This was race number 7 & 8 of the season on back to back days. Doing both wasn’t going to be a big deal for me because I completed an event last year where I did a Sprint and Olympic distance races in the same day 20 minutes apart, so I didn’t have any worries about being able to do them.
Saturday – Race#1
We had some rain the night before but it was a beautiful day for a September race. The temperature was almost perfect in the low 60’s. It was a small field of competitors for the Sprint with only 22 people. I think part of the reason was due to it normally being a cold race, last year it was 46 degrees, and the Lake Placid Half Ironman being put on the same weekend. I got to the venue at 6am to get a prime transition spot. It was still dark when I arrived and I was the first racer in the lot. I was out there putting my bike together from the glow of my trunk light. It didn’t take long for the skies to start to lighten as the dawn sun broke through. I decided to put my rear disc wheel on because there was no wind and not much forecast for the day. I racked my bike in transition then went and sat in the car for a bit and just closed my eyes.
Swim (800m – 16:00.04 – 6th overall)
I had walked down to the beach earlier to take a look at the water. Even though it wasn’t windy the water was still very choppy with swells so I knew it was going to be a tough swim. By the time the race got started, it seemed like it got worse. When the horn sounded I took off with my 100-yard sprint. That was meant to make sure I got out front. After that, I settled into my normal pace. It was tough to keep my stroke pattern with the swells raising me up and down. As I was swimming along I got lifted by one swell as I was taking a stoke and when I came down my hand slammed right into a woman’s back. It didn’t seem to bother her too much because she just kept swimming. After that, I changed my line a bit to get some separation between us. As I neared the first turn buoy a swell almost threw me into it. I swallowed a lot of that lake water when waves smacked me in the face while trying to sight. After I turned at the second buoy I thought the waves were going to make the swim to shore easy. Nope, it was just as hard because we were swimming at an angle that kept us crossing the waves. I tried timing my stoke with the swells but almost got spun over a few times when half my body was dropping with the downward slope of a swell as I tried to make a stroke. After hitting the beach I was relieved to be done with that swim and hustled into transition.
T1 (00:31.1 – 1st overall)
I got a little stuck getting out of my wetsuit with the left leg but it was still going to be a fast one. I knew there were people who exited the water before me so I wanted to make up some time here. I put my helmet on, grabbed the bike and was outta there.
Bike (45:39.3 – 4th overall)
I did a perfect flying mount onto the bike, got my feet on top of my shoes and was off. As I was exiting the park I saw one woman making a turn going the wrong way. I yelled out to her “go straight, go straight” as I went by. I think she heard me because it looked like she was slowing to turn around. I could see a few riders up ahead so they became my target. It didn’t take me long to catch them. It was two ladies who were not getting through this first uphill test very fast. There were more hill’s to come that are steeper than this one so they had some work to do. At about three quarters through the bike course, I passed the last of the riders ahead of me. I was now out front in a race for the second time in my triathlon career. I knew I needed to keep pushing to try and build a gap because I hadn’t been running well all year. As I road back into the park I set up to do my flying dismount. I stepped off the bike and ran into transition.
T2 (00:30.9 – 1st overall)
As I entered the area I experienced another first. There were no bikes in the box and that made me smile. I got to my spot, racked the bike, helmet off, running shoes on and grabbed my bib with perfection. However, I started to run out of transition in the wrong direction. I headed towards the direction where run out used to be. They yelled and said wrong way so I turned around and headed the right way. I probably lost 3 or 4 seconds.
Run (5k – 25:57.9 – 9th overall)
I felt OK on this run, I never felt like I was struggling or anything. I didn’t feel fast but I was moving OK. The first runner passed me at about three-quarter of a mile into the run. He was moving really well and I knew I couldn’t stick with him. The next guy passed me at about a mile and a half into the run. After him, I didn’t see anyone who could catch me so I just kept my pace the rest of the way.
I finished in 1:28:39.6 – 3rd overall, 1st in AG. tied my best overall finish ever in a triathlon. I’ll take it and get ready for round two on Sunday!
Sunday – Race#2
I got to the park about a half-hour later than I did the day before. I still managed to be the first person there but at least I’d have daylight to get set up with. I set up in transition in the same spot I was in for race1. Today I chose not to put my rear disk on the bike and instead put my 80mm carbon clincher on thinking it would get windy during the ride. It was a little cooler this morning than the day before but it wasn’t cold as it was last year. I wanted to make sure I had warm toes after the bike so I put hand warmers on my shoes along with shoe covers. I don’t think I will need them but I wanted to just in case. It looked like we were going to have an even smaller field for this race. Maybe 10 people or so for the Sprint Tri. My legs felt OK for it being the day after a race. I think staying off my feet after yesterdays race seems to have been beneficial. Only time would tell how they would hold up if I pushed them today. I looked around, as I normally do, to see who my competition might be. There was one guy who as it turns out was on a Fuji just like mine. The same exact bike however, he had different wheels and different bar setup. That guy had massive quads like he might have been a speed skater or something. There was one really tall guy, kinda thin, he looks like he might be a runner. Finally, there was one other guy Shaun, who also raced on Saturday. He had a really nice bike that was a brand I’d never seen before. Premier was the name of it, full carbon, flat black with a full disc rear wheel. I wasn’t too concerned about him because I beat him in the first race. Shaun and I actually raced a couple weeks before in Cazenovia. He beat me in that race, passing me towards the end of the run. We didn’t actually talk after that race but we got better acquainted on Saturday.
