Bridgetown Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

After a terrible swim in Port Hood my goal was to have a really strong swim; with the current it is hard to predict times in the river as the current changes (even directions) throughout the day; this year the current was quite strong which we were fighting going out, then got the benefit on the way back and the final turn put us back into the current for about 50m.
I went hard for the first 200m; I counted to 160 and then looked around to see who was there. I had started next to Eric and my goal was to come out of the water with him so I figured I was in good position. I jumped on his feet and was holding strong until I ran into a piece of deadwood; took me a minute to figure out what it was and then get going again. At this point there were about five other swimmers just behind me and I focused on getting back up on Eric's feet; took a little effort but was back up in short order and we were moving steadily towards the turn. Except under the bridges the current didn't feel that bad so I wasn't expecting that much of a benefit as we turned around. However, after rounding the buoys, Eric was gone and I had some trouble swimming straight with the current; really had to focus on my form and got towards the middle of the river to get the benefit of the current. I was back up on Eric again by the tme we passed the start line and headed towards the last buoys; as we rounded these you could see the field had really spread out; I really had no idea how many people were in front of me but as I hit the mat (right behind Eric), I heard someone say we were 3rd and 4th; right on target!

Nothing really, this was a really good swim.

Great transition - 2nd fastest T1. I was out of T1 ahead of both Eric and the guy who was out of the water second to put me in second place starting the bike.

Nothing

I had a very solid ride; I think I could have squeezed out another 30" to a 1' but overall I felt pretty solid.
Left transition, got up to speed and into aero as quickly as possible; once I was up to 30km/h, I got my shoes on and settled into race effort. My goal was just to keep moving and holding on to a hard effort; I knew that there were some faster bikers behind me and wanted to hold them off for as long as possible. My goal was to do each of the laps in under 36' (before I found out the course was shortened to make it closer to 40km - used to be 42); I was hoping to do each under 35' with the distance change. I hit the first turnaround slightly behind schedule and had been passed by one rider at this point; he was flying so I let him go and focused on keeping strong on my ride. After the turn I was passed by another cyclist who was riding just faster than I was so after he went by, I keyed on him; keeping him in sight and using him to set a pace just slightly faster than I had been going. After the turn it was a chance to see where the fast cyclists were; the two I was concerned about were getting close but I figured I could hold them both off. I was able to hold steady through the second half of this lap, I think I passed the guy in front when his pace fell off a little and then he passed me again just before the turn for the second lap. Coming out of the park, I was passed by another rider who was flying and there was no point in trying to match his pace. I was still following the other rider and after a bit, his pace started to fall again so I went back out in front and was also using sprint athletes to slingshot around the course. I was passed again just before the turn but things were looking good; I was on pace and knew that I should go under 1:10 for the ride. At the turn I picked up the pace a little, as I wanted a cushion over the guy who was following me but he stayed with me; we changed spots a couple more times on the last part of the course and I came in 1" in front of him, 4th place as after the swim.

Push the pace a little more; I think I cold have ridden 30"-1' faster and I would have liked a bigger gap starting the run.

Felt good about this as well; 4th fastest T2; only 2" slower than the fastest.

Nothing.

As I came out of transition, I had one athlete from the oly just in front and also Denis (who was on the long course and is a very strong runner). I worked hard to get up on Denis's shoulder and get run down the athlete in front. I caught Denis by the 1 mile mark and within another 200m we had run down the athlete in front. At this point I was in third and rarely get caught on the run so I just focused on a good turnover and moving as quickly as I could. Denis would fall back on the uphills and then charge back on the downhills; we stayed pretty much even until the turnaround. At the turn, I saw that there were two oly athletes close so I focused on trying to run away from Denis but he stayed with me; unfortunately, about 500m out of the turn I developed a side stitch that stayed with me for the next 3km. I was holding on as well as I could, trying every trick in the book to work thorugh the stitch but it was slowing me down; I heard footsteps on my shoulder and I was passed by the guy I was with on the bike. This provided a little more focus so I tried to stay with him but only a few steps and I had to back off again. Then the game was to stay in fourth but with about 2.5km to go, I was caught again; again I tried to go with him but just couldn't hold the pace. Finally, at the last water stop the stitch was almost gone and I had caught up to Denis again (he was walking the water stops) so we ran together until about 1km to go when I tried to crank up the pace and see if I could catch anyone; I was running faster but not really putting any time on the guys in front and ended up cross the line in 5th; 11" out of fourth and 24" out of third.

Run faster; unfortunately the stitch limited my ability to perform faster; judging by where I usually am with some of the other athletes, I would have expected to run about 45" faster; just wasn't going to happen today.

Walking, swimming and stretching.


Stitch on the run


Great race; since it was the Regional Championship, AG awards were five year and I was first M30-34!