Race:
sprint triathlon
Date:
15 June 2013
Location:
Penn Township, PA
Time:
1:08:51.2
Overall Rank: 123 out of 202
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 13
Results:
http://smileymiles.com/2013/RES13%20PENN%20TRAFFORD%20TRIATHLON.htm
PTARC Sprint Triathlon 2013.
Yesterday's triathlon was my 6th solo race
in my triathlon "career." Back in 2011, this PTARC triathlon was my first. So
now I can compare the two races to gauge my improvement in the last two years.
The event included a swim of 200 yards in a pool followed by an 11-mile bike
ride followed by a 5K run. Yesterday I finished in 1:08:51.2 which was 10:27
faster than I did in 2011 (a 15% improvement). Yesterday I came in 4th out of 13
in my age group; in 2011, I was 13 out of 13.
Swimming:
Dan and I shared a lane for the event. He quickly passed me but
I stayed fairly close behind him the whole time. I am not used to sharing a lane
with anyone so I find it distracting. I am thinking more about my position in
the lane than about the quality or speed of my swim stroke. A separate issue is
the flip-turn. I don't have a lot of control about where I end up in the lane
after a flip-turn, so instead of fishtailing around in the lane behind Dan I
just did open turns. I didn't feel good about the swim.
T1 transition went really smooth. I wasn't cold, either, which was a big
concern given the temp was in the 50s.
Cycling:
Dan was coasting down the first hill so I passed him almost
immediately. He told me later he was unsure about the upcoming intersection and
whether the policeman there was saying "stop" or "go." Dan trailed me the whole
rest of the bike race. I hardly ever looked back to see where he was, but I knew
he was always close. I think I managed my energy really well, as I maintained a
quick pace but didn’t burn out too early. There were only two spots in the
latter half of the bike course where I coasted for a few seconds in order to
rest my legs. My average speed on the course in 2011 was 14.9 mph. In 2013, my
average speed was 18.2 mph. Of course, I have a faster bike now than in 2011 but
my body is faster, too!
The bike segment was fun because I like to bicycle and I find the course
scenic and interesting. One thing that was hard this year was the fact that
riders were so spaced out, I had no one in view ahead of me for most of the
ride. I had to rely on my internal motivation to keep going fast, rather than
push hard due to a competitive wish to beat the person in front of me. Dan was
close behind me somewhere, but having a competitor behind you isn’t as
motivating as having a competitor in front of you.
I’m trying to resist comparing Dan to a persistent disease that won’t go
away—there was always the risk that I would have to “deal” with him again!
Dan finished his ride only seconds behind me. This is significant because it
turns out that about 2/3rds into the bike segment, I passed a woman on a mild
uphill section of the road. Her steering was shaky, as it gets when you are
riding very slow and having trouble maintaining balance. I called ahead and let
her know I was about to pass her on the left. I think she was wearing headphones
though, so it may be that she never heard me. I gave her about 6 feet of buffer
as I passed. I never thought twice about passing her until at the T2 transition,
Dan caught up with me and said “that woman you passed? Yeah, she crashed. I
stopped to make sure she was OK.” (Her injuries were superficial and she told
Dan to go on)
I wondered for the rest of the race whether I had done something wrong. Dan
tells me I did not cause her accident. Apparently she lost control after I
passed her but not IMMEDIATELY after I passed her. My compliments to Dan for
stopping to help. My compliments to him also for catching up to me so fast
afterward. He really had to work hard to make up the lost ground. Would he catch
me in the run segment?
Running segment:
After the swim and the bike ride, I now had a 5K run. My
T2 transition went smoothly, though I look forward to changing my laces to the
elastic kind, which will save a few seconds of shoe-tying. I grabbed a GU for a
bit of fuel and consumed this slowly during the first mile. I don’t know whether
it is a psychological or physiological thing, but in the past this has boosted
my energy level and today’s race was no exception. Overall, I ran at an 8:20
min/mile pace and finished this segment in 25:50.2. The race course in 2011 was
quite different (easier, in fact), so I can’t compare my times. But looking at
my five previous triathlons, this was the fastest pace I have ever run.
I did have to walk a few steps in the first half mile because my calf muscles
were cramping. This has been a chronic issue, but not recently. I’ll have to
work on that.
So where was Dan? He usually beats me in a run. The cross-country running
course double backed on itself in several places, so I could see Dan was just a
few seconds behind me throughout the race. He’d catch up at some point, but
when? I wanted to stop. I was tired of running and the course wasn’t much fun
because it was just looping around ball fields in unmown grass. There was a
place where a volunteer called out “almost to Mile 2!” and I thought “darn! I
thought Mile 2 was a long time ago.” Eventually the course took us down to the
high school track for one quarter-mile circuit. Surely this is where Dan would
catch me. I ran in the second lane from the inside, giving him (or anyone else)
room to pass. But no one did. Finally, Dan started to make his move. I heard him
get closer. I stepped up my speed. Then in the last curve of the track he
started to sprint. But since I anticipated that he would do that, I started
sprinting as soon as I heard the change in his cadence. It was a stroke of good
luck that I was in the second lane from the inside of the track. Dan was
attempting to pass me on my left. But as we neared the finish line we saw that
the chute that you run through was on the right side of the track! I headed
right for it with Dan basically at my left elbow. But there was only space for
one to go into the chute and I hit it first. I was actually surprised to see the
final race results that put Dan 1.2 seconds behind me. It seemed that he was
just a fraction of a second behind me.
Given that he had to stop to assist a cyclist who crashed behind me on the
bike course, Dan deserves the 4th place age group finish that I received. But
life isn’t fair sometimes, and his loss to me by 1.2 seconds is insignificant
enough that I view it as a tie. I will only brag in jest that I beat him.