Swim (800m – 14:59.8 – 4th overall)
The lake was great today compared to the roughness of yesterday. I was hoping to get out fast and stay on line. Everyone was wearing wetsuits except one kid who looked like he was about 15. The water was all that cold and I could have gone without mine but I had my tri-kit on that would balloon up and catch water around the neck so my wetsuit was a better option. On the horn, I took off and got out fast however, I could see a couple people had gotten out ahead of me. When I got to the first buoy I made somewhat of a wide turn. I should have been closer to it and made a tighter turn. After that, I didn’t see anyone for almost the whole swim to the next buoy. Then all of a sudden he popped up out of nowhere…it was the kid. He probably would have swum right by me if I had not picked up my pace. I picked up my pace to beat him to the buoy so I could make the turn without interference. Not long after that, he swam right up alongside me again. I have to say if that kid knew how to sight he probably would have left me behind. Each time he slowed to sight I would pull away but then he would catch up to me again once he put his head down and stroked. We made it to the last buoy before going to shore and he got a little too close to me and I whacked him pretty good while trying to make a stroke. I decide to back off and just follow him in. I knew I would just run by him headed into transition. After I hit the shore I had a hard time locating my wetsuit strap so I wasn’t running as fast as I should have been with my hand behind my back trying to locate it. I finally grabbed it then unzipped my suit. That delay kept the kid out in front of me so I had to slow a bit going into transition or we would have collided at the entrance.
T1 (00:28.4 – 1st overall)
After I got passed the kid it was time to go. As I ran to my spot I could see that the guy with the bike like mine was at his a couple racks over and he was having issues getting out of his wetsuit. I had no such issues getting out on mine. After seeing the final split results he came out of the swim about 18 seconds ahead of me. I put my helmet on clipped it, grabbed the bike and ran past him to bike out while he was still at his rack.
Bike (45:54.6 – 3rd overall)
I ran up to the mount line and jumped to do my flying mount. I landed on the seat and slid right off it landing on the crossbar. This was the first time in years that that happened. Luckily I landed on the inside of my thigh and not my pelvis like I did before. So it wasn’t painful at all. I went to plant my feet on my right shoe to help me get back up on the seat and it slid off…WTH…this was just one mangled mounting. I finally got on my shoes and back on the seat. After that, I got my feet in my shoes and sped out of the park. I passed a few people on the first uphill road then made a right-hand turn and took the time to see to look back to see how much of a gap I’d created from the people I passed. It wasn’t much so I just turned my attention to the rider I knew was up ahead. As I was riding along, a rider suddenly appeared, passing me on the left. It was the guy on the bike like mine. After he passed me we hit a flat section where we both began to track down the rider ahead of us. He went by then I went by and I turned and looked to see it was a young lady, I said to her great swim (final results the 16-year-old had beat us out of the water by 4 minutes). After that, we approached a steep hill and I thought to myself, this is when that guy was going to pull away because I struggle on hills. Well to my surprise he was the one struggling. I think he was in the wrong gear because he was losing way too much forward momentum. I got up out of my seat and mashed the pedals harder than I’ve ever done going up a steep hill and went by him. I got to the top of the hill and my legs were screaming at me. They definitely were not ready for that coming off the effort from day before. I could feel a new aching from my calves to my glutes. I slowly pedaled along gradually building up speed to get my legs to calm down. While I was glad to have been able to power up that hill I was concerned I had ruined my legs for the run. Shortly after that, the guy passed me again and I let him get a small gap and maintained it. We hit a flat section then downhill and I completely closed the gap down and actually had to stop pedaling at one point so that I didn’t get too close to him per the drafting distance rule. He told me after the race that he didn’t expect to be challenged on the bike. He said when I passed him on the hill he thought uh oh, I’m going to be in a dog fight to the end. My legs were starting to really tighten up so I had to decide if it was worth it to try and beat this guy on the bike and end up walking on the run. I didn’t see anyone in sight behind me so I backed off the pace and let him go. There is a section in the park that runs almost parallel to the road that leads to the park so you can see riders who are ahead of you by about a minute or so. When I approached that section I saw the guy that was ahead of me. So I thought, maybe, if he wasn’t a good runner I might be able to catch him (I rarely catch people on the run and who knows if I’ll even have legs to be able to run). Once I turned on the park road and was headed to transition I looked over to see if anyone was coming when I saw Shaun, he was closer than I was expecting. Now my thoughts went from trying to catch the other guy to me maintaining my second place position. I had planned to do an eject off the back of the seat dismount but I forgot and did a standard flying dismount and stepped off the bike into my run into transition.
T2 (00:29.7 – 1st overall)
This should have been a quicker transition. I made the same mistake that I did in tace one where I started to run out the wrong way. However, this time I realized it quicker then headed out the right way.
Run (25:27.4 – 2nd overall)
I felt great at the start of this run. I had a good stride, my breathing was under control and didn’t feel any ill effects of race one or my ride up that steep hill. As I rounded the first bend I could see Shaun running out of transition. I knew I was going to slow running uphill out of the park so I thought he might catch me but then I thought to myself, just try and keep your stride distance and you won’t give up much ground. After making it out of the park I made a right to go downhill and was able to look over to see where Shaun was. He hadn’t made up much ground on me and at that point, I was determined that he was not going to catch me. After the downhill, it was flat the rest of the way. I had no chance of catching the guy ahead of me. He told me after the race that he was worried I would catch him because he normally gets caught on the run by guys he passes on the bike. During the flat section of the run, I was able to put more distance between Shaun and me and crossed the finish line well ahead by myself.
I finished in 1:27:19.8 – 2nd place overall, 1st in AG. The sad thing is this might be that last race at this venue. The race director Wayne is moving to Mexico and he didn’t know on race day if someone was going to take over the race. This was my 5th time doing this race and I’ve always enjoyed coming here. I was a little surprised to see that I’d finished over a minute faster than race1…I think it was the swim.
Diary of an Age Group Triathlete 