Well, today, I finished my third Olympic-distance triathlon - the Disco Triathlon. The course was the same as last September's Texas Man Tri consisted of a 1,500 yard open-water swim in Lake Ray Roberts, a 23 mile bike leg, and a 10K (6.2 mile) run.
My goal was to finish in under 2:30 and I (kind of) made it - crossing the finish line in 2 hr and 28 minutes and 49 seconds. I say "kind of" because I think the run course was a little shorter because one of the little out-and-back loops was not done on the return leg of the run and I think that shortened the run by 0.2 miles My Garmin 305 said my run distance totaled 6.02 miles.
Anyway, my time was still more than 10 minutes faster than the Texas Man Tri. I finished 20th out of 41 in the men's 35-39 age group ... and 114th out of 277 overall. Here were my splits:
- Swim: 26:53 (133rd place)
- T1: 2:12
- Bike: 1:03:38 - 21.7 MPH (54th place)
- T2: 1:10
- Run: 54:59 - 8:52/mi pace (151st place)
- TOTAL: 2:28:49
The open-water swim went smoothly. Not too much damage done in the "human washing machine". Unlike the Texas Man which had a standing start in waist-deep water, the Disco was a beach start and I jogged into the water with the rest of my wave. There was a little bit of congestion for the first 200 yards, but I had a nice buffer and got into a comfortable stroke for the swim. Soon after the turn at the first buoy, I was catching up to the wave ahead of us (Men 30-34).
After a solid T1, I jumped on my bike for the 23 mile course. Since I had done the Disco pre-tri (as well as last year's Texas Man and its pre-tri workout) the course was familiar and I already knew where the hills would be. Also, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they had actually fixed Hemming Road so that part of the course was a lot better than Texas Man. I passed quite a few people on the bike - although some of them may have been doing the sprint race (which had started about 6-20 minutes depending on the wave) - and my 21.7 MPH average was satisfying. My fastest race average bike speed to date, and it was even for an Olympic distance (not a sprint)!
My run wasn't quite as good - maybe I was tired from the fast bike. I had to slow down about a mile into it. It wasn't a terrible run. I only walked a few times (at the aid stations) but my average pace was definitely not as fast as I would have liked. Oh well ...
For reference, here are my times from the Texas Man (where I placed 18th out of 27 in the men's 35-39 age group and 78th out of 179 overall - note: the Texas Man had a half-Iron distance so there were fewer "hard core" triathletes doing the Olympic distance)
- Swim: 27:04 (75th place)
- T1: 2:41
- Bike: 1:10:40 - 19.5 MPH (51st place)
- T2: 1:21
- Run: 1:00:33 - 9:46/mi pace (114th place)
- TOTAL: 2:42:17
Good improvement in every category, but I definitely need to work on my running/bricks (and maybe my swimming too). Even though my official run pace is listed as 8:52/mi, my Garmin says 9:07/mi for the actual distance of 6.02 miles. Not bad, but worse than my 8:37/mi (per GPS) pace for the PlayTri Festival Olympic tri back in April. Of course, my Disco swim and bike times were faster than those for the PlayTri so maybe it is a matter of pacing instead of just deterioration of running performance. I have some running events coming up - Too Hot To Handle 15K, FWRC Labor Day 15K, and Tour Des Fleurs 20K - so I'll be able to see if I have improvement or degradation compared with last year's performances.
Don, Jarrod, and Matt were also at the event and did the sprint distance race. In fact, Matt finished 8th in the under 40 Clydesdale division. He would have gotten an award for being in the Top 10! Great job for his first season of tris.
And because their race started before mine (and was shorter), I had a small cheering section as I crossed the finish line. Always a good feeling ...
After the race, Jarrod and Matt had to leave fairly quickly (of course, they had already been waiting around for about 45 minutes while I was doing the 10K) for other weekend commitments. Don and I (we had carpooled) listened to the live disco band and then refueled with some pizza and Vitamin Water before packing up the bikes for the long drive back to the metroplex.
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