I looked at the cold splashes against the lake shore in this 50-degree morning. Felt relieved I didn't have to swim today.
Playtri 2007 was my prep tri for Ironman. This year I signed up for my first duathlon: run bike run. 2+10+2 miles. Historically I average
8:00 pace (run)
20 mph (solo bike)
0.67 bike crash per triathlon
10+ minute combine transitions
I figure 1 hour is a reasonable goal; assuming T1 and T2 stay within non-laughable range.
The prep was focused on transitions. I even bought tri-shoes and practice leaving them on the bike pedals. This led to my first 2 stationary bike accidents. I'm so not cut out for this sport. I gave up sub-minute transitions: it's a short transition area; we're really only talking about 30-60 seconds of difference per transition any way.
My other glaring weakness is inability to run after bike. My March weekends were filled with bike-run repeats.
Game day.
The start was a zoo filled with athletes from multiple events: 5k, 10k, kids run, duathlon. I couldn't pace so followed some guy who seemed to know what he was doing. Made it to T1 in under 16 minutes and didn't spend 3 minutes looking for the bike. Put on helmet and bike shoes without incidence. Wow, what did I do that took over 10 minutes last year?
I passed a few racers at every climb and sensed I was near the front: the motorcycle showed a time board to the cyclist in front of me. He slowed down every time orange cones showed up at intersections. I took the lead half way into the race and realized I didn't study the course either and had to slow to see the arrows that differentiate the races. I decided to stay 15 yards behind my competition and save the legs for the run. "Keep it safe, you need to train for Montreal 24-Hour ASAP."
3 of us arrived at T2 within a 20-second window. The other 2 ran while I slowly walked on my cleats. No surprise there. I felt good after putting on running shoes but GPS told me I barely held 9:00 pace. A few weekend practices were insufficient. By the time my legs recovered, those 2 guys were gone. I saw 3 racers in front of me at the U-turn; the gap seemed unbridgeable.
1 mile to go. I heard footsteps behind and got ready to follow but gave up when GPS said 6:06 pace. "wow, this guy can't bike or transition to save his life!" I enviously watch him fly away. Later I learned he was from a relay team.
I was about to suck up for a strong finish when I remember my skate practice the next day. I was in no danger of losing my place and had no chance of improving it by reaching hammer zone. I finished the 2-mile run in 14:06. Among top-9 finishers, only 2 of us finished outside of 13:00 window.
2nd place beat me by 61 seconds, a time frame savable via good transitions. This is discouraging because transition skills ain't something I want to throw resources at. I shouldn't complain: my race went as planned. I unexpectedly won my age group with 58:22.7.
Lessons of the day: to maximize the chance of bringing hardware home:
1. race duathlon the same weekend most multi-sport athletes compete in triathlons.
2. don't crash.
