Osprey Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint


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Public Landing, Maryland
United States
Maryland Coastal Bays Program
Total Time = 1h 13m 47s
Overall Rank = 24/358
Age Group = M40-44
Age Group Rank = 4/39
Pre-race routine:

Gotta love a 9:00 race start. Woke up at 0500. Drank an Ensure and ate half a Clif bar. Took Boomer down to the ball fields for a little play time. Got a bottle of Gatorade ready for the bike. Stopped at Starbucks for Brenda's Pumpkin latte, and it was off to Public Landing.
A few people beat us to TA, but we still had prime territory to pick from. Racked the bikes without front wheels and dropped off our gear before parking. Saw Joe, Reji, and family. Met Skip (fly capt). Chatted quite a bit with Dave. Brenda dispensed electrical tape and advice. It got to be 0800 and I was tired of catching grief from Dave about not having the front wheel on my bike. So I unpacked the Hed Alps to find it flat! Ahhh! Can't trust the tube that was in it. I had one spare tube, but it had a 60mm stem, which was not quite long enough (nice planning - for how many races did I carry this around?). Dave saved the day with an 80mm stemmed tube, but now both of us were riding without a spacre tube.

Event warmup:

Ran easy for about a half mile and stretched.
Swim
  • 10m 37s
  • 880 yards
  • 01m 13s / 100 yards
Comments:

This probably would not have been a bad swim for me except that my goggles leaked terribly. Chose a different pair than the ones that leaked during the Nutmeg Tri, but these may have been worse. Had to stop and dump water out of my right lense at least 6 times. Other than that I was happy with my effort level and navigation was reasonable. Got off course a few times (damned buoys on the right), but more striaght than crooked. Finished with white caps (prev wave) all around me.
What would you do differently?:

I felt like I swam well, but, in retrospect, I'm pretty disappointed with this result. I've put in too many yards this year to not be any better than this. Goggles were a problem, but that comes down to preperation, and it all adds up.
Transition 1
  • 00m
Comments:

Swim ended at the end of a pier where steps had been constructed. Not a bad set up, but it adds to T1. After I got on the pier, I wanted to get my wetsuit off right away. Well, I couldn't get the collar undone. Seemed like it took me forever. I'd yank on the collar, then yank on the zipper cord, and back and forth. Frustrating. This added to my swim time since I wasn't in the TA. The timing company doesn't split out transitions, so I think I was about a minute in TA.
What would you do differently?:

Preperation.
Bike
  • 40m 8s
  • 15.2 miles
  • 22.72 mile/hr
Comments:

Tried to go out hard and stay that way. There was a drizzly fog in the area, so my sunglasses were hard to see through after a couple miles. They eventually cleared up. Drank some Gatorade early on, but I seem to never learn that saltwater and gatorade is one of the few combinations that doesn't sit well in my stomach. On the verge of puking at about 16 min. in, but that didn't last long. Riders were spread out pretty well, so not alot of passing. One at a time. I was by myself for a good part of the race. Towards the end a couple males and the lead female caught up to me. The first guy, #361, passes me, but that just kinda ticked me off, so I try to pass him back. He won't let me, though, and surges ahead on my right! He was a bit of a pain to be around. I do get ahead of him after another try, but by this time there's a group of four of us together and it becomes harder to pass and/or maintain consistent effort. I eventually drop to the back of the group at about the time a really fast rider comes by and accuses the four of us of drafting. Whatta ya gonna do? I kind of coast on in, not wanting to get aggressive at the end since we were nearing the finishing turns.
What would you do differently?:

Not sure. I'm pleased with my ride. Thought my effort level was pretty good, but I think I was expecting a liitle bit more. In my last 3 non-mountainous races this year I've avg's 22.6 (HIM), 23.5 (40K TT), and 23.0 (Oly), so I thought I'd do a bit better. Possibly didn't taper as well as I thought, but still a race PR.
Transition 2
  • 00m
Comments:

Good transition. Socks and shoes went on quick, and, outside of a few 10ths of seconds I lost by heading towards the wrong end of the rack at first, I couldn't have done it much quicker.
What would you do differently?:

Nada.
Run
  • 21m 10s
  • 3.1 miles
  • 06m 50s  min/mile
Comments:

