Tri Try Illinois - Triathlon

After standing on the pool deck for 45', I finally got to swim! It doesn't really matter what warmup I did, or didn't do, the way this race is arranged makes it quite difficult to be warmed up when you enter the water, unless you are among the first 10 athletes.

Seeding was seriously screwed up. There was a clear miscommunication that we were supposed to arrange ourselves by total expected swim time, not 100yd time. There was a pack of people in the 4' group who clearly swam 100yds in 4', not the 300 yards of the race. There was one lady doing side stroke for crying out loud!! Lots of breast and back strokers in there too. I would have been frustrated if I was in that group, but since I wasn't, I just stood on the deck waiting for someone to crash into someone else (fortunately, that didn't happen!)

The sides of the pool are slick metal. I didn't notice that when I was standing on deck, so I didn't realize that I'd need to get a really good, solid, square push off. My first two turns were largely inefficient, as my feet slipped off the wall.

T1 is pretty long in this race, with the run to T1 from the pool being about 200yds (almost as long as the swim!!). My time reflects from pool exit to bike mount, which is slightly different from what the official results say, since they use timing mats at the entrance to T1.

Went pretty smoothly, even if a little longer than I'd like. It was so cold outside I took time to dry off as best as possible and put on a long sleeve shirt and gloves. Both of those were a good idea and made the day slightly less miserable. There was no hope for my toes though.

Ran with bike through transition, but new cleats are very slippery on the blacktop pavement. Nearly fell.

nothing

Had a bad mount. Left foot slipped out of cleat when I was trying to get on and I nearly toppled over toward the right. Managed to correct myself and get left foot in the cleat and head off. Had difficulty getting my right shoe clipped in. Since this is only my second ride outdoors this year and with this new cleat system, it was okay, but I'll definitely need to practice that before next race.

There were way more hills than I was expecting!! The middle 10 miles were all rolling hills of pretty decent size (meaning, you couldn't just gain enough speed on the downhill to get up the next hill). Only drank about 10oz of Infinit on the bike and had two gus at 24' and 45'. Should have drank more and had another gu, but with the hills, I didn't really think I could take my hands off the bars long enough to do either. Last hill up to the finish line was a real bear, a long, slow hill with no downhill proceeding it to gain speed. Last time I did this race, I had to stop and get off my bike on this hill. There were several people walking their bikes, but I didn't. I'm rather proud of that--shows progress!

Eat more...drink more...sign up for the shorter race. :P

If I had the race to do over again, I definitely would have purchased some toe covers before. My feet were FREEZING the entire leg and it affected my run too.

Bike doesn't have enough nose to hold it on the racks, so I have to mount it to the racks by the back of the saddle, which means shoving the bar through the space between my saddle and saddle bag. It worked this time, but who knows if it will work next time.

T2 was pretty good. I took a beat to decide if I wanted to keep the long sleeve shirt on (I did), but other than that, everything went pretty smoothly.

I was disappointed, however, that my shoes were not toasty warm. A fellow competitor gave me some hand warmers to stick in my shoes while I was doing the rest of the race, with the hopes that the warm shoes would help the cold toes thaw out during the early part of the run. Sadly, my shoes weren't appreciably warmer than air temp.

Probably should have downed a gu in T2, just because I was down from the bike.

Run felt good near the end, but the beginning was ROUGH. At about the 0.25mile mark, I had to stop and check my shoe. I was completely convinced that my right fourth toe was folded under my foot in some weird way and I couldn't feel it because of the numbness due to the cold. That foot just felt weird, but I checked it and everything seemed fine. Toes would be numb, painfully numb, for the first 1.5 miles. Had to stop again just after the first mile marker to stretch out some cramping in my calves and check my left shoe, as I was pretty sure there was a stick in my shoe, but still, because of the cold, couldn't really tell. Turns out, small pebble did fall out, but that wasn't what I was expecting!

First mile was mostly down a very subtle hill until it went sharply uphill for a few hundred meters to the turn around and first aid station. I had a cup of water. Turned around and started to go up the hill, but HR was spiking and I couldn't get it down, so I walked a little. Stopped to check shoe and stretch calves just after first mile marker. Mile 1-1.5 was up that slight hill I just ran down, which doesn't seem so slight going this direction! Reached the top of the "hill" and passed the turn off for the shorter course athletes to turn off toward the finish line. Skipped this aid station because I was very out of breath and didn't want to have to carry the cup with me for the next mile. From there, the trail dips down a short hill to flatten out to the final aid station at mile 2.75(ish). You could actually see the aid station, but wouldn't know it if you didn't know what you were looking at. Ran through a bunch of tunnels, which echo your lonely foot prints off the tunnel and made it very clear that I was alone in this deal. Hit the final aid station and drank a cup of water. Turned around and knew I was in the home stretch. Hit the 3mi marker and I always have this thing I do when I get to the last mile of a race, but I envision it as the mile from the top of the big hill near my house to my house, which is a mile. I know I can always run that, so i always think of the last mile like that. The turn arrived quicker than I thought it would, but then I was on the last quarter mile or so, right behind some walkers from teh short race who had a dog with them! Can't stop to pet the dog!!! Wanna stop to pet the dog!!! Didn't stop to pet the dog!!! Final few hundred feet were through the parking area and as I arrive people were already leaving, including the award winners from the short race. Several stopped to cheer from their cars, which is one of the things I love about triathlon--everyone is very supportive. Sprinted in the last 100m or so. Got my GIANT finisher's metal and then went to pack up my stuff. Awards for the long course race had already started

Drink more. maybe have a gu half way through, but i really didn't feel bad at all

None--mostly just walking around from finish line to my spot in transition. I packed up my stuff with the usual amount of confusion and wandering around trying to remember where the heck I parked my car, but nothing specifically for warming down.


Training--only about a month of solid training before this race due to illness and surgery, so definitely need a more extensive base.

Hills--I need hill work (ugh--Coach John, if you read this, ignore that statement!)


The Racemaker Productions crew is nice and fun, but they still have some issues to work out concerning their races. I've never done one that started on time. This race started 10' late, which is about typical for their races. The aid stations on the course are supplied with water and gatorade, but the post-race activities are pretty slim pickings. I couldn't even find a bottle of water at this race, but I do admit that I didn't try particularly hard to find one, since it was cold and I had some in the car. Overall, I'd do this race again, especially if it were going to be a warmer day, but I'm aware that it is a pretty bare bones post-race, so be prepared for that.

Upside: GIANT finisher's medal (not kidding, 4" square metal, very heavy and has an attached keychain)--pretty fun