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2010 World Sprint Championships - TriathlonSprint


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Budapest,
Hungary
ITU
60F / 16C
Precipitation
Total Time = 1h 23m 6s
Overall Rank = 475/575
Age Group = M35-39
Age Group Rank = 64/71
Pre-race routine:

Woke up at 5 after sleeping for only a few hours. The bike was already at the site as it was a drop off yesterday. Opened up the window in the room and it was absolutely pouring rain out. This would be the theme for the day.

Downed a builder bar so that it would be digested by race time. Took a quick shower after Beth and threw on the uni. Then put on arm warmers and the team polo to keep warm. Even put the running shoes on just to keep a little bit warmer.

Cab came to pick us up at about 5:45 and we were on our way. About 1/2 way over Beth said to just HTFU. It was raining and nothing we could do would change that so it is better to accept it, change the midset and just move on. She was right. I did. It helped.
Event warmup:

Really nothing. We were not allowed in the water before hand and with the rain, I just left the wetsuit on to try to stay warm. Met a nice guy next to me on the bike rack from Moline. Struck up a conversation that we held all the way down to the swim start. Just like me, he was a roll down and just there to have fun.
Swim
  • 13m 58s
  • 750 meters
  • 01m 52s / 100 meters
Comments:

HOLY CRAP was that water cold. You stand on a pontoon and about 30 seconds before you start, they ask you to get in the water. Hop in and hold onto the side. MERCY!

Horn blew and we were off. I knew some of these guys were going to be fast, and brother were they. I felt like I had a pretty good swim, for as cold as it was. Basically just tried to go to that little happy place and push it for all it was worth.

Rounded the first set up buoys and sighted to my right and there was this guy keeping up with me doing the breast stroke. I mean HE WAS HAULIN'!

Rounded the second set of buoys and I saw breast stroke man was starting to lose some ground on me. My goal was to drop him at least in the water. A man has to have his pride, you know. ;)

Finally rounded the last buoys and headed to shore. I knew it was a bit slower than I wanted overall because of the cold water. I was having a little bit of problem feeling my fingers and my left shoulder was a hair tender from the bike wreck yesterday.
What would you do differently?:

Not wreck the day before a race and maybe see about getting in a good word with Mother Nature to NOT screw up the weather for such an important race.
Transition 1
  • 03m 33s
Comments:

Transition is SO friggen huge. And long. And wet. Decided to NOT wear the sunglasses with the clear lenses since they were drenched anyway. I would regret this MUCH later in the day, but more on that in the end.

Kept repeating to myself to NOT touch the bike till the helmet was on and snapped. Don't want any penalties. Suit off, helmet on, shoes on (still don't have that mounting thing down yet) and off I went sloshing through the wet grass to the mount line.

Got to the line, swung the leg over, and started to take off. Guy up ahead of me tried to do a running mount with shoes already in and went down. He was having a b*tch of a time. Finally took his shoes off the bike, put them on himself and then mounted.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing. As big as the area was and as wet as it was, not a darn thing.
Bike
  • 35m 44s
  • 12.43 miles
  • 20.87 mile/hr
Comments:

Bonehead move of the day, forget to turn the Garmin on AND then forgot to set it to multisport. So I missed the first mile or so of the bike. DOH. Oh well, anyway, the bike went well.

All in all there are 4 180-degree turns on the course. So of course, this drops your mph WAY down. Couple that with a VERY wet course from the rain and everyones speeds were down. Therefore, I'm totally stoked at my mph. Could it have been faster, probably. Did I want to bite it on a turn. NO WAY.

The bike itself was pretty uneventful. Passed by some SUPER fast people and passed some SUPER slow people. There were a few there on hybrids. It was cool, though, to see ALL the countries represented. Just a really, really cool sight.

Also paid pretty close attention to not drafting as there were at least 5-6 course marshals out on motorcycles. Pretty impressive.

Rounded the last corner, got the frozen feet out of the shoes and on top to get into T2. Hit the dismount line running on the side of the bike and into transition.

All in all, a VERY good bike.
Transition 2
  • 03m 26s
Comments:

Again, a VERY long transition. Hell, cut these two down to 1 minute or less a piece if it were a regular transition area and I might have been down close to 1:15 over all.

Anyway, running into transition, through rain soaked grass was actually a good thing. The water was slightly warm so it warmed my feet up a bit.

Got to the rack, racked the bike, off with the helmet, on with the shoes and visor (not that I needed it, but I hate running without something on my head) and off I went.

Out the same exit as the bike, just on the right of it, avoided a HUGE muddy puddle and onto the end of my journey.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing.
Run
  • 26m 28s
  • 3.11 miles
  • 08m 31s  min/mile
Comments:

Not entirely pleased nor displeased with the run. I know the first mile was strong and I thought the second mile was too, but I have yet to actually look at the watch data. It should have been faster considering how cool it was out there.

Out of transition and down a small hill onto the river frontage road. And it was nothing more than pushing it as fast as I could till I could see the bridge which was the last 200 meters of the course.

At about mile 2, Jeff (guy from Moline) passed me looking nice and strong. There were people all along the run course yelling for their country, their friend, their family member. And I lost count of how many times I heard "Go GB (Great Britain)". Talked to one person later who said that they had over 1000 people there!

Anyway, There was the bridge. It was in sight at last and I knew I had to pick it up a bit. Up a small hill and we were on it. Pace was good and strong. I hadn't yet seen the finish line so didn't know what to expect. It was a little different.

