Tri Indy : Official Thread (Page 4)

I did well yesterday. My overall placement was decent 13/43 in the 40-44 AG and 90/443 overall.  My swim split was slower than I would have like at 27:35 but I left my wetsuit in my truck instesad of bringing it to transition.  the bike was a ridiculously fast time for me 1:08:00 for a 21.9 mph avg.  It  seems fast to me.  I cannot imagine having a bike that fast for my first year of tri-ing. Plus its a roadie with areo's clipped on.  My normal 20 mile TT for the bike at home (in a few lite hills) is about 20 mph.
The run was good and right on my targeted pace of 7:30 miles.  Run split was 46:38.

race report

the averages tuxbro has up there for bike speed is a little off. they were saying it was going to be a 25 mile course but was only 23.25 miles. my tuxbro speed says 21.2 but my computer was reading 19.9 and my bike time was 1:10.......

What a great event! My first Oly, and loved it. Definitely going to be concentrating on that distance. I agree with everyone, the bike course was uber rough. Still a great overall course! The canal swim was actually really cool. I also think it was a bit under 75. Felt a bit cold at first once I got going though, felt great. My goal time was under 2:30. Did it in 2:33. Still really happy, had some issues on the run, taking that into consideration, I am very pleased. Congrats to everyone!!!

I loved this event!  I have done a sprint and olympic duathlon and a sprint triathlon (Winona Lake), so this was my second tri and my first olympic distance.  I think the atmosphere and venue is pretty cool at this one.  The canal swim is pretty sweet, even though I have to agree that it was freakin' cold.  I had a goal time of 2:30 and was afraid i wansn't going to be anywhere near it.  I have had a sore throat for several days now and started getting congested and my nose was running like crazy the evening before the race.  It really bummed me out because I started thinking that my goal was going to be to just finish.  But, I took some cold medicine the night before and morning of the race and felt MUCH better.  

I Ended up beating my goal time by almost 6 minutes (2:24:07) and was VERY pleased.  I surpassed my swim time goal by 1 minute, but still felt like I didn't swim very well and could have swum much better.  I was almost 2 minutes faster on my bike than my goal time and almost 3 minutes faster on the run.  Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I don't know that I've ever had that much fun DURING a race before.

In response to everyone's posts:

I really don't think too many people lie about their swimming abilities, but just may not have the best reference (myself included).  I agree that people should put down estimated swim goals or swim times per 400 yards.  A lot of it is frame of reference.  For example, I was right around the top 30% in the last race I did.  I felt like I was borderline between average and above average, but I also know that I didn't swim very well in that race and struggled with getting kicked a lot, so I put above average.  In this race, I was 243/447 Olympic distance swimmers which is definitely not above average against the field.  However, if you cut my time into 1/3rd and this is assuming that I wouldn't swim faster over 500 meters, I would have been 75/500 in the sprint distance, which is definitely way above average.  I think the Olympic distance race in Indy is VERY competitive, and the swim, bike, and run times all show that.

Fortunately, I was not involved in the accident with the car.  Unfortunately, I saw it happen 150 feet in front of me...  The minivan was traveling to the left of the cones in the same direction we were and turned RIGHT in front of the cyclist at a pretty good rate of speed.  The cyclist ended up running into the side of the van pretty much at full speed.  I believe his head hit the rear window on the side of the van because it shattered and I think there was a dent in the side of the van from his bike.  At first I was very shocked and didn't know what to do.  I kept debating in my mind whether or not to stop and help, but I didn't really know what I would have done to help.  There were 2 volunteers at the scene immediately and there were police 1 block away, so help was there quite quickly.  There was another rider right in front of me and when we got to the next corner, she was yelling for someone to call 911.  For the next mile or so, I was quite shaken up and definitely not focused.  I was definitely looking around a lot more to make sure cars were paying attention for the rest of the bike section.  My prayers go out to all those involved and I hope the triathlete has a speedy recovery.  That would certainly be a crappy way to have to end your season.

Bill, I hope that at least ONE of my races this year won't have errors in the automatic timing.  Everyone has ended up changing the course slightly and then all the paces are off (like the bike at this race).  I don't understand why they can't change the distance in the timing computer and have it recalculate the paces appropriately.  When I saw the official results, it said I averaged 22.9 mph, and I knew right away that it was off.  I recalculated it (using 23.25 miles) and 21.5 is more like it and that's about what I got on my bike computer too.  Oh well :-)

Dirk, we should get together sometime for a bike ride.  Are you doing any more tri's in the area this year?  I'm going to do Lake Wawasee in 2 weeks and Mississinewa on 9/11.  Anyone else planning on doing those races?

Edited by 1100xxben 2010-08-02 11:07 AM

I was probably a little out of line saying people lie about their times, I guess they are not sure where they would fall in this type of set up.  I will have to say I started 221 and about 500 yards into the swim there were people doing the breast stroke and standing up, I would have to say that is not above average swimmers.  I finished 122 so I was passing quite a few, but with the set it I had no issue with it.  I will be at Mississinewa I really like that race hope to see you there.

Ron

that would be cool.  I don't usually train with anyone but not because I don't want to, but because I am so new to triathlon that I don't know anyone.  I am not part of the tri fort club but I have met a couple of other athletes that are in the club.  I'll PM later or you can PM me.

Posted my race report.  
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=220460

2 additional thoughts FWIW directed to TUXBRO, the organizers:

TRI INDY is a great event that is only going to grow.  So, with that in mind:
1.  Upgrade to a Tech style shirt!!  If profit margin is thin, add the option of ordering a tech shirt for an additional $12.00 - trust me you'll make your money back by those who will flock to the tech-style shirt.

2.  MOST IMPORTANTLY - for the love of Pete, upgrade your results software options.  Here in Michigan, most events use a site called Active.com.  You can literally sort your results by any metric you want - individual, age, gender ect...  It also allows you to enter your bib number and it will bring up a very nice RESULTS page with all your personal results that is easy to print for record keeping and/or framing.

Not meant to be negative at all -this is such a great event, just some simple hopes to make it even better.




 

Amen to this one. One of the shortcomings I thought was the lack of results posted after I finished.  I waited over an hour for them to post some before I left and I was not on any of them.  I attended a very small time tri in Kendallville In. a few weeks ago (tri relay team) and they had immediate splits for each discipline as it was completed for each individual on touch screen monitors.  I  think the tri indy event would be to big to have the moitors because they would be destroyed.  What I think they could do is post all the results as they come in, pending "penalties/DQ's."

Agree with both.  Even drop the cotton T-shirt & charge for tech-T option.  Results software could be better, but Active (IMHO) has been having big problems (like dropping paid members during the year with no explanation).
Also- I don't need a finisher's medal for an Oly.

Re- crash:  I didn't see it but Indy Star reported driver was NOT cited.  If it happened as described here, that's BS.  Route was CLEARLY marked with LOTS of orange cones!!!!  If a car turned like that into another car no question it would be a ticket.  Too often cyclists get NO respect from IPD (or other law enforcement).  I understand we all need to be aware of traffic even on semi-closed course, but it seems that cyclist never had a chance.

Edited by Oldteen 2010-08-03 7:58 AM

That kinda infuriates me.  I don't know how the driver wouldn't be cited for that.  Even if you take the cones and the race away from it all, the cyclist was traveling on a public road where he has just as much right to the road as any other vehicle.  The van turned across a lane of traffic and the cyclist had no time to react when he hit the van.  That's just ridiculous in my opinion.  I sure hope the insurance provider of the person driving the minivan is paying for everything.

I posted my race report as well.  http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=220561

Great event, it would be nice to be able to sort the results, I agree.

As for the accident, it almost happened again 15 minutes later near the same place.  Some car was driving in the bike lane, but this guy at least was paying attention to the bikers when he turned into the gas station.

Oops, sorry!  Hit 'submit' twice!

Edited by GotTorque? 2010-08-03 12:42 PM

I added the results in an Excel format that can be sorted to my blog's race report.  It's at the very bottom of the post.

http://batlou.blogspot.com/2010/08/tri-indy-2010-08-01-indianapolis.html

Thanks!!!!!!

And great to meet ya Sunday.
PM if/when you're in Indy for another event.

Dude thats awesome.  Thanks!

Sweet!  Thank you very much.  BTW, I took the time to read you blog - very impressive and inspiring.  Congratulations on many fronts and good luck with the rest of your KY racing season. 

So, I checked out the "professional" race photos from visual sports.  Is anyone else severely disappointed?

I didn't know anything about them but I am about to check them out. 

Ok, I just checked them out and they suck with a capital SUCK!  I found one pic of me at the finish but it's so far away that only I could tell it was me.  They were going along in sequence, I show up in the distance and then they just ended.  2:46:22 is on the gun clock and I am 50 feet from the finish.......the end.

I also checked the swim and bike pics and found nothing either.  Looks like they got tired of taking pics and just quit.  Yeah, lacking the "professional" touch I thought a professional group would have had.

+1

My wife took some MUCH better pics with her point-shoot digital.

@WOT:  Thanks, it's been a fun journey so far.

Anyone have a link to the photo's?  I checked on TuxBro's web site and did not see anything.

Their site is http://www.vsnindy.com

but here is a direct link to Tri Indy 2010:
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/thumbpage.aspx?e=7009959

Edited by 1100xxben 2010-08-10 2:04 PM

I politely emailed them and got a quick response in return.  Here is the content  of my note and the replies

The pics posted on your site for the tri indy race are very short of the number of athletes that were competing. I placed      90th overall in the olympic distance and there are no pics of me in any of the disciplines. Do you have others that have not been posted? Thanks, Dirk

Hi Dirk:  I will be glad to check for you.  I was advised that all the images were posted but I will double check with the photographers that were handling this job.

 

I will let you know soon.

 

 

Lupe Guajardo Roach

Visual Sports Network

I doubt there will be any change because I think they got lazy and left the venue.  there is no way they could have taken pictures of half of the competitors.  Oh well, my wife took better pics of me too.