After problems in the swim in 3 out of 4 of my first tris, the swim continues to be my focus on race day. Everything after the swim is all physical. Well, this start was great. I started right in the thick of things to get the full experience. I guess there were 100ish people in my wave for a running start. When the horn went off, I was right in the middle of everything and quickly found my place and my stroke. The only real issue at this point was a pretty good chop coming right in our face due to some heavy winds on the lake. That being said, I was right with the lead group, so I thought today was going to be a good swim.

My sighting on the first stretch was perfect and I arrived at the first navigation buoy with everyone else. At this point, things started to get bottled up and I had to slow to allow the people in front of my to navigate the buoy so I wouldn't swim on top of the people in front of me. The problem now was a couple of guys behind me didn't provide the same courtesy and they swam right over me pushing me under. That effect caused me to take in a bunch of water and brought back all of my old swim trepidations - hyperventilation and general lack of ability to catch my breath. As a result, I had to swim away from the pack to collect my wits. I ended up swimming sidestroke for 150ish meters until the turn buoy before I was able to swim for real again. At this point the faster swimmers from the wave behind us caught me (4 minutes behind).

When I made the second turn, the chop was no longer an issue and I was back in the right frame of mind. Finally, I was able to freestyle again and held my own against some of the faster swimmers from the second group. I passed a number of people from my wave along this stretch. When we reached the turn towards home, I decided to pick it up a bit. Unfortunately, I forgot about sighting and ended up about 100 meters off course before I realized what was going on. Between the two incidents, I think I cost myself 4+ minutes on the swim. Oh well, now to land. :)

Overall swim time includes short run to T area.

Take a wider first turn and become a stronger swimmer. :)

Transitions have never been my strong suit as I have never focused on them. Today was no different with my usual 'cup of coffee' and clothes changes. Actually, I don't really know what to do different. I think I just need to practice doing transitions faster.

Wear my bike shoes in the water and hire a beautiful wetsuit stripper.

After the discouraging swim, I wanted to get going on the bike. The good news about coming out of the water so late is all the fast people are already well in front of me. Right from the beginning I ignored cadence and went right into the big gears figuring this was only sprint. The course was nice with easy rolling hills and no real climbs. I started passing numerous people right from the outset, however I looked down at my bike computer and it was not reading any information. The pace and time just sat on 0.00. Huh - it worked just fine on the walk from the car to the T area. I tried resetting it on the fly, but that didn't work either. Oh well, it looks like I wasn't going to get any timing information at any point during the race. About half way through the bike I felt like I was riding well, but I didn't have any idea of speed or pace. All I knew was I was passing people who were much better swimmer than myself. I kept pushing the pace right up until the end and finally in the last mile I was passed by a couple of the lead women who started 8 minutes behind me. At that point I knew my ride was ok, but not off the charts good. When I arrived back to the T area, it was off the bike and time to run.

Not really sure. I think I pushed the pace to the best of my ability and the ability of my little entry level bike.

Once again, transition was slow. I don't wear socks with my bike shoes, so this time includes putting on socks. I've tried running without, but just can't.

Go faster.

Right out of the run, I felt like I had pretty good legs for the first up hill leaving the Marina. However, almost immediately I had to stop to adjust my timing chip which was rubbing against my ankle. This probably cost 10 seconds or so. My goal for the run was to push the pace while paying attention to my turnover. Because I didn't have a watch or mile markers, I really had no idea how I was performing. For the first mile or so, I pretty much stuck with the pace of those around me. After a bit, I felt good and decided to pick it up a little. I found a guy in front of me who was doing some decent passing and stuck behind him for what I am guessing was a half mile or so. Finally, he turned around and asked who he was pacing - I introduced myself and thanked him for his efforts. At this point, I am guessing we were around mile 2ish and I still felt good. I passed my new friend and continued to increase leg turnover a bit. However, now I could hear him behind me. We ended up running the last mile or so together passing a bunch of people. When we hit the final downhill towards the finish we both sprinted and he caught me at the end. I had looked at the running clock on the way out and now seeing the finish time, I guessed that had run 22ish, which would be PR. It turns out my time guess was correct - a 5k PR by 13 seconds. This goes to show how rarely I run the 5k distance.

Push the pace even harder during the first mile.

Walked around and watched others finish.


SWIM!


Set Up Inc does a great job! The race and course was very organized. Fun course!

I will run another Set Up Inc race in the future - probably the April HIM which is held at Lake Anna State Park.