South Carroll Tri-to-Win Sprint Tri - TriathlonSprint

Not much to say here. 16 lengths in a pool that were pretty uneventful.

A pre-race warm-up swim would have helped. Training was also very very light in the pool this season.

Felt slow in this transition and I watched a bunch of people come in after me and leave before me, so I made a last second decision to skip socks and go.

My strategy in this race is to race the first 5 miles fast as possible and pass anybody I can early in the bike, before I get to the hills (my weakness). I was doing ok and passed 2-3 before getting to Gillis Falls. I had one more rider ahead that I was gaining on. At one point I was on a wide shoulder, cruising in a high gear around 27 mph and I looked down to check my cadence meter and kept my head down too long. All of a sudden, the shoulder ended abruptly and I was off the road, hitting an unpaved gravel shoulder, grass, and dirt going too fast. Almost lost control but I hung on and barely made it back onto the road before being forced to unclip or wipe out. I lost all forward momentum and came back on the road on a moderate climb, forcing me to shift way down and hump it over the crest. It took a bit to get back up to speed and the rider I was gunning for gained ground on me.

Next segment was the hills. My training this year has been very low volume, especially on the bike, so my expectation was that the long climbs on Gillis Falls Rd would slow me down a lot - which was certainly the case. At mile 6 I took some Accelerade in on an uphill climb and missed the cage putting the bottle back, the bottle dropped and rolled down hill. I debated leaving it but ended up turning around and riding back to get it. I didn't want to come off the bike without hydration, knowing the run would get hot today. That decision probably cost me a 3rd place in my Age Group.

The rest of the ride was uneventful as we passed through Cabbage Rd, Rt 27, Gillis, Perry, and finally the last climb up Skidmore where I finally started gaining on the one guy I tried to catch earlier and had been chasing ever since riding off the road at mile 4.5. We came into T2 almost together, me trailing him by a couple feet.

Keep my eyes on the road. Not drop a water bottle and go back and get it. Loose 10 pounds. And train like I need to train to compete in this race.

Came into T2, heard my wife and daugther call my name (who were volunteering at the finish line). Quick switch to running shoes, skipped socks again against my better judgement (turned out to be a good decision) and started out on the run.

I left T2 just ahead of the guy I had chased on the bike for most of the ride. I started out really slow with a 9:19 split. I just didn't have much more in me. I started feeling better once I got to the road and over the first hill and I was able to drop 40 seconds off my pace on the second mile. The third mile has a nice downhill character and I dropped another 25 seconds off my pace. I started counting my cadence on minute intervals, trying to hit a 90 stride per minute count and hold it steady through the finish.

Training. Nothing more.

Primarily training. A glance at my logs will clearly illustrate why I did not repeat my age group win from last year. But that's life, no regrets here. I had a great time racing. I do wish I had not lost time on the bike going back to get my water bottle, that was enough of a loss to cost me a top-3 placement in my age group.


Tri-To-Win events get better every year. This year had improved timing from ChampionChip timing, a modified run course that was an 'official' 5k distance, lots of volunteers, and a positive vibe.