Benaroya Research Institute Triathlon at SEAFAIR - TriathlonSprint

I never have a good experience swimming at this race, and this year was the worst yet. It's just really crowded and the order of the waves is stupid and people beat you up.

Right at the start, the guy at my left dived right and the guy at my right dived left, so I had no room. I stopped at least 4 times before the first turn because there was no room to get my swim on. I navigate pretty well, but some people around me weren't so good at it, so they ran into me a lot. For the first time I got elbowed in the face by someone, and that made me very conscious to watch out for more elbows. So, the first third of the race was garbage. I had no rhythm and was going much slower than I wanted to.

After the first turn, I swam shoulder to shoulder with one guy. He was a bad navigator, though, and he would drift away from me and then zig back and swim right at me. I spent a lot of energy trying to avoid his elbows. By this time we ran into the back of the previous wave, so I had to watch out for slow breaststrokers too. I used them as screens to get away from the other guy, though. Actually, I reached people two waves ahead before I finished (that's why I don't like the order of the waves).

In the final 200 meters I was comfortable enough to swim my own pace. I was surprised that it was a battle for nearly the whole swim, and I didn't push myself to go all out because I was watching out for those around me.

Last year my swim was 14:28, so my goal was to hit 13:00. In a perfect world I wanted to hit 12:00, but I didn't think that would be possible in this race. Much to my surprise, I finished in 12:19, so I guess I was working harder than I thought out there. Or maybe being in a pack gave me a bit of a drafting advantage. So, even though I didn't enjoy the swim experience, it turned out to be a good swim performance.

I guess I need to work on sprinting during the start or something, because that's the only way I'll get free of the crowd. I seeded myself front and center, but it was no use. I got boxed in immediately. Maybe I can seed way to the side, but then I'd have to swim a longer distance.

After seeing my time, I'm sure I was fit enough to go under 12 minutes. I just need to work on my tactics. My finish place in the swim is pretty poor when compared to my bike and run, so it's clear that it was my weak spot.

I was super stupid in this transition. I had my goggles and cap in my hand when I tried to take off the top half of my wetsuit. Of course they got caught in the sleeve, but the stupid move was that I decided to let go of them and leave them in the sleeve, thinking they would be fine. Well they fell out and I had to run back 20 yards to get them. That cost me a lot of time.

I was using brand new single-strap bike shoes, so getting into them was easy. I would have had a pretty fast transition if I didn't make the wetsuit mistake.

Don't put things in my wetsuit sleeve.

Mean Power = 208 W
Mean Cadence = 94 rpm
Mean Heart Rate = 175 bpm
Rolling speed = 22.0 mph

This was a really good bike for me. My goal was 34:00, and 200 W. Right from the start I was passing people, and not a single person passed me. It wasn't as crowded on the bike course as last year, so I guess my quicker swim made a big difference in terms of how many people were in front of me.

The swim left my legs a little tired, and my stomach a little upset. I think I was kicking a lot. About 12 minutes into the bike I ate a GU and had some water, and that calmed my stomach.

Although I was having a great time passing people, I tried to keep a high cadence and avoid mashing, and I lightened up a little bit near the end. I was trying a flying dismount for the first time, so I positioned myself in a big gap about a quarter mile from the finish. That way no one would be around when I tried the dismount. The dismount was successful--I hopped off my bike in my bare feet and cruised right into transition.

After the bike leg my position was 50th place overall.

Hmm...it took me a little too long to mount up. While my bike was moving I was doing 22 mph, but with the extra time to get to the mount line I get credit for only 21.4.

This was my best transition ever. Since I was barefoot I could run across the grass easily and get right into my running shoes (sockless Zoots). Last year this transition cost me 1:48, but the new and improved dismount cut my time almost in half.

Nothing.

Mile 1: 5:42
Mile 2: 6:24
Mile 3 (plus 0.1): 6:16

This was a very good run. My goal was 18:30ish, I guess. Basically I wanted to finish somewhere around 1:07 for the whole race. I started the run strong, but then lightened up just a bit in order to control my pace. I would need a little extra energy for the giant hill in mile 2.

The first mile was done in 5:42, which was just the right pace for what I wanted to do. In fact it was the exact same split as last year, so that was kind of cool. When I hit the hill in the second mile, it really REALLY hurt my quads. But I shortened my stride and just made sure I didn't stop running, and I reached the top eventually. I turned around and came back down, and the descent partially made up for time losses on the way down. I encouraged runners who were on their way up the hill, partially because that usually gives me a boost too.

After the hill I decided to switch gears. I was on pace for my time goal, but I hadn't seen anyone in my age group for the entire race. I figured I was either first in my age group (unlikely) or I should be coming across someone at any moment. Either way I wanted to finish the third mile really strong and leave nothing up to chance. I didn't see anyone in my age group, because it turned out that the next person was three minutes ahead of me, but trying to find him still helped motivate me.

I tried to kick down a couple of 31-year-olds at the end. I was inspired after watching this clip the day before:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo-nbnw8zSI

So I went after them from pretty far out. I would have gotten both of them, but unfortunately the course narrowed right before the finish. I had to abandon the kick in order to stay on course, because there wasn't room for me. I actually accidentally kicked the foot of one of the guys, who finished third among us, so I feel guilty that I may have messed him up.

My final run time of 18:22 was 20 seconds faster than last year, so I was really happy. Also, no one passed me, or even challenged me, during the run.

My only mistake was misjudging the final sprint. I should have gone between the two guys instead of to the left of both of them. Then I could stay on course and beat them both.

I jogged half a mile, then did some stretching while I cheered on the finishers. The jogging really helped. I didn't feel nearly as bad as I did last year, and I was able to make the bike ride home without any pain at all.


The swim messed me up, but I very accurately hit my goal of 1:07.

I was disappointed to find out that I finished 4th in my age group. Last year my age group winner finished in 1:07:31, so I decided my goal would be to finish in 1:07 and get at least 3rd. I was really happy to achieve the time goal, but I was definitely robbed of my 3rd place prize. They were supposed to have the overall awards go 3 deep, but instead they only went one deep (2nd and 3rd place weren't "elite" so they got screwed out of prizes). The 3rd guy overall was in my age group and bumped us all down a spot, so I was 4th. I'm actually quite mad about that.


I used to really like this race, but in recent years I have been disappointed with the organization. Here are the reasons it gets 3 stars:

1) The packet pickup the day before is too short, and if you show up after noon you might not get a T-shirt, even if you preregistered. If they don't at least set your shirt aside I don't see any incentive for someone to preregister.

2) The order of the waves makes no sense. Some slower waves go early, so my wave always has to do a lot of passing on a crowded course. Seafair attracts a lot of first-timers who don't know that they should ride on the right, so there are always close calls when trying to pass them at a high relative speed.

3) The size of some waves makes no sense. Many waves are 5-year age groups (e.g., men 30-34, women 25-29), but my wave is the gigantic and testosterone infused men 29-and-under wave. There are just too many people starting the swim in this wave, and I'm sure that's part of the reason the swim is always rough. They need to split up that wave, at least for the sake of safety.

4) The awards are messed up so that there is no such thing as an overall win. The elites compete with the elites and form essentially another age group, and age groupers that finish in the top 3 aren't allowed to get overall awards. That's why the age group awards in M20-24 and M25-29 were poached by people who should have received overall awards.

On the other hand, the race is conveniently located in Seattle.

It's a reasonably good race but the race directors didn't put enough thought into the details, so people who preregister or want to be competitive sometimes get screwed.