Started off feeling good. Was able to establish a groove right away. Not many people ahead of me, so it was important to keep my focus and keep my effort high. In a sprint, you can't expect anybody to falter at the end, so you have to go get them.
#361 was ahead of me, and, since he may have been in my age group, I had to run him down. I managed to pass a couple 20's (prev. wave) before the half way point. Coming up to the turnaroud, I started looking to see who might be 40-sumpin'. Ooooh, I counted 2 and 2 'maybes'. The closest 'maybe' was getting passed by the lead female about 200 yds ahead. That was my goal. Slowly but surely, I crept up on #200. I couldn't just run by him, but I kept making mini surges (10 steps at a time) to inch up on him. I finally got on his shoulder and passed him. Don't know if he let me pass or I tapped into a little extra juice. Problem was, he hung with me. Stayed right on my shoulder. I tried making small surges again to gain some seperation, but it wasn't happening. He was clearly planning on trying to outsprint me at the finish. A few yards from the corner (~75 yds to go) I make my move. In a glass case that reads "In Case of Emergency (or sprint finish) Break Glass" there's a little reserve of energy. Swung my hammer and tapped into it. Unfortunately, #200 had a bit more to give and he surged past me as we both sprinted past the lead female right before the finish chute. Turns out he was a 20-something. (So, he finished 3 min behind me and got 3rd place in his AG, congrats.)
What would you do differently?:

Nothing. This was a well paced race for me. I had been a bit disappointed in previous races where I had a hard time keeping my effort level/HR up. Not so today. Despite the splits, I'm confident that my pace was quite even, maybe even a bit faster over the last 1.1mi. Third fastest split in my AG (by 2 sec!), so I'm very pleased with this effort (especially since I ran 20 miles last weekend). Seven seconds better than last year and a race PR.
Post race
Warm down:

Chatted with other finishers and waited for and cheered on friends and family that were finishing. Ran up to the van and got Brenda's Endurox for her. Ate a couple bananas and drank some water.
After the race, Brenda and I headed up to the Greene Turtle for lunch and beers. Watched my Terps beat GT. Relaxed. Great day!

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Leaky goggles, not enough taper (?). But not much. Good race.

Event comments:

My goal for this race was to place in my AG, so I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a touch disappointed. But, that is really kind of a nonsensical goal because you can only control what you do. I also should have looked at last years results a bit more closely. This year's #2 and #3 finished better than me last year as 39 y/o's (#2 was overall winner in '05). M40-44 is a tough AG. In a way I did achieved what I set out to do because I finished higher than last year's 3rd & 4th place finishers.
Overall I'm very pleased with this race. I set a race PR by almost 3 min, including a race PR bike and run. I have room to improve on my swimming and that will be my focus (again) this winter.
The Osprey is really a superb race. It's in a great location and it's well run. From a participation standpoint, it has the best of both worlds, in that it is a local low-key race that is beginner/not-so-serious athlete friendly, but also attracts some top notch athletes, including the Navy Tri team (M40-44 is the 2ND worst AG to be in!).
I'm sad that the tri season has come to an end, but this is a good way to close it out!




Last updated: 2007-07-30 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:10:37 | 880 yards | 01m 13s / 100yards
Age Group: 6/39
Overall: 51/358
Performance: Below average
Suit: ProMotion sleeveless
Course: Out ~100 yds then turn right and straight towards the pier. (Usually another right turn finishing at the boat ramp). This has always been a notoriously short swim and, even with the change in course, it didn't disappoint.
Start type: Wade Plus: Waves
Water temp: 72F / 22C Current: Low
200M Perf. Below average Remainder: Average
Breathing: Good Drafting:
Waves: Navigation: Good
Rounding:
T1
Time: 00:00
Performance: Below average
Cap removal: Bad Helmet on/
Suit off:
No
Wetsuit stuck? No Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed: Good
Biking
00:40:08 | 15.2 miles | 22.72 mile/hr
Age Group: 7/39
Overall: 28/358
Performance: Good
Again, no transition splits, so I'm deducting about a minute for T2.
Wind: Little
Course: Scenic tour of the lower ES. A mostly flat loop, a few grades, a few turns, some wooded stretches, some open stretches.
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence:
Turns: Good Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Good Hills:
Race pace: Hard Drinks:
T2
Time: 00:00
Overall: Good
Riding w/ feet on shoes Good
Jumping off bike Good
Running with bike Good
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal Good
Running
00:21:10 | 03.1 miles | 06m 50s  min/mile
Age Group: 3/39
Overall: 23/358
Performance: Good
6:36.4 HR=160 7:20.9 HR=163 7:13.9 HR=169 Don't think 1 & 2 were spot on.
Course: Flat, out and back. Mostly open.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Average
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 5