A solid performance at this morning's St. Patrick's Day Triathlon. This is the fourth time I've completed this 300m swim-12mi bike-5K run course (prior efforts: Monster Tri 2007, St. Patty's Tri 2008, Monster Tri 2008), which is right down the road from me in Keller.
I completed the now very familiar course in 1:10:48.5 which placed me 14th out of 42 in my age group and 82nd out of 477 finishers. (The cold/wet weather kept a lot of people away - there were around 610 total registrants - but even with the more than 100 no-shows, the attendance was still greater than the original 450 field cap). This time is 2 minutes and 32 seconds slower than last year's Monster Tri finish (1:08:16, which is my PR for the course) but as I'll explain below is still quite good considering the external factors which slowed the bike and T1.
Results for fellow triathletes: Lee captured 89th place with a 1:11:26, slowed somewhat by a calf cramp during the bike (having gotten two of those during the TMS Du, I knew exactly what he was feeling). Sarah, a fellow VOWS resident, took second place in her age group with a 1:13.49.6. Jeff (from Irving LA Fitness spin - reunited before the race), Derek (recovering from a cold this past week), and Jenn also turned out solid performances with times of 1:16:45.9, 1:19:32.7 & 1:24:27.3 for 164th, 207th & 276th place, respectively.
My splits tell my story for the day:
- Swim: 5:33.3
- T1: 2:17.2
- Bike: 37:03.6 (19.4 mph average)
- T2: 0:56.9
- Run: 24:57.5 (8:03/mi pace)
- TOTAL: 1:10:48.5
I had a pretty good swim - a 300 meter PR, in fact - the short distance masking my recent lack of training in this area.
My T1 time was a lot longer than it should have been. It was already going to be slow because I took my normal pre-bike AccelGel and had decided to take some time and towel off from the swim and put on a shirt, but the real mistakes were: (1) my long sleeve shirts for the bike were turned inside out so it took me extra time to get dressed (that'll teach me to be lazy when setting up my transition area), and (2) my timing chip strap was way too long and as I was exiting the transition area with my bike it nearly came off - I had to set my bike down and reattach the Velcro. So all-in-all, I probably lost nearly 30 seconds in T1. (For reference, my T1 time was 38 seconds slower than Monster 2007 when I also toweled off and put on a shirt for the bike).
As mentioned, the weather was cold, but not the temperature itself was not too painful. However, heavy rains for the last several days left the roadways quiet wet. And so with the wet roads, the cycling was on the slower side. The two-loop bike course had 11 turns of 90 degrees or more and everyone had to slow down for them for safety's sake. Thankfully, I believe the race finished without any wrecks.
Actually, when I first jumped on my bike past the Mount Line of the transition area, I had a lot of trouble clipping in and almost ran front wheel into a curb. Luckily, I was able to regain my balance and avoid a (time-consuming and embarrasing) crash. After that episode, I was on my way.
Compared with last year's Monster Tri (my PR for this course) bike time of 34:12, I spent nearly three more minutes out on the bike course. Obviously, slowing down for the turns really added to a loss of momentum and speed. However, this is something everyone had to contend with, and my bike time was about 40th ... in the top 10% of the field - so no complaints!
After the bike, things were pretty smoothly. My 0:56.9 T2 is a PR for this course even if just by a few seconds and my 5K run was just a few seconds shy of the PR I set in my first race on this course (Monster 2007 - 24:54). I still haven't been able to break the 8:00/mi tri-5K barrier (darn!).
Took SaltSticks before the event, at T1, and at T2. Despite this I felt a cramp in my calf coming on at the start of my run. So I don't know if the SaltSticks didn't make a difference in this area ... or perhaps prevented a full-blown (disasterous) Charlie Horse.
After the race, I caught up with fellow racemates, took some photos, and had some pancakes with Lee and Jenn. (Wisely, back inside the Natatorium to warm up.) After learning that Sarah had taken 2nd in her age group, I decided to stick around the awards ceremony and was rewarded for it ... My bib number was picked during the door prize drawings and I went home with a new Rudy Project Kontact+ helmet!
So even though it wasn't the best weather, it was still a good fun race and a nice surprise at the end.
Full results at: http://www.racechiptiming.com/files/ST.PADDY'STRIRESULTS.HTM
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