Soma Quarterman Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

So about 0725 or so they start getting us in the water. We're all
in one group, they're funneling us down one set of stairs and moving
as fast as we can (at least I am). At 0732 they tell us we have two
minutes and they're opening a second set of stairs. Things start moving
then. I get in the water and immediately start stroking for the
line. Then the horn goes off. I'm still probably 40m from the
starting line. I haven't had a chance to adjust my goggles or
warm my wetsuit. (I know you're thinking you've already been to the
port-a-potty twice. Trust me, I'm well hydrated). About 80m in it's obvious
my left goggle is leaking a bit, but I just look right and I'm ok.
Regrettably, that blazing orb in the sky that sustains all life on earth is
also to the right. Although it is within my superpowers to create an
eclipse for the duration of my swim, I instead choose to start
breathing left. The goggle is unmanageable. I fix it quickly and move
on. Uncharacteristically about 150m in is when I start to panic a bit.
I try to get good breaths and just relax and move on. At the half way
point I can start to breath right to give my other side a break. This
is also about the same time the freight train that is the black caps
from the wave behind us starts to put the beat down on us. I mean
that literally. I think one of them was thorough enough that I
can opt out of the uncomfortable part of my annual physical when I hit
40.

Analysis: Swim was longer than last year and I lost almost
6 weeks of swimming to the collarbone, and I was still faster. Unqualified
success.

Get in the water earlier. Don't lose 6 weeks of swim training to a broken collarbone. Swim more.

Normally I'm fast in transition. I try to do very little and what I do I
try to do on the move. This gets slowed down a lot by a stop to pee.
I thought about it in the water, and although I can pee on the bike (really,
I'm not kidding) it doesn't work very well and ends up slowing me down.
I figure taking the 30 seconds now will save me time later. I have
a little problem with my socks, but I still make up 5 spots in T1.
Turns out I'm roughly 31st fastest in my AG even when I stop to go
to the bathroom. What the heck are you people doing?

More time in the water on the swim to allow me to warm ye' old wetsuit and cut out the port-a-potty stop.

This is where I think I've had my biggest improvements from last
year. The bike course was long (31.5 vs the advertised 27) but
I pushed hard the whole time and the results show. I was 24th
in my AG and 95th overall. That is smoking for me.

The bike wasn't completely uneventful though. First, because it was a funky
two loop course, there were plenty of reports of people cutting off
part of the course on the first loop. I'm sure most of them were
unintentional, but that means that my rankings were even better. You
have to love that. Last year I averaged just under 19mph. This year
just over 21mph. That's a huge improvement.

The highlight of ride is when I guy went by me and looked over and
shouted: "Come on. Use that disk!" It did help motivate me. I
would have loved to jump on his back wheel and just try to
hang on, but that's drafting, so not allowed. Still it was a good moment.

There were a couple of lowlights.

• Right after the aid station on Rio Salado, the bike course is half
  a lane wide. I'm a few bike lengths behind a RaceLab racer, when
  I watch him drop is empty waterbottle right down on the road. You have
  one of the most crowded sections of the road and it is also the narrowest
  and you just drop a bottle. You have to get that out of the traffic
  lanes.
  
• Big older rider "Stan" who yells at the volunteer on the second
  lap telling quarter athletes to go left and half right. Who knows,
  maybe he cut the course last time, but it's your responsibility to know
  the course. Don't take your ignorance out on the volunteers.
  
• Because I'm used to Phoenix heat I had my InfinIT frozen in my
  water bottle, and it didn't really thaw out. Since that is all of my
  bike nutrition I spent part of a lap sucking some of it out. Then I
  went with plan B, which is Gatorade on the course. Let's be honest,
  this is a reasonably short race, so having "my nutrition" just isn't
  that big a deal. Of course, on the first stop that I try to get
  a water bottle I don't manage to hold on to it. Volunteer did a great
  job of getting it do me, I'm just a klutz.
  

Saw Cody, Tanya and Milton out on the bike. Made sure I gave a shout
out.

Analysis: I'm ecstatic about my bike. I'm sure I can get better over
time, but the only people who passed me were REALLY fast.

Have my InfinIT be thawed. Other than that, no real complaints.

Bike dismount was smooth. Had a little bit of trouble with my
quick laces, but nothing major. In and out. Here is where the
results of the bike really show up. I gained 24 places. I'm also
about #20 in T2 in my AG. Memo to the rest of the people: It's a
race!

Nothing. I was pretty happy with it.

Now onto the run. It's funny that I'm so slow since I came to triathlon
from running. Still, I was pretty happy. I was 5 minutes faster than
last year. In the first mile my shoes weren't tight enough, so I had
a quick stop. I ran for a while with someone in one of the older
AG's, but around mile three he was done and I went out myself. I just
couldn't get my heart rate to anaerobic, and stayed right at my threshold
until the end. I think I can get faster with more speed work, but right
now my focus is so much on distance I don't have a problem with that.
Got to see Josh on the out-and-back. Only ESCKTC person I saw on
the run, although others were surely out there.

Analysis: I'm really happy with my run. I was five minutes faster
than last year and only lost five places in my AG.
Finish

Ran the last half mile or so hard. Did follow one guy with his girlfriend
who talked about how he had, and I quote, cheated. He said:

 

We totally cheated.  Well, not really, I mean we could have dropped  

at any time, but we didn't. 

Nice. Regardless, I finished strong and took a nice long run at
the slip-n-slide at the end. Steve didn't get my picture, so I
did an encore performance. Or maybe it's a "dramatic re-enactment".
Regardless, it was fun the second time too.

More speedwork. Given my season goals though, nothing.

Post race

Talked to Steve for a little bit. Then went out and got some Monti's.
Sat and talked with Jen and Josh for a bit then went down and cleared
out of transition for the way home.

Second of my anonymous volunteer props:
Second is when I was clearing out of transition, one of the guys ahead of me
didn't have a race number that matched the bike number. I think it was probably
a sticker mixup, but the volunteer handled it perfectly. Had the guy stand
to the side and said he'd call for someone to help sort it out.

The athlete said: "It's my bike, it must be a number mixup."

The volunteer responded with: "I'm not questioning your integrity. But I know
that if our roles were reversed you'd want to protect the property of the
athletes too."

It was perfect. Diffused the situation and did the right thing.

Got home and relaxed, and in this time when I let my defenses down, Monti's
struck. I spent the next 5 hours eating and drinking very little, but
getting to spend plenty of time reading in the bathroom. This has never
happened to me after any race, so food is my only suspect. Reports from
other racers corroborate this.

They need to give enough time to get the swim waves into the water. Adjust the timing if that's what it takes.

Also, for the quarter there needs to be some way to determine who cut the course short on that first lap.