the way out for 3.8 miles, then back with it. There is one little valley to traverse at the end with a fairly steep, but short hill to climb.
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence:
Turns: Good Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Good Hills: Average
Race pace: Hard Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 00:50
Overall: Good
Riding w/ feet on shoes Good
Jumping off bike Average
Running with bike Good
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal Good
Running
00:20:54 | 03 miles | 06m 58s  min/mile
Age Group: 2/11
Overall: 29/121
Performance: Below average
Course: Another out and back with a slight hill that you go down in the first half of mile 2 and back up the second half.
Keeping cool Below average Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Ok
Evaluation
Course challenge Too easy
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5