2008 Sprint, Splash, Spin Triathlon--Race Report

Woohoo!!!

Again, I had another fun race. What a phenomenal day. The weather was absolutely perfect. Sunny, blue skies. It was a little warm, but nothing too bad. The organizers of the race were also wonderful. There were 291 individual competitors with like 10-15 teams. As you can imagine, it was kind of like organized chaos, but the folks who put the race on, including my local tri club, did an excellent job.

So on to the report:

The Sprint, Splash, and Spin is a 330 yard swim, a 10.5 mile bike ride, and a 5K. It was at Marilla Park in Morgantown, WV. I originally thought the bike ride was 11 miles, but turns out it's only 10.5. The race started in heats and I was in the 11th heat. My start time was 8:50am.

Steph and I got to the park about 7:30am. We walked my bike and other gear to the registration desk and checked in. Once we checked in, we visited a race coordinator and she wrote my race number in magic marker on my arm and leg. I think the coolest thing about doing a triathlon is the 'marking process'. You really feel like you going out to do battle. It's the coolest thing!!! Here's what it looks like:

Once I was marked up, Steph walked me to the transition area and I set up all my gear. No spectators are allowed in the transition area so Steph had to wait while I got all that done. When I finished up, Steph and I then went to the pool to watch some of the earlier heats while we waited for my start time.

SWIM
At 8:30am, my heat was called to the pool. We got our time chips at that point and then we waited to hop in the pool. Around 8:48 we hopped in the pool and were able to warm up a tad. We were in the first lane, so we had a wall on one side and a lane marker on the other. We had to swim two people to a lane as we had to get 10 people through a heat at one time and we only had 5 lanes at the pool. This becomes important for a couple of reasons. First, my lanemate and I switched up which side of the lane we were on. He wanted the lane marker side, which I happily let him have. This confused our lane monitor (a young girl who was required to count our laps). Secondly, since I now had the wall side of the lane I was a little concerned of hitting the wall with my hand.

Anyway, at exactly 8:50am we started. As you know from my previous posts, swimming is a little new to me. But, I did wonderful in this swim!!!! I finished in 6:46 I think. The reason I think that is my finish time is that the timing chip didn't capture my swim time nor my T1 time (the transition from swim to bike is called T1). So I actually don't have the official timing for either thing. But, there is a picture of me coming out of the pool at 8:56:46. Since we started at 8:50am, that means I did it in 6:46. I'm very happy with that time.

BIKE
I hopped out of the pool, ran to the transition area, grabbed my gear, put on my shoes, and snagged my bike. I had a bit of trouble finding my stall in the transition area as I was a little out of it after the swim. I had a bit of vertigo and the adrenaline was pumping big time.

I ran pretty quickly down to the "mount line", hopped on my bike and took off. I quickly saw Steph (and heard her) and then I headed down the trail.

The bike portion was the least crowded. Not counting the competitors returning, I saw only 3 people, one of which I passed. I was passed twice (but wait until the run, I come back like Rocky!!!). On the bike portion, one of my friends came out to cheer me on and I saw her twice, going out and coming back. It was great because she was positioned at just the right spot to keep me pumped. Thanks Jamie!! It took me 37:33, for an average of 17.6 mph.

Once back to the park, I quickly entered the transition area and began T2 (bike to run transition). This transition took me 59 seconds. Much quicker than T1. I grabbed my hat, racked my bike, got a quick drink, and began the 5K.

RUN
The 5K was great!!!! Running is my thing, and I felt like showing it :) There's not much to mention about the course. It was an 'out and back' route with little scenery. It had a bit of an incline at the midpoint, but no other hills. Again, nothing special.

My legs were a little wobbly from the bike portion, but I got over that fast. About a mile in, I passed the first guy who passed me on the bike (take that sucker!!!). At the midpoint, I grabbed some water and threw a bit down my head and back as it was getting hot. I then picked up my pace. I decided I was going to have a negative split on the 5K. So I ran. Fast.

And here's comes the absolutely best part of the entire race for me:

I had my eye on the second guy who passed me on the bike portion (this guy was also in my swim heat). He was about a 1/4 mile in front of me on the run and I decided that I would pass him before the finish. So I turned it on. A little over a minute later, I was right on his heels. As I passed him, he made a comment that will stick with me for the rest of my life as a competitor. He said, "I was wondering when you were going to show up". Now, in case you are missing the world-changing meaning of those words, let me enlighten you. He knew that I was going to catch him. He, at some point in his race, knew that he was going to see me again. That means that he sized me up for a good athlete and thought I would beat him. He thought that he could pass me on the bike and hopefully get enough of a lead that I wouldn't catch him. But, as it turns out, I did.

His words hit me like a ton of bricks. Someone else adjusted their race because of me. And the adjustment came because he thought I was a good athlete. How freakin' cool is that?

I finished the 5K in 24:42 with a pace of 7:58.

So some things I learned:

1. Swimming in one lane with two people stinks.
2. I suffer vertigo right out of the pool.
3. I NEED a new bike. My time was 37 minutes, I could knock 7 minutes off of that time if I had a decent bike. My bike is great, but it's not a road bike. My entire uppoer body sits straight up on my bike and I get a ton of wind resistance. I NEED a new bike.
4. I need to take my water bottle with me on the bike portion. I didn't do this during this race and I paid for it later.
5. I need to take a 5-gallon bucket to hold my gear in for the transition area. I noticed a bunch of folks doing this. Some had milk crates. The idea is you can transport your gear with it, but also use it as a seat so you can put your shoes on, etc. without sitting on the ground like I did.

So, that's my first triathlon. I am soooooo addicted :)  I finished in 1:11:52.  I placed 125 out of 291.

Thanks to Steph for doing all the great support things that have to get done in order for me to do this. She took tons of pictures (some of which are on this post), got me to the race, cheered me on, and high-fived me at the end. My wife is the absolute best.

Thanks to Gary, Jamie, Lora, Dick, and their families, for coming down and cheering me on.

HTFU!
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