2006 UCD Triathlon Race Report
After reading Matt's and Jamima's race reports I'm thinking this is the "Sandbagging Cows Racing Team" ;-) ;-).
All kidding aside, I enjoyed reading about your respective races. Congrats to both...Matt for producing such an awesome effort when he didn't expect it, Jamima for getting the injury monkey off her back (I know that pesky bugger all too well) and planting herself firmly on the comeback trail.
I'll add my report to the mix, a slightly modified version of what I sent my virtual running buddies.
Unlike Matt and Jamima, I felt totally healthy, well rested and eager to race. Although I am in the early base phase of my training and haven't done anything at all fast or hard, I was keen for a chance to "blow out the pipes" and see where I'm at...what's working, what needs work. I, too, am coming back from an injury but it pales in comparison to what Jamima has been dealing with. Anyway, here's my story...
This morning I raced my first triathlon of the '06 season. The UC Davis Sprint Triathlon is an intercollegiate race that also has an open race for us old folks. I raced it in it's first year and it was extremely low key and tons of fun. Now, at the age of three, the race has matured and become a bit more serious in the process. I even had to produce my USAT card and drivers license to get my number =:-O. Because the swim is in a pool they cap the field at 250 so the race is still small and still very fun. A perfect race for dusting off neglected skills and working the kinks out of your race routine.
The race is a 750 yard swim, 18 mile bike and 4 mile run. The intercollegiate competition is fierce, the age group competition considerably less so. We lucked out and caught a dry window in our decidedly Pacific Northwest weather pattern for the morning. (It's raining again now). For the swim they divided a (gorgeous, new) 65 meter pool into 24 x 25 yard lanes going across the short way...2 athletes per lane...so they could start 48 athletes per wave. The first two waves were all collegiate athletes. I was in the third wave which was a mix of college racers and age groupers. There were three more waves after mine. The swim leg had a 17 min cutoff (racers not finished their swim in 17 min were allowed to continue on to the bike with no time penalty), waves were started on 20 min intervals which meant 3 min between waves. Because the whole pool was being used for the race the opportunity to warm up was dependent on a lane being vacated by the prior wave swimmers finishing their swim. I jumped into one of the first vacated lanes with one of my clubmates so I managed to get a good 12 minute warmup before my wave went off.
It's kind of wierd racing a triathlon in a pool lane. No wetsuits (water temp = 80F). Unless you are next to a similar paced swimmer, no drafting opportunities but no navigation required. And, best of all, no body contact, I wasn't hit or kicked once! If you and your lanemate come into the wall close to the same time you have to hope you both nail your flip turns ;-). I had faster swimmers on either side of me so I was feeling slow but I didn't get caught up in trying to keep up and I just concentrated on my form. (note: I am *not* a natural born swimmer, 2 years of hard work in the pool has advanced me all the way to the second slowest lane in masters swim :-)). The goal was to swim as hard as I could while staying relaxed and holding good technique. If I pushed to the point of losing form or tensing up, I backed off. We were responsible for keeping track of our laps but each lane also had a volunteer to watch and stop you if you really screwed up. The 30 lengths went quickly. When I popped my head up I saw there were other folks still swimming, so I wasn't going as badly as I had thought based on my immediate neighbors. This pool has very high walls and it took me a couple of tries to push myself up out of the water. I better add dips to my gym routine!
It was a long run on cold feet to the bikes...down the pool deck, out of the aquatic facility, along the side of and across one parking lot (where the collegiate racer bike racks were) then through the racks of a second lot where age grouper bikes were racked. The swim wasn't quite long or cold enough to numb the feet...ouch, ouch! I better add walking on coals and nails to my gym routine!
It was with relief that I reached my bike, then the mount/dismount line. I lost my bike shoes at a metric century I did last weekend so I have brand new shoes I'd only ridden in once before the race. They feel great but I hadn't much chance to practice getting into and out of them. I leave my shoes on the pedals in T1. Then when I start the bike I jump on, pedal with my feet on top of the shoes until I'm clear of traffic and have some speed, then slip my feet into the shoes by reaching down and holding the back of the shoe while I slide my foot in, lastly I cinch down the velcro strap. Well, my feet on top of these shoes was enough pressure to engage the velcro and I had a heck of a time forcing the velcro loose with my frozen fingers and feet on the fly. It took me far too long to get my feet settled into the shoes so I could put my head down and ride. I'm going to have to figure this detail out!
Rolling at last. The first and last mile of the bike was on and off campus bike trails and had a couple of gnarly turns, but once clear of that it was lots of long, flat roads with the occasional 90 degree turn. Some headwind on the first half which was a tailwind on the second half. I felt great on the bike. It is the first time all year I've had permission from my coach to let 'er rip. I had to resist the temptation to ride even harder than I did by gently reminding myself that I had 4 miles of running left. I passed one woman early, then didn't see any other women...just guys. In the second quarter of the ride, where the headwinds were the strongest, I passed both of the swimmers that had been next to me in the pool making me feel so slow (mwa, ha, ha!). I think I surprised them. Being boys they had to make a show of passing me back and racing away with an impressive surge ;-). But it only took me a mile or two to cover their break and put them behind me for the rest of the bike. I passed a handful more people but the road was pretty sparsely populated which didn't give me many targets. I came into T2 very happy with my ride. I was much more graceful getting out of my shoes than I had been getting into them.
Racked the bike quickly then struggled a bit with numb feet and numb fingers to get the running shoes on the feet and the lace locks tightened. Aside from that I transitioned smoothly and took off on a run through the campus and arboretum. Overall the run was flat but imbedded in that flatness were quite a few very short but sharply steep ascents and descents as the bike trail dove under or over other roads and paths. I felt surprisingly strong coming off the bike, especially given it was the first time I'd biked hard this spring. I was expecting to have to pay more dearly for the effort. I was breathing really hard but my stride felt strong and turnover stayed quick. I was passed by several people on the run, but everyone who passed me was someone who *should* be passing me...young, fast boys. No women came by, no out of shape guys came by (phew!). I passed a number of college women and a few older men. One of the guys I'd caught on the bike got me back on the run (Mad Cow Eric Russell) but he looked great so it was ok.
The highlight of my run was catching our club president (Sorry Chad but seeing you near the turn around gave me a specific target and really help me to stay focused on running hard :-)). I saw him coming back when I wasn't far from the turn around. He high fived me and I said "Chad, you better start running for your life cause I'm running down". I caught him with a little more than a mile to go and teased him with "You didn't bike fast enough!". I stayed strong for the whole run and was thrilled with this first, early season effort done off of strictly, slow aerobic base training.
I figured if I had a great day I could break 1:40. I finished in 1:38:11. I hadn't glanced at my watch once during the race. Checking out the splits afterword, this is what I had. I probably didn't hit the watch at the exact moment of starting and finishing the bike so T1, bike and T2 may be slightly off but pretty close...
swim 750 y (pool) = 13:00
t1 = 2:58
bike 18 mi = 51:18
t2 = 1:05
run 4 mi = 29:50
I don't race again until Auburn International Half IM on May 20th. Back to base building...
Huge thanks to UCD Triathlon Club for welcoming us to this wonderful, very fun race!!