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 Swim
Comments: Swimming was much different than I had thought. I was expecting all of the people and was mentally ready to swim in a crowd. What I had not expected was the way it prevented me from developing any sort of rhythm in my swim. It was an exercise in: slow down, speed up, change direction; slow down...ok, kinda stop b/c I'm surrounded by people stopping; speed up..etc. oh yeah, let's talk about the jerks walking. so, I take a breath and I see a bunch of guys treading water. I take a breath again, there they are treading water. Either I'm swimming so slow that I'm not moving or they tread water very quickly. Hmmm, they look as though they are walking. Reach toe down, wow, water is only about 5' deep, comforting but back to swim...those (want to use colorful language) are walking. I'm working my butt off today and for the past 3 1/2 months to be a triathlete and these guys are going to walk through the swim?? almost done but the crowd seems to be getting thicker. Oh, that's a different colored swim cap, yup we're being passed by the wave that started after us. oh well. What would you do differently?: Swim to the outside. Part of me wanted to experience swimming in the crowd, now I've done that and I know I could do it again. Next time I'm going to swim to the outside and just do my best to find my swim rhythm.  Transition 1
Comments: This took longer than I thougt it would. What would you do differently?: Not sure yet, I think I just need practice.  Bike
Comments: Except for how slow I was, this was a fun part of the race. Considering the number of people who passed me I almost considered it my very own personal bike show. I got a quick glimpse of lots of bicycles that I may want to buy next year. Let me give you an example of how slow I was. Picture a dog on the side of the road, watching every biker go by. Each biker got one bark as the dog watched the biker pass. I'm getting closer, wow, that is a scrappy little dog, he's on 3 legs...good for you fido. Hmmm, he's chasing me...little bastard...everyone else just whizzes by you and me your gonna chase, that's right, I was chased by a 3 legged dog!...don't worry though, I pulled away pretty easily. I did pass 4 people though. Three were bikers going up a hill. It felt good, I wasn't even trying to pass, just keeping my pace. At the bottom of the hill I just thought back to spinning class, knees in, dig with my heels, and pull through the whole rotation of the pedal...wasn't even all that used up at the top. As soon as the road leveled off they all passed me again. That 4th person I passed was some old lady out for her Saturday morning jog...it took me a while to catch up to her. What would you do differently?: Get a new bike...If I'm just going to do this for the one year then it doesn't matter but I gotta get off my mtn. bike if I'm going to keep doing this next year. Transition 2
Comments: This went realtively smoothly. I would have gotten out a bit quicker but I changed my socks again. They were wet the entire bike ride b/c I put them on while my feet were still wet from the swim. What would you do differently?: Practice riding w/ no socks so I can do it during the next race.  Run
Comments: Record pace for me again. Previously, my best 5k was 33:01...beat that by by almost 53 seconds. I didn't know this for the first mile. In fact, I thought I was going very slow. I just kept telling myself that it didn't matter how slow I went, just finish and try to do it w/o walking. I was using my watch to estimate how far I had gone and thought I was still another 3 minutes from the 1 mile mark when I passed the mile marker sign. The next mile was pretty much all up hill. Most of it was just a gradual grade trending up but there were a couple short segments that seemed steep, at least for me. I just kept telling myself that it would be all downhill once I got to the turnaround. What would you do differently?: Nothing. I'm sure additional training will increase my pace but for this race the run went perfectly well. Post race
Warm down: Lots of walking around, a bit of stretching, eating post race snacks and hydrating myself. What limited your ability to perform faster: Lack of experience. I could have pushed harder on the bike but I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to run. Now that I've done this once I'll have a better idea of how hard I can push the bike next time. Event comments: Great race for a beginner. Everyone, volunteers and other racers were all very nice and supportive. I'd like to do this race again next year. Last updated: 2007-04-25 12:00 AM
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Overall Rank = 303/329
Age Group = M Clydesdale
Age Group Rank = 15/17
It may not have been necessry for a sprint distance but I took my nutrition pretty seriously the week before the race. I considered almost everything I ate as fuel and ate well. Thursday and Friday almost all of my calories came from either cereal, pasta or bananas with a few protein sources thrown in. I also took hydration seriously, drinking plenty of water and some watered down gatorade to make sure I maintained electrolyte balance.
The night before we stayed in a hotel near the race. Before going to bed at about 10pm I scheduled a wake up call, set the alarm on my watch, set the alarm on my phone, set the alarm on my wife's phone....I was pretty sure at this point I'd be up on time. Had a beer to relax and went to bed.
5:30am: wake up; small bowl of grapenuts; shower and dress
6:10am: Hotel lobby for coffee; talk to other newbie racers about the race
6:30am: start heading over to the race; eat a banana in the car
7:00am: put stuff at transition area; bathroom; get numbered and chip
7:30am: organize transition area; put on wetsuit
Not really enough time, it's amazing how quickly time flies getting ready for the race. I did get into the water about 10 minutes before the race, did a bit of swimming and made sure I was acclimated to the water.