Hung a 90-degree left off the bridge and onto the blue carpet. 20-30 meters down was a 180-degree turn around!! REALLY!!! WTF!?!?!?! This isn't awkward or anything. Make that turn, and in a broken English, heavily Hungarian accented voice I heard my name over the PA system.

One last push, for the last 50 meters. Crossed the finish line, kissed where the wedding ring would be on my hand if I wore it in a race, did the sign of the cross and I was done.
What would you do differently?:

Learn how to run faster. Need to work on that in the off season.
Post race
Warm down:

Got a blanket and finishers medal. Ran into Jeff and talked with him for a minute. Beth got a photo of the two of us (I'll upload later) and then had a banana and two water bottles.

Then walked around to be with Beth before she took off for the hotel and I for the start area to get my gear and head back to the hotel. Waited for 20 minutes for the return boat and hopped on. Then all hell broke loose.

On the 15 minute boat ride, the heavens opened up and it began to absolutely pour down. And it was COLD rain. Walked over to the bag check to pick up my fairly dry back pack. What a mess. Took them forever to get people's bags because they didn't number them properly and then didn't put them into the right numbered area.

Then when I got back to my rack site some MF'er stole my sunglasses!!!! Really!?!?!? At the World Championships, some piece of SH!T stole my GD sunglasses!! Sigh.

So I held the blanket over my bag, opened it up and stuffed what I could into the bag, threw on my bike shoes and prepared to bike the 4 miles back to the hotel in the pouring, cold rain.

Made it to the hotel, where Beth had forgotten to take the key with so she was waiting on me. Into the room, unpacked EVERYTHING to dry out and drew up a bath to try to warm up. My teeth were chattering. Any ideas about going to watch the Elite race quickly evaporated as there was no end in sight to the crappy weather outside.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Lack of running speed. ;)

Event comments:

I was terribly disappointed in this race overall. I didn't give it a 1 as worst because I don't think ALL of it was ITU's fault. But a lot of it was.

1. There was no transportation for the spectators from the start line to the finish line. So Beth had to walk the entire 5k and only got there 30 seconds before I finished.

2. The "boats" that were supposed to take the finishers back to the finish line was a single boat. Really!?!?!

3. SOMEONE STOLE MY GODDAMNED SUNGLASSES.

4. The whole thing was WAY to spread out. The fact that a lion's share of the athletes were 3-5 miles away from the race center is poor planning. Then again, I don't think they had any choice in the matter.

5. Last minute cancellation of a Parade of Nations mainly because they had no where to do it.

6. Absolutely no direction to the race site in the way of signs until you were less than 1/2 mile from it.

7. Little to no marketing to the city, to the point where our cab driver, on our arrival, said that nobody in the city knew about it till 2-3 days before we started to arrive.

All in all, I just don't see ITU going back to Budapest any time soon.And as for me, I'm going to wait another 3-4 years to try to qualify again. Maybe there will be somewhere warm and maybe a little closer. Then again, Vancover was a sleet storm 2 years ago. ;)


Profile Album


Last updated: 2010-09-06 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:13:58 | 750 meters | 01m 52s / 100meters
Age Group: 46/71
Overall: 382/575
Performance: Good
Suit: NewSport sleeveless
Course: In a bay next to the Danube. Out to buoys, hang a right, over to more buoys, hang another right coming back to shore then hang a left about 3/4 of the way back into the shore on the North of the start line.
Start type: Deep Water Plus: Waves
Water temp: 58F / 14C Current:
200M Perf. Good Remainder: Good
Breathing: Good Drafting:
Waves: Navigation: Good
Rounding: Good
T1
Time: 03:33
Performance: Average
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
Yes
Wetsuit stuck? No Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed: Good
Biking
00:35:44 | 12.43 miles | 20.87 mile/hr
Age Group: 59/71
Overall: 445/575
Performance: Good
Wind: Little
Course: Two loops on the course.
Road: Smooth Wet Cadence:
Turns: Average Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Good Hills:
Race pace: Comfortable Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 03:26
Overall: Good
Riding w/ feet on shoes Good
Jumping off bike Good
Running with bike Good
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal Good
Running
00:26:28 | 03.11 miles | 08m 31s  min/mile
Age Group: 64/71
Overall: 575/575
Performance: Below average
Course: Flat, flat, flat. Point to point run along the Danube.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 3
Good race? Ok
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Bad
Race evaluation [1-5] 2

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2010-09-20 2:10 PM

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Champion
15211
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Southern Chicago Suburbs, IL
Subject: 2010 World Sprint Championships


2010-09-20 3:15 PM
in reply to: #3108343

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Champion
7495
50002000100100100100252525
Schwamalamadingdong!
Subject: RE: 2010 World Sprint Championships
2010-09-20 3:16 PM
in reply to: #3108343

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Champion
7495
50002000100100100100252525
Schwamalamadingdong!
Subject: RE: 2010 World Sprint Championships
Epic.

How cool you got to represent the United States! Great job racing under miserable conditions.

And who the heck steals sunglasses? Grr.
2010-10-01 12:55 PM
in reply to: #3108343

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Melon Presser
52116
50005000500050005000500050005000500050002000100
Subject: RE: 2010 World Sprint Championships
You. Are. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!

I am so incredibly proud of you. You worked really hard to get there, and had a super attitude and did very well when the race really wasn't up to par (for a regular triathlon, much less Worlds).
2010-10-04 4:58 AM
in reply to: #3108343

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Expert
950
5001001001001002525
London, UK
Subject: RE: 2010 World Sprint Championships

Wife told you to HTFU? No wonder she married a 'Scousser'!

Great job on the race given the appalling weather and organisation. You sucked it up and got on with it.

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