Monster Triathlon 2008

This morning, I participated in my second Monster Sprint Triathlon with its 300 meter pool swim at the Keller ISD Natatorium, 12 mile bike, and 5K run.  I finished the race in 1 hour, 8 minutes, and 16 seconds for 10th out of 52 in the men's 35-39 age group ... and 59th out of 463 total finishers overall (actually 58th because I assume the person in 53rd place with a 29.3 MPH average cycling speed only did one loop of the bike course :-P).  With 512 entrants (the race was supposed to be capped at 400), turnout at this year's race was much higher than last year (when there were only 230 finishers).

Lee captured 51st place with a 1:07:02, besting me by over a minute on the strength of his 20:01 5K. Derek and Matt also finished strongly as well with times of 1:13:26 & 1:16:44 for 106th & 151st place, respectively.

• Swim: 5:51 (1:47/100yd pace)
• T1: 1:34
• Bike: 34:12 (21.1 mph average)
• T2: 1:00
• Run: 25:40 (8:17/mi pace)
• TOTAL: 1:08:16

Full results at http://www.doitsports.com/results/page.tcl?id=195714

Compared to last year (times below), everything was faster except for my run and that may have been because I ran over 10 miles the day before (so much for resting up/tapering). In any case, my overall time was 3 minutes and 15 seconds faster - quite an improvement!

• Swim: 6:02 (1:51/100yd pace)
• T1: 1:39
• Bike: 37:52 (19.0 mph average)
• T2: 1:07
• Run: 24:54 (8:02/mi pace)
• TOTAL: 1:11:31

Since I live less than 10 minutes away from the venue and got to bed early last night (super-tired from the Cool October Runs and two days at the Great Wolf Lodge water park), I was parked and ready to go at 5:30 AM.  Since the transition area wasn't open yet and I literally hadn't been on my bike in three weeks (since the Ironman Longhorn), I spent 10 minutes riding around the parking lot and practiced clipping and unclipping my cleats from the pedals.

I ran into Lee about 20 minutes later as the line for body marking and bike check snaked out of the parking lot and down the sidewalk along Bear Creek Parkway.  We chatted and traded business travel stories and then set up our transition areas.

The morning weather was cool but definitely warmer than yesterday - taking off my shirt for body marking was uncomfortable but not painful.  So I made the decision that unlike last year, toweling off and putting on a shirt after the swim before hitting the bike wouldn't be necessary.  That definitely improved my T1 time compared to last year.

Like last year, the pre-race mood was festive with the songs like "Monster Mash" and "Abracadabra" playing over the transition area PA system and the fog machine running at poolside.  I was well-seeded in slot 162 for the swim.  I passed 3 people in the pool and didn't get passed by anyone en route to a smooth 5:51 split as I headed into T1 to put on my bike shoes and grab my bike.

Exiting the transition area, I clipped into my bike pedals without a problem - the pre-race refresher definitely helped.  I am now very well familiar with this bike course and its hills - especially the two big ones on Bear Creek Parkway.  Keller is a lot hillier than you would think - my GPS shows 650+ feet of elevation change for the two-loop ~20K mile bike course.  However, I was able to crank away pretty well and had a solid 21.1+ MPH official average speed.  This is a new PR for my average bike speed in a tri (and it probably was even faster since my GPS recorded 12.59 miles for the course distance - which would make for a 22.09 MPH average)!

MotionBased bike data: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7051596 (Note: Started the Garmin late, so time and distance are slightly undermeasured)

As I came in from the bike leg, I was pleasantly surprised as a heard a familiar voice saying "dismount here" as Don T (who is tapering for this Saturday's Ford Ironman Florida) was a volunteer for the event.  Unfortunately, no time to chat right now, so just a quick hello after dismounting and a jog back to my bike rack.  T2 was a breeze and even putting on my costume for the run went smoothly.

The out-and-back run course was the same as previous races except for one part of the trail which was being redone.  Unlike last year, I didn't have any cramps, so the run was quite smooth albeit a little slower than 2007's split.

MotionBased run data: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7051597

Even though I only took 59th place in the race (note to self: top 13% is nothing to sneeze at) and 10th in my age group, I take some pride in that I believe I had the fastest time of every one who wore a costume - although there was a woman dressed as a belly-dancer (complete with jingly metal on her skirt) only a few minutes behind me!

All-in-all, a great race and a great way to end to end my 2008 triathlon season.  A new PR time for a sprint tri - 1:08:16 vs. the Old College Tri's 1:08:42 (and that race had shorter bike and run courses).  Really nice weather and a chance to see friends and coworkers. 

Okay, time for running season 2008-2009 to hit "full stride"! :